1932 United States presidential election in Utah

1932 United States presidential election in Utah
Roosevelt 40–50% 50–60% 60–70%	Hoover 40-50% 50-60% 60-70% 70-80%
President before election; Herbert Hoover; Republican	Elected President ; Franklin D. Roosevelt; Democratic

The 1932 United States presidential election in Utah took place on November 8, 1932, as part of the 1932 United States presidential election. All contemporary forty-eight states took part, and state voters selected four voters to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Utah, like every state west of the Appalachian Mountains, voted for Franklin D. Roosevelt over Herbert Hoover by a substantial margin, giving the first Democratic victory in the state since 1916 when anti-war sentiment had shifted the state to Woodrow Wilson.^[1] Utah's swing to the Democrats was 23.19 percentage points, much smaller than the national swing of 35.18 percentage points, as the anti-Catholicism which marred the preceding election was less prevalent among the LDS hierarchy than in the South or the Pacific Northwest. Consequently, for this election Utah voted more Republican than the nation at-large for the first time in twenty years, by a margin of 2.29 points on a two-party basis.^[2] Hoover managed to retain pluralities in seven of Utah's twenty-nine counties, although in San Juan County Hoover won by only a solitary vote and in sparsely populated Daggett County by just eleven. This was nonetheless equal with Missouri^[a] and behind only Kansas^[b] as the most counties in one state west of the Mississippi – in all of which Hoover retained only forty-six counties out of 1,161 – remaining Republican.

Herbert Hoover, who had been elected in a third consecutive Republican landslide in 1928, was to become extremely unpopular by the time he was up for re-election in 1932, owing to unemployment rising to a whopping twenty-five percent and Hoover's Smoot-Hawley Tariff (proposed by long-serving Utah Senator Reed Smoot) had cut severely into exports due to retaliatory tariffs from foreign governments.^[3]

The Mountain States, including Utah, were even more severely hit by the economic downturn than the national average: Utah's lost consumption between the 1929 crash and the election was about one standard deviation above the national mean.^[4] There was also extreme concern over the falling price of silver,^[5] of which Utah was a major producer.^[6]

In a poll conducted by the Literary Digest, Hoover was far behind Roosevelt in all western states,^[7] whose electoral votes the Republican Party had monopolized during the three preceding elections. Paul Mallon in his "National Whirlgig" two weeks before the election suggested Roosevelt had a "degree of chance" in Utah, but that the Democrats were certain of victory in the nation as a whole.^[8]

Results

1932 United States presidential election in Utah^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Democratic	Franklin D. Roosevelt	116,750	56.52%	4
	Republican	Herbert Hoover (incumbent)	84,795	41.05%	0
	Socialist	Norman Thomas	4,087	1.98%	0
	Communist	William Z. Foster	946	0.46%	0

Results by county

County	Franklin Delano Roosevelt Democratic		Herbert Clark Hoover Republican		Norman Mattoon Thomas^[10] Socialist		William Z. Foster Communist		Margin		Total votes cast^[11]
County	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	Total votes cast^[11]
Beaver	1,218	55.34%	969	44.03%	14	0.64%	0	0.00%	249	11.31%	2,201
Box Elder	3,695	54.12%	3,048	44.65%	78	1.14%	6	0.09%	647	9.48%	6,827
Cache	6,522	56.99%	4,829	42.20%	80	0.70%	13	0.11%	1,693	14.79%	11,444
Carbon	4,239	69.26%	1,655	27.04%	215	3.51%	11	0.18%	2,584	42.22%	6,120
Daggett	79	46.47%	90	52.94%	1	0.59%	0	0.00%	-11	-6.47%	170
Davis	3,006	53.51%	2,562	45.60%	41	0.73%	9	0.16%	444	7.90%	5,618
Duchesne	1,590	51.76%	1,333	43.39%	145	4.72%	4	0.13%	257	8.37%	3,072
Emery	1,613	56.64%	1,112	39.04%	120	4.21%	3	0.11%	501	17.59%	2,848
Garfield	493	29.99%	1,125	68.43%	26	1.58%	0	0.00%	-632	-38.44%	1,644
Grand	506	62.86%	278	34.53%	21	2.61%	0	0.00%	228	28.32%	805
Iron	1,358	42.93%	1,599	50.55%	206	6.51%	0	0.00%	-241	-7.62%	3,163
Juab	1,969	60.68%	1,220	37.60%	55	1.69%	1	0.03%	749	23.08%	3,245
Kane	229	26.63%	618	71.86%	13	1.51%	0	0.00%	-389	-45.23%	860
Millard	1,881	48.79%	1,916	49.70%	57	1.48%	1	0.03%	-35	-0.91%	3,855
Morgan	602	51.23%	568	48.34%	5	0.43%	0	0.00%	34	2.89%	1,175
Piute	403	47.19%	433	50.70%	18	2.11%	0	0.00%	-30	-3.51%	854
Rich	469	54.09%	398	45.91%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	71	8.19%	867
Salt Lake	48,012	58.34%	32,224	39.16%	1,332	1.62%	724	0.88%	15,788	19.19%	82,292
San Juan	459	48.83%	460	48.94%	19	2.02%	2	0.21%	-1	-0.11%	940
Sanpete	3,600	52.69%	3,147	46.06%	86	1.26%	0	0.00%	453	6.63%	6,833
Sevier	2,303	50.14%	2,225	48.44%	64	1.39%	1	0.02%	78	1.70%	4,593
Summit	2,028	57.35%	1,434	40.55%	72	2.04%	2	0.06%	594	16.80%	3,536
Tooele	1,865	56.12%	1,407	42.34%	48	1.44%	3	0.09%	458	13.78%	3,323
Uintah	1,778	55.74%	1,355	42.48%	51	1.60%	6	0.19%	423	13.26%	3,190
Utah	12,140	59.12%	7,953	38.73%	346	1.68%	97	0.47%	4,187	20.39%	20,536
Wasatch	1,103	50.99%	1,042	48.17%	18	0.83%	0	0.00%	61	2.82%	2,163
Washington	1,648	54.09%	1,378	45.22%	20	0.66%	1	0.03%	270	8.86%	3,047
Wayne	401	49.63%	398	49.26%	8	0.99%	1	0.12%	3	0.37%	808
Weber	11,541	56.16%	8,019	39.02%	928	4.52%	61	0.30%	3,522	17.14%	20,549
Totals	116,750	56.52%	84,795	41.05%	4,087	1.98%	946	0.46%	31,955	15.47%	206,578

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

Notes

^ It might be noted that of the Missouri counties remaining Republican, Ozark, Taney, Gasconade and Putnam have never voted Democratic since the Civil War, Douglas not since 1896, whilst Warren and Hickory never voted Democratic between 1864 and 1988.
^ In Kansas, Hoover retained thirteen of 104 counties, of which Doniphan has never voted for a Democrat, Brown not since 1912, and Osborne not since 1916

References

^ Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 47 ISBN 0786422173
^ Counting the Votes; Utah
^ Mann, Catherine L.; 'Protection and Retaliation: Changing the "Rules of the Game"'; Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (1:1987); pp. 311-335
^ Fishback, Price V., Horrace, William C. and Kantor, Shawn; 'Did New Deal Grant Programs Stimulate Local Economies? A Study of Federal Grants and Retail Sales During the Great Depression'; The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 65, No. 1 (March 2005), p. 41
^ Friedman, Milton, 'Franklin D. Roosevelt, Silver and China', The Journal of Political Economy, Volume 100, No. 1 (February 1992); pp. 62-83
^ Achen, Christopher H. and Bartels, Larry M.; ‘Partisan Hearts and Gall Bladders: Retrospection and Realignment in the Wake of the Great Depression’, Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association (Chicago, April 7–9, 2005)
^ 'Roosevelt Leads in 31 States with Nearly 2,000,000 Votes Tallied in "Literary Digest" Poll'; Victoria Advocate, October 16, 1932, p. 4
^ 'Why Roosevelt is Certain of Victory'; The Florence Times, October 25, 1932, p. 2
^ "1932 Presidential General Election Results - Utah". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
^ Géoelections; 1932 Presidential Election Popular Vote (.xlsx file for €15 on request)
^ Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; p. 458 ISBN 0405077114

[3] It might be noted that of the Missouri counties remaining Republican, Ozark, Taney, Gasconade and Putnam have never voted Democratic since the Civil War, Douglas not since 1896, whilst Warren and Hickory never voted Democratic between 1864 and 1988.

[4] In Kansas, Hoover retained thirteen of 104 counties, of which Doniphan has never voted for a Democrat, Brown not since 1912, and Osborne not since 1916

[1] Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 47 ISBN 0786422173

[2] Counting the Votes; Utah

[5] Mann, Catherine L.; 'Protection and Retaliation: Changing the "Rules of the Game"'; Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (1:1987); pp. 311-335

[6] Fishback, Price V., Horrace, William C. and Kantor, Shawn; 'Did New Deal Grant Programs Stimulate Local Economies? A Study of Federal Grants and Retail Sales During the Great Depression'; The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 65, No. 1 (March 2005), p. 41

[7] Friedman, Milton, 'Franklin D. Roosevelt, Silver and China', The Journal of Political Economy, Volume 100, No. 1 (February 1992); pp. 62-83

[8] Achen, Christopher H. and Bartels, Larry M.; ‘Partisan Hearts and Gall Bladders: Retrospection and Realignment in the Wake of the Great Depression’, Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association (Chicago, April 7–9, 2005)

[9] 'Roosevelt Leads in 31 States with Nearly 2,000,000 Votes Tallied in "Literary Digest" Poll'; Victoria Advocate, October 16, 1932, p. 4

[10] 'Why Roosevelt is Certain of Victory'; The Florence Times, October 25, 1932, p. 2

[11] "1932 Presidential General Election Results - Utah". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved February 13, 2017.

[Geoelections-12] Géoelections; 1932 Presidential Election Popular Vote (.xlsx file for €15 on request)

[13] Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; p. 458 ISBN 0405077114

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