Where did Henry Wallace do best in 1948, and who did he appeal to?

[darklordoftech]

?

[TDAS04]

New York was his best state with 8%.  He performed very well with NYC Jews.

California was Wallace’s 2nd best state, where he got 5%.  He also obtained 3 or 4% in North Dakota, Montana, Washington, and Oregon.

[brucejoel99]

Nearly half of the Wallace/Taylor ticket's votes were obtained in NY state (thereby tipping the state & its 47 electoral votes from Truman to Dewey) because he was also running on the American Labor Party ballot line there, so NY state by default.

As for who he appealed to, disgruntled northern liberals.

[Alcibiades]

His 3 best counties were all in NYC (Bronx, Kings, NY). However, the next best four were all populist prairie counties in ND and MT which had voted for LaFollette in 1924.

[darklordoftech]

He performed very well with NYC Jews.

I wonder why.

[Podgy the Bear]

Henry Wallace and the 1948 election are interesting political subjects, and this has been discussed before on Atlas.  Wallace didn't come close to winning any county nationwide, but he received just under 20% of the vote in New York City and that was enough to tip the vote in NY State to Dewey.

He received 38,000 votes in OH and another 7,000 would have given Dewey the state.  Another 18,000 would have given CA to Dewey (Wallace received 190,000 votes in CA).  Wallace didn't get on the ballot in IL, and if he did, it's probable he would have taken at least 35,000 votes there from Truman, enough  to lose the state.  

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

He appealed especially to urban Jewish voters, and then it seems like he did well with socialistic working-class voters (you know, those kind of places where Trump was the first Republican to win since Hoover or something) and with LaFollette-ish prairie populists.

One interesting thing is that one of his best cities appears to have been Tampa which surprises me as to my knowledge Tampa does not have a particularly high Jewish population. Yet he crossed 9% in Hillsborough County.

[Sumner 1868]

His 3 best counties were all in NYC (Bronx, Kings, NY). However, the next best four were all populist prairie counties in ND and MT which had voted for LaFollette in 1924.

Scandinavian ancestry has a pretty good correlation with rural Wallace voters.

[Podgy the Bear]

One interesting thing is that one of his best cities appears to have been Tampa which surprises me as to my knowledge Tampa does not have a particularly high Jewish population. Yet he crossed 9% in Hillsborough County.

The Internet (and Google) is amazing.  I googled: "Why did Henry Wallace do so well in Tampa in 1948?" and came up with this:

https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1373&context=sunlandtribune

The Latin community was quite prominent in the Tampa areas of Ybor City and West Tampa in 1948.  Wallace won seven precincts in those areas that year.  A tiny bastion of radicalism in an otherwise conservative region.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

One interesting thing is that one of his best cities appears to have been Tampa which surprises me as to my knowledge Tampa does not have a particularly high Jewish population. Yet he crossed 9% in Hillsborough County.

The Internet (and Google) is amazing.  I googled: "Why did Henry Wallace do so well in Tampa in 1948?" and came up with this:

https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1373&context=sunlandtribune

The Latin community was quite prominent in the Tampa areas of Ybor City and West Tampa in 1948.  Wallace won seven precincts in those areas that year.  A tiny bastion of radicalism in an otherwise conservative region.

Very interesting! I had no idea there was such a large Latino community in Tampa at the time. It was a really outstanding bastion of radicalism indeed.

[brucejoel99]

One interesting thing is that one of his best cities appears to have been Tampa which surprises me as to my knowledge Tampa does not have a particularly high Jewish population. Yet he crossed 9% in Hillsborough County.

The Internet (and Google) is amazing.  I googled: "Why did Henry Wallace do so well in Tampa in 1948?" and came up with this:

https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1373&context=sunlandtribune

The Latin community was quite prominent in the Tampa areas of Ybor City and West Tampa in 1948.  Wallace won seven precincts in those areas that year.  A tiny bastion of radicalism in an otherwise conservative region.

Very interesting! I had no idea there was such a large Latino community in Tampa at the time. It was a really outstanding bastion of radicalism indeed.

It wasn't just at the time, the Hispanic/Latino community is still quite prominent in Tampa (being 1/4th of the population), & especially so in Ybor City (comprising more than 2/5ths of the population) & West Tampa (more than 1/2 of the population).

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

One interesting thing is that one of his best cities appears to have been Tampa which surprises me as to my knowledge Tampa does not have a particularly high Jewish population. Yet he crossed 9% in Hillsborough County.

The Internet (and Google) is amazing.  I googled: "Why did Henry Wallace do so well in Tampa in 1948?" and came up with this:

https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1373&context=sunlandtribune

The Latin community was quite prominent in the Tampa areas of Ybor City and West Tampa in 1948.  Wallace won seven precincts in those areas that year.  A tiny bastion of radicalism in an otherwise conservative region.

Very interesting! I had no idea there was such a large Latino community in Tampa at the time. It was a really outstanding bastion of radicalism indeed.

It wasn't just at the time, the Hispanic/Latino community is still quite prominent in Tampa (being 1/4th of the population), & especially so in Ybor City (comprising more than 2/5ths of the population) & West Tampa (more than 1/2 of the population).

Well yes. I should have said "already at the time", since the Hispanic or Latino population in the United States then was very small, barely 2% of the total population, and heavily concentrated in the Southwest.

[Wikipedia delenda est]

My grandfather was 20 in 1948, and though he couldn't vote he strongly supported Wallace at the time. He lived in Brownsville, then a Jewish ghetto in Brooklyn. When I asked him about Wallace and the 1948 election, this was his response: "We were surprised he didn't do better. Everyone you knew was for Wallace. But then you remembered, everyone you knew was a Brooklyn Jew."

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

His 3 best counties were all in NYC (Bronx, Kings, NY). However, the next best four were all populist prairie counties in ND and MT which had voted for LaFollette in 1924.

Scandinavian ancestry has a pretty good correlation with rural Wallace voters.

While there's a long-standing stereotype for this sort of thing, I've never really seen an explanation for the left-wing orientation of Scandinavian (and also Finnish) immigrants other than some vague cultural descriptors. Would you happen to know what specifically set this group apart?

[Orwell]

His 3 best counties were all in NYC (Bronx, Kings, NY). However, the next best four were all populist prairie counties in ND and MT which had voted for LaFollette in 1924.

Scandinavian ancestry has a pretty good correlation with rural Wallace voters.

While there's a long-standing stereotype for this sort of thing, I've never really seen an explanation for the left-wing orientation of Scandinavian (and also Finnish) immigrants other than some vague cultural descriptors. Would you happen to know what specifically set this group apart?

AFAIK These Scandinavian groups were heavily associated with mining and lumber industries and through those organized labor. In Sweden specifically, I am aware that the Social Democrats were in power for much of the early 20th century, and have been a major political force, though I would defer to a Swedish poster. There is also the fact that the Scandinavians were also aligned with groups like the NPL in the Dakotas and the Farmer Labor Party in Minnesota.

[Sumner 1868]

His 3 best counties were all in NYC (Bronx, Kings, NY). However, the next best four were all populist prairie counties in ND and MT which had voted for LaFollette in 1924.

Scandinavian ancestry has a pretty good correlation with rural Wallace voters.

While there's a long-standing stereotype for this sort of thing, I've never really seen an explanation for the left-wing orientation of Scandinavian (and also Finnish) immigrants other than some vague cultural descriptors. Would you happen to know what specifically set this group apart?

AFAIK These Scandinavian groups were heavily associated with mining and lumber industries and through those organized labor.

Basically this. Although should also be noted that Scandinavians in Washington also took jobs as shipbuilders in towns like Seattle, Kirkland or (especially) Bremerton. Shipbuilders were a major force in the 1919 strike.

[StateBoiler]

I've read that Wallace's campaign was kind of separated from Wallace the man. Wallace said what he said but what I guess was the ALP staff almost ignored him and were pushing more left-wing political aims.

[Kleine Scheiße]

I've read that Wallace's campaign was kind of separated from Wallace the man. Wallace said what he said but what I guess was the ALP staff almost ignored him and were pushing more left-wing political aims.

Hmm... this sounds familiar...

[morgankingsley]

New York was the only state he broke 5 percent (although be came close in California)