Main article: 1940 United States presidential election
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 County Results
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The 1940 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 5, 1940. All contemporary 48 states were part of the 1940 United States presidential election. State voters chose five electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president. Maine was won by Republican businessman Wendell Willkie of New York, who was running against incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York. Willkie ran with Senator Charles L. McNary of Oregon while Roosevelt ran with Henry A. Wallace of Iowa.
Willkie won Maine by a narrow margin of 2.33%. This was a swing of 11.66% to Roosevelt during an election where he lost eight states and almost 700 counties that had supported him four years earlier, mostly because of Midwestern German-American opposition to increasing "tension" with Nazi Germany. However, the Atlanticist tendencies of Yankee and French-Canadian Maine and support for aid to the United Kingdom and France in World War II led to substantial gains for Roosevelt in the state. Maine was one of six states that swung more Democratic compared to 1936, alongside Delaware, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and North Carolina.
This was the first time that Kennebec County (home of Augusta, the state capital) had ever voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.
Results
| 1940 United States presidential election in Maine | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Popular vote | Electoral vote | ||||
| Count | % | Count | % | |||||
| Republican | Wendell Willkie of New York | Charles Linza McNary of Oregon | 163,951 | 51.10% | 5 | 100.00% | ||
| Democratic | Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York | Henry Agard Wallace of Iowa | 156,478 | 48.77% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Communist | Earl Russell Browder of Kansas | James W. Ford of New York | 411 | 0.13% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Total | 320,840 | 100.00% | 5 | 100.00% | ||||
Results by county
| County | Wendell Lewis Willkie Republican |
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Democratic |
Earl Russell Browder Communist |
Margin | Total votes cast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Androscoggin | 10,394 | 34.99% | 19,273 | 64.88% | 40 | 0.13% | -8,879 | -29.89% | 29,707 |
| Aroostook | 13,888 | 58.34% | 9,877 | 41.49% | 39 | 0.16% | 4,011 | 16.85% | 23,804 |
| Cumberland | 29,795 | 52.47% | 26,911 | 47.39% | 76 | 0.13% | 2,884 | 5.08% | 56,782 |
| Franklin | 4,548 | 58.47% | 3,224 | 41.44% | 7 | 0.09% | 1,324 | 17.02% | 7,779 |
| Hancock | 8,539 | 66.36% | 4,315 | 33.54% | 13 | 0.10% | 4,224 | 32.83% | 12,867 |
| Kennebec | 14,877 | 48.36% | 15,861 | 51.56% | 27 | 0.09% | -984 | -3.20% | 30,765 |
| Knox | 6,530 | 60.76% | 4,197 | 39.05% | 20 | 0.19% | 2,333 | 21.71% | 10,747 |
| Lincoln | 5,244 | 68.42% | 2,415 | 31.51% | 5 | 0.07% | 2,829 | 36.91% | 7,664 |
| Oxford | 8,656 | 53.49% | 7,502 | 46.36% | 25 | 0.15% | 1,154 | 7.13% | 16,183 |
| Penobscot | 18,674 | 55.79% | 14,757 | 44.09% | 40 | 0.12% | 3,917 | 11.70% | 33,471 |
| Piscataquis | 3,806 | 52.05% | 3,499 | 47.85% | 7 | 0.10% | 307 | 4.20% | 7,312 |
| Sagadahoc | 3,504 | 43.30% | 4,575 | 56.54% | 13 | 0.16% | -1,071 | -13.24% | 8,092 |
| Somerset | 7,526 | 53.42% | 6,534 | 46.38% | 28 | 0.20% | 992 | 7.04% | 14,088 |
| Waldo | 5,170 | 61.56% | 3,214 | 38.27% | 14 | 0.17% | 1,956 | 23.29% | 8,398 |
| Washington | 6,253 | 43.65% | 8,048 | 56.18% | 25 | 0.17% | -1,795 | -12.53% | 14,326 |
| York | 16,547 | 42.59% | 22,276 | 57.33% | 32 | 0.08% | -5,729 | -14.74% | 38,855 |
| Totals | 163,951 | 51.10% | 156,478 | 48.77% | 411 | 0.13% | 7,473 | 2.33% | 320,840 |
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic
See also
References
- Dunn, Susan; 1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler–the Election Amid the Storm, p. 107 ISBN 0300190867
- Phillips, Kevin; The Emerging Republican Majority; p. 93 ISBN 1400852293
- Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 68 ISBN 0786422173
- "1940 Presidential General Election Results – Maine". U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
- Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; p. 203 ISBN 0405077114
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