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1952 United States presidential election in Mississippi

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Main article: 1952 United States presidential election

The 1952 United States presidential election in Mississippi took place on November 4, 1952, as part of the United States presidential election of 1952. The Democratic Party candidate, Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, won the state of Mississippi over Dwight D. Eisenhower, the former Supreme Allied Commander Europe and General of the Army by a margin of 59,600 votes, or 20.88 percentage points. Eisenhower went on to win the election nationally, with 442 electoral votes and a commanding 10.9 percent lead over Stevenson in the popular vote.

1952 United States presidential election in Mississippi
← 1948 November 4, 1952 1956 →
 
Nominee Adlai Stevenson Dwight D. Eisenhower
Party Democratic Independent
Home state Illinois New York[1]
Running mate John Sparkman Richard Nixon
Electoral vote 8 0
Popular vote 172,566 112,966
Percentage 60.44% 39.56%
President before election

Harry S. Truman
Democratic

Elected President

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican

Mississippi in this time period was a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party. The Republican Party was virtually nonexistent as a result of disenfranchisement among poor whites and African Americans,[2] including voter intimidation against those who refused to vote Democratic. The state Republican Party led by Perry Wilbon Howard II — who resided in Washington D.C. after 1928 — was entirely drawn from the state’s tiny black middle class and never contested non-presidential elections,[3] serving entirely to sell federal patronage,[4] mostly to white Democrats.[5] The 1948 election split the National Democratic Party and segregationist Southern Democrats over the issue of civil rights for African Americans.[6] In the 1952 election, Stevenson, a moderate on race issues, selected the segregationist Senator Sparkman as his running mate to avoid another split in the Democratic vote. However, this was not enough for some white Mississippians, who felt that the national Republican Party already offered a better prospect for their conservative social and economic goals.[3]

Campaign

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Because the state Republican Party remained under black-and-tan control due to state politicians’ longstanding fear of competition with a lily-white GOP,[4] national Republican candidates Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon ran as “Independents for Eisenhower”. Both Howard’s black-and-tans and the long-insurgent “lily-white” faction led by George L. Sheldon of Clinton agreed to withdraw their slates in favour of the Eisenhower Democrats in mid-October.[7]

Eisenhower's electors ran as independents. His electors were Sam Lumpkin, Everette Truly, Earle Wingo, Hardy Lott, Joe Wroten, Earl Evans, W.L. Guice, and the wife of Robert Shands. Stevenson's electors were T.J. Tubb, Jim Blount, R.P. Sugg, Erst Long, Hilton Waits, William Harold Cox, J. L. Craft, and Boyce Holleman.[8]

Despite Stevenson winning the state, Eisenhower won many Black Belt counties on the Mississippi River with large nonvoting African American populations.[9] Eisenhower won five of the nine counties with black populations above 70%. This was due to white Republican voters rather than black voters, who were ineligible to vote.[10]

Polls

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Source Ranking As of
The Columbus Ledger[11] Safe D (Flip) September 8, 1952
Lansing State Journal[12] Safe D (Flip) September 17, 1952
The Daily Herald[13] Likely D (Flip) October 23, 1952
The Salt Lake Tribune[14] Safe D (Flip) October 24, 1952
The Greeneville Sun[15] Certain D (Flip) October 25, 1952
The Modesto Bee[16] Safe D (Flip) October 27, 1952
Wichita Falls Times[17] Likely D (Flip) October 29, 1952

Results

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1952 United States presidential election in Mississippi[18]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Adlai Stevenson 172,566 60.44% 8
Independent Dwight D. Eisenhower 112,966 39.56% 0
Totals 285,532 100.00% 8

Results by county

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County Adlai Stevenson
Democratic 		Dwight D. Eisenhower
Independent 		Margin Total votes cast[18]
# % # % # %
Adams 1,697 41.71% 2,372 58.29% -675 -16.58% 4,069
Alcorn 3,275 73.93% 1,155 26.07% 2,120 47.86% 4,430
Amite 1,121 59.06% 777 40.94% 344 18.12% 1,898
Attala 2,258 65.72% 1,178 34.28% 1,080 31.44% 3,436
Benton 963 81.68% 216 18.32% 747 63.36% 1,179
Bolivar 1,843 46.79% 2,096 53.21% -253 -6.42% 3,939
Calhoun 2,284 76.77% 691 23.23% 1,593 53.54% 2,975
Carroll 1,168 68.58% 535 31.42% 633 37.16% 1,703
Chickasaw 1,805 72.49% 685 27.51% 1,120 44.98% 2,490
Choctaw 1,387 72.58% 524 27.42% 863 45.16% 1,911
Claiborne 496 46.97% 560 53.03% -64 -6.06% 1,056
Clarke 2,000 72.62% 754 27.38% 1,246 45.24% 2,754
Clay 1,230 53.32% 1,077 46.68% 153 6.64% 2,307
Coahoma 2,115 56.64% 1,619 43.36% 496 13.28% 3,734
Copiah 2,050 57.31% 1,527 42.69% 523 14.62% 3,577
Covington 1,535 66.59% 770 33.41% 765 33.18% 2,305
DeSoto 1,288 63.08% 754 36.92% 534 26.16% 2,042
Forrest 2,936 39.59% 4,480 60.41% -1,544 -20.82% 7,416
Franklin 1,166 69.40% 514 30.60% 652 38.80% 1,680
George 1,351 69.14% 603 30.86% 748 38.28% 1,954
Greene 1,247 71.14% 506 28.86% 741 42.28% 1,753
Grenada 1,174 54.00% 1,000 46.00% 174 8.00% 2,174
Hancock 1,578 53.95% 1,347 46.05% 231 7.90% 2,925
Harrison 7,181 54.65% 5,960 45.35% 1,221 9.30% 13,141
Hinds 10,933 46.62% 12,520 53.38% -1,587 -6.76% 23,453
Holmes 1,423 52.16% 1,305 47.84% 118 4.32% 2,728
Humphreys 858 59.30% 589 40.70% 269 18.60% 1,447
Issaquena 170 57.24% 127 42.76% 43 14.48% 297
Itawamba 2,236 80.09% 556 19.91% 1,680 60.18% 2,792
Jackson 4,146 65.64% 2,170 34.36% 1,976 31.28% 6,316
Jasper 1,872 73.70% 668 26.30% 1,204 47.40% 2,540
Jefferson 539 46.91% 610 53.09% -71 -6.18% 1,149
Jefferson Davis 1,626 77.47% 473 22.53% 1,153 54.94% 2,099
Jones 5,884 59.30% 4,039 40.70% 1,845 18.60% 9,923
Kemper 1,593 81.07% 372 18.93% 1,221 62.14% 1,965
Lafayette 2,363 73.14% 868 26.86% 1,495 46.28% 3,231
Lamar 1,260 54.93% 1,034 45.07% 226 9.86% 2,294
Lauderdale 5,841 58.54% 4,137 41.46% 1,704 17.08% 9,978
Lawrence 1,117 66.77% 556 33.23% 561 33.54% 1,673
Leake 2,667 81.56% 603 18.44% 2,064 63.12% 3,270
Lee 4,174 67.58% 2,002 32.42% 2,172 35.16% 6,176
Leflore 1,845 43.12% 2,434 56.88% -589 -13.76% 4,279
Lincoln 2,271 52.83% 2,028 47.17% 243 5.66% 4,299
Lowndes 1,618 37.73% 2,670 62.27% -1,052 -24.54% 4,288
Madison 1,425 48.78% 1,496 51.22% -71 -2.44% 2,921
Marion 2,597 64.65% 1,420 35.35% 1,177 29.30% 4,017
Marshall 1,847 75.36% 604 24.64% 1,243 50.72% 2,451
Monroe 3,512 71.25% 1,417 28.75% 2,095 42.50% 4,929
Montgomery 1,356 61.75% 840 38.25% 516 23.50% 2,196
Neshoba 3,567 76.74% 1,081 23.26% 2,486 53.48% 4,648
Newton 2,460 74.30% 851 25.70% 1,609 48.60% 3,311
Noxubee 758 46.08% 887 53.92% -129 -7.84% 1,645
Oktibbeha 1,666 53.72% 1,435 46.28% 231 7.44% 3,101
Panola 2,047 66.48% 1,032 33.52% 1,015 32.96% 3,079
Pearl River 2,060 54.20% 1,741 45.80% 319 8.40% 3,801
Perry 782 60.48% 511 39.52% 271 20.96% 1,293
Pike 2,495 46.18% 2,908 53.82% -413 -7.64% 5,403
Pontotoc 2,281 77.88% 648 22.12% 1,633 55.76% 2,929
Prentiss 2,672 78.52% 731 21.48% 1,941 57.04% 3,403
Quitman 1,158 70.18% 492 29.82% 666 40.36% 1,650
Rankin 2,077 57.34% 1,545 42.66% 532 14.68% 3,622
Scott 2,208 66.29% 1,123 33.71% 1,085 32.58% 3,331
Sharkey 388 39.27% 600 60.73% -212 -21.46% 988
Simpson 2,767 75.91% 878 24.09% 1,889 51.82% 3,645
Smith 2,288 75.61% 738 24.39% 1,550 51.22% 3,026
Stone 965 62.91% 569 37.09% 396 25.82% 1,534
Sunflower 2,049 50.52% 2,007 49.48% 42 1.04% 4,056
Tallahatchie 2,350 75.86% 748 24.14% 1,602 51.72% 3,098
Tate 1,575 80.28% 387 19.72% 1,188 60.56% 1,962
Tippah 2,878 84.92% 511 15.08% 2,367 69.84% 3,389
Tishomingo 1,595 70.14% 679 29.86% 916 40.28% 2,274
Tunica 530 58.05% 383 41.95% 147 16.10% 913
Union 2,749 74.99% 917 25.01% 1,832 49.98% 3,666
Walthall 1,357 73.43% 491 26.57% 866 46.86% 1,848
Warren 2,366 40.63% 3,458 59.38% -1,092 -18.75% 5,824
Washington 2,618 44.23% 3,301 55.77% -683 -11.54% 5,919
Wayne 1,604 69.11% 717 30.89% 887 38.22% 2,321
Webster 1,765 79.58% 453 20.42% 1,312 59.16% 2,218
Wilkinson 563 44.61% 699 55.39% -136 -10.78% 1,262
Winston 2,559 76.85% 771 23.15% 1,788 53.70% 3,330
Yalobusha 1,346 64.13% 753 35.87% 593 28.26% 2,099
Yazoo 1,702 50.28% 1,683 49.72% 19 0.56% 3,385
Totals 172,566 60.44% 112,966 39.56% 59,600 20.88% 285,532

Counties that flipped from Dixiecrat to Democratic

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Counties that flipped from Dixiecrat to Republican

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Analysis

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The Stevenson-Sparkman ticket carried Mississippi and its eight electoral votes with 60.44 percent of the popular vote, amounting to a total of 172,566 votes. These results, however, were the weakest for a state Democrat since the 1872 election when the state remained occupied by Union troops and Republican Ulysses S. Grant carried the state.[19] It represented a large swing for the Republicans from 1948, when Thomas E. Dewey won only 2.62 percent of the vote.

Stevenson carried 67 of Mississippi’s 82 counties, running up huge margins in the northeastern corner and rural areas of the state. Eisenhower, whose Mississippi electors were “Independent”, carried fifteen counties, the first time a national Republican had carried any since Herbert Hoover in 1928. His main base of support came from the western counties along the Mississippi River, which had a high concentration of nonvoting African Americans, including Hinds County, home to the state capital Jackson.

In contrast, the northeastern hills, which had given President Truman his highest proportion in 1948,[20] along with the southeastern pineywoods both voted solidly for Stevenson, although not by the margins pre-1948 Democrats ran up throughout Mississippi. Whereas Delta whites had permanently estranged themselves from the Democratic Party over issues of economics and race, Hills and Pine Belt counties, much more economically populist although even more socially conservative,[21] had not shared much in the Dixiecrat upheaval despite all giving majorities to “Democrat” Strom Thurmond in 1948. The divide between traditional Democrat Stevenson and the independent electors pledged to Eisenhower was closely related to the cleavage between “Delta” and “Hills”[22] seen in Democratic white primaries during the first half of the twentieth century.[20]

1952 began to show signs of the impending collapse of Democratic dominance in Mississippi and the rest of the South. The vote share for the state Democratic candidate would decline in the next two subsequent elections, ultimately paving the way for Barry Goldwater’s victory in Mississippi and the Deep South in 1964.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "U.S. presidential election, 1952". Facts on File. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 24, 2013. Eisenhower, born in Texas, considered a resident of New York, and headquartered at the time in Paris, finally decided to run for the Republican nomination
  2. ^ Wright-Austin, Sharon D. (2006). The Transformation of Plantation Politics: Black Politics, Concentrated Poverty, and Social Capital in the Mississippi Delta. SUNY Press. p. 45. ISBN 9780791468012.
  3. ^ a b Busbee, Westley F. (2014). Mississippi: A History. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 276–278. ISBN 9781118822722.
  4. ^ a b Heersink, Boris; Jenkins, Jeffery A. (2020). Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968. Cambridge University Press. pp. 329–331. ISBN 9781108850827.
  5. ^ Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks; Gates, Henry Louis, eds. (March 23, 2004). African American Lives. Oxford University Press. pp. 417–418. ISBN 9780199882861.
  6. ^ Kehl, James A. "Philadelphia, 1948: City of Crucial Conventions". Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies. 67 (2): 313–326.
  7. ^ "Merger of State Ike Factions Near: GOP Groups Set to Withdraw Electors". Hattiesburg American. Hattiesburg, Mississippi. October 20, 1952. p. 1.
  8. ^ Register 1961, pp. 386–387.
  9. ^ Menendez, Albert J. (2005). The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 91, 233–237. ISBN 0786422173.
  10. ^ Buchanan 1953, p. 5.
  11. ^ Lauderdale, W.M.; Allen, Robert S. (September 8, 1952). "Mississippi Is Still Democratic Although Eisenhower Is Strong". The Columbus Ledger. Columbus, Mississippi. p. 5.
  12. ^ Cornell, Douglas B. (September 17, 1952). "Ike Given 50–50 Chance To Break into Solid South". Lansing State Journal. Lansing, Michigan. pp. 7, 16.
  13. ^ Fuller, Keith (October 23, 1952). "Survey by State Newspapers Indicates Mississippi Will Stay Democrat in Election". The Daily Herald. Biloxi, Mississippi. p. 4.
  14. ^ Cornell, Douglas B. (October 24, 1952). "Journalists Bet 50–50 Ike Will Dent South". The Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City. pp. 1–2.
  15. ^ "US Poll Shows — Eisenhower Leading Stevenson in Electoral Votes, but Governor Has More States in His Column". The Greeneville Sun. Greeneville, Tennessee. Princeton Research Service. October 25, 1952. pp. 1, 8.
  16. ^ "NY Times Survey Indicates Close Election Tuesday". The Modesto Bee. Modesto, California. October 27, 1952. p. 8.
  17. ^ Gallup, George (October 29, 1952). "Ferment in Dixie Is Big Campaign Issue". Wichita Falls Times. Wichita Falls, Texas. p. 15.
  18. ^ a b McGillivray & Scammon 1994, pp. 413–414.
  19. ^ Leip, David. "Presidential General Election Results Comparison – Mississippi". Retrieved May 7, 2017.
  20. ^ a b Strong, Donald S. (August 1955). "The Presidential Election in the South, 1952". The Journal of Politics. 17 (3): 343–389. doi:10.1017/S0022381600091064.
  21. ^ Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 262 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6
  22. ^ Key, Valdimer Orlando; Southern Politics in State and Nation, p. 227 Alfred A. Knopf (1949)

Works cited

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