1928 United States presidential election in Virginia

The 1928 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 6, 1928. Voters chose 12 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1928 United States presidential election in Virginia

November 6, 1928
 
Nominee Herbert Hoover Al Smith
Party Republican Democratic
Home state California New York
Running mate Charles Curtis Joseph T. Robinson
Electoral vote 12 0
Popular vote 164,609 140,146
Percentage 53.91% 45.90%

County Results

President before election

Calvin Coolidge
Republican

Elected President

Herbert Hoover
Republican

Like all former Confederate States, early twentieth-century Virginia almost completely disenfranchised its black and poor white populations through the use of a cumulative poll tax and literacy tests.[1] So severe was the disenfranchising effect of the new 1902 Constitution that it has been calculated that a third of the electorate during the first half of the twentieth century comprised state employees and officeholders.[1]

This limited electorate meant Virginian politics was controlled by political machines based in Southside Virginia — the 1920 would see the building of the Byrd Organization which would control the state’s politics until the Voting Rights Act. Progressive “antiorganization” factions were rendered impotent by the inability of almost all their potential electorate to vote.[2] Unlike the Deep South, historical fusion with the “Readjuster” Democrats,[3] defection over free silver of substantial proportions of the Northeast-aligned white electorate of the Shenandoah Valley and Southwest Virginia,[4] and an early move towards a “lily white” Jim Crow party[3] meant that in general elections the Republicans retained around one-third of the small statewide electorate,[5] with the majority of GOP support located in the western part of the state. However — like in Tennessee during the same era — the parties avoided competition in many areas by an agreed division over local offices.[2]

Virginia was less affected than Oklahoma, Tennessee or North Carolina by the upheavals of World War I and the Nineteenth Amendment, although there was an unsuccessful challenge to lily-white control of the state’s Republican Party in 1921.[3] During the 1920 and 1924 national Republican landslides, the party did not equal its performances during the first four “System of 1896” presidential elections. Additionally, in 1927 an effort to reduce the cumulative property of the state’s poll tax from three years to two was defeated in committee.[6]

At the beginning of the campaign, prohibitionist Reverend David Hepburn, Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League of Virginia, predicted a bolt by Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina due to the religion and Prohibition issues.[7] Governor Byrd would ultimately endorse Smith in August,[8] but the first poll taken in the second week of October had Hoover ahead of Smith by about seven percent.[9] However, around the time of Smith‘s tour of the state in the middle of the month, when he alleged strong links between the state Republicans and the Ku Klux Klan, other pundits said Smith was sure of carrying Virginia.[10]

At the end of October, the consensus was that Smith would carry the state,[11] but Hoover ultimately gained 53.91 percent of Virginia’s vote. This was only the second occasion when Virginia voted for a Republican president, the first being in 1872 during the Reconstruction era. As in all of the former Confederacy, Hoover gained most in the strongly white counties least concerned with black political power,[12] although in the Tidewater and Virginia Peninsula a number of majority-black counties swung unusually strongly against Smith – Charles City County, indeed, gave Hoover two-third of its ballots. Unlike Florida, Texas, or Alabama, Virginia’s swing to the Republicans also saw the GOP gain three House of Representatives seats, including the home district of Byrd.[8]

Results

1928 United States presidential election in Virginia[13]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican Herbert Hoover 164,609 53.91% 12
Democratic Al Smith 140,146 45.90% 0
Socialist Norman Thomas 250 0.08% 0
Socialist Labor Verne L. Reynolds 180 0.06% 0
Workers William Z. Foster 173 0.06% 0
Totals 305,358 100.00% 12

Results by county

1928 United States presidential election in Virginia by counties and independent cities
Herbert Clark Hoover
Republican
Alfred Emmanuel Smith
Democratic
Various candidates
Other parties
Margin Total votes cast[14]
#  % #  % #  % #  %
Accomack County 1,367 42.79% 1,826 57.15% 2 0.06% -459 -14.37% 3,195
Albemarle County 846 34.97% 1,571 64.94% 2 0.08% -725 -29.97% 2,419
Alleghany County 1,642 72.53% 622 27.47% 0 0.00% 1,020 45.05% 2,264
Amelia County 277 35.70% 498 64.18% 1 0.13% -221 -28.48% 776
Amherst County 447 23.53% 1,442 75.89% 11 0.58% -995 -52.37% 1,900
Appomattox County 446 33.43% 885 66.34% 3 0.22% -439 -32.91% 1,334
Arlington County 4,274 74.41% 1,444 25.14% 26 0.45% 2,830 49.27% 5,744
Augusta County 2,679 63.82% 1,507 35.90% 12 0.29% 1,172 27.92% 4,198
Bath County 731 63.90% 409 35.75% 4 0.35% 322 28.15% 1,144
Bedford County 1,118 43.64% 1,436 56.05% 8 0.31% -318 -12.41% 2,562
Bland County 826 58.92% 575 41.01% 1 0.07% 251 17.90% 1,402
Botetourt County 1,575 56.70% 1,200 43.20% 3 0.11% 375 13.50% 2,778
Brunswick County 245 20.98% 922 78.94% 1 0.09% -677 -57.96% 1,168
Buchanan County 1,333 49.24% 1,365 50.42% 9 0.33% -32 -1.18% 2,707
Buckingham County 579 49.15% 599 50.85% 0 0.00% -20 -1.70% 1,178
Campbell County 801 45.10% 967 54.45% 8 0.45% -166 -9.35% 1,776
Caroline County 638 49.84% 639 49.92% 3 0.23% -1 -0.08% 1,280
Carroll County 2,459 68.51% 1,117 31.12% 13 0.36% 1,342 37.39% 3,589
Charles City County 207 66.35% 105 33.65% 0 0.00% 102 32.69% 312
Charlotte County 403 26.58% 1,112 73.35% 1 0.07% -709 -46.77% 1,516
Chesterfield County 1,325 54.89% 1,082 44.82% 7 0.29% 243 10.07% 2,414
Clarke County 248 25.08% 740 74.82% 1 0.10% -492 -49.75% 989
Craig County 451 47.88% 489 51.91% 2 0.21% -38 -4.03% 942
Culpeper County 753 47.36% 836 52.58% 1 0.06% -83 -5.22% 1,590
Cumberland County 213 32.32% 442 67.07% 4 0.61% -229 -34.75% 659
Dickenson County 1,868 49.76% 1,879 50.05% 7 0.19% -11 -0.29% 3,754
Dinwiddie County 332 25.94% 945 73.83% 3 0.23% -613 -47.89% 1,280
Elizabeth City County 1,122 57.78% 807 41.56% 13 0.67% 315 16.22% 1,942
Essex County 195 37.79% 321 62.21% 0 0.00% -126 -24.42% 516
Fairfax County 2,507 66.98% 1,229 32.83% 7 0.19% 1,278 34.14% 3,743
Fauquier County 972 38.79% 1,531 61.09% 3 0.12% -559 -22.31% 2,506
Floyd County 1,481 77.34% 433 22.61% 1 0.05% 1,048 54.73% 1,915
Fluvanna County 327 42.03% 447 57.46% 4 0.51% -120 -15.42% 778
Franklin County 1,529 45.05% 1,861 54.83% 4 0.12% -332 -9.78% 3,394
Frederick County 1,006 46.77% 1,140 53.00% 5 0.23% -134 -6.23% 2,151
Giles County 1,313 50.23% 1,293 49.46% 8 0.31% 20 0.77% 2,614
Gloucester County 614 51.12% 587 48.88% 0 0.00% 27 2.25% 1,201
Goochland County 318 42.18% 431 57.16% 5 0.66% -113 -14.99% 754
Grayson County 2,728 61.25% 1,713 38.46% 13 0.29% 1,015 22.79% 4,454
Greene County 423 61.93% 259 37.92% 1 0.15% 164 24.01% 683
Greensville County 318 37.90% 519 61.86% 2 0.24% -201 -23.96% 839
Halifax County 1,091 28.37% 2,742 71.31% 12 0.31% -1,651 -42.94% 3,845
Hanover County 592 41.60% 831 58.40% 0 0.00% -239 -16.80% 1,423
Henrico County 1,887 57.87% 1,349 41.37% 25 0.77% 538 16.50% 3,261
Henry County 1,139 47.28% 1,267 52.59% 3 0.12% -128 -5.31% 2,409
Highland County 623 62.36% 371 37.14% 5 0.50% 252 25.23% 999
Isle of Wight County 555 51.10% 531 48.90% 0 0.00% 24 2.21% 1,086
James City County 204 50.12% 201 49.39% 2 0.49% 3 0.74% 407
King and Queen County 319 52.90% 280 46.43% 4 0.66% 39 6.47% 603
King George County 413 57.04% 309 42.68% 2 0.28% 104 14.36% 724
King William County 329 43.06% 431 56.41% 4 0.52% -102 -13.35% 764
Lancaster County 520 62.28% 315 37.72% 0 0.00% 205 24.55% 835
Lee County 3,337 58.23% 2,383 41.58% 11 0.19% 954 16.65% 5,731
Loudoun County 1,325 40.84% 1,915 59.03% 4 0.12% -590 -18.19% 3,244
Louisa County 772 51.23% 734 48.71% 1 0.07% 38 2.52% 1,507
Lunenburg County 314 20.75% 1,199 79.25% 0 0.00% -885 -58.49% 1,513
Madison County 772 56.97% 580 42.80% 3 0.22% 192 14.17% 1,355
Mathews County 855 66.43% 431 33.49% 1 0.08% 424 32.94% 1,287
Mecklenburg County 784 30.90% 1,752 69.06% 1 0.04% -968 -38.16% 2,537
Middlesex County 318 44.35% 397 55.37% 2 0.28% -79 -11.02% 717
Montgomery County 1,861 65.64% 967 34.11% 7 0.25% 894 31.53% 2,835
Nansemond County 649 46.79% 737 53.14% 1 0.07% -88 -6.34% 1,387
Nelson County 618 33.68% 1,216 66.27% 1 0.05% -598 -32.59% 1,835
New Kent County 217 54.66% 178 44.84% 2 0.50% 39 9.82% 397
Norfolk County 1,922 57.39% 1,418 42.34% 9 0.27% 504 15.05% 3,349
Northampton County 688 42.39% 935 57.61% 0 0.00% -247 -15.22% 1,623
Northumberland County 744 72.09% 286 27.71% 2 0.19% 458 44.38% 1,032
Nottoway County 667 40.33% 986 59.61% 1 0.06% -319 -19.29% 1,654
Orange County 732 46.39% 846 53.61% 0 0.00% -114 -7.22% 1,578
Page County 1,580 60.65% 1,025 39.35% 0 0.00% 555 21.31% 2,605
Patrick County 1,191 57.26% 883 42.45% 6 0.29% 308 14.81% 2,080
Pittsylvania County 2,598 60.52% 1,688 39.32% 7 0.16% 910 21.20% 4,293
Powhatan County 189 39.71% 287 60.29% 0 0.00% -98 -20.59% 476
Prince Edward County 494 41.24% 699 58.35% 5 0.42% -205 -17.11% 1,198
Prince George County 235 35.34% 428 64.36% 2 0.30% -193 -29.02% 665
Prince William County 817 49.73% 826 50.27% 0 0.00% -9 -0.55% 1,643
Princess Anne County 1,040 55.23% 841 44.66% 2 0.11% 199 10.57% 1,883
Pulaski County 1,998 52.32% 1,821 47.68% 0 0.00% 177 4.63% 3,819
Rappahannock County 329 39.07% 513 60.93% 0 0.00% -184 -21.85% 842
Richmond County 467 61.53% 292 38.47% 0 0.00% 175 23.06% 759
Roanoke County 2,675 67.53% 1,284 32.42% 2 0.05% 1,391 35.12% 3,961
Rockbridge County 1,206 47.78% 1,311 51.94% 7 0.28% -105 -4.16% 2,524
Rockingham County 3,822 73.06% 1,402 26.80% 7 0.13% 2,420 46.26% 5,231
Russell County 2,006 44.38% 2,511 55.55% 3 0.07% -505 -11.17% 4,520
Scott County 2,916 55.28% 2,355 44.64% 4 0.08% 561 10.64% 5,275
Shenandoah County 3,420 68.01% 1,589 31.60% 20 0.40% 1,831 36.41% 5,029
Smyth County 2,751 58.53% 1,937 41.21% 12 0.26% 814 17.32% 4,700
Southampton County 648 43.40% 844 56.53% 1 0.07% -196 -13.13% 1,493
Spotsylvania County 654 59.78% 439 40.13% 1 0.09% 215 19.65% 1,094
Stafford County 797 64.27% 441 35.56% 2 0.16% 356 28.71% 1,240
Surry County 157 22.43% 541 77.29% 2 0.29% -384 -54.86% 700
Sussex County 385 41.31% 547 58.69% 0 0.00% -162 -17.38% 932
Tazewell County 3,072 60.65% 1,979 39.07% 14 0.28% 1,093 21.58% 5,065
Warren County 564 44.20% 710 55.64% 2 0.16% -146 -11.44% 1,276
Warwick County 465 60.78% 298 38.95% 2 0.26% 167 21.83% 765
Washington County 3,449 56.25% 2,666 43.48% 17 0.28% 783 12.77% 6,132
Westmoreland County 554 58.50% 393 41.50% 0 0.00% 161 17.00% 947
Wise County 4,504 49.63% 4,559 50.24% 12 0.13% -55 -0.61% 9,075
Wythe County 2,540 62.56% 1,516 37.34% 4 0.10% 1,024 25.22% 4,060
York County 642 76.70% 194 23.18% 1 0.12% 448 53.52% 837
Alexandria City 1,617 55.26% 1,307 44.67% 2 0.07% 310 10.59% 2,926
Bristol City 630 40.49% 922 59.25% 4 0.26% -292 -18.77% 1,556
Buena Vista City 267 60.68% 172 39.09% 1 0.23% 95 21.59% 440
Charlottesville City 708 41.57% 992 58.25% 3 0.18% -284 -16.68% 1,703
Clifton Forge City 781 56.92% 591 43.08% 0 0.00% 190 13.85% 1,372
Danville City 2,360 66.27% 1,196 33.59% 5 0.14% 1,164 32.69% 3,561
Fredericksburg City 697 53.91% 594 45.94% 2 0.15% 103 7.97% 1,293
Hampton City 544 46.90% 615 53.02% 1 0.09% -71 -6.12% 1,160
Harrisonburg City 1,037 62.66% 616 37.22% 2 0.12% 421 25.44% 1,655
Hopewell City 505 51.11% 482 48.79% 1 0.10% 23 2.33% 988
Lynchburg City 2,730 57.88% 1,987 42.12% 0 0.00% 743 15.75% 4,717
Newport News City 3,118 61.34% 1,951 38.38% 14 0.28% 1,167 22.96% 5,083
Norfolk City 8,392 58.65% 5,888 41.15% 29 0.20% 2,504 17.50% 14,309
Petersburg City 909 39.69% 1,379 60.22% 2 0.09% -470 -20.52% 2,290
Portsmouth City 3,474 57.04% 2,587 42.48% 29 0.48% 887 14.56% 6,090
Radford City 524 58.29% 373 41.49% 2 0.22% 151 16.80% 899
Richmond City 10,767 51.20% 10,213 48.57% 49 0.23% 554 2.63% 21,029
Roanoke City 6,471 61.62% 4,018 38.26% 12 0.11% 2,453 23.36% 10,501
South Norfolk City 865 84.56% 158 15.44% 0 0.00% 707 69.11% 1,023
Staunton City 1,026 58.13% 733 41.53% 6 0.34% 293 16.60% 1,765
Suffolk City 573 47.28% 637 52.56% 2 0.17% -64 -5.28% 1,212
Williamsburg City 98 24.02% 310 75.98% 0 0.00% -212 -51.96% 408
Winchester City 1,168 59.35% 794 40.35% 6 0.30% 374 19.00% 1,968
Totals164,60953.91%140,14645.89%6090.20%24,4638.01%305,364

Analysis

With all other prominent Democrats sitting the election out,[15] the party nominated Alfred E. Smith, four-term Governor of New York as its nominee for 1928, with little opposition. Smith had been the favorite for the 1924 nomination, but had lost due to opposition to his Catholic faith and "wet" views on Prohibition: he wished to repeal or modify the Volstead Act.

In Virginia — which had had little to no experience of the Catholic immigrants from southern and eastern Europe who were Smith's local constituency – Methodist Episcopal Bishop James Cannon junior, a former ally of Senator Thomas S. Martin, immediately turned sharply against Smith.[16] In 1925, a Catholic, John M. Purcell, who had served a long and loyal apprenticeship in the state party, was nominated by the Democratic Party for state treasurer and won the general election by fewer than twenty-six thousand votes whilst Harry F. Byrd was winning the governorship by almost seventy thousand.[16]

Many prohibitionists in Virginia quickly felt that it would be preferable to vote for the dry Republican nominee, former United States Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, over the wet Catholic Democrat Smith.[17] Senator Claude A. Swanson was the first major state politician to oppose Smith, announcing his opposition on June 22.[18] However, most major newspapers, such as the Staunton News-Leader and Daily-News, Lynchburg News, Winchester Evening-Star and The Free-Lance Star, would endorse Smith from early in the campaign.[18]

Despite Smith’s attempt to mollify the South by nominating dry Southern Democrat and Arkansas Senator Joseph Taylor Robinson as his running mate early in July, Cannon would step up his campaign against Smith during that month via a widely publicised speech in Asheville.[19] At the beginning of the campaign, however, the Republican National Convention largely wrote off Virginia and campaigned elsewhere in the former Confederacy; however, former Ninth District Congressman Campbell Bascom Slemp thought Hoover had a chance and worked strenuously to build support in the state.[20]

References

  1. Kousser, J. Morgan. The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910. Yale University Press. pp. 178–181. ISBN 0-300-01696-4.
  2. Key, Valdimer Orlando (1949). Southern Politics in State and Nation. pp. 20–25.
  3. Heersink, Boris; Jenkins, Jeffrey A. Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968. pp. 217–221. ISBN 1107158435.
  4. Moger, Allen. "The Rift in Virginia Democracy in 1896". The Journal of Southern History. 4 (3): 295–317.
  5. Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 210, 242 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6
  6. Jaffe, Louis I. (July 1927). "The Democracy and Al Smith". The Virginia Quarterly Review. University of Virginia. 3 (3): 321–341.
  7. Bonney; The election of 1928 in Virginia (Thesis). p. 39
  8. Hawkes (junior), Robert T. (July 1974). "The Emergence of a Leader: Harry Flood Byrd, Governor of Virginia, 1926-1930". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 82 (3): 259–281.
  9. "Smith Cuts Down Hoover's Lead in Magazine Poll: With Nearly 2,000,000 Ballots in New York, Governor Reduces Hoover's Lead to 63%". Shreveport Journal. Shreveport, Louisiana. October 13, 1928. p. 11.
  10. "Klan Tie-Up Laid to G.O.P. Chairman: Virginia Incident Regarded as Rebounding to the Benefit of Smith". The Evening Star. Washington, D.C. October 14, 1928. p. 24.
  11. "Week In Politics: Summary of National Developments Based on Reports of the Star's Correspondence and Staff Writers". The Evening Star. Washington, D.C. October 28, 1928. p. 25.
  12. Key junior, Valdimer Orlando. Southern Politics in State and Nation. pp. 323–324. ISBN 087049435X.
  13. "Statistics of the Congressional and Presidential election of November 6, 1928" (PDF). Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives. p. 33.
  14. Robinson, Edgar Eugene; The Presidential Vote 1896-1932, pp. 354-361 ISBN 9780804716963
  15. Warren, Kenneth F. Encyclopedia of U.S. campaigns, elections, and electoral behavior: A-M, Volume 1. p. 620. ISBN 1412954894.
  16. Sweeney, James R. (October 1982). "Rum, Romanism, and Virginia Democrats: The Party Leaders and the Campaign of 1928". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 90 (4): 403–431.
  17. Bonney, Hal James (July 1, 1953). The election of 1928 in Virginia (Thesis). University of Richmond. pp. 27–28. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
  18. Bonney; The election of 1928 in Virginia (Thesis). p. 36
  19. Bauman, Mark K. (Winter 1977–78). "Prohibition and Politics: Warren Candler and Al Smith's 1928 Campaign". The Mississippi Quarterly. 31 (1): 109–117.
  20. Heersink and Jenkins; Republican Party Politics and the American South; p. 223
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