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1940 United States presidential election in Nebraska

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Main article: 1940 United States presidential election
1940 United States presidential election in Nebraska
← 1936 November 5, 1940[1] 1944 →
All 7 Nebraska votes to the Electoral College
 
Nominee Wendell Willkie Franklin D. Roosevelt
Party Republican Democratic
Home state New York New York
Running mate Charles L. McNary Henry A. Wallace
Electoral vote 7 0
Popular vote 352,201 263,677
Percentage 57.19% 42.81%
County Results
President before election

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic

Elected President

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic

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The 1940 United States presidential election in Nebraska took place on November 5, 1940, as part of the 1940 United States presidential election. Voters chose seven[2] representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Nebraska was won by the Republican candidate, business man Wendell Willkie, running with Senate Minority Leader Charles L. McNary, with 57.19% of the popular vote, against incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt, running with Secretary Henry A. Wallace, with 42.81% of the popular vote.[3][4]

Though he had carried the state by over 16 points just four years earlier in 1936, Roosevelt's popularity with Nebraskans completely eroded in 1940, and with 57.19% of the popular vote, the state would prove to be Willkie's second strongest state in the 1940 election, after neighboring South Dakota. Roosevelt lost the state by almost exactly the same margin as he had carried it four years prior.[5] This constituted a Republican victory margin of 14.4%, with the results in Nebraska representing a very large 30.8% shift to the right from 1936. Nebraska weighed in as a drastic 24.3% more Republican than the nation as whole. Roosevelt became the first Democrat since Grover Cleveland in 1892 to win the presidency without carrying Nebraska.

Key to Willkie's landslide victory was his overperformance among rural farmers in Nebraska, whom Roosevelt had carried decisively in 1936. Willkie flipped 39 counties that had been reliably Democratic just 4 years earlier, those being: Banner, Blaine, Box Butte, Boyd, Burt, Chase, Cherry, Cheyenne, Cuming, Custer, Dawes, Dawson, Deuel, Dodge, Dundy, Frontier, Gosper, Grant, Harlan, Hayes, Hitchcock, Holt, Keith, Kimball, Knox, Madison, Merrick, Morrill, Pawnee, Perkins, Phelps, Pierce, Red Willow, Scotts Bluff, Sheridan, Sioux, Stanton, Thomas and Wayne.

The 1940 election would mark a turning point in Nebraska's politics; the state has voted for the Republican nominee by double digits in every election since, except for when Lyndon B. Johnson carried it by a fairly narrow margin of 5.2% amidst a national landslide victory. FDR's implosion among farmers can likely be attributed to his New Deal programs that paid farmers not to produce food and to destroy some crops, which was an attempt to cure the problem of food overproduction; the policy instead resulted in the United States needing to import food from other countries and paying more for it.[6][7] Additionally, as Roosevelt was running for his third consecutive term, many voters were warying of breaking the long-standing two term tradition.

Results

[edit]
1940 United States presidential election in Nebraska
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Wendell Willkie 352,201 57.19%
Democratic Franklin D. Roosevelt (inc.) 263,677 42.81%
Total votes 615,878 100%

Results by county

[edit]
County[8] Wendell Lewis Willkie
Republican 		Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Democratic 		Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # %
Adams 6,630 60.60% 4,311 39.40% 2,319 21.20% 10,941
Antelope 4,331 66.77% 2,155 33.23% 2,176 33.55% 6,486
Arthur 348 64.21% 194 35.79% 154 28.41% 542
Banner 450 66.57% 226 33.43% 224 33.14% 676
Blaine 454 59.35% 311 40.65% 143 18.69% 765
Boone 3,334 62.34% 2,014 37.66% 1,320 24.68% 5,348
Box Butte 2,942 57.27% 2,195 42.73% 747 14.54% 5,137
Boyd 1,734 62.13% 1,057 37.87% 677 24.26% 2,791
Brown 1,783 64.65% 975 35.35% 808 29.30% 2,758
Buffalo 6,387 61.14% 4,060 38.86% 2,327 22.27% 10,447
Burt 3,443 57.08% 2,589 42.92% 854 14.16% 6,032
Butler 2,966 47.75% 3,246 52.25% -280 -4.51% 6,212
Cass 4,704 56.46% 3,627 43.54% 1,077 12.93% 8,331
Cedar 4,397 62.67% 2,619 37.33% 1,778 25.34% 7,016
Chase 1,557 63.27% 904 36.73% 653 26.53% 2,461
Cherry 2,705 60.30% 1,781 39.70% 924 20.60% 4,486
Cheyenne 2,394 55.20% 1,943 44.80% 451 10.40% 4,337
Clay 3,576 66.98% 1,763 33.02% 1,813 33.96% 5,339
Colfax 2,587 52.28% 2,361 47.72% 226 4.57% 4,948
Cuming 4,383 73.32% 1,595 26.68% 2,788 46.64% 5,978
Custer 6,269 59.66% 4,238 40.34% 2,031 19.33% 10,507
Dakota 2,140 46.91% 2,422 53.09% -282 -6.18% 4,562
Dawes 3,184 64.26% 1,771 35.74% 1,413 28.52% 4,955
Dawson 5,445 66.02% 2,803 33.98% 2,642 32.03% 8,248
Deuel 1,156 67.17% 565 32.83% 591 34.34% 1,721
Dixon 3,038 61.37% 1,912 38.63% 1,126 22.75% 4,950
Dodge 7,141 62.51% 4,282 37.49% 2,859 25.03% 11,423
Douglas 53,325 44.38% 66,840 55.62% -13,515 -11.25% 120,165
Dundy 1,441 64.22% 803 35.78% 638 28.43% 2,244
Fillmore 3,677 65.13% 1,969 34.87% 1,708 30.25% 5,646
Franklin 2,354 63.08% 1,378 36.92% 976 26.15% 3,732
Frontier 2,069 66.08% 1,062 33.92% 1,007 32.16% 3,131
Furnas 3,316 64.85% 1,797 35.15% 1,519 29.71% 5,113
Gage 8,156 61.55% 5,096 38.45% 3,060 23.09% 13,252
Garden 1,351 64.73% 736 35.27% 615 29.47% 2,087
Garfield 1,053 66.39% 533 33.61% 520 32.79% 1,586
Gosper 1,001 61.45% 628 38.55% 373 22.90% 1,629
Grant 423 63.51% 243 36.49% 180 27.03% 666
Greeley 1,530 50.46% 1,502 49.54% 28 0.92% 3,032
Hall 7,412 61.26% 4,687 38.74% 2,725 22.52% 12,099
Hamilton 3,286 66.36% 1,666 33.64% 1,620 32.71% 4,952
Harlan 2,182 61.73% 1,353 38.27% 829 23.45% 3,535
Hayes 759 55.93% 598 44.07% 161 11.86% 1,357
Hitchcock 1,663 58.33% 1,188 41.67% 475 16.66% 2,851
Holt 4,840 61.61% 3,016 38.39% 1,824 23.22% 7,856
Hooker 403 73.27% 147 26.73% 256 46.55% 550
Howard 1,696 43.11% 2,238 56.89% -542 -13.78% 3,934
Jefferson 4,980 64.35% 2,759 35.65% 2,221 28.70% 7,739
Johnson 2,919 68.26% 1,357 31.74% 1,562 36.53% 4,276
Kearney 1,792 53.44% 1,561 46.56% 231 6.89% 3,353
Keith 2,022 53.48% 1,759 46.52% 263 6.96% 3,781
Keya Paha 1,004 66.67% 502 33.33% 502 33.33% 1,506
Kimball 1,190 61.82% 735 38.18% 455 23.64% 1,925
Knox 4,352 57.79% 3,179 42.21% 1,173 15.58% 7,531
Lancaster 27,384 58.63% 19,321 41.37% 8,063 17.26% 46,705
Lincoln 5,908 54.36% 4,960 45.64% 948 8.72% 10,868
Logan 498 60.51% 325 39.49% 173 21.02% 823
Loup 539 65.10% 289 34.90% 250 30.19% 828
Madison 7,353 64.87% 3,982 35.13% 3,371 29.74% 11,335
McPherson 414 71.63% 164 28.37% 250 43.25% 578
Merrick 2,886 66.31% 1,466 33.69% 1,420 32.63% 4,352
Morrill 2,214 60.08% 1,471 39.92% 743 20.16% 3,685
Nance 1,963 57.77% 1,435 42.23% 528 15.54% 3,398
Nemaha 3,817 59.96% 2,549 40.04% 1,268 19.92% 6,366
Nuckolls 3,017 61.70% 1,873 38.30% 1,144 23.39% 4,890
Otoe 5,799 66.46% 2,927 33.54% 2,872 32.91% 8,726
Pawnee 2,643 62.35% 1,596 37.65% 1,047 24.70% 4,239
Perkins 1,413 57.28% 1,054 42.72% 359 14.55% 2,467
Phelps 2,512 57.63% 1,847 42.37% 665 15.26% 4,359
Pierce 3,271 69.30% 1,449 30.70% 1,822 38.60% 4,720
Platte 4,929 56.07% 3,862 43.93% 1,067 12.14% 8,791
Polk 2,653 61.87% 1,635 38.13% 1,018 23.74% 4,288
Red Willow 3,119 55.70% 2,481 44.30% 638 11.39% 5,600
Richardson 4,833 54.07% 4,105 45.93% 728 8.14% 8,938
Rock 1,104 64.79% 600 35.21% 504 29.58% 1,704
Saline 3,673 46.48% 4,229 53.52% -556 -7.04% 7,902
Sarpy 2,165 46.04% 2,537 53.96% -372 -7.91% 4,702
Saunders 4,917 54.16% 4,162 45.84% 755 8.32% 9,079
Scotts Bluff 7,989 64.20% 4,455 35.80% 3,534 28.40% 12,444
Seward 4,117 61.95% 2,529 38.05% 1,588 23.89% 6,646
Sheridan 3,161 66.87% 1,566 33.13% 1,595 33.74% 4,727
Sherman 1,494 44.18% 1,888 55.82% -394 -11.65% 3,382
Sioux 1,072 63.43% 618 36.57% 454 26.86% 1,690
Stanton 2,074 65.74% 1,081 34.26% 993 31.47% 3,155
Thayer 3,893 65.21% 2,077 34.79% 1,816 30.42% 5,970
Thomas 486 63.70% 277 36.30% 209 27.39% 763
Thurston 1,973 49.18% 2,039 50.82% -66 -1.65% 4,012
Valley 2,449 60.63% 1,590 39.37% 859 21.27% 4,039
Washington 2,922 52.57% 2,636 47.43% 286 5.15% 5,558
Wayne 3,209 69.70% 1,395 30.30% 1,814 39.40% 4,604
Webster 2,847 68.18% 1,329 31.82% 1,518 36.35% 4,176
Wheeler 495 53.69% 427 46.31% 68 7.38% 922
York 5,322 70.75% 2,200 29.25% 3,122 41.50% 7,522
Totals 352,201 57.19% 263,677 42.81% 88,524 14.37% 615,878

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

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See also

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References

[edit]
  1. ^ "United States Presidential election of 1940 - Encyclopædia Britannica". Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  2. ^ "1940 Election for the Thirty-ninth Term (1941-45)". Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  3. ^ "1940 Presidential General Election Results - Nebraska". Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  4. ^ "The American Presidency Project - Election of 1940". Retrieved August 19, 2018.
  5. ^ "1940 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  6. ^ "F.D.R.'s Disastrous Experiment". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
  7. ^ "Farmers and the New Deal". History Learning Site. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
  8. ^ "NE US President Race, November 05, 1940". Our Campaigns.
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