UNITED STATES PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 1956

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.

Contents

Nominations

Republican Party Nomination

Democratic Party Nomination

General election

Campaign

Results

See also

Miscellanea

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

Navigation

Nominations

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 running mate such as Governor of Massachusetts Christian Herter, 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.

Democratic Party Nomination

Adlai Stevenson II, the Democratic Party's 1952 nominee, fought a tight primary battle with populist Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver for the 1956 nomination. Although Stevenson was heavily favored, Kefauver upset Stevenson in the New Hampshire primary, and then defeated Stevenson in the Minnesota primary. Realizing that he was in trouble, Stevenson campaigned hard in the Florida primary and narrowly defeated Kefauver. By this point Kefauver's campaign was low on money, and as a result he was unable to effectively compete with the well-funded Stevenson in the California primary. Stevenson easily defeated Kefauver in California, which led Kefauver to withdraw from the race.
At the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, New York Governor Averell Harriman, who was backed by former President Harry Truman, attempted to challenge 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

The highlight of the convention came when Stevenson, in an effort to create excitement for the ticket, announced that the convention's delegates would choose his running mate. This set off a desperate scramble among several candidates to win the nomination. 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 is recorded in the following table, which also comes from Bain & Parris.

Vice Presidential Balloting, DNC 1956
Contender: Ballot	1	2 before shifts	2 after shifts
Estes Kefauver	466.5	551.5	755.5
John F. Kennedy	294.5	618	589
Albert Gore, Sr.	178	110.5	13.5
Robert F. Wagner, Jr.	162.5	9.5	6
Hubert Humphrey	134	74.5	2
Luther Hodges	40	0.5	0
P.T. Maner	33	0	0
Scattering	60.5	1	6

General election

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 widespread 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, he was the first Republican presidential candidate to carry the state since Reconstruction in 1876.

Results

'Source (Popular Vote):'
'Source (Electoral Vote):'
^(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.

See also

★ President of the United States

★ U.S. Senate election, 1956

★ History of the United States (1945-1964)

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, the most Democratic riding in the state).

★ 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, and to Clinton in the same election in Utah, where Bush won and Perot came in second.

★ 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, 1892, and 1900.)

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

Notes

References

★ 1956 Presidential Election - Home States

★ Electoral Votes for President and Vice President 1953–1965

★ Senate Manual, 107th Congress, , , , United States Government Printing Office, 2001,

★ General Election Returns: November 6, 1956, , , , Maryland Manual, 1957–58

★ Republican Party National Convention. (26th : 1956 : San Francisco)

Further reading

★ The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935–1971, , , , Random House, 1972,

★ Foreign Policy and U.S. Presidential Elections, 1952–1960, , Robert A., Divine, , 1974,

External links

★ 1956 popular vote by counties

★ The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials: 1952 – 2004

Navigation