The 1936 United States presidential election in North Carolina took place on November 3, 1936, as part of the 1936 United States presidential election. North Carolina voters chose 13 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

As a former Confederate state, North Carolina had a history of Jim Crow laws, disfranchisement of its African-American population and dominance of the Democratic Party in state politics. However, unlike the Deep South, the Republican Party had sufficient historic Unionist White support from the mountains and northwestern Piedmont to gain a stable one-third of the statewide vote total in most general elections,Phillips, Kevin P.;The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 210, 242 where turnout was higher than elsewhere in the former Confederacy due substantially to the state's early abolition of the poll tax in 1920.Key, Valdimer Orlando; Southern Politics in State and Nation, p. 502, Alfred A. Knopf (1949) A rapid move following disenfranchisement to a completely “lily-white” state GOP also helped maintain Republican support amongst the state's voters. Like Virginia, Tennessee and Oklahoma, the relative strength of Republican opposition meant that North Carolina did not have statewide white primaries, although certain counties did use the white primary.

Anti-Catholicism against 1928 Democratic nominee Al Smith in the fishing communities of the Outer Banks, alongside increasing middle-class Republican voting in such cities as Charlotte, Durham and Greensboro,Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 212-215 meant that Republican nominee Herbert Hoover would use the lily-white state party to win its electoral votes for the first time since the Reconstruction election of 1872. During Hoover's administration, the state became the scene of a major controversy in the Supreme Court nomination of Fourth Circuit judge and 1920 Republican gubernatorial candidate John Johnston Parker, who had said that black North Carolinians no longer desire to participate in politics. When he was nominated the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sent letters to senators requesting Parker's defeat. The NAACP would ultimately succeed in defeating Parker, being helped by many Southern Democrats who feared that his nomination would strengthen a newly lily-white Republican Party in the former Confederacy, by many Northern and Border State Republicans opposed to a lily-white GOP there, and by the hostility of the American Federation of Labor to some of his rulings. The Parker defeat put an end to Republican efforts to breach the “Solid South” for over two decades, and in North Carolina the two Republican congressmen elected in 1928 would both be defeated in 1930.

Although North Carolina suffered the smallest relative income loss of any state as a result of the Depression, many Southerners blamed the collapse on the North and on Wall Street. it had extremely severe effects in the South, which had the highest unemployment rate in the nation, and many Southerners blamed this on the North and on Wall Street, rejecting Hoover's claim that the Depression's causes were exogenous. As expected, North Carolina returned to the “Solid South” in 1932, and despite the entrenched conservatism of its Democratic leadership, the majority of the state's electorate revered President Franklin D. Roosevelt.Abrams. Conservative Constraints, p. 47 In October 1936, a poll had Roosevelt winning 65 percent of the state's ballots against Republican nominees Kansas Governor Alf Landon and Frank Knox. Another poll a week before the election said the state was sure to back FDR despite known doubts about the New Deal amongst voters.

Ultimately North Carolina was won by Roosevelt with 73.40 percent of the popular vote, against Landon's 26.60 percent. This was an improvement of over three points upon FDR's 1932 performance, produced by gains of double digits in the urban Piedmont counties of Durham and Alamance, and lesser gains in neighbouring counties. Landon retained the loyal GOP Unionist strength, with Avery County advancing from the tenth-most Republican in 1932 to being Landon's fifth-strongest county four years later.

Results

Results by county +1936 United States presidential election in North Carolina by countyCountyFranklin Delano RooseveltDemocraticAlfred Mossman LandonRepublicanMargin % # % # % # Martin 97.58% 4,477 2.42% 111 95.16% 4,366 Northampton 97.20% 3,785 2.80% 109 94.40% 3,676 Bertie 97.08% 3,828 2.92% 115 94.17% 3,713 Pitt 96.71% 9,539 3.29% 325 93.41% 9,214 Hertford 96.52% 2,327 3.48% 84 93.03% 2,243 Halifax 96.39% 8,230 3.61% 308 92.79% 7,922 Greene 96.39% 3,097 3.61% 116 92.78% 2,981 Edgecombe 96.17% 6,684 3.83% 266 92.35% 6,418 Granville 95.86% 4,279 4.14% 185 91.71% 4,094 Franklin 95.75% 5,209 4.25% 231 91.51% 4,978 Warren 95.61% 3,047 4.39% 140 91.21% 2,907 Nash 94.38% 8,682 5.62% 517 88.76% 8,165 Lenoir 94.34% 5,854 5.66% 351 88.69% 5,503 Chowan 94.17% 1,550 5.83% 96 88.34% 1,454 Vance 93.51% 4,536 6.49% 315 87.01% 4,221 Robeson 93.35% 10,280 6.65% 732 86.71% 9,548 Hoke 93.27% 1,953 6.73% 141 86.53% 1,812 Wilson 93.20% 7,522 6.80% 549 86.40% 6,973 Currituck 92.70% 1,625 7.30% 128 85.40% 1,497 Union 92.56% 7,480 7.44% 601 85.13% 6,879 Craven 92.44% 5,543 7.56% 453 84.89% 5,090 Anson 92.40% 4,629 7.60% 381 84.79% 4,248 Caswell 92.33% 2,493 7.67% 207 84.67% 2,286 Onslow 92.15% 2,758 7.85% 235 84.30% 2,523 Gates 92.06% 1,484 7.94% 128 84.12% 1,356 Richmond 91.70% 6,709 8.30% 607 83.41% 6,102 Scotland 91.02% 3,183 8.98% 314 82.04% 2,869 Pasquotank 90.87% 3,226 9.13% 324 81.75% 2,902 Camden 89.60% 1,008 10.40% 117 79.20% 891 Jones 89.26% 1,563 10.74% 188 78.53% 1,375 Wake 88.99% 19,850 11.01% 2,456 77.98% 17,394 Person 88.30% 2,898 11.70% 384 76.60% 2,514 Pender 87.72% 2,379 12.28% 333 75.44% 2,046 Beaufort 86.42% 6,133 13.58% 964 72.83% 5,169 Cumberland 86.40% 6,505 13.60% 1,024 72.80% 5,481 Bladen 85.91% 3,360 14.09% 551 71.82% 2,809 Perquimans 85.76% 970 14.24% 161 71.53% 809 Durham 85.40% 12,804 14.60% 2,189 70.80% 10,615 New Hanover 84.96% 7,376 15.04% 1,306 69.91% 6,070 Mecklenburg 84.75% 26,169 15.25% 4,709 69.50% 21,460 Lee 84.75% 3,723 15.25% 670 69.50% 3,053 Cleveland 84.34% 11,393 15.66% 2,116 68.67% 9,277 Columbus 83.97% 6,359 16.03% 1,214 67.94% 5,145 Rockingham 81.84% 11,366 18.16% 2,522 63.68% 8,844 Cabarrus 81.32% 12,297 18.68% 2,825 62.64% 9,472 Wayne 80.19% 7,087 19.81% 1,751 60.38% 5,336 Duplin 79.42% 5,966 20.58% 1,546 58.84% 4,420 Hyde 79.30% 1,157 20.70% 302 58.60% 855 Gaston 78.63% 17,555 21.37% 4,772 57.25% 12,783 Forsyth 78.09% 18,734 21.91% 5,256 56.18% 13,478 Harnett 77.98% 8,018 22.02% 2,264 55.96% 5,754 Washington 77.80% 1,875 22.20% 535 55.60% 1,340 Tyrrell 77.53% 1,049 22.47% 304 55.06% 745 Rowan 74.84% 12,808 25.16% 4,306 49.68% 8,502 Iredell 74.76% 11,308 25.24% 3,817 49.53% 7,491 Alamance 74.13% 11,025 25.87% 3,847 48.27% 7,178 Guilford 72.89% 25,579 27.11% 9,514 45.78% 16,065 Orange 72.75% 3,860 27.25% 1,446 45.50% 2,414 Johnston 72.17% 11,253 27.83% 4,339 44.34% 6,914 Dare 71.93% 1,389 28.07% 542 43.86% 847 Buncombe 71.40% 23,646 28.60% 9,470 42.81% 14,176 Haywood 71.05% 8,175 28.95% 3,331 42.10% 4,844 Rutherford 67.23% 9,911 32.77% 4,830 34.47% 5,081 Chatham 66.71% 4,373 33.29% 2,182 33.42% 2,191 Carteret 66.68% 3,780 33.32% 1,889 33.36% 1,891 Caldwell 66.56% 6,809 33.44% 3,421 33.12% 3,388 Pamlico 65.42% 1,627 34.58% 860 30.84% 767 Surry 64.95% 8,833 35.05% 4,766 29.91% 4,067 Moore 64.29% 4,466 35.71% 2,481 28.57% 1,985 Catawba 63.30% 11,017 36.70% 6,387 26.60% 4,630 McDowell 63.22% 5,352 36.78% 3,114 26.44% 2,238 Brunswick 62.51% 2,710 37.49% 1,625 25.03% 1,085 Lincoln 61.17% 5,515 38.83% 3,501 22.34% 2,014 Alleghany 61.02% 2,345 38.98% 1,498 22.04% 847 Jackson 59.94% 4,580 40.06% 3,061 19.88% 1,519 Stanly 58.99% 6,505 41.01% 4,523 17.97% 1,982 Transylvania 58.71% 2,845 41.29% 2,001 17.42% 844 Davidson 58.62% 10,844 41.38% 7,656 17.23% 3,188 Polk 58.42% 2,521 41.58% 1,794 16.85% 727 Montgomery 58.16% 3,484 41.84% 2,506 16.33% 978 Burke 57.52% 7,454 42.48% 5,506 15.03% 1,948 Stokes 57.36% 4,384 42.64% 3,259 14.72% 1,125 Yancey 57.24% 3,603 42.76% 2,691 14.49% 912 Alexander 57.10% 3,262 42.90% 2,451 14.20% 811 Macon 56.45% 3,311 43.55% 2,554 12.91% 757 Swain 55.69% 2,619 44.31% 2,084 11.38% 535 Ashe 54.92% 5,552 45.08% 4,557 9.84% 995 Sampson 54.54% 5,937 45.46% 4,948 9.09% 989 Randolph 53.87% 8,090 46.13% 6,927 7.74% 1,163 Watauga 53.23% 3,880 46.77% 3,409 6.46% 471 Henderson 52.99% 5,747 47.01% 5,099 5.97% 648 Graham 52.64% 1,473 47.36% 1,325 5.29% 148 Cherokee 51.94% 3,473 48.06% 3,214 3.87% 259 Davie 49.74% 2,476 50.26% 2,502 -0.52% -26 Clay 46.77% 1,340 53.23% 1,525 -6.46% -185 Wilkes 43.77% 6,506 56.23% 8,358 -12.46% -1,852 Yadkin 43.31% 3,209 56.69% 4,200 -13.38% -991 Madison 38.06% 3,133 61.94% 5,099 -23.88% -1,966 Mitchell 33.29% 1,687 66.71% 3,380 -33.41% -1,693 Avery 22.02% 839 77.98% 2,971 -55.96% -2,132

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican Clay

Notes

References