United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 1940

United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 1940
Massachusetts
November 5, 1940

 
Nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt Wendell Willkie
Party Democratic Republican
Home state New York Indiana
Running mate Henry A. Wallace Charles L. McNary
Electoral vote 17 0
Popular vote 1,076,522 939,700
Percentage 53.11% 46.36%

County Results
  Roosevelt—60-70%
  Roosevelt—50-60%
  Willkie—50-60%
  Willkie—60-70%

President before election

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic

Elected President

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic

The 1940 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 5, 1940, as part of the 1940 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all contemporary 48 states. Voters chose 17 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.

Massachusetts voted for the Democratic nominee, incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York, over the Republican nominee, corporate lawyer Wendell Willkie of Indiana. Roosevelt ran with Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace of Iowa, while Willkie's running mate was Senate Minority Leader Charles L. McNary of Oregon.

Roosevelt carried the state with 53.11% of the vote to Willkie's 46.36%, a Democratic victory margin of 6.75%.

As Roosevelt was re-elected nationally to an unprecedented third term, Massachusetts weighed in as about 3% more Republican than the national average.

Once a typical Yankee Republican bastion in the wake of the Civil War, Massachusetts had been a Democratic-leaning state since 1928, when a coalition of Irish Catholic and other ethnic immigrant voters primarily based in urban areas turned Massachusetts and neighboring Rhode Island into New England's only reliably Democratic states. Massachusetts voted for Al Smith in 1928, and for Franklin Roosevelt in his national Democratic landslides of 1932 and 1936. Roosevelt's 1940 victory thus marked the fourth straight win for the Democratic Party in Massachusetts, a state that had voted Democratic only once in its history prior to this series of consecutive Democratic wins.

Roosevelt and Willkie would split the state's fourteen counties, winning 7 counties each. However Roosevelt won the most heavily populated parts of the state including the cities of Boston, Worcester, and Springfield, while most of Willkie's wins were sparsely populated counties.

Results

United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 1940[1]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Franklin D. Roosevelt 1,076,522 53.11% 17
Republican Wendell Willkie 939,700 46.36% 0
Socialist Norman Thomas 4,091 0.20% 0
Communist Earl Browder 3,806 0.19% 0
Socialist Labor John W. Aiken 1,492 0.07% 0
Prohibition Roger Babson 1,370 0.07% 0
Write-ins Write-ins 12 0.00% 0
Totals 2,026,993 100.00% 17

References

  1. "1940 Presidential General Election Results - Massachusetts". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2013-02-07.

See also

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