United States Senate · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Third party · 1902–2003
Strom Thurmond
United States senator · Governor of South Carolina · member of the State Senate of South Carolina
James Strom Thurmond Sr. was an American politician who represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 to 2003. Before his 47 years as a senator, he served as the 103rd governor of South Carolina from 1947 to 1951. Thurmond was a member of the Democratic Party in the Senate until 1964 when he joined the Republican Party. He also ran for president in 1948 as the Dixiecrat candidate, receiving over a million votes and winning four states.
On the Ballot
Strongest counties, 1948
| County | third-party share | votes |
|---|---|---|
| Edgefield, SC | 98.2% | 1,830 |
| Humphreys, MS | 97.5% | 1,144 |
| Lincoln, MS | 97.1% | 3,177 |
| Rankin, MS | 97.1% | 2,759 |
| Jefferson, MS | 97.1% | 996 |
Weakest counties, 1948
| County | third-party share | votes |
|---|---|---|
| Jackson, CO | 0.0% | 618 |
| Jefferson, IL | 0.0% | 16,321 |
| Knott, KY | 0.0% | 5,414 |
| Magoffin, KY | 0.0% | 4,135 |
| Barry, MO | 0.0% | 9,536 |
County returns lump all third-party tickets together — these are the counties where the combined third-party vote ran strongest, a proxy for the 1948 insurgency.