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The American Political Almanac
RECONSTRUCTION & THE GILDED AGETHE SYSTEM OF 1896THE NEW DEAL ORDERTHE LONG REALIGNMENTPOLARIZED ERA1868RRRRD1888RDRRR1908RDDRR1928RDDDD1948DRRDD1968RRDRR1988RDDRR2008DDRD2024R

The Nation Decides

Electoral votes, the popular vote, and how every state moved
✓ Won
Harry S. Truman
Democrat
Harry S. Truman
303
Electoral votes
49.6% · 24,262,681
President · The New Deal Order

1948

Truman def. Dewey, 303–189
vote totals summed from county returns

Also running: Henry A. Wallace (2.4%)

Thomas E. Dewey
Republican
Thomas E. Dewey
189
Electoral votes
45.1% · 22,103,283
Strom Thurmond
States' Rights Democratic
Strom Thurmond
2.4% of the vote · 39 electoral votes
Electoral college — 266 to win (531 electors)303 D · 189 R · 39 other
Popular vote49.6% · 45.1% · other 5.3% · margin D+4.5

49,213,939 votes counted (summed from counties) · Excludes third-party votes in 1 county whose source totals are double-counted.

Electoral map — one tile per state · coloured by county-summed popular vote
R+40D+40third party won

Grey states were carried by a third-party ticket — the two-party margin shading does not apply there.

Per-state electoral vote detail is staged from 1976; earlier years show the national college in the bar above, and states are coloured by their county-summed popular vote.

Missouri: the source double-counts some county totals this year, so third-party vote there is understated (shown with a +).

The swing from last time
Change in each state’s margin since 1944 · ← toward Republicans · toward Democrats →

The Map Beneath the Map

Three thousand counties, and the demography of the divide

Every county that cast a ballot, shaded by its margin. Hover any county to read it; click to open its 156-year profile. Scrub the timeline above and the map redraws in place. Vote counts exist for all forty elections; the demographic lenses begin in 2000.

County margin

Drawing three thousand counties…

R+40D+40no returns

Who Voted for Whom

The American electorate by income, education, faith and more

How each slice of the electorate split between the parties — by their own account. Weighted ANES self-reports from a national sample: they tilt slightly toward the winner and carry no county detail.

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Notes on this election

  • 'Dewey Defeats Truman.' The Dixiecrat revolt: Thurmond carried four Deep South states — the Solid South's first open break.