1940 United States presidential election in Florida

The 1940 United States presidential election in Florida was held on November 5, 1940, as part of the concurrent United States presidential election. Florida voters chose seven electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1940 United States presidential election in Florida

← 1936 November 5, 1940 1944 →
 
Nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt Wendell Willkie
Party Democratic Republican
Home state New York New York
Running mate Henry A. Wallace Charles McNary
Electoral vote 7 0
Popular vote 359,334 126,158
Percentage 73.99% 25.98%

County Results
Roosevelt
  50-60%
  60-70%
  70-80%
  80-90%
  90-100%


President before election

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic

Elected President

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic

Florida had been one of the most solid members of the "Solid South" ever since the 1889 poll tax disfranchised almost all blacks and most poor whites.[1] Unlike southern states extending into the Appalachian Mountains or Ozarks, or Texas with its German settlements in the Edwards Plateau, Florida completely lacked upland or German "Forty-Eighter" whites opposed to secession.[2] Thus disfranchisement of blacks left the party moribund – fifty years after disfranchisement, half of all Florida's registered Republicans were still black although a negligible number had ever voted.[3]

Immigration of northerners into the previously undeveloped areas of South Florida, along with fierce anti-Catholicism in the northern Piney Woods, did give Herbert Hoover a freakish victory in 1928,[4] but apart from that the Democratic Party had lost only six counties at a presidential level since 1892.[5]

Following FDR's second successive sweep of all sixty-seven counties in 1936, Senator Claude Pepper and Miami politicians led a successful push to abolish the poll tax because of the corruption it was causing.[6] Repeal of the poll tax produced significant increases in the total vote cast vis-à-vis that of 1936: the presidential vote increased by around forty-seven percent, and in gubernatorial primaries the absolute increase in percent turnout was over eleven percent of the total voting age white population.[7]

Nonetheless, almost all of this new electorate remained white due to the white primary. Aided by considerable sympathy amongst Florida's largely English-descended white population for the United Kingdom's cause in ongoing World War II,[8] Roosevelt was to sweep every county in Florida for the third successive election and for the ninth occasion in thirteen elections since the recently abolished poll tax was originally imposed. Willkie, who improved by over eight percent upon Alf Landon's performance in 1936, gained less than half that amount in Florida.[9]

As of 2020, this is the penultimate election that every county in Florida voted Democratic and the last time that every county voted more Democratic than the nation at-large.

Results edit

Electoral results
Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote Electoral
vote
Running mate
Count Percentage Vice-presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote
Franklin D. Roosevelt Democrat New York 359,334 73.99% 7 Henry A. Wallace Iowa 7
Wendell Willkie Republican New York 126,158 25.98% 0 Charles McNary Oregon 0
Various candidates[a] Write-ins 148[b] 0.03% 0 0
Total 485,640 100% 7 7
Needed to win 270 270

Results by county edit

County Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Democratic
Wendell Lewis Willkie
Republican
Margin Total votes cast[10]
# % # % # %
Alachua 6,714 83.03% 1,372 16.97% 5,342 66.06% 8,086
Baker 1,352 92.22% 114 7.78% 1,238 84.44% 1,466
Bay 5,153 88.28% 684 11.72% 4,469 76.56% 5,837
Bradford 1,588 85.88% 261 14.12% 1,327 71.76% 1,849
Brevard 2,995 60.15% 1,984 39.85% 1,011 20.30% 4,979
Broward 6,422 61.69% 3,988 38.31% 2,434 23.38% 10,410
Calhoun 1,722 90.97% 171 9.03% 1,551 81.94% 1,893
Charlotte 910 69.10% 407 30.90% 503 38.20% 1,317
Citrus 1,561 88.95% 194 11.05% 1,367 77.90% 1,755
Clay 1,488 74.92% 498 25.08% 990 49.84% 1,986
Collier 809 83.83% 156 16.17% 653 67.66% 965
Columbia 2,888 86.70% 443 13.30% 2,445 73.40% 3,331
Dade 51,921 67.30% 25,224 32.70% 26,697 34.60% 77,145
De Soto 1,888 78.21% 526 21.79% 1,362 56.42% 2,414
Dixie 1,420 94.41% 84 5.59% 1,336 88.82% 1,504
Duval 41,003 81.71% 9,177 18.29% 31,826 63.42% 50,180
Escambia 16,201 87.81% 2,249 12.19% 13,952 75.62% 18,450
Flagler 553 80.26% 136 19.74% 417 60.52% 689
Franklin 1,400 93.21% 102 6.79% 1,298 86.42% 1,502
Gadsden 3,218 88.53% 417 11.47% 2,801 77.06% 3,635
Gilchrist 1,011 91.99% 88 8.01% 923 83.98% 1,099
Glades 464 72.05% 180 27.95% 284 44.10% 644
Gulf 1,642 93.99% 105 6.01% 1,537 87.98% 1,747
Hamilton 1,424 88.50% 185 11.50% 1,239 77.00% 1,609
Hardee 2,559 78.67% 694 21.33% 1,865 57.34% 3,253
Hendry 1,040 76.64% 317 23.36% 723 53.28% 1,357
Hernando 1,151 75.13% 381 24.87% 770 50.26% 1,532
Highlands 2,215 71.61% 878 28.39% 1,337 43.22% 3,093
Hillsborough 30,738 79.75% 7,805 20.25% 22,933 59.50% 38,543
Holmes 2,684 75.16% 887 24.84% 1,797 50.32% 3,571
Indian River 1,487 62.19% 904 37.81% 583 24.38% 2,391
Jackson 5,607 86.62% 866 13.38% 4,741 73.24% 6,473
Jefferson 1,412 86.79% 215 13.21% 1,197 73.58% 1,627
Lafayette 1,090 89.93% 122 10.07% 968 79.86% 1,212
Lake 5,322 66.68% 2,659 33.32% 2,663 33.36% 7,981
Lee 3,531 68.52% 1,622 31.48% 1,909 37.04% 5,153
Leon 5,459 90.35% 583 9.65% 4,876 80.70% 6,042
Levy 2,527 90.48% 266 9.52% 2,261 80.96% 2,793
Liberty 947 88.84% 119 11.16% 828 77.68% 1,066
Madison 2,421 84.62% 440 15.38% 1,981 69.24% 2,861
Manatee 5,131 72.13% 1,983 27.87% 3,148 44.26% 7,114
Marion 6,127 82.53% 1,297 17.47% 4,830 65.06% 7,424
Martin 1,018 63.07% 596 36.93% 422 26.14% 1,614
Monroe 4,102 89.86% 463 10.14% 3,639 79.72% 4,565
Nassau 1,888 81.77% 421 18.23% 1,467 63.54% 2,309
Okaloosa 3,003 81.32% 690 18.68% 2,313 62.64% 3,693
Okeechobee 822 87.08% 122 12.92% 700 74.16% 944
Orange 12,821 61.00% 8,198 39.00% 4,623 22.00% 21,019
Osceola 2,015 58.52% 1,428 41.48% 587 17.04% 3,443
Palm Beach 11,884 61.72% 7,371 38.28% 4,513 23.44% 19,255
Pasco 3,091 69.41% 1,362 30.59% 1,729 38.82% 4,453
Pinellas 18,941 58.70% 13,327 41.30% 5,614 17.40% 32,268
Polk 17,690 76.07% 5,564 23.93% 12,126 52.14% 23,254
Putnam 3,477 77.53% 1,008 22.47% 2,469 55.06% 4,485
St. John's 4,122 75.98% 1,303 24.02% 2,819 51.96% 5,425
St. Lucie 2,169 69.27% 962 30.73% 1,207 38.54% 3,131
Santa Rosa 2,910 81.60% 656 18.40% 2,254 63.20% 3,566
Sarasota 3,773 69.29% 1,672 30.71% 2,101 38.58% 5,445
Seminole 3,150 69.71% 1,369 30.29% 1,781 39.42% 4,519
Sumter 2,382 90.40% 253 9.60% 2,129 80.80% 2,635
Suwannee 2,866 87.73% 401 12.27% 2,465 75.46% 3,267
Taylor 2,499 92.66% 198 7.34% 2,301 85.32% 2,697
Union 1,024 91.51% 95 8.49% 929 83.02% 1,119
Volusia 10,024 60.63% 6,509 39.37% 3,515 21.26% 16,533
Wakulla 1,336 95.02% 70 4.98% 1,266 90.04% 1,406
Walton 3,217 82.26% 694 17.74% 2,523 64.52% 3,911
Washington 1,915 74.86% 643 25.14% 1,272 49.72% 2,558
Totals 359,334 73.99% 126,158 25.98% 233,176 48.01% 485,640

Notes edit

  1. ^ These votes were listed in America at the Polls state-wide, but not in Dave Leip's Atlas.
  2. ^ These write-in votes were listed as a statewide total and not separated by county

References edit

  1. ^ Silbey, Joel H. and Bogue, Allan G.; The History of American Electoral Behavior, p. 210 ISBN 140087114X
  2. ^ Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 208, 210 ISBN 9780691163246
  3. ^ See Price, Hugh Douglas; 'The Negro and Florida Politics, 1944-1954'; The Journal of Politics, Vol. 17, No. 2 (May, 1955), pp. 198-220
  4. ^ Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority; pp. 212-214
  5. ^ Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 164-165 ISBN 0786422173
  6. ^ Keyssar, Alexander; The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States, p. 183 ISBN 978-0465005024
  7. ^ Teeples, Ronald K. (1970); The Economics of Voter Turnout, p. 111 Published by University of California Press, Los Angeles
  8. ^ Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, pp. 67-68
  9. ^ Leip, David. "1940 Presidential General Election Results – Florida". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved February 2, 2018.
  10. ^ Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; pp. 87-88 ISBN 0405077114