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1948 United States presidential election in Massachusetts

Main article: 1948 United States presidential election

The 1948 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 2, 1948, as part of the 1948 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all contemporary 48 states. Voters chose 16 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1948 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
← 1944 November 2, 1948 1952 →
Turnout71.5%[1] Increase 0.5 pp
 
Nominee Harry S. Truman Thomas E. Dewey
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Missouri New York
Running mate Alben W. Barkley Earl Warren
Electoral vote 16 0
Popular vote 1,151,788 909,370
Percentage 54.66% 43.16%
President before election

Harry S. Truman
Democratic

Elected President

Harry S. Truman
Democratic

Massachusetts voted for the Democratic nominee, incumbent President Harry S. Truman of Missouri, over the Republican nominee, former Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York. Truman ran with Senator Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky, while Dewey's running mate was Governor Earl Warren of California.

Truman carried the state with 54.66% of the vote to Dewey's 43.16%, a Democratic victory margin of 11.50%. Progressive Party candidate Henry A. Wallace came in a distant third, with 1.81%. As Truman narrowly won an upset victory over Dewey nationally, Massachusetts weighed in as 7% more Democratic than the national average.

Once a typical Yankee Republican bastion in the wake of the Civil War, Massachusetts had been a Democratic-leaning state since 1928, when a coalition of Irish Catholic and other ethnic immigrant voters primarily based in urban areas turned Massachusetts and neighboring Rhode Island into New England's only reliably Democratic states. Massachusetts voted for Al Smith in 1928 and for Franklin D. Roosevelt four times in the 1930s and 1940s. Truman's victory thus marked the Democratic Party's sixth straight win in Massachusetts.

Despite the national race being much closer, Truman in 1948 outperformed any of Roosevelt's four victories in the state of Massachusetts. FDR had never won the state with more than a single-digit margin; Roosevelt's largest margin of victory was by 9.46% in 1936 and he never took a vote share higher than the 53.11% he received in 1940. In 1944, Roosevelt carried Massachusetts with 52.80% to Dewey's 46.99%, a fairly close margin of only 5.81%. Truman's victory four years later taking 54.66% and winning by 11.50% thus made 1948 the strongest showing ever by a Democratic presidential candidate in Massachusetts up to that point, a record that would stand until John F. Kennedy ran from Massachusetts in 1960.[citation needed]

Truman would carry 8 of the state's 14 counties, including the most heavily populated parts of the state surrounding the cities of Boston, Worcester, and Springfield. Notably, Truman flipped highly populated Middlesex County, in which did not vote for any of Franklin Roosevelt's four victories in the state, into the Democratic column.[2] Massachusetts and neighboring Rhode Island were the only states in the Northeast to favor Truman over Dewey in 1948, the same split that had occurred in 1928. Both states had large urban Irish Catholic populations, who remained loyal Democrats in the wake of 1928, even as other groups defected back to the GOP.

Results

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1948 United States presidential election in Massachusetts[3]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Harry S. Truman (incumbent) 1,151,788 54.66% 16
Republican Thomas E. Dewey 909,370 43.16% 0
Progressive Henry A. Wallace 38,157 1.81% 0
Socialist Labor Edward A. Teichert 5,535 0.26% 0
Prohibition Claude A. Watson 1,663 0.08% 0
Write-ins Write-ins 633 0.03% 0
Totals 2,107,146 100.00% 16

Results by county

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County[4] Harry S. Truman
Democratic 		Thomas E. Dewey
Republican 		Henry Wallace
Progressive 		Various candidates
Other parties 		Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # %
Barnstable 4,616 23.68% 14,633 75.08% 183 0.94% 58 0.30% -10,017 -51.40% 19,490
Berkshire 30,668 51.75% 27,482 46.37% 738 1.25% 379 0.64% 3,186 5.38% 59,267
Bristol 106,741 61.86% 63,216 36.64% 1,914 1.11% 680 0.39% 43,525 25.22% 172,551
Dukes 720 28.99% 1,731 69.69% 26 1.05% 7 0.28% -1,011 -40.70% 2,484
Essex 132,016 53.58% 108,894 44.20% 4,483 1.82% 978 0.40% 23,122 9.38% 246,371
Franklin 9,231 37.87% 14,919 61.21% 130 0.53% 93 0.38% -5,688 -23.34% 24,373
Hampden 94,609 56.41% 70,256 41.89% 2,302 1.37% 553 0.33% 24,353 14.52% 167,720
Hampshire 18,012 50.27% 17,331 48.37% 313 0.87% 177 0.49% 681 1.90% 35,833
Middlesex 248,240 51.09% 228,262 46.98% 7,601 1.56% 1,805 0.37% 19,978 4.11% 485,908
Nantucket 409 28.36% 1,013 70.25% 14 0.97% 6 0.42% -604 -41.89% 1,442
Norfolk 72,327 40.92% 100,280 56.74% 3,420 1.94% 710 0.40% -27,953 -15.82% 176,737
Plymouth 34,765 40.83% 48,925 57.46% 1,281 1.50% 175 0.21% -14,160 -16.63% 85,146
Suffolk 265,611 68.98% 105,671 27.44% 12,360 3.21% 1,425 0.37% 159,940 41.54% 385,067
Worcester 133,823 54.68% 106,757 43.62% 3,382 1.38% 785 0.32% 27,066 11.06% 244,757
Totals 1,151,788 54.66% 909,370 43.16% 38,157 1.81% 7,831 0.37% 242,418 11.50% 2,107,146

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, part 2, p. 1072.
  2. ^ The Political Graveyard; Middlesex County, Massachusetts
  3. ^ "1948 Presidential General Election Results - Massachusetts". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved February 7, 2013.
  4. ^ "MA US President — November 02, 1948". Our Campaigns.
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