1956 United States presidential election in South Carolina

1956 United States presidential election in South Carolina

← 1952 November 6, 1956[1] 1960 →
All 8 South Carolina votes to the Electoral College
Nominee Adlai Stevenson Unpledged electors Dwight D. Eisenhower Party Democratic “Nominated by Petition” Republican Home state Illinois Pennsylvania[a][2] Running mate Estes Kefauver Richard Nixon Electoral vote 8 0 0 Popular vote 136,372 88,509 75,700 Percentage 45.37% 29.45% 25.18%
County Results Stevenson   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%   80–90% Unpledged   30-40%   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80% Eisenhower   30-40%   50-60%
President before election Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican Elected President Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican

Elections in South Carolina
Federal government U.S. President 1788-89 1792 1796 1800 1804 1808 1812 1816 1820 1824 1828 1832 1836 1840 1844 1848 1852 1856 1860 1868 1872 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 Rep Dem 2004 Dem 2008 Dem Rep 2012 Rep 2016 Dem 2020 Dem 2024 Dem Rep U.S. Senate 1897 sp 1898 1902 1903 1907 1908 1909 1913 1914 1918 sp 1918 1920 1924 1926 1930 1932 1936 1938 sp 1941 1942 1944 1948 1950 1954 1956 1960 1962 1966 sp 1966 1968 1972 1974 1978 1980 1984 1986 1990 1992 1996 1998 2002 2004 2008 2010 2014 sp 2014 2016 2020 2022 2026 2028 U.S. House of Representatives 1788 1790 1793 1794 1796 1798 1800 1803 1804 1806 1808 1810 1812 1814 1816 1818 1820 1823 1824 1826 1828 1830 1833 1834 1836 1838 1840 1843 1844 1846 1848 1850 1853 1854 1856 1858 1860 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 7th 1901 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 4th 1915 1916 1918 6th 1919 7th 1919 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 4th 1953 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1st 1971 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2nd 2001 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 1st 2013 2014 2016 5th 2017 2018 2020 2022 2024 List of specials
State offices General elections 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 Gubernatorial elections 1865 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1930 1934 1938 1942 1946 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026 State Senate elections 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 State House elections 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024
Ballot measures 2006 Amendment 1 2008 2010 2012 2014
Charleston Mayoral elections 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023
Columbia Mayoral elections 2005 2009 2010 2013 2017 2021
Rock Hill Mayoral elections 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023
Greenville Mayoral elections 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023
v t e

The 1956 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 6, 1956, as part of the 1956 United States presidential election. South Carolina voters chose eight^[3] representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

For six decades up to 1950 South Carolina had been a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party. The Republican Party had been moribund due to the disfranchisement of blacks and the complete absence of other support bases as South Carolina completely lacked upland or German refugee whites opposed to secession.^[4] Between 1900 and 1948, no Republican presidential candidate ever obtained more than seven percent of the total presidential vote^[5] – a vote which in 1924 reached as low as 6.6 percent of the total voting-age population^[6] (or approximately 15 percent of the voting-age white population).

This absolute loyalty began to break down during World War II when Vice-presidents Henry A. Wallace and Harry Truman began to realize that a legacy of discrimination against blacks was a threat to the United States' image abroad and its ability to win the Cold War against the radically egalitarian rhetoric of Communism.^[7] In the 1948 presidential election, Truman was backed by only 24 percent of South Carolina's limited electorate – most of that from the relatively few upcountry poor whites able to meet rigorous voting requirements – and state Governor Strom Thurmond won 71 percent, carrying every county except Anderson and Spartanburg. Despite Truman announcing as early as May 1950 that he would not run again for president in 1952,^[8] it had already become clear that South Carolina's rulers remained severely disenchanted with the national Democratic Party.^[9] Both Thurmond and former Governor James F. Byrnes would endorse national Republican nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower^[10] – who ran under an independent label in South Carolina – and Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson II only won narrowly due to two- and three-to-one majorities in the poor white counties that had given substantial opposition to Thurmond in 1948.^[11]

During the first Eisenhower term, South Carolina's whites who had supported him became extremely critical because Eisenhower was blamed for Brown v. Board of Education, whose requirement of desegregating the state's schools was intolerable. Consequently, state leaders like Thurmond argued that the GOP could not be a useful tool for opposing civil rights, and most of the state's Democrats endorsed Stevenson for his rematch with Eisenhower.^[12] Byrnes, however, obtained 35,000 petitions for an alternative slate of unpledged electors, whom he naturally endorsed when ballot access was obtained for that slate.^[13]

In mid-October, the consensus among pollsters was that the state's vote would be sharply split between the three slates,^[14] although polls just before election day suggested that Stevenson was likely to carry the state.^[15]

• Florence

• Greenville
• Marion
• Newberry
• Pickens

• Aiken

• Berkeley
• Allendale
• Bamberg
• Calhoun
• Charleston
• Clarendon
• Colleton
• Dorchester
• Edgefield
• Hampton
• Jasper
• Kershaw
• Georgetown
• Lee
• Lexington
• Orangeburg
• Richland
• Sumter
• Williasburg

Ultimately South Carolina was won by Adlai Stevenson II (D–Illinois), running with Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver by a more decisive margin than polls predicted.^[16] Stevenson gained 45.37 percent of the popular vote thanks to his continued dominance of the upcountry, whilst Eisenhower and the unpledged slate divided the lowcountry vote, with the unpledged slate finishing second with 29.45 percent and Eisenhower – this time running under the “Republican” banner – with 25.18 percent^[17] Wealthier whites left Eisenhower for the unpledged slate in large numbers, but unlike in 1952 when the small number of black voters strongly supported Stevenson, Eisenhower gained substantial, even majority, support from blacks able to vote in Charleston and Columbia.^[12]

The 1956 election in South Carolina marks the second of only three times in the 20th century that an incumbent president has finished third in any state.^[d] As of the 2020 presidential election^[update], this is the last time that a Republican has been elected president without carrying South Carolina, and the last time that Greenville County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. It is also the last time that Lexington County was not carried by the Republican candidate.^[18]