United States presidential election, 1956

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United States presidential election, 1956
6 November 1956

Nominee	Dwight D. Eisenhower	Adlai Stevenson
Party	Republican	Democratic
Home state	Kansas	Illinois
Running mate	Richard Nixon	Estes Kefauver
Electoral vote	457	73
States carried	41	7
Popular vote	35,579,180	26,028,028
Percentage	57.4%	42.0%

Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Eisenhower/Nixon, Blue denotes those won by Stevenson/Kefauver. Light grey is the electoral vote for Walter Burgwyn Jones by a Alabama faithless elector. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
Incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican President-Elect Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican

The United States presidential election of 1956 saw a popular Dwight D. Eisenhower successfully run for re-election. The 1956 election was a rematch of 1952, as Eisenhower's opponent in 1956 was Democrat Adlai Stevenson II, whom Eisenhower had defeated four years earlier.

Incumbent President Eisenhower was popular, but had health conditions that became a quiet issue. Stevenson remained popular with a core of liberal Democrats but held no office and had no real base. He (and Eisenhower) largely ignored the civil rights issue. Eisenhower had ended the Korean War and the nation was prosperous, so a landslide for the charismatic Eisenhower was never in doubt.

[edit] Nominations

[edit] Republican Party Nomination

As 1956 began there was some speculation that Eisenhower would not run for a second term, primarily due to concerns about his health. In 1955 Eisenhower had suffered a serious heart attack, and in early 1956 he underwent surgery for ileitis. However, he quickly recovered after both incidents, and after being cleared by his doctors he decided to run for a second term. Given "Ike's" enormous popularity, he was renominated with no opposition at the 1956 Republican National Convention in San Francisco, California.

The only question among Republicans was whether Vice-President Richard Nixon would once again be Eisenhower's running mate. There is some evidence that Eisenhower would have preferred another, less-partisan and controversial running mate, such as Governor Christian Herter of Massachusetts, and according to some historians (such as Stephen Ambrose), Eisenhower privately offered Nixon another position in his cabinet, such as Secretary of Defense. However, Harold Stassen was the only Republican to publicly oppose Nixon's renomination for Vice-President, and Nixon remained highly popular among the GOP's rank-and-file voters. Nixon had also reshaped the vice-presidency, using it as a platform to campaign for Republican state and local candidates across the country, and these candidates came to his defense. In the spring of 1956 Eisenhower publicly announced that Nixon would again be his running mate, and Stassen was forced to second Nixon's nomination at the Republican Convention. Unlike 1952, conservative Republicans (who had supported Robert A. Taft against Eisenhower in 1952) did not attempt to shape the platform. The only thing notable about the Republican Convention was that one delegate voted for a fictitious "Joe Smith" for Vice President in order to protest everything being unanimous.

[edit] Democratic Party Nomination

[edit] Candidates

Governor W. Averell Harriman of New York	Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee	Governor Frank J. Lausche of Ohio	House Majority Leader John W. McCormack of Massachusetts
Former Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois

[edit] Primaries

Adlai Stevenson II, the Democratic Party's 1952 nominee, fought a tight primary battle with populist Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver for the 1956 nomination. Kefauver won the New Hampshire primary unopposed (though Stevenson won 15% on write-ins). After Kefauver upset Stevenson in the Minnesota primary, Stevenson, realizing that he was in trouble, agreed to debate Kefauver in Florida. Stevenson and Kefauver held the first televised presidential debate on May 21, 1956 before the Florida primary. Stevenson carried Florida by a 52-48% margin. By the California primary in June 1956 Kefauver's campaign had run low on money and could not compete for publicity and advertising with the well-funded Stevenson. Stevenson won the California primary by a 63-37% margin, and Kefauver soon thereafter withdrew from the race.

[edit] Popular vote results

Adlai Stevenson - 3,069,504 (50.70%)
Estes Kefauver - 2,283,172 (37.71%)
Unpledged - 380,300 (6.28%)
Frank J. Lausche - 278,074 (4.59%)
John William McCormack - 26,128 (0.43%)

Source

[edit] Statewide contest by winner

Stevenson:

Kefauver:

Lausche:

Ohio

McCormack:

Massachusetts

[edit] Convention

At the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, New York Governor Averell Harriman, who was backed by former President Harry Truman, challenged Stevenson for the nomination. However, Stevenson's delegate lead was much too large for Harriman to overcome, and Stevenson won the nomination on the first ballot.

The roll call, as reported in Richard C. Bain and Judith H. Parris, Convention Decisions and Voting Records, pp. 294-298:

Presidential Balloting, DNC 1956
Contender	Vote
Former Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson	905.5
New York Governor Averell Harriman	210
Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas	80
Missouri Senator Stuart Symington	45.5
Kentucky Governor Albert Chandler	36.5
Georgia Congressman James C. Davis	33
Former Virginia Governor John S. Battle	32.5
South Carolina Governor George B. Timmerman	23.5
Ohio Governor Frank J. Lausche	5.5

[edit] Vice-Presidential Nomination

The highlight of the 1956 Democratic Convention came when Stevenson, in an effort to create excitement for the ticket, made the surprise announcement that the convention's delegates would choose his running mate. This set off a desperate scramble among several candidates to win the nomination; a good deal of the excitement of the vice-presidential race came from the fact that the candidates had only one hectic day to campaign among the delegates before the voting began. The two leading contenders were Senator Kefauver, who retained the support of his primary delegates, and young Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who was relatively unknown at that point. Kennedy surprised the experts by surging into the lead on the second ballot; at one point he was only 15 votes shy of winning. However, a number of states then left their "favorite son" candidates and switched to Kefauver, giving him the victory. Kennedy then gave a gracious concession speech. The defeat was actually a boost for Kennedy's long-term presidential chances; by coming so close to defeating Kefauver he gained much favorable national publicity, yet by losing to Kefauver he avoided any blame for Stevenson's expected loss to Eisenhower in November. The vote totals in the vice presidential balloting are recorded in the following table, which also comes from Bain & Parris.

Vice Presidential candidates:

Senator Clinton Anderson of New Mexico	Attorney General Pat Brown of California	Governor Frank G. Clement of Tennessee	Governor LeRoy Collins Florida
Senator Albert Gore, Sr. of Tennessee	Governor Luther H. Hodges of North Carolina	Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota	Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson of Texas
Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee	Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts	Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri	Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. of New York City

Vice Presidential Balloting, DNC 1956
Contender: Ballot	1	2 before shifts	2 after shifts
Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver	466.5	551.5	755.5
Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy	294.5	618	589
Tennessee Senator Albert Gore, Sr.	178	110.5	13.5
New York City Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr.	162.5	9.5	6
Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey	134	74.5	2
North Carolina Governor Luther Hodges	40	0.5	0
P.T. Maner	33	0	0
Florida Governor LeRoy Collins	29	0	0
New Mexico Senator Clinton Anderson	16	0	0
Tennessee Governor Frank G. Clement	14	0	0
California Attorney General Pat Brown	1	0	0
Texas Senator Lyndon Johnson	1	0	0
Missouri Senator Stuart Symington	1	0	0

[edit] General election

[edit] Campaign

Stevenson campaigned hard against Eisenhower, with television ads for the first time being the dominant medium for both sides. Because Eisenhower's 1952 election victory was due, in large part, to winning the female vote, there were a plethora of "housewife" focused ads.

Stevenson proposed significant increases in government spending for social programs and treaties with the Soviet Union to lower military spending and end nuclear testing on both sides. He also proposed to end the military draft and switch to an "all-volunteer" military. Eisenhower publicly opposed these ideas, even though in private he was working on a proposal to ban atmospheric nuclear testing. Eisenhower had retained the enormous personal and political popularity he had earned during the Second World War, and he maintained a comfortable lead in the polls throughout the campaign.

Eisenhower was also helped by two foreign-policy crises that developed in the weekend before the election. In Soviet-occupied Hungary, many citizens rose up in revolt against the Soviet Army; their revolt was brutally crushed within a few days by Soviet troops. In Egypt, a combined force of Israeli, British, and French troops seized the Suez Canal; Eisenhower condemned the seizure and pressured the allied forces to return the canal to Egyptian control. These two events led many Americans to rally in support of the President, thus swelling his expected margin of victory. Eisenhower had also supported the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling in 1954; this ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court ended legal segregation in public schools. As a result, Eisenhower won the support of nearly 40% of black voters; he was the last Republican presidential candidate to receive such a level of support from black voters.

On election day Eisenhower took over 57% of the popular vote and won 41 of the 48 states. Stevenson won only six Southern states and the border state of Missouri, becoming the only losing candidate in the last 100 years to carry the Show-Me-State. Eisenhower carried Louisiana, making him the first Republican presidential candidate to carry the state since Reconstruction in 1876.

[edit] Results

Presidential Candidate	Party	Home State	Popular Vote		Electoral Vote	Running Mate	Running Mate's Home State	RM's Electoral Vote
Presidential Candidate	Party	Home State	Count	Pct	Electoral Vote	Running Mate	Running Mate's Home State	RM's Electoral Vote
Dwight David Eisenhower	Republican	Pennsylvania^[1]	35,579,180	57.4%	457	Richard Milhous Nixon	California	457
Adlai Ewing Stevenson II	Democratic	Illinois	26,028,028	42.0%	73	(Carey) Estes Kefauver	Tennessee	73
Walter Burgwyn Jones	Democratic	Alabama	—^(a)	—^(a)	1	Herman Talmadge	Georgia	1
(unpledged electors)	(n/a)	(n/a)	196,145	0.3%	0	(n/a)	(n/a)	0
T. Coleman Andrews	States' Rights	Virginia	107,929	0.2%	0	Thomas Werdel	California	0
Other			110,046	0.2%	–	Other		–
Total			62,021,328	100 %	531			531
Needed to win					266			266

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1956 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (August 1, 2005).

Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (August 1, 2005).

[edit] Close states

Missouri, 0.2%
Tennessee, 0.6%
North Carolina, 1.4%
Arkansas, 6.7%
Minnesota, 7.6%
West Virginia, 8.2%
Washington, 8.5%
Kentucky, 9.1%

^(a) Alabama faithless elector W. F. Turner, who was pledged to Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver, instead cast his votes for Walter Burgwyn Jones, who was a circuit court judge in Turner's home town, and Herman Talmadge, governor of the neighboring state of Georgia.

Because of the admission of Alaska and Hawaii as states in 1959, the 1956 presidential election was the last in which there were 531 electoral votes.

[edit] See also

[edit] Miscellanea

Missouri is often considered to be a 'bellwether' state because it has voted for the winner of every Presidential election for the past century. 1956 is the only exception as it voted for Stevenson (by only 4,000 votes out of more than 1.8 million cast; most of this margin was provided by the City of St. Louis).

Eisenhower came in third in South Carolina, behind Stevenson and "unpledged electors", the first incumbent to have this status since William Howard Taft in 1912. It happened next to George Bush in 1992 when he finished third place in Maine behind Bill Clinton and Ross Perot.

As of 2007, the 1956 election was the last time in which the election was a rematch of the election held four years earlier. (Rematches also occurred in 1800, 1828, 1840 1892, and 1900.)

As of 2007, the 1956 Democratic vice presidential vote was the last time any convention voting went to a second ballot

[edit] Notes

^ There is some confusion about Eisenhower's home state in this election. Both [Leip] and the National Archives give Eisenhower's home state as New York. There are strong reasons to believe that these two sources are erroneous: The National Archives cites the Senate Manual as a source, and the Senate Manual has Eisenhower's home state as Pennsylvania. The brief description for the book Republican Party National Convention (26th : 1956 : San Francisco) in the Library of Congress' online catalog refers to “Dwight D. Eisenhower of Pennsylvania”. Finally, the Maryland Manual has Eisenhower residing in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

[edit] References

Leip, Dave. 1956 Presidential Election - Home States. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved on May 24, 2005.
Electoral Votes for President and Vice President 1953–1965. U.S. Electoral College. National Archives. Retrieved on March 18, 2006.
(2001) Senate Manual, 107th Congress. United States Government Printing Office, 1131. Retrieved on 2006-03-18.
"General Election Returns: November 6, 1956" (1957–58). Maryland Manual 167: 325.
Republican Party National Convention. (26th : 1956 : San Francisco). Library of Congress Online Catalog. Library of Congress. Retrieved on February 28, 2007.

[edit] Further reading

(1972) in Gallup, George H. (ed.): The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935–1971, 3 vols., Random House.
Divine, Robert A. (1974). Foreign Policy and U.S. Presidential Elections, 1952–1960.