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1936 United States presidential election in South Carolina

←  1932 November 3, 1936 1940 →
 
Nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt
Party Democratic
Home state New York
Running mate John Nance Garner
Electoral vote 8
Popular vote 113,791
Percentage 98.57%

County Results
Roosevelt
  90-100%


President before election

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic

Elected President

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic

The 1936 United States presidential election in South Carolina was held on November 3, 1936. The state voters chose 8 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. With Roosevelt winning 98.57% of the vote, this was the most emphatic win for any presidential candidate against another in any state in American history.

South Carolina voted for Democratic Party candidate and incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt, over Republican Party candidate incumbent Governor of Kansas Alf Landon. Roosevelt carried all counties with over 90% of the vote, with Horry and Lancaster counties being carried unanimously, and his 98.57% of the popular vote is the highest for any presidential candidate in South Carolina since a popular vote was first used in 1868, or for any presidential candidate in any state with an opponent.

At the time of the 1936 election, the Democratic machine had been dominant in South Carolina politics for decades. The state's Republican organizations were marginal, serving mostly to distribute patronage when a Republican president made federal appointments within the state. The South Carolina Republican Party had been led by "Tieless" Joe Tolbert since the late 1890s. [1] However, in the early 1930s, the state party split between two factions: a racially exclusive all-white group led by J.C. Hambright, and Tolbert's group, which included some African-Americans. At the 1932 Republican National Convention, Hambright was seated as the leader of South Carolina's delegation, but at the 1936 convention, Tolbert's authority was restored. [2]

The schism between the two Republican factions extended to the 1936 presidential ballot. At that time, voters were presented with lists of electors nominated by each state party, rather than the names of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates themselves. As a result, two separate slates of Republican electors were nominated, one led by Hambright and the other by Tolbert's nephew Joseph A. Tolbert, and the state's already minuscule Republican vote was split between them. However, ballots in Allendale County, Colleton County, and Edgefield County counties listed only the Tolbert ticket as the slate of the Republican Party. [3] The votes for Landon are presented here as a fusion of the two slates.

Results

1936 United States presidential election in South Carolina [4]
Party Candidate Running mate Popular vote Electoral vote
Count % Count %
Democratic Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York John Nance Garner of Texas 113,791 98.57% 8 100.00%
Republican Alf Landon of Kansas Frank Knox of Illinois 1,646 [a] 1.43% 0 0.00%
Total 115,437 100.00% 8 100.00%

Results by county

1936 United States presidential election in South Carolina by county [5]
County Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Democratic
Alfred Mossman Landon
Republican
Total votes cast
# % # %
Abbeville 1,265 98.21% 23 1.79% 1,288
Aiken 3,298 98.95% 35 1.05% 3,333
Allendale 1,236 99.76% 3 0.24% 1,239
Anderson 4,025 99.36% 26 0.64% 4,051
Bamberg 1,542 99.68% 5 0.32% 1,547
Barnwell 2,157 99.91% 2 0.09% 2,159
Beaufort 501 92.10% 43 7.90% 544
Berkeley 690 98.85% 8 1.15% 698
Calhoun 821 99.88% 1 0.12% 822
Charleston 8,015 95.05% 417 4.95% 8,432
Cherokee 2,280 99.00% 23 1.00% 2,303
Chester 2,155 99.49% 11 0.51% 2,166
Chesterfield 3,192 99.44% 18 0.56% 3,210
Clarendon 1,260 98.67% 17 1.33% 1,277
Colleton 1,463 99.46% 8 0.54% 1,471
Darlington 1,995 99.40% 12 0.60% 2,007
Dillon 1,104 99.55% 5 0.45% 1,109
Dorchester 889 96.95% 28 3.05% 917
Edgefield 1,304 99.92% 1 0.08% 1,305
Fairfield 1,005 98.72% 13 1.28% 1,018
Florence 4,194 99.41% 25 0.59% 4,219
Georgetown 1,273 95.43% 61 4.57% 1,334
Greenville 8,310 98.91% 92 1.09% 8,402
Greenwood 3,064 99.38% 19 0.62% 3,083
Hampton 1,253 99.37% 8 0.63% 1,261
Horry 2,927 100.00% 0 0.00% 2,927
Jasper 452 99.12% 4 0.88% 456
Kershaw 1,400 98.59% 20 1.41% 1,420
Lancaster 2,631 100.00% 0 0.00% 2,631
Laurens 3,069 99.58% 13 0.42% 3,082
Lee 1,045 99.52% 5 0.48% 1,050
Lexington 2,138 98.53% 32 1.47% 2,170
Marion 656 98.80% 8 1.20% 664
Marlboro 1,219 99.59% 5 0.41% 1,224
McCormick 988 99.30% 7 0.70% 995
Newberry 2,615 99.66% 9 0.34% 2,624
Oconee 2,057 97.49% 53 2.51% 2,110
Orangeburg 2,947 98.04% 59 1.96% 3,006
Pickens 2,678 98.17% 50 1.83% 2,728
Richland 6,728 97.79% 152 2.21% 6,880
Saluda 1,324 99.25% 10 0.75% 1,334
Spartanburg 10,739 98.41% 173 1.59% 10,912
Sumter 2,062 97.26% 58 2.74% 2,120
Union 3,458 99.74% 9 0.26% 3,467
Williamsburg 1,284 99.53% 6 0.47% 1,290
York 3,083 97.81% 69 2.19% 3,152
Totals 113,791 98.57% 1,646 1.43% 115,437

Notes

  1. ^ Landon total is a fusion of 953 "Tolbert" and 693 "Hambright" ticket votes.

References

  1. ^ Judy Bainbridge, "South Carolina political history: Remembering 'Tieless' Joe Tolbert and his family", Greenville News, March 29, 2020, Web.
  2. ^ Associated Press, "Tolbert Seated As G.O.P. Dodges Race Question", Orangeburg Times and Democrat, June 11, 1936, front page.
  3. ^ "Election Boards Make Returns", The State, November 13, 1936, page 11-A.
  4. ^ "1936 Presidential General Election Results - South Carolina". U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  5. ^ Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; p. 395 ISBN  0405077114