1916 United States presidential election in Alabama

Main article: 1916 United States presidential election

The 1916 United States presidential election in Alabama took place on November 7, 1916, as part of the nationwide presidential election. State voters chose twelve representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1916 United States presidential election in Alabama

← 1912 November 7, 1916 (1916-11-07) 1920 →

Nominee Woodrow Wilson Charles E. Hughes Party Democratic Republican Home state New Jersey New York Running mate Thomas R. Marshall Charles W. Fairbanks Electoral vote 12 0 Popular vote 99,409 28,662 Percentage 76.04% 21.92%

County results Wilson   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   90–100% Hughes   50–60%

President before election Woodrow Wilson Democratic Elected President Woodrow Wilson Democratic

Since the 1890s, Alabama had been effectively a one-party state ruled by the Democratic Party. Disenfranchisement of almost all African-Americans and a large proportion of poor whites via poll taxes, literacy tests^[1] and extralegal violence^[2] had essentially eliminated opposition parties outside of Unionist Winston County and a few nearby northern hill counties that had been Populist strongholds.^[3] The only competitive statewide elections became Democratic Party primaries that were limited by law to white voters.

Unlike the other Deep South states, however, soon after black disenfranchisement Alabama’s white Republicans made rapid efforts to expel blacks from the state Republican Party.^[4] For the 1904 Convention, President Theodore Roosevelt rejected this proposal, unlike in North Carolina where he acquiesced without opposition to the demands of Jeter Connelly Pritchard.^[4] Oscar D. Street was appointed state party boss as part of the pro-Taft “black and tan” faction in 1912,^[5] while Roosevelt planned “lily-whitism” for the South with his “Bull Moose” party after he broke from the GOP.^[6] Roosevelt’s personal popularity even in the overwhelmingly Democratic Deep South meant he easily outpolled Taft in the region,^[7] and in Alabama this led the pro-Taft Street to move the state GOP in a lily-white direction much earlier than any other Deep South state.^[8]

With President Wilson still popular, however, the shift to a lily-white Republican Party would have no effect on Alabama’s presidential voting. An early poll in August saw incumbent President Woodrow Wilson (D–New Jersey), running with incumbent Vice President Thomas R. Marshall, with 24 votes, against Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Charles Evans Hughes (R–New York), running with former Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, with five votes.^[9] All later forecasts showed the state going to Wilson,^[10] and in the end the small August poll proved fairly accurate, with Wilson winning 76.04 percent of the vote to Hughes’ 21.92 percent.^[11] Wilson carried all but three counties, and his appeal to Progressive former Populists allowed him to carry one of the four counties — Cullman — that the “Bull Moose” party had won in 1912.

Results

1916 United States presidential election in Alabama^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Woodrow Wilson (incumbent)	99,409	76.04%
	Republican	Charles Evans Hughes	28,662	21.92%
	Socialist	Allan L. Benson	1,916	1.47%
	Prohibition	Frank Hanly	741	0.57%
Total votes			129,987	100.00%

Results by county

1916 United States presidential election in Alabama^[13]

County	Thomas Woodrow Wilson Democratic		Charles Evans Hughes Republican		Allan Louis Benson Socialist		James Franklin Hanly Prohibition		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Autauga	773	87.05%	99	11.15%	11	1.24%	5	0.56%	674	75.90%	888
Baldwin	766	67.19%	216	18.95%	148	12.98%	10	0.88%	550	48.25%	1,140
Barbour	1,235	94.64%	45	3.45%	13	1.00%	12	0.92%	1,190	91.19%	1,305
Bibb	1,247	78.58%	217	13.67%	106	6.68%	17	1.07%	1,030	64.90%	1,587
Blount	1,488	54.13%	1,229	44.71%	26	0.95%	6	0.22%	259	9.42%	2,749
Bullock	743	99.20%	4	0.53%	2	0.27%	0	0.00%	739	98.66%	749
Butler	1,162	93.03%	78	6.24%	6	0.48%	3	0.24%	1,084	86.79%	1,249
Calhoun	2,231	81.81%	442	16.21%	29	1.06%	25	0.92%	1,789	65.60%	2,727
Chambers	1,679	89.88%	168	8.99%	7	0.37%	14	0.75%	1,511	80.89%	1,868
Cherokee	1,136	67.78%	508	30.31%	27	1.61%	5	0.30%	628	37.47%	1,676
Chilton	881	38.34%	1,363	59.31%	40	1.74%	14	0.61%	-482	-20.97%	2,298
Choctaw	765	95.63%	21	2.63%	12	1.50%	2	0.25%	744	93.00%	800
Clarke	1,397	97.42%	25	1.74%	12	0.84%	0	0.00%	1,372	95.68%	1,434
Clay	1,196	63.72%	677	36.07%	1	0.05%	3	0.16%	519	27.65%	1,877
Cleburne	760	56.21%	578	42.75%	5	0.37%	9	0.67%	182	13.46%	1,352
Coffee	2,029	81.95%	426	17.21%	17	0.69%	4	0.16%	1,603	64.74%	2,476
Colbert	1,132	74.04%	352	23.02%	44	2.88%	1	0.07%	780	51.01%	1,529
Conecuh	1,036	94.44%	42	3.83%	17	1.55%	2	0.18%	994	90.61%	1,097
Coosa	867	62.42%	485	34.92%	34	2.45%	3	0.22%	382	27.50%	1,389
Covington	1,738	79.94%	305	14.03%	107	4.92%	24	1.10%	1,433	65.92%	2,174
Crenshaw	1,427	90.43%	139	8.81%	5	0.32%	7	0.44%	1,288	81.62%	1,578
Cullman	1,396	50.52%	1,351	48.90%	9	0.33%	7	0.25%	45	1.63%	2,763
Dale	1,260	67.38%	597	31.93%	4	0.21%	9	0.48%	663	35.45%	1,870
Dallas	1,565	97.87%	23	1.44%	7	0.44%	4	0.25%	1,542	96.44%	1,599
DeKalb	1,787	59.09%	1,190	39.35%	33	1.09%	14	0.46%	597	19.74%	3,024
Elmore	1,631	99.57%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	7	0.43%	1,624^[a]	99.15%	1,638
Escambia	982	89.84%	108	9.88%	3	0.27%	0	0.00%	874	79.96%	1,093
Etowah	1,883	66.65%	862	30.51%	73	2.58%	7	0.25%	1,021	36.14%	2,825
Fayette	1,026	58.43%	697	39.69%	18	1.03%	15	0.85%	329	18.74%	1,756
Franklin	1,044	50.34%	984	47.44%	39	1.88%	7	0.34%	60	2.89%	2,074
Geneva	1,265	62.84%	713	35.42%	23	1.14%	12	0.60%	552	27.42%	2,013
Greene	383	97.70%	9	2.30%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	374	95.41%	392
Hale	795	97.79%	15	1.85%	1	0.12%	2	0.25%	780	95.94%	813
Henry	860	83.25%	141	13.65%	27	2.61%	5	0.48%	719	69.60%	1,033
Houston	1,670	76.05%	466	21.22%	46	2.09%	14	0.64%	1,204	54.83%	2,196
Jackson	1,907	75.61%	567	22.48%	32	1.27%	16	0.63%	1,340	53.13%	2,522
Jefferson	10,677	81.38%	2,052	15.64%	296	2.26%	95	0.72%	8,625	65.74%	13,120
Lamar	1,299	79.45%	303	18.53%	4	0.24%	29	1.77%	996	60.92%	1,635
Lauderdale	1,678	79.64%	369	17.51%	47	2.23%	13	0.62%	1,309	62.13%	2,107
Lawrence	995	85.92%	43	3.71%	4	0.35%	116	10.02%	879^[a]	75.91%	1,158
Lee	1,369	94.67%	42	2.90%	30	2.07%	5	0.35%	1,327	91.77%	1,446
Limestone	1,450	92.12%	92	5.84%	19	1.21%	13	0.83%	1,358	86.28%	1,574
Lowndes	540	98.00%	9	1.63%	1	0.18%	1	0.18%	531	96.37%	551
Macon	575	92.59%	43	6.92%	2	0.32%	1	0.16%	532	85.67%	621
Madison	2,206	89.17%	215	8.69%	45	1.82%	8	0.32%	1,991	80.48%	2,474
Marengo	1,491	98.61%	19	1.26%	1	0.07%	1	0.07%	1,472	97.35%	1,512
Marion	1,325	61.89%	807	37.69%	1	0.05%	8	0.37%	518	24.19%	2,141
Marshall	1,944	61.32%	1,183	37.32%	33	1.04%	10	0.32%	761	24.01%	3,170
Mobile	2,968	76.18%	832	21.36%	75	1.93%	21	0.54%	2,136	54.83%	3,896
Monroe	1,029	98.09%	17	1.62%	2	0.19%	1	0.10%	1,012	96.47%	1,049
Montgomery	3,316	96.06%	106	3.07%	19	0.55%	11	0.32%	3,210	92.99%	3,452
Morgan	2,120	82.62%	364	14.19%	44	1.71%	38	1.48%	1,756	68.43%	2,566
Perry	895	96.44%	20	2.16%	12	1.29%	1	0.11%	875	94.29%	928
Pickens	1,179	83.09%	218	15.36%	18	1.27%	4	0.28%	961	67.72%	1,419
Pike	1,789	96.39%	50	2.69%	11	0.59%	6	0.32%	1,739	93.70%	1,856
Randolph	1,324	66.70%	652	32.85%	4	0.20%	5	0.25%	672	33.85%	1,985
Russell	752	99.08%	3	0.40%	4	0.53%	0	0.00%	748^[b]	98.55%	759
St. Clair	987	51.97%	851	44.81%	53	2.79%	8	0.42%	136	7.16%	1,899
Shelby	1,311	47.57%	1,428	51.81%	8	0.29%	9	0.33%	-117	-4.25%	2,756
Sumter	770	98.21%	8	1.02%	6	0.77%	0	0.00%	762	97.19%	784
Talladega	1,539	77.10%	447	22.39%	4	0.20%	6	0.30%	1,092	54.71%	1,996
Tallapoosa	1,892	91.98%	129	6.27%	33	1.60%	3	0.15%	1,763	85.71%	2,057
Tuscaloosa	2,437	89.99%	218	8.05%	41	1.51%	12	0.44%	2,219	81.94%	2,708
Walker	2,314	53.80%	1,860	43.25%	107	2.49%	20	0.47%	454	10.56%	4,301
Washington	500	92.94%	32	5.95%	2	0.37%	4	0.74%	468	86.99%	538
Wilcox	866	99.88%	1	0.12%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	865	99.77%	867
Winston	727	39.36%	1,107	59.94%	6	0.32%	7	0.38%	-380	-20.57%	1,847
Totals	99,409	76.04%	28,662	21.92%	1,916	1.47%	741	0.57%	70,747	54.12%	130,728

See also

• United States presidential elections in Alabama

Notes

1. In this county where Hanly ran second ahead of Hughes, margin given is Wilson vote minus Hanly vote and percentage margin Wilson percentage minus Hanly percentage.
2. In this county where Benson ran second ahead of Hughes, margin given is Wilson vote minus Benson vote and percentage margin Wilson percentage minus Benson percentage.

References

1. Perman, Michael (2001). Struggle for Mastery: Disfranchisement in the South, 1888–1908. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. p. Introduction. ISBN 9780807849095.
2. Feldman, Glenn. The Disfranchisement Myth: Poor Whites and Suffrage Restriction in Alabama. p. 157. ISBN 0820326151.
3. Webb, Samuel L. "From Independents to Populists to Progressive Republicans: The Case of Chilton County, Alabama, 1880-1920". The Journal of Southern History. 59 (4): 707–736.
4. Heersink, Boris; Jenkins, Jeffery A. (2020). Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968. pp. 251–253. ISBN 9781107158436.
5. Casdorph, Paul D. (1981). Republicans, Negroes, and Progressives in the South, 1912-1916. The University of Alabama Press. pp. 70, 94–95. ISBN 0817300481.
6. Link, Arthur S. (January 1947). "The Negro as a Factor in the Campaign of 1912". The Journal of Negro History. 32 (1). The University of Chicago Press: 81–99.
7. Link, Arthur S. (July 1946). "Theodore Roosevelt and the South in 1912". The North Carolina Historical Review. 23 (3). North Carolina Office of Archives and History: 313–324.
8. Heersink and Jenkins; Republican Party Politics and the American South, pp. 36-39
9. "Wilson Without the South". The Buffalo Enquirer. Buffalo, New York. August 25, 1916. p. 4.
10. "Steady Drift to Wilson, but Last 10 Days of Race Will Decide the Election". The Washington Post. Washington, District of Columbia. October 29, 1916. pp. 3, 16.
11. "1916". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. The American Presidency Project. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
12. "1916 Presidential General Election Results – Alabama". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
13. "Alabama Election Statistics". Alabama Official and Statistical Register. Montgomery, Alabama: State of Alabama Department of Archives and History. 1919.