1948 United States presidential election in Georgia

← 1944 November 2, 1948 (1948-11-02) 1952 →

Nominee Harry Truman Strom Thurmond Thomas E. Dewey Party Democratic Dixiecrat Republican Home state Missouri South Carolina New York Running mate Alben Barkley Fielding L. Wright Earl Warren Electoral vote 12 0 0 Popular vote 254,646 85,055 76,691 Percentage 60.81% 20.31% 18.31%

County Results Truman   30-40%   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%   80-90% Thurmond   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%   80-90% Dewey   40-50%   50-60%

President before election Harry Truman Democratic Elected President Harry Truman Democratic

Elections in Georgia
Federal government Presidential elections 1788–89 1792 1796 1800 1804 1808 1812 1816 1820 1824 1828 1832 1836 1840 1844 1848 1852 1856 1860 1868 1872 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 Presidential primaries Democratic 2000 2004 2008 2016 2020 2024 Republican 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 U.S. Senate elections 1789 1792 1793 1794 1795 1798 1799 1800 1804 1806 1813 1816 1818 1819 1823 1824 1825 1828 1834 1837 1840 1843 1846 1847 1852 1858 1867 1871 1873 1877 1879 1883 1885 1888 1891 1894 1896 1900 1902 1909 1913 1914 1918 1920 1924 1926 1930 1932 1936 1938 1942 1944 1948 1950 1954 1956 1960 1962 1966 1968 1972 1974 1978 1980 1984 1986 1990 1992 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2008 2010 2014 2016 2020 2022 2026 2028 U.S. House elections 1789 1791 1792 1794 1796 1798 1800 1802 1804 1806 1808 1810 1812 1814 1816 1818 1820 1822 1824 1826 1828 1830 1832 1834 1836 1838 1840 1842 1844 1846 1848 1851 1853 1855 1857 1859 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 6 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 4 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 Special elections Senate 1796 1806 1807 1809 1813 1816 1818 1819 1821 1824 1828 1829 1833 1835 1837 1845 1880 1882 1894 1907 1911 1914 1922 1932 1972 2000 2020 House At-large 1801 1802 1803 1806 1812 1813 1816 1819 1824 1829 1831 1835 1836 1837 1841 1843 1844 1st 1792 1827 1879 1906 1931 2nd 1827 1910 1913 1953 3rd 1846 1896 1932 4th 1871 1872 1918 1939 5th 1870 1929 1946 1977 2020 6th 1870 1932 1999 2017 7th 1958 1983 8th 1873 1882 1917 1940 9th 1875 1877 2010 10th 1895 1933 2007
State government State elections 2000 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 Gubernatorial elections 1825 1827 1829 1831 1833 1835 1837 1839 1841 1843 1845 1847 1849 1851 1853 1855 1868 1871 (sp) 1872 1876 1880 1882 1883 (sp) 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1946 1948 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026 Lieutenant gubernatorial elections 1990 1994 1998 2002 2018 2022 Secretary of State elections 2018 2022 Attorney General elections 2014 2018 2022 State Senate elections 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 House of Representatives elections 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 Judicial elections 2024 Special elections Governor 1871 1883 1948
Ballot measures 2004 Flag referendum Amendment 1 2020 Amendment 1 Amendment 2 Tax referendum
Atlanta City elections 2009 Mayoral elections 1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013 2017 2021 2025
Savannah Mayoral elections 2015 2019 2023
Mableton Mayoral elections 2023
v t e

The 1948 United States presidential election in Georgia took place on November 2, 1948, as part of the wider United States presidential election. Voters chose 12 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

With the exception of a handful of historically Unionist North Georgia counties – chiefly Fannin but also to a lesser extent Pickens, Gilmer and Towns – Georgia since the 1880s had been a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party. Disfranchisement of almost all African-Americans and most poor whites had made the Republican Party virtually nonexistent outside of local governments in those few hill counties, and the national Democratic Party served as the guardian of white supremacy against a Republican Party historically associated with memories of Reconstruction. The only competitive elections were Democratic primaries, which state laws restricted to whites on the grounds of the Democratic Party being legally a private club.^[1]

However, on February 2, 1948, incumbent President Harry S. Truman, fearing that the antidemocratic practices and racial discrimination of the South would severely denigrate the United States' reputation in the Cold War,^[2] launched the first Civil Rights bill since the end of Reconstruction, along with an executive order for desegregation of the military. Mississippi Governor Fielding Wright had already sounded a call for revolt, which he took to the Southern Governors Conference at Wakulla Springs, Florida,^[3] to say that calls for civil rights legislation by national Democrats would not be tolerated in Dixie.

After Truman was renominated at the 1948 Democratic National Convention, Southern Democrats walked out and convened at Birmingham, Alabama on July 17, nominating South Carolina Governor James Strom Thurmond for president and Mississippi Governor Fielding L. Wright for vice president.^[4] Given that Georgia had no threat from the Republican Party and a relatively high proportion of African Americans in its population, one would have expected Georgia to oppose Truman's civil rights platform and nominate Thurmond as the official Democratic Party candidate.^{[clarification needed]} However, leading "conservative" gubernatorial candidate Herman Talmadge had experienced the three governors controversy in 1947 which removed him from office^[a] until a special election was to be held concurrently with the presidential election.^[5] Herman consequently feared that if he supported Thurmond for president, Truman loyalists would challenge him for governor in the concurrent general election.

Thus, although most of the Talmadge faction was pro-Thurmond,^[6] it did not nominate as Democratic electors candidates pledged to support Thurmond and Fielding Wright, unlike the anti-Long faction in Louisiana.^[7] Thurmond and Wright thus had to take their place on the ballot as the "States' Rights" party. Interim Governor Thompson also played an important role in ensuring the "Democratic" label would be given to electors supporting the national ticket.^[8]

Because Southern senators and congressmen had their seniority to worry about as it determined places on committees, few of Georgia's congressmen would risk openly supporting Thurmond once Truman was established as the "Democratic" candidate.^[9] Consequently, Truman had no trouble carrying the state by 40.49%, and Thurmond gained a majority in just 10 of 159 counties. Almost all of these Thurmond counties were located adjacent to the South Carolina governor's home county of Edgefield, South Carolina, while in most counties north of Atlanta, Thurmond's percentage remained in single figures.^[8]

22% of white voters supported Thurmond.^[10]

Georgia's ballot access laws required parties to submit petitions with at least 5% of all registered voters. The legislature changed the laws to allow the Dixiecrats to appear and this also allowed the Progressives to appear as well. The electors were still required to submit an oath against communism. The Progressives had to replace seven electors who refused to take the oath.^[11]

• Dawson

• Burke
• Chattahoochee
• Columbia
• Glascock
• Jefferson
• Lee
• Lincoln
• McDuffie
• Twiggs
• Warren
• Effingham
• Richmond

• United States presidential elections in Georgia

• Black, Earl; Black, Merle (1992). The Vital South: How Presidents Are Elected. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674941306.
• Schmidt, Karl (1960). Henry A. Wallace: Quixotic Crusade 1948. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-0020-6.