Colonel William A. Phillips

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The 1936 United States presidential election in Alabama took place on November 3, 1936, as part of the nationwide presidential election. Voters chose eleven representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. In Alabama, voters voted for electors individually instead of as a slate, as in the other states.

Since the 1890s, Alabama had been effectively a one-party state ruled by the Democratic Party. Disenfranchisement of almost all African-Americans and a large proportion of poor whites via poll taxes, literacy tests[1] and informal harassment had essentially eliminated opposition parties outside of Unionist Winston County and a few nearby northern hill counties that had been Populist strongholds.[2] The only competitive statewide elections became Democratic Party primaries that were limited by law to white voters. Unlike most other Confederate states, however, soon after black disenfranchisement Alabama’s remaining white Republicans made rapid efforts to expel blacks from the state Republican Party.[3] Indeed under Oscar D. Street, who ironically was appointed state party boss as part of the pro-Taft “black and tan” faction in 1912,[4] the state GOP would permanently turn “lily-white”, with the last black delegates from the state at any Republican National Convention serving in 1920.[3]

The 1920 election, aided by isolationism in Appalachia[5] and the whitening of the state GOP,[6] saw the Republicans gain their best presidential vote share in Alabama since 1884,[7] while the GOP even exceed forty percent in the House of Representatives races for the 4th, 7th and 10th congressional districts.[5] However, funding issues meant the Republicans would not emulate their efforts in the rest of the decade.[8] Nevertheless, a bitter “civil war” over how best to maintain white supremacy after the Democrats nominated urban, anti-Prohibition Catholic Al Smith saw so many Democrats defect to dry, Protestant Republican Herbert Hoover that he came within seven thousand votes of winning the state.[9]

However, the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression meant that this trend towards the GOP would be short-lived.[10] The Depression had extremely severe effects in the South, which had the highest unemployment rate in the nation, and many Southerners blamed this on the North and on Wall Street.[11] Consequently the South gave Democratic nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt extremely heavy support in 1932 — he became the only presidential candidate to sweep all of Alabama’s counties.[12]

For 1936, Roosevelt’s campaigning substantially moved away from the South — where almost none of the lower classes could vote — to focus on the working classes of the North and West.[13] However, this was clearly not going to affect his majority amongst an electorate who generally associated the Republican Party — even a lily-white Republican Party — with Reconstruction and black rule.[14] A poll in late September showed Roosevelt leading Republican nominee and Kansas Governor Alf Landon by four-to-one despite Landon leading the nation as a whole.[15] Another poll two weeks later saw the President’s lead falling slightly,[16] but this lead would be maintained in the last poll near the end of October.[17] As it turned out – like all the Literary Digest polls — Roosevelt’s strength was severely underestimated, for he actually won 86.38 percent of Alabama’s vote to Landon’s 12.82 percent, this being the best performance by a presidential candidate in Alabama since the largely uncontested elections of 1832.[12]

Results

General election results[18][19]
Party Pledged to Elector Votes
Democratic Party Franklin D. Roosevelt W. E. James 238,196
Democratic Party Franklin D. Roosevelt Ralph H. Parker 238,195
Democratic Party Franklin D. Roosevelt Ben Bloodworth 238,194
Democratic Party Franklin D. Roosevelt Charles W. Edwards 238,192
Democratic Party Franklin D. Roosevelt R. E. Jones 238,191
Democratic Party Franklin D. Roosevelt Francisc J.Ingre 238,186
Democratic Party Franklin D. Roosevelt B. J. Cowart 238,185
Democratic Party Franklin D. Roosevelt N. Frank Pridgen 238,185
Democratic Party Franklin D. Roosevelt Reese T. Amis 238,131
Democratic Party Franklin D. Roosevelt Howards H. Sullinger 238,090
Democratic Party Franklin D. Roosevelt Tom B. Ware 238,075
Republican Party Alf Landon S. B. Adams 35,358
Republican Party Alf Landon J. F. Brawner 35,340
Republican Party Alf Landon L. A. Carroll 35,334
Republican Party Alf Landon Frank Barchard, Sr. 35,330
Republican Party Alf Landon N. C. Fuller 35,328
Republican Party Alf Landon J. D. Bush 35,320
Republican Party Alf Landon A. L. Isbell 35,320
Republican Party Alf Landon J. M. Pennington 35,304
Republican Party Alf Landon A. P. Longshore, Jr. 35,303
Republican Party Alf Landon H. W. Pond 35,297
Republican Party Alf Landon S. E. Wright 35,288
Prohibition Party D. Leigh Colvin Frank Barnard 719
Communist Party USA Earl Browder A. M. Forman 678
Communist Party USA Earl Browder Hugh C. Taylor 647
Communist Party USA Earl Browder Harry Gideon 646
Communist Party USA Earl Browder D. J. Williams 645
Communist Party USA Earl Browder Kery A. McCloud 644
Communist Party USA Earl Browder John Smith 644
Communist Party USA Earl Browder Charles Otto 642
Communist Party USA Earl Browder Jesse G. Owen 642
Communist Party USA Earl Browder R. I. Smith 642
Prohibition Party D. Leigh Colvin Joseph Suggs 617
Prohibition Party D. Leigh Colvin R. M. Hunter 613
Prohibition Party D. Leigh Colvin W. T. Ellisor 610
Prohibition Party D. Leigh Colvin John C. Orr 610
Prohibition Party D. Leigh Colvin J. W. Frankling 609
Prohibition Party D. Leigh Colvin W. C. McMahan 608
Union Party William Lemke W. O. Broyles 551
Union Party William Lemke R. E. Hill 550
Union Party William Lemke W. O. Bonham 549
Union Party William Lemke L. D. Holstun 549
Union Party William Lemke A. W. Holstun 549
Union Party William Lemke Rudolph Kern 549
Union Party William Lemke C. C. Rolfe 549
Union Party William Lemke A. B. Fewell 548
Union Party William Lemke Arthur S. Gray 548
Union Party William Lemke George Jodan 548
Union Party William Lemke J. Jordan 548
Socialist Party of America Norman Thomas Arlie Barber 242
Socialist Party of America Norman Thomas Jane Wheeler 242
Socialist Party of America Norman Thomas George W. Wilson 241
Socialist Party of America Norman Thomas W. H. Chichester 240
Socialist Party of America Norman Thomas Mary Denman 240
Socialist Party of America Norman Thomas Emma Connally 239
Socialist Party of America Norman Thomas C. G. Hutchisson 239
Socialist Party of America Norman Thomas W. F. Spencer 239
Socialist Party of America Norman Thomas W. M. Vaughan 239
Socialist Party of America Norman Thomas Hugh Barber 238
Socialist Party of America Norman Thomas O. H. Brittain 238
Total votes 275,744

Results by county

1936 United States presidential election in Alabama by county[20]
County Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Democratic
Alfred Mossman Landon
Republican
Various candidates
Other parties
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # %
Autauga 1,525 94.37% 84 5.20% 7 0.43% 1,441 89.17% 1,616
Baldwin 2,337 78.79% 433 14.60% 196 6.61% 1,904 64.19% 2,966
Barbour 2,386 97.51% 50 2.04% 11 0.45% 2,336 95.46% 2,447
Bibb 1,868 90.42% 190 9.20% 8 0.39% 1,678 81.22% 2,066
Blount 2,788 78.23% 744 20.88% 32 0.90% 2,044 57.35% 3,564
Bullock 1,188 99.50% 5 0.42% 1 0.08% 1,183 99.08% 1,194
Butler 2,358 96.32% 83 3.39% 7 0.29% 2,275 92.93% 2,448
Calhoun 4,322 87.12% 581 11.71% 58 1.17% 3,741 75.41% 4,961
Chambers 3,626 96.90% 112 2.99% 4 0.11% 3,514 93.91% 3,742
Cherokee 2,113 84.28% 375 14.96% 19 0.76% 1,738 69.33% 2,507
Chilton 2,565 63.26% 1,469 36.23% 21 0.52% 1,096 27.03% 4,055
Choctaw 1,507 95.32% 74 4.68% 0 0.00% 1,433 90.64% 1,581
Clarke 2,673 97.73% 60 2.19% 2 0.07% 2,613 95.54% 2,735
Clay 2,138 71.84% 699 23.49% 139 4.67% 1,439 48.35% 2,976
Cleburne 1,212 68.63% 543 30.75% 11 0.62% 669 37.88% 1,766
Coffee 3,178 96.16% 110 3.33% 17 0.51% 3,068 92.83% 3,305
Colbert 3,365 92.75% 251 6.92% 12 0.33% 3,114 85.83% 3,628
Conecuh 2,195 95.60% 89 3.88% 12 0.52% 2,106 91.72% 2,296
Coosa 1,346 83.24% 239 14.78% 32 1.98% 1,107 68.46% 1,617
Covington 4,265 95.93% 167 3.76% 14 0.31% 4,098 92.17% 4,446
Crenshaw 2,371 95.95% 96 3.89% 4 0.16% 2,275 92.07% 2,471
Cullman 3,779 68.75% 1,703 30.98% 15 0.27% 2,076 37.77% 5,497
Dale 2,404 92.50% 193 7.43% 2 0.08% 2,211 85.07% 2,599
Dallas 3,205 98.37% 49 1.50% 4 0.12% 3,156 96.87% 3,258
DeKalb 6,122 56.89% 4,617 42.90% 23 0.21% 1,505 13.98% 10,762
Elmore 3,967 92.47% 175 4.08% 148 3.45% 3,792 88.39% 4,290
Escambia 2,585 92.72% 193 6.92% 10 0.36% 2,392 85.80% 2,788
Etowah 5,739 82.24% 1,207 17.30% 32 0.46% 4,532 64.95% 6,978
Fayette 2,244 74.82% 732 24.41% 23 0.77% 1,512 50.42% 2,999
Franklin 3,059 61.62% 1,875 37.77% 30 0.60% 1,184 23.85% 4,964
Geneva 2,652 89.93% 295 10.00% 2 0.07% 2,357 79.93% 2,949
Greene 861 97.40% 20 2.26% 3 0.34% 841 95.14% 884
Hale 1,626 98.31% 20 1.21% 8 0.48% 1,606 97.10% 1,654
Henry 1,925 98.06% 35 1.78% 3 0.15% 1,890 96.28% 1,963
Houston 3,538 93.52% 230 6.08% 15 0.40% 3,308 87.44% 3,783
Jackson 3,450 78.71% 926 21.13% 7 0.16% 2,524 57.59% 4,383
Jefferson 35,980 89.52% 3,810 9.48% 404 1.01% 32,170 80.04% 40,194
Lamar 2,393 92.25% 195 7.52% 6 0.23% 2,198 84.73% 2,594
Lauderdale 4,685 91.97% 389 7.64% 20 0.39% 4,296 84.33% 5,094
Lawrence 2,213 83.10% 444 16.67% 6 0.23% 1,769 66.43% 2,663
Lee 2,182 95.62% 93 4.08% 7 0.31% 2,089 91.54% 2,282
Limestone 2,861 95.69% 108 3.61% 21 0.70% 2,753 92.07% 2,990
Lowndes 1,204 99.01% 10 0.82% 2 0.16% 1,194 98.19% 1,216
Macon 1,146 96.71% 39 3.29% 0 0.00% 1,107 93.42% 1,185
Madison 5,662 91.03% 513 8.25% 45 0.72% 5,149 82.78% 6,220
Marengo 2,287 98.54% 33 1.42% 1 0.04% 2,254 97.11% 2,321
Marion 2,655 73.96% 892 24.85% 43 1.20% 1,763 49.11% 3,590
Marshall 4,208 81.68% 925 17.95% 19 0.37% 3,283 63.72% 5,152
Mobile 11,165 90.78% 1,072 8.72% 62 0.50% 10,093 82.06% 12,299
Monroe 2,558 98.54% 29 1.12% 9 0.35% 2,529 97.42% 2,596
Montgomery 12,061 97.80% 223 1.81% 48 0.39% 11,838 95.99% 12,332
Morgan 5,597 92.39% 432 7.13% 29 0.48% 5,165 85.26% 6,058
Perry 1,527 98.45% 24 1.55% 0 0.00% 1,503 96.91% 1,551
Pickens 1,665 93.59% 107 6.01% 7 0.39% 1,558 87.58% 1,779
Pike 3,100 98.19% 55 1.74% 2 0.06% 3,045 96.45% 3,157
Randolph 2,766 77.39% 793 22.19% 15 0.42% 1,973 55.20% 3,574
Russell 2,181 96.68% 66 2.93% 9 0.40% 2,115 93.75% 2,256
Shelby 2,371 74.54% 777 24.43% 33 1.04% 1,594 50.11% 3,181
St. Clair 2,399 61.83% 1,465 37.76% 16 0.41% 934 24.07% 3,880
Sumter 1,369 98.28% 24 1.72% 0 0.00% 1,345 96.55% 1,393
Talladega 3,751 85.42% 489 11.14% 151 3.44% 3,262 74.29% 4,391
Tallapoosa 3,625 96.10% 141 3.74% 6 0.16% 3,484 92.36% 3,772
Tuscaloosa 6,029 94.31% 332 5.19% 32 0.50% 5,697 89.11% 6,393
Walker 5,697 76.12% 1,699 22.70% 88 1.18% 3,998 53.42% 7,484
Washington 1,736 95.28% 72 3.95% 14 0.77% 1,664 91.33% 1,822
Wilcox 1,365 99.13% 11 0.80% 1 0.07% 1,354 98.33% 1,377
Winston 1,270 46.98% 1,425 52.72% 8 0.30% −155 −5.73% 2,703
Totals 238,196 86.38% 35,358 12.82% 2,190 0.79% 202,838 73.56% 275,744

See also

References

  1. ^ Perman, Michael (2001). Struggle for Mastery: Disfranchisement in the South, 1888–1908. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. p. Introduction. ISBN 9780807849095.
  2. ^ Webb, Samuel L. "From Independents to Populists to Progressive Republicans: The Case of Chilton County, Alabama, 1880-1920". The Journal of Southern History. 59 (4): 707–736.
  3. ^ a b Heersink, Boris; Jenkins, Jeffery A. (2020). Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968. pp. 251–253. ISBN 9781107158436.
  4. ^ Casdorph, Paul D. (1981). Republicans, Negroes, and Progressives in the South, 1912-1916. The University of Alabama Press. pp. 70, 94–95. ISBN 0817300481.
  5. ^ a b Phillips, Kevin P. (1969). The Emerging Republican Majority. p. 255. ISBN 0870000586.
  6. ^ Heersink and Jenkins, Republican Party Politics and the American South, p. 19
  7. ^ Leip, Dave. "Presidential General Election Results Comparison — Alabama". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas.
  8. ^ See "G.O.P. Funds Are Reported Short: Forces "Counted On" Disappoint Republican Political Managers". The Birmingham News. Birmingham, Alabama. August 19, 1922. p. 5.
  9. ^ Feldman, Glenn (September 13, 2004). "Epilogue. Ugly Roots: Race, Emotion and the Rise of the Modern Republican Party in Alabama and the South". In Feldman, Glenn (ed.). Before Brown: Civil Rights and White Backlash in the Modern South. University of Alabama Press. pp. 270–273. ISBN 9780817351342.
  10. ^ Lewinson, Paul (1965). Race, class and party; a history of Negro suffrage and white politics in the South. pp. 167–168.
  11. ^ Ritchie, Donald A. (2007). Electing FDR: the New Deal campaign of 1932. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. p. 143. ISBN 070061687X.
  12. ^ a b Thomas, G. Scott (1987). The pursuit of the White House: a handbook of presidential election statistics and history. pp. 390, 418. ISBN 0313257957.
  13. ^ Ritchie. Electing FDR p. 186
  14. ^ Heersink; Jenkins. Republican Party Politics and the American South, pp. 48–50
  15. ^ "Literary Digest Poll Gives Landon 108,477 Votes in the Lead". Blaine County Booster. Dunning, Nebraska. September 24, 1936. p. 1.
  16. ^ "Presidential Poll Taken from the Radio, Wednesday". Blaine County Booster. Dunning, Nebraska. October 8, 1936. p. 1.
  17. ^ "Our Last Presidential Poll by Radio". Blaine County Booster. Dunning, Nebraska. October 29, 1936. p. 1.
  18. ^ Alabama Official and Statistical Register, 1939. Wetumpka, Alabama: Wetumpka Printing Co. pp. 603–619.
  19. ^ "1936 Presidential General Election Results – Alabama". Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  20. ^ "AL US President Race, November 03, 1936". Our Campaigns.