1928 United States presidential election in New Mexico

The 1928 United States presidential election in New Mexico took place on November 6, 1928. All contemporary forty-eight states were part of the 1928 United States presidential election. State voters chose three electors to represent them in the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1928 United States presidential election in New Mexico

November 6, 1928

Nominee Herbert Hoover Al Smith Party Republican Democratic Home state California New York Running mate Charles Curtis Joseph T. Robinson Electoral vote 3 0 Popular vote 69,645 48,211 Percentage 59.0% 40.9%

County Results Hoover   50-60%   60-70%   70-80% Smith   50-60%

President before election Calvin Coolidge Republican Elected President Herbert Hoover Republican

Background

New Mexico had in its early history as a state shown itself, like all of the West at the time, to be very much a swing state, having backed Woodrow Wilson twice in 1912 and 1916 and then backed Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge in their landslide 1920 and 1924 victories. During this era – and indeed since the 1870s – New Mexico was divided between largely Republican machine-run highland regions and its firmly Southern Democrat Baptist "Little Texas" region in its east.[1]

However, the nomination of Catholic Al Smith on the first ballot after almost all other Democrats sat the election out[2] challenged the status quo. Fear ensued in the South, which had no experience of the Southern and Eastern European Catholic immigrants who were Smith's local constituency. Southern fundamentalist Protestants believed that Smith would allow papal and priestly leadership in the United States, which Protestantism was a reaction against.[3] At the same time, there existed potential for a pro-Catholic swing in the traditional GOP Spanish-American mountain counties of the North.

Polls in July regarded New Mexico as "doubtful",[4] although these had taken little account of the religious issues that were to dominate the election.

Vote

New Mexico was won by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover over New York Governor Al Smith in a 18-point landslide.[5] In traditionally fiercely Democratic "Little Texas", anti-Catholic prejudice was identical to that which turned Texas and Oklahoma to Hoover[6] and Smith retained just one of the eleven counties that had voted for John W. Davis in 1924. In the mountain counties of traditional Republican strength, by contrast, Hoover losses proved minor, as the Catholic Hispanic areas could not identify with the urban New Yorker Smith.[7]

At this time the Republican Party was widely associated in the minds of many Americans with the economic success of the mid-1920s, although the post-Civil War Democratic stronghold in the Deep South was still evident by the time of this election.[8]

Results

Electoral results

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote		Electoral vote	Running mate
			Count	Percentage		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Electoral vote
Herbert Hoover	Republican	California	69,645	59.01%	3	Charles Curtis	Kansas	3
Alfred E. Smith	Democratic	New York	48,211	40.85%	0	Joseph Taylor Robinson	Arkansas	0
William Z. Foster	Workers'	Illinois	158	0.13%	0	Benjamin Gitlow	New York	0
Total			118,014	100%	3			3
Needed to win					266			266

Results by county

County	Herbert Clark Hoover[9] Republican		Alfred Emmanuel Smith[9] Democratic		William Z. Foster Workers'		Margin
	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#
Valencia	79.87%	3,500	20.10%	881	0.02%	1	59.77%	2,619
Chaves	69.48%	3,124	30.34%	1,364	0.18%	8	39.15%	1,760
San Juan	66.36%	1,436	33.46%	724	0.18%	4	32.90%	712
Catron	64.77%	774	35.15%	420	0.08%	1	29.62%	354
Torrance	64.54%	1,958	35.27%	1,070	0.20%	6	29.27%	888
Lincoln	64.32%	1,489	35.46%	821	0.22%	5	28.86%	668
Rio Arriba	62.67%	4,109	37.27%	2,444	0.06%	4	25.39%	1,665
McKinley	62.22%	2,075	37.39%	1,247	0.39%	13	24.83%	828
Union	61.21%	2,081	38.41%	1,306	0.38%	13	22.79%	775
Guadalupe	61.12%	1,718	38.88%	1,093	0.00%	0	22.23%	625
Santa Fe	60.25%	4,630	39.70%	3,051	0.05%	4	20.55%	1,579
Sandoval	59.44%	1,700	40.52%	1,159	0.03%	1	18.92%	541
San Miguel	59.26%	5,184	40.70%	3,560	0.05%	4	18.56%	1,624
Doña Ana	59.06%	3,141	40.79%	2,169	0.15%	8	18.28%	972
Eddy	57.11%	1,618	42.78%	1,212	0.11%	3	14.33%	406
Luna	56.80%	860	42.73%	647	0.46%	7	14.07%	213
Bernalillo	56.99%	8,725	42.92%	6,572	0.09%	14	14.06%	2,153
Taos	56.98%	2,441	43.00%	1,842	0.02%	1	13.98%	599
Colfax	56.29%	3,904	43.57%	3,022	0.14%	10	12.72%	882
Curry	56.16%	1,968	43.66%	1,530	0.17%	6	12.50%	438
Harding	55.72%	916	44.16%	726	0.12%	2	11.56%	190
Socorro	55.32%	1,940	44.60%	1,564	0.09%	3	10.72%	376
Sierra	53.79%	766	46.14%	657	0.07%	1	7.65%	109
Lea	52.96%	537	46.75%	474	0.30%	3	6.21%	63
Mora	52.62%	1,998	47.38%	1,799	0.00%	0	5.24%	199
Hidalgo	52.38%	561	47.53%	509	0.09%	1	4.86%	52
Otero	51.91%	1,250	47.67%	1,148	0.42%	10	4.24%	102
Roosevelt	51.10%	1,157	48.50%	1,098	0.40%	9	2.61%	59
Grant	50.69%	2,058	49.11%	1,994	0.20%	8	1.58%	64
Quay	50.26%	1,616	49.58%	1,594	0.16%	5	0.68%	22
De Baca	47.83%	474	51.87%	514	0.30%	3	-4.04%	-40

References

1. Chilton, Lance; New Mexico: A Guide to the Colorful State, p. 95 ISBN 0826307329
2. Warren, Kenneth F.; Encyclopedia of U.S. campaigns, elections, and electoral behavior: A-M, Volume 1, p. 620 ISBN 1412954894
3. Whisenhunt, Donald W.; President Herbert Hoover, p. 69 ISBN 1600214762
4. 'National Election Possibilities: Sixteen States Classed as Doubtful'; Barron's, July 30, 1928
5. "1928 Presidential General Election Results – New Mexico". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
6. Garcia, F. Chris and Hain, Paul L.; New Mexico Government, p. 226 ISBN 0826305601
7. Hodgson, Illa D. and Garthwaite, Eloyse M.; 'New Mexico's Early Elections: Statehood to New Deal'; New Mexico Historical Review, January 1, 1995; vol. 70, issue 1, pp. 29-46
8. Rutland, Robert Allen (1996). The Republicans. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-8262-1090-6.
9. Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; p. 305 ISBN 0405077114