1948 United States presidential election in Idaho

The 1948 United States presidential election in Idaho took place on November 2, 1948, as part of the 1948 United States presidential election. State voters chose four[2] representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Main article: 1948 United States presidential election

1948 United States presidential election in Idaho

November 2, 1948[1]
All 4 Idaho votes to the Electoral College
Nominee Harry S. Truman Thomas Dewey Party Democratic Republican Home state Missouri New York Running mate Alben W. Barkley Earl Warren Electoral vote 4 0 Popular vote 107,370 101,514 Percentage 49.9% 47.3%
County Results Truman   40-50%   50-60%   60-70% Dewey   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%
President before election Harry S. Truman Democratic Elected President Harry S. Truman Democratic

In his four election campaigns, Franklin D. Roosevelt had carried Idaho each time, though by steadily decreasing margins. After beating Alf Landon by 29.77 percentage points in 1936, Wendell Willkie lost by only 9.05 percentage points in 1940 and Dewey by only 3.49 percentage points in 1944. However, Oregon Senator Wayne Morse said that Dewey would fail to maintain these gains in the West if Bureau of Reclamation programs were cut as demanded by the House Appropriations Committee.[3] Truman campaigned heavily in the West, including Idaho, arguing that the region was an economic colony of Wall Street under the GOP and that only the Democratic Party could give the West direct access to its natural resources.[4] Whilst in Pocatello, Truman also defended himself against charges of corruption by machine politics from his days in Kansas City.[5]

Vote

Idaho was won by incumbent President Harry S. Truman (D–Missouri), running with Senator Alben W. Barkley, with 49.98% of the popular vote, against Governor Thomas Dewey (R–New York), running with Governor Earl Warren, with 47.26% of the popular vote.[6][7]

This election marks the last before Idaho would turn from a swing state into a Republican Party bastion, which was to be inaugurated with a large-scale landslide in the 1950 state elections.[8] The solitary subsequent Democrat to carry Idaho has been Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and he did so by only 1.83 percentage points in a huge national landslide, whilst only John F. Kennedy has otherwise passed forty percent of the statewide vote in the subsequent seventeen elections. This is the last election in which the southeastern Mormon counties of Bonneville, Bingham, Jefferson, Madison, Minidoka and Oneida voted for a Democratic presidential candidate,[9] and like several analogous counties in the Texas Panhandle,[lower-alpha 1] these counties have frequently battled for the title of "most Republican in the nation" since the 1970s.

Results

1948 United States presidential election in Idaho

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Harry S. Truman (inc.)	107,370	49.98%
	Republican	Thomas Dewey	101,514	47.26%
	Progressive	Henry A. Wallace	4,972	2.31%
	Prohibition	Claude A. Watson	628	0.29%
	Socialist	Norman Thomas	332	0.15%
Total votes			214,816	100.00%

Results by county

County	Harry S. Truman Democratic		Thomas Edmund Dewey Republican		Henry Agard Wallace[10] Progressive		Claude A. Watson[11] Prohibition		Norman Mattoon Thomas[11] Socialist		Margin		Total votes cast[12]
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Ada	11,253	42.14%	14,972	56.06%	389	1.46%	48	0.18%	43	0.16%	-3,719	-13.93%	26,705
Adams	647	50.78%	603	47.33%	19	1.49%	4	0.31%	1	0.08%	44	3.45%	1,274
Bannock	9,679	62.20%	5,580	35.86%	289	1.86%	4	0.03%	8	0.05%	4,099	26.34%	15,560
Bear Lake	1,664	50.73%	1,590	48.48%	25	0.76%	1	0.03%	0	0.00%	74	2.26%	3,280
Benewah	1,590	58.22%	1,038	38.01%	85	3.11%	11	0.40%	7	0.26%	552	20.21%	2,731
Bingham	3,197	49.58%	3,162	49.04%	84	1.30%	5	0.08%	0	0.00%	35	0.54%	6,448
Blaine	1,182	54.67%	945	43.71%	34	1.57%	1	0.05%	0	0.00%	237	10.96%	2,162
Boise	479	50.96%	437	46.49%	24	2.55%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	42	4.47%	940
Bonner	2,916	49.70%	2,666	45.44%	268	4.57%	8	0.14%	9	0.15%	250	4.26%	5,867
Bonneville	5,382	53.81%	4,499	44.99%	100	1.00%	3	0.03%	17	0.17%	883	8.83%	10,001
Boundary	1,029	49.02%	910	43.35%	142	6.77%	2	0.10%	16	0.76%	119	5.67%	2,099
Butte	426	50.35%	412	48.70%	8	0.95%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	14	1.65%	846
Camas	278	48.35%	289	50.26%	8	1.39%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	-11	-1.91%	575
Canyon	7,903	43.04%	9,700	52.82%	389	2.12%	323	1.76%	43	0.23%	-1,797	-9.79%	18,363
Caribou	475	51.08%	447	48.06%	7	0.75%	1	0.11%	0	0.00%	28	3.01%	930
Cassia	2,178	46.63%	2,424	51.89%	63	1.35%	3	0.06%	3	0.06%	-246	-5.27%	4,671
Clark	165	38.19%	262	60.65%	4	0.93%	1	0.23%	0	0.00%	-97	-22.45%	432
Clearwater	1,571	61.63%	820	32.17%	132	5.18%	20	0.78%	6	0.24%	751	29.46%	2,549
Custer	625	49.72%	612	48.69%	16	1.27%	4	0.32%	0	0.00%	13	1.03%	1,257
Elmore	1,589	63.48%	854	34.12%	51	2.04%	5	0.20%	4	0.16%	735	29.36%	2,503
Franklin	1,763	46.24%	2,028	53.19%	21	0.55%	1	0.03%	0	0.00%	-265	-6.95%	3,813
Fremont	2,014	52.85%	1,777	46.63%	16	0.42%	4	0.10%	0	0.00%	237	6.22%	3,811
Gem	1,724	50.32%	1,585	46.26%	85	2.48%	29	0.85%	3	0.09%	139	4.06%	3,426
Gooding	1,844	45.93%	2,111	52.58%	51	1.27%	6	0.15%	3	0.07%	-267	-6.65%	4,015
Idaho	2,300	54.53%	1,790	42.44%	117	2.77%	7	0.17%	4	0.09%	510	12.09%	4,218
Jefferson	2,017	56.53%	1,490	41.76%	56	1.57%	5	0.14%	0	0.00%	527	14.77%	3,568
Jerome	2,124	49.34%	2,128	49.43%	48	1.11%	2	0.05%	3	0.07%	-4	-0.09%	4,305
Kootenai	5,284	51.49%	4,265	41.56%	668	6.51%	13	0.13%	32	0.31%	1,019	9.93%	10,262
Latah	3,810	48.30%	3,805	48.23%	225	2.85%	31	0.39%	18	0.23%	5	0.06%	7,889
Lemhi	864	44.58%	1,037	53.51%	36	1.86%	1	0.05%	0	0.00%	-173	-8.93%	1,938
Lewis	1,224	69.43%	487	27.62%	46	2.61%	3	0.17%	3	0.17%	737	41.80%	1,763
Lincoln	748	46.26%	851	52.63%	18	1.11%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	-103	-6.37%	1,617
Madison	2,024	55.50%	1,602	43.93%	21	0.58%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	422	11.57%	3,647
Minidoka	1,668	48.60%	1,654	48.19%	101	2.94%	4	0.12%	5	0.15%	14	0.41%	3,432
Nez Perce	5,747	61.65%	3,168	33.98%	357	3.83%	27	0.29%	23	0.25%	2,579	27.67%	9,322
Oneida	1,008	50.86%	962	48.54%	10	0.50%	2	0.10%	0	0.00%	46	2.32%	1,982
Owyhee	925	47.75%	969	50.03%	32	1.65%	9	0.46%	2	0.10%	-44	-2.27%	1,937
Payette	1,568	38.42%	2,430	59.54%	58	1.42%	16	0.39%	9	0.22%	-862	-21.12%	4,081
Power	795	47.29%	875	52.05%	7	0.42%	4	0.24%	0	0.00%	-80	-4.76%	1,681
Shoshone	4,472	54.13%	3,200	38.74%	569	6.89%	8	0.10%	12	0.15%	1,272	15.40%	8,261
Teton	672	52.83%	593	46.62%	4	0.31%	1	0.08%	2	0.16%	79	6.21%	1,272
Twin Falls	6,019	42.81%	7,833	55.71%	172	1.22%	21	0.15%	16	0.11%	-1,814	-12.90%	14,061
Valley	828	44.98%	939	51.00%	65	3.53%	3	0.16%	6	0.33%	-111	-6.03%	1,841
Washington	1,700	48.84%	1,713	49.21%	52	1.49%	10	0.29%	6	0.17%	-13	-0.37%	3,481
Totals	107,370	49.98%	101,514	47.26%	4,972	2.31%	628	0.29%	332	0.15%	5,856	2.73%	214,816

Notes

1. Texas Panhandle counties last voting Democrat in 1948 and frequently on Republican “Top 10” lists since 1968 include Gray, Hansford, Hutchinson, Lipscomb, Ochiltree and Roberts.

References

1. "United States Presidential election of 1948 - Encyclopædia Britannica". Retrieved October 25, 2017.
2. "1948 Election for the Forty-First Term (1949-53)". Retrieved October 25, 2017.
3. Donaldson, Gary; Truman Defeats Dewey; p. 43 ISBN 081312851X
4. Truman, Harry S.; Miracle of '48: Harry Truman's Major Campaign Speeches & Selected Whistle-stops; pp. 86-89 ISBN 0809325578
5. Goldzwig, Steven R.; Truman's Whistle-stop Campaign, pp. 26-27 ISBN 1603440062
6. "1948 Presidential General Election Results - Idaho". Retrieved October 25, 2017.
7. "The American Presidency Project - Election of 1948". Retrieved October 25, 2017.
8. Weatherby, James B. and Stapilus, Randy; Governing Idaho: Politics, People and Power, p. 44 ISBN 0870045210
9. Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
10. Géoelections; Popular Vote for Henry Wallace (.xlsx file for €15)
11. Our Campaigns; ID US President November 02, 1948
12. Géoelections; 1948 Presidential Election Popular Vote (.xlsx file for €15)