1940 United States presidential election in Maine
The 1940 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 5, 1940. All contemporary 48 states were part of the 1940 United States presidential election. State voters chose five electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.
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 County Results
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Maine was won by Republican businessman Wendell Willkie of Indiana, who was running against incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York. Willkie ran with Senator Charles L. McNary of Oregon while Roosevelt ran with Henry A. Wallace of Iowa.
Willkie won Maine by a narrow margin of 2.33%, a swing of 11.66% to Roosevelt during an election where FDR lost 697 counties that had supported him four years earlier, mostly because of German Americans opposition to increasing "tension" with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.[1] Contrariwise, the powerful "Anglophile" tendencies of Yankee and French-Canadian Maine meant that support for aid to the United Kingdom and France in ongoing World War II turned substantial numbers of normally rock-ribbed GOP voters to Roosevelt.[2] This was the first time Kennebec County had ever voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.[3]
Results
| 1940 United States presidential election in Maine[4] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Popular vote | Electoral vote | ||||
| Count | % | Count | % | |||||
| Republican | Wendell Willkie of Indiana | Charles Linza McNary of Oregon | 163,951 | 51.10% | 5 | 100.00% | ||
| Democratic | Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York | Henry Agard Wallace of Iowa | 156,478 | 48.77% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Communist | Earl Russell Browder of Kansas | James W. Ford of New York | 411 | 0.13% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Total | 320,840 | 100.00% | 5 | 100.00% | ||||
Results by county
| County | Wendell Lewis Willkie
Republican |
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Democratic |
Earl Russell Browder
Communist |
Total votes cast[5] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Androscoggin | 10,394 | 34.99% | 19,273 | 64.88% | 40 | 0.13% | 29,707 |
| Aroostook | 13,888 | 58.34% | 9,877 | 41.49% | 39 | 0.16% | 23,804 |
| Cumberland | 29,795 | 52.47% | 26,911 | 47.39% | 76 | 0.13% | 56,782 |
| Franklin | 4,548 | 58.47% | 3,224 | 41.44% | 7 | 0.09% | 7,779 |
| Hancock | 8,539 | 66.36% | 4,315 | 33.54% | 13 | 0.10% | 12,867 |
| Kennebec | 14,877 | 48.36% | 15,861 | 51.56% | 27 | 0.09% | 30,765 |
| Knox | 6,530 | 60.76% | 4,197 | 39.05% | 20 | 0.19% | 10,747 |
| Lincoln | 5,244 | 68.42% | 2,415 | 31.51% | 5 | 0.07% | 7,664 |
| Oxford | 8,656 | 53.49% | 7,502 | 46.36% | 25 | 0.15% | 16,183 |
| Penobscot | 18,674 | 55.79% | 14,757 | 44.09% | 40 | 0.12% | 33,471 |
| Piscataquis | 3,806 | 52.05% | 3,499 | 47.85% | 7 | 0.10% | 7,312 |
| Sagadahoc | 3,504 | 43.30% | 4,575 | 56.54% | 13 | 0.16% | 8,092 |
| Somerset | 7,526 | 53.42% | 6,534 | 46.38% | 28 | 0.20% | 14,088 |
| Waldo | 5,170 | 61.56% | 3,214 | 38.27% | 14 | 0.17% | 8,398 |
| Washington | 6,253 | 43.65% | 8,048 | 56.18% | 25 | 0.17% | 14,326 |
| York | 16,547 | 42.59% | 22,276 | 57.33% | 32 | 0.08% | 38,855 |
| Totals | 163,951 | 51.10% | 156,478 | 48.77% | 411 | 0.13% | 320,840 |
References
- Dunn, Susan; 1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler–the Election Amid the Storm, p. 107 ISBN 0300190867
- Phillips, Kevin; The Emerging Republican Majority; p. 93 ISBN 1400852293
- Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 68 ISBN 0786422173
- "1940 Presidential General Election Results – Maine". U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
- Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; p. 203 ISBN 0405077114
