1948 United States presidential election in Florida

The 1948 United States presidential election in Florida was held on November 2, 1948. Voters chose eight electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Harry Truman won by 87,708 votes or 15.19 percentage points over his Republican opponent Thomas E. Dewey. In culturally Deep Southern North Florida, including the rural and socially conservative Panhandle, Truman was able to rely on having a strong economic program – which Thurmond entirely lacked – to hold off Thurmond's racial appeal.^[1] In more cosmopolitan and liberal Central and South Florida – which had seen extensive settlement by Northerners since the war – his economic policies were a winner against Henry Wallace, who received only two percent of the state's vote but did an order of magnitude better in some Tampa precincts.^[2]

Dewey nonetheless made dramatic gains upon previous Republican efforts in Florida. By carrying eleven counties, all of which were located in Central and South Florida, mostly in the southwest and on the east coast, he was only the fifth Republican to carry any Florida county at the presidential level since the poll tax' original implementation following the 1888 election.^[3]^[a] The Dewey counties had in earlier Democratic primaries typically backed "conservative" candidates favoring limited or no economic regulation,^[1] due to their lack of dependence on the traditionally "Southern" crops of cotton and tobacco, and would become the most consistently conservative and Republican counties in future presidential elections. Strom Thurmond, who had had to run as a third-party candidate under the "States' Rights" banner, nonetheless won over fifteen percent of the vote. Thurmond carried three counties but ran second in thirty-one others.

This is the last time, as of the 2020 presidential election^[update], that Florida was won by a Democratic presidential candidate by double digits; not even Lyndon B. Johnson in his 1964 landslide election nor Jimmy Carter in 1976 managed to win the state by double digits, despite both men being Southern Democrats. Republicans have won Florida by double digits in six subsequent elections.

This election is also the last time Highlands County have ever voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.^[4] Osceola County, which Truman won by two votes, would not vote Democratic again until 1996.^[3] Seminole County would not vote Democratic again until 2020. As of 2023, this is the most recent time that Florida voted to the left of Delaware.

16% of white voters supported Thurmond.^[5]

^ ^a ^b Doherty, Herbert J. (junior); 'Liberal and Conservative Politics in Florida'; The Journal of Politics, vol. 14, no. 3 (August 1952), pp. 403-417
^ Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, p. 75
^ ^a ^b Cite error: The named reference Geography was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
^ Black & Black 1992, p. 147.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

[Liberal-1] Doherty, Herbert J. (junior); 'Liberal and Conservative Politics in Florida'; The Journal of Politics, vol. 14, no. 3 (August 1952), pp. 403-417

[2] Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, p. 75

[Geography-3] Cite error: The named reference Geography was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[5] Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016

[FOOTNOTEBlackBlack1992147-6] Black & Black 1992, p. 147.

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