The 1960 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 8, 1960, as part of the 1960 United States presidential election. South Carolina voters chose eight representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
For six decades up to 1950 South Carolina was a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party. The Republican Party had been moribund due to the disfranchisement of blacks and the complete absence of other support bases as South Carolina completely lacked upland or German refugee whites opposed to secession. Between 1900 and 1948, no Republican presidential candidate ever obtained more than seven percent of the total presidential vote – a vote which in 1924 reached as low as 6.6 percent of the total voting-age populationMickey. Paths Out of Dixie, p. 27 (or approximately 15 percent of the voting-age white population).
Following Harry S. Truman's To Secure These Rights in 1947, the following year South Carolina's small electorate overwhelmingly rejected him in favour of state Governor Strom Thurmond, who won 71 percent of the state's limited electorate and every county except poor white industrial Anderson and Spartanburg. During the 1950s, the state's wealthier and more urbanized whites became extremely disenchanted with the national Democratic Party and to a lesser extent with the federal administration of Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower. However, the state's abolition of its poll tax in 1950 allowed increasing white voter registration and the poor white upcountry provided enough support to national Democrat Adlai Stevenson II to keep the state Democratic in the 1952 and 1956 elections, aided by substantial majorities amongst the small but increasing number of blacks able to vote.
During the 1950s, wealthy textile mill owners in the upcountry developed a grassroots state Republican Party dedicated to the tenets of the John Birch Society. This group nominated the most conservative delegation at the party's 1960 convention.Mickey. Paths out of Dixie, p. 234 These wealthy businessmen would merge with hardline segregationists to draft Barry Goldwater for the Republican nomination in 1960, and at the same time, the "Independents" in the Lowcountry moved to support GOP nominees Richard Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. as they had in 1952. At the same time, Protestant clergymen in the state were quite outspoken against the nomination of Catholic Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy by the Democratic Party.See
Both candidates toured the state in October, when James F. Byrnes, former governor, criticized severely the Kennedy platform as economically unaffordable and injurious to the states' independence. In September and October polls, the state was considered likely to go for Nixon, and even on election night Nixon was leading until quite late when Kennedy overtook him. Kennedy ultimately won the state by 2.48 percentage points, being aided by an exceptional turnout for him amongst the state's seventy-five thousand or so black voters,Mickey. Paths out of Dixie, p. 233 and by the loyalty of the pro-Stevenson upcountry despite its distaste for his Catholicism.Phillips. The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 263 Nixon won a narrow majority of the state's white voters, and a strong majority amongst the wealthier whites of the growing Columbia and Charleston metropolitan areas. South Carolina was one of six states that swung toward Republicans compared to 1956, alongside Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections; 1960 Presidential General Election Data -- National
Results
Results by county CountyJohn F. KennedyDemocraticRichard NixonRepublicanMarginTotal votes cast # % # % # % Abbeville 3,064 78.38% 845 21.62% 2,219 56.76% 3,909 Aiken 6,674 38.38% 10,715 61.62% -4,041 -23.24% 17,389 Allendale 583 39.63% 888 60.37% -305 -20.74% 1,471 Anderson 13,901 78.33% 3,845 21.67% 10,056 56.66% 17,746 Bamberg 908 35.47% 1,652 64.53% -744 -29.06% 2,560 Barnwell 1,331 41.95% 1,842 58.05% -511 -16.10% 3,173 Beaufort 1,800 47.11% 2,021 52.89% -221 -5.78% 3,821 Berkeley 2,542 51.21% 2,422 48.79% 120 2.42% 4,964 Calhoun 536 38.62% 852 61.38% -316 -22.76% 1,388 Charleston 12,010 36.14% 21,223 63.86% -9,213 -27.72% 33,233 Cherokee 5,391 77.50% 1,565 22.50% 3,826 55.00% 6,956 Chester 4,262 71.97% 1,660 28.03% 2,602 43.94% 5,922 Chesterfield 4,450 76.43% 1,372 23.57% 3,078 52.86% 5,822 Clarendon 1,134 43.97% 1,445 56.03% -311 -12.06% 2,579 Colleton 1,962 43.77% 2,521 56.23% -559 -12.46% 4,483 Darlington 4,668 57.19% 3,494 42.81% 1,174 14.38% 8,162 Dillon 2,652 64.83% 1,439 35.17% 1,213 29.66% 4,091 Dorchester 2,357 40.07% 3,525 59.93% -1,168 -19.86% 5,882 Edgefield 846 36.88% 1,448 63.12% -602 -26.24% 2,294 Fairfield 1,633 51.32% 1,549 48.68% 84 2.64% 3,182 Florence 6,090 51.15% 5,815 48.85% 275 2.30% 11,905 Georgetown 2,811 51.88% 2,607 48.12% 204 3.76% 5,418 Greenville 13,976 38.15% 22,657 61.85% -8,681 -23.70% 36,633 Greenwood 5,283 64.03% 2,968 35.97% 2,315 28.06% 8,251 Hampton 790 37.41% 1,322 62.59% -532 -25.18% 2,112 Horry 6,006 61.45% 3,768 38.55% 2,238 22.90% 9,774 Jasper 721 48.07% 779 51.93% -58 -3.86% 1,500 Kershaw 3,178 47.84% 3,465 52.16% -287 -4.32% 6,643 Lancaster 5,561 65.66% 2,909 34.34% 2,652 31.32% 8,470 Laurens 4,547 57.95% 3,299 42.05% 1,248 15.90% 7,846 Lee 1,487 53.41% 1,297 46.59% 190 6.82% 2,784 Lexington 4,159 38.98% 6,511 61.02% -2,352 -22.04% 10,670 McCormick 680 66.21% 347 33.79% 333 32.42% 1,027 Marion 2,397 59.29% 1,646 40.71% 751 18.58% 4,043 Marlboro 2,586 66.70% 1,291 33.30% 1,295 33.40% 3,877 Newberry 3,143 52.52% 2,841 47.48% 302 5.04% 5,984 Oconee 4,328 69.65% 1,886 30.35% 2,442 39.30% 6,214 Orangeburg 3,890 42.64% 5,233 57.36% -1,343 -14.72% 9,123 Pickens 2,546 37.74% 4,201 62.26% -1,655 -24.52% 6,747 Richland 11,694 36.06% 20,736 63.94% -9,042 -27.88% 32,430 Saluda 1,353 51.62% 1,268 48.38% 85 3.24% 2,621 Spartanburg 20,134 64.79% 10,940 35.21% 9,194 29.58% 31,074 Sumter 2,616 36.09% 4,633 63.91% -2,017 -27.82% 7,249 Union 5,229 72.53% 1,980 27.47% 3,249 45.06% 7,209 Williamsburg 1,513 39.43% 2,324 60.57% -811 -21.14% 3,837 York 8,707 61.23% 5,512 38.77% 3,195 22.46% 14,219Totals198,12951.24%188,55848.76%9,5712.48%386,688
Counties that flipped from Unpledged to Democratic
Berkeley Clarendon Colleton Dorchester Edgefield Fairfield Florence Georgetown Lee
Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican Barnwell Greenville Pickens
Counties that flipped from Unpledged to Republican
Allendale Bamberg Calhoun Charleston Hampton Jasper Kershaw Lexington Orangeburg Richland Sumter Williasburg
Notes
References