1956 United States presidential election in Vermont

Summary

The 1956 United States presidential election in Vermont took place on November 6, 1956, as part of the 1956 United States presidential election which was held throughout all contemporary 48 states. Voters chose three representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1956 United States presidential election in Vermont

← 1952 November 6, 1956 1960 →
 
Nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower Adlai Stevenson
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Pennsylvania[note 1][1] Illinois
Running mate Richard Nixon Estes Kefauver
Electoral vote 3 0
Popular vote 110,390 42,549
Percentage 72.16% 27.81%


President before election

Dwight Eisenhower
Republican

Elected President

Dwight Eisenhower
Republican

Vermont voted overwhelmingly for the Republican nominee, incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower of Pennsylvania, over the Democratic nominee, former Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson. Eisenhower ran with incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon of California, while Stevenson's running mate was Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee.

Eisenhower took a landslide 72.16% of the vote to Stevenson's 27.81%, a victory margin of 44.35%. This was the most lopsided statewide win of the election. Vermont historically was a bastion of Northeastern Republicanism, and by 1956 Vermont had gone Republican in every presidential election since the founding of the Republican Party. From 1856 to 1952, Vermont had had the longest streak of voting Republican of any state, having never voted Democratic before, and this tradition easily continued in 1956 with Eisenhower's landslide win.

Eisenhower, a war hero and moderate Republican who had pledged to reform and maintain popular New Deal Democratic policies, had wide appeal beyond the boundaries of the traditional Republican coalition. While Vermont had been one of the only two states (the other being Maine) in the nation to vote against Franklin Roosevelt all 4 times, the GOP margins in the state had narrowed substantially in the 1930s and 1940s, particularly due to the strong Democratic presence in the northwestern part of the state. However Eisenhower's unique personal appeal brought even that region back into the GOP coalition, and allowed him to break 70% in the state in both 1952 and 1956 (where Eisenhower had performed better than he did in 1952), the first Republican to do so since Calvin Coolidge in 1924, and the last Republican to date.

Results edit

1956 United States presidential election in Vermont[2]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower (incumbent) 110,390 72.16% 3
Democratic Adlai Stevenson 42,549 27.81% 0
No party Write-ins 39 0.03% 0
Totals 152,978 100.00% 3

Results by county edit

County Dwight David Eisenhower
Republican
Adlai Stevenson II
Democratic
Various candidates
Write-ins
Margin Total votes cast[3]
# % # % # % # %
Addison 5,990 78.22% 1,668 21.78% 4,322 56.44% 7,658
Bennington 8,434 75.59% 2,719 24.37% 4 0.04% 5,715 51.22% 11,157
Caledonia 7,560 81.26% 1,744 18.74% 5,816 62.51% 9,304
Chittenden 14,108 57.39% 10,474 42.61% 3,634 14.78% 24,582
Essex 1,714 70.42% 719 29.54% 1 0.04% 995 40.88% 2,434
Franklin 7,125 59.55% 4,840 40.45% 2,285 19.10% 11,965
Grand Isle 978 61.82% 604 38.18% 374 23.64% 1,582
Lamoille 3,464 83.63% 678 16.37% 2,786 67.26% 4,142
Orange 5,616 83.95% 1,072 16.02% 2 0.03% 4,544 67.92% 6,690
Orleans 5,344 72.26% 2,052 27.74% 3,292 44.51% 7,396
Rutland 14,570 73.83% 5,165 26.17% 9,405 47.66% 19,735
Washington 11,351 71.50% 4,520 28.47% 5 0.03% 6,831 43.03% 15,876
Windham 9,979 79.99% 2,474 19.83% 22 0.18% 7,505 60.16% 12,475
Windsor 14,157 78.73% 3,820 21.24% 5 0.03% 10,337 57.49% 17,982
Totals 110,390 72.16% 42,549 27.81% 39 0.03% 67,841 44.35% 152,978

Analysis edit

Eisenhower swept every county in Vermont, breaking 70% in 11 of the 14 counties. The three northwestern counties of Vermont had long been Democratic enclaves in an otherwise Republican state through the 1930s and 1940s, but Eisenhower won them back for the GOP in both 1952 and 1956, in the latter case even breaking 60% in Grand Isle County. The region still remained the most Democratic in the state, as Eisenhower received less than 60% of the vote in Chittenden County and Franklin County, while every county outside the northwest broke seventy percent for Eisenhower. In three counties Eisenhower even broke eighty percent of the vote, which, as of 2020, no other candidate has managed to do since. No presidential candidate since has surpassed Eisenhower's 72.16% vote share or his 44.35% margin of victory, as by the late 1950s cracks were already beginning to form in the Republican stranglehold on Vermont, and the GOP shifted toward an increasingly Southern and conservative party beginning in the 1960s.

Even as Eisenhower won a decisive re-election landslide nationally, Vermont weighed in as a whopping 29% more Republican than the national average, making Vermont the most Republican state in the union in the 1956 election.[4] While Vermont had been the most Republican state in the nation in many elections prior to 1956, this would prove the last election when Vermont would hold that title.

This would be the last time Vermont was the strongest state for either party until 64 years later, in 2020, when it was Democratic candidate Joe Biden's strongest state, demonstrating the completion of Vermont's trend towards the Democrats.

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Although he was born in Texas and grew up in Kansas before his military career, at the time of the 1952 election Eisenhower was president of Columbia University and was, officially, a resident of New York. During his first term as president, he moved his private residence to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and officially changed his residency to Pennsylvania.

References edit

  1. ^ "The Presidents". David Leip. Retrieved September 27, 2017. Eisenhower's home state for the 1956 Election was Pennsylvania
  2. ^ "1956 Presidential General Election Results - Vermont". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
  3. ^ Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; p. 466 ISBN 0405077114
  4. ^ "1956 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved March 5, 2018.