1916 United States presidential election in Utah

The 1916 United States presidential election in Utah took place on November 7, 1916. All contemporary forty-eight states were part of the 1916 United States presidential election. State voters chose four electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. This was the first election featuring as a distinct voting unit Duchesne County, which had been split from Wasatch County in 1915.

1916 United States presidential election in Utah

← 1912 November 7, 1916 1920 →
 
Nominee Woodrow Wilson Charles Evans Hughes
Party Democratic Republican
Home state New Jersey New York
Running mate Thomas R. Marshall Charles W. Fairbanks
Electoral vote 4 0
Popular vote 84,145 54,137
Percentage 58.78% 37.82%

County Results
Wilson
  50–60%
  60–70%


President before election

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic

Elected President

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic

In the preceding 1912 presidential election, Utah had been one of only two states (the other being strongly Republican Vermont) to give a plurality to incumbent President William Howard Taft. However, in contrast to the East where supporters of Theodore Roosevelt's "Bull Moose" Party rapidly returned to the Republicans, in the Mountain States many if not most of these supporters turned to the Democratic Party not only in presidential elections, but also in state and federal legislative ones.[1] Another factor helping Wilson was a powerful "peace vote" in the Western states[2] due to opposition to participation in World War I, and a third was that a considerable part of the substantial vote for Socialist candidate Eugene Debs from the previous election was turned over to Wilson owing to such progressive reforms as the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments.[1] A fourth factor was that Taft had support from the Mormon hierarchy that commanded the loyalty of most of Utah's population – which caused Utah to remain largely loyal to him amidst the GOP split – but the LDS Church did not maintain support with Hughes.[1]

The combined result was that Wilson was able to make Utah his second-strongest victory outside of the "Solid South" – in a state that four years previously had given him his seventh-lowest popular vote proportion.[3] Utah was his eleventh-best state overall and voted 17.83 percentage points more Democratic than the nation at-large. Wilson swept every county in the state, including rock-ribbed Republican Kane County, which had been Taft's third-strongest county nationwide in 1912,[4] which has never otherwise supported a Democrat for president,[2] and where otherwise only William Jennings Bryan in 1896 and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 have as Democrats received so much as one-third of the vote. This is the only time a Democrat swept every county in the state.

Results

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1916 United States presidential election in Utah[5]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Woodrow Wilson (incumbent) 84,145 58.78% 4
Republican Charles Evans Hughes 54,137 37.82% 0
Socialist Allan L. Benson 4,460 3.12% 0
Prohibition Frank Hanly 149 0.10% 0
Socialist Labor Arthur E. Reimer 144 0.10% 0
Progressive Party No candidate 111 0.08% 0
Totals 143,146 100.00% 4

Results by county

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County Thomas Woodrow Wilson
Democratic
Charles Evans Hughes
Republican
Allan Louis Benson[6]
Socialist
Various candidates[6]
Other parties
Margin Total votes cast[7]
# % # % # % # % # %
Beaver 1,291 58.84% 842 38.38% 61 2.78% 0 0.00% 449 20.46% 2,194
Box Elder 2,957 54.68% 2,416 44.67% 34 0.65% 1 0.02% 541 10.01% 5,408
Cache 5,305 58.03% 3,756 41.09% 75 0.89% 6 0.07% 1,549 16.94% 9,142
Carbon 1,478 50.43% 1,301 44.39% 147 5.19% 5 0.17% 177 6.04% 2,931
Davis 2,131 56.08% 1,641 43.18% 22 0.74% 6 0.16% 490 12.90% 3,800
Duchesne 1,443 56.61% 687 26.95% 410 16.44% 9 0.35% 756 29.66% 2,549
Emery 1,406 58.68% 896 37.40% 88 3.92% 6 0.25% 510 21.28% 2,396
Garfield 843 61.26% 516 37.50% 16 1.24% 1 0.07% 327 23.76% 1,376
Grand 306 56.77% 213 39.52% 19 3.71% 1 0.19% 93 17.25% 539
Iron 1,156 56.09% 825 40.03% 76 3.88% 4 0.19% 331 16.06% 2,061
Juab 2,221 61.30% 1,248 34.45% 151 4.25% 3 0.08% 973 26.85% 3,623
Kane 329 50.85% 304 46.99% 14 2.16% 0 0.00% 25 3.86% 647
Millard 1,804 56.23% 1,293 40.31% 94 3.46% 17 0.53% 511 15.92% 3,208
Morgan 484 50.63% 464 48.54% 8 0.84% 0 0.00% 20 2.09% 956
Piute 417 56.20% 269 36.25% 55 7.55% 1 0.13% 148 19.95% 742
Rich 454 58.28% 325 41.72% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 129 16.56% 779
Salt Lake 30,707 61.18% 17,593 35.05% 1,778 3.76% 111 0.22% 13,114 26.13% 50,189
San Juan 448 66.27% 213 31.51% 15 2.22% 0 0.00% 235 34.76% 676
Sanpete 3,382 52.34% 2,918 45.16% 78 2.51% 84 1.30% 464 7.18% 6,462
Sevier 2,052 53.44% 1,720 44.79% 67 1.77% 1 0.03% 332 8.65% 3,840
Summit 1,495 50.92% 1,195 40.70% 240 8.38% 7 0.24% 300 10.22% 2,936
Tooele 1,528 55.20% 1,124 40.61% 113 4.19% 3 0.11% 404 14.59% 2,768
Uintah 1,459 64.10% 712 31.28% 94 4.61% 11 0.48% 747 32.82% 2,276
Utah 8,235 59.30% 5,201 37.45% 410 3.25% 41 0.30% 3,034 21.85% 13,887
Wasatch 885 51.57% 817 47.61% 14 0.82% 0 0.00% 68 3.96% 1,716
Washington 1,397 66.40% 703 33.41% 4 0.19% 0 0.00% 694 32.99% 2,104
Wayne 393 62.68% 225 35.89% 9 1.44% 0 0.00% 168 26.79% 627
Weber 8,139 61.14% 4,720 35.45% 368 3.41% 86 0.65% 3,419 25.69% 13,313
Totals 84,145 58.78% 54,137 37.82% 4,460 3.12% 404 0.28% 30,008 20.96% 143,145

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Sarasohn, David; 'The Election of 1916: Realigning the Rockies', Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 3 (July 1980), pp. 285-305
  2. ^ a b Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 47 ISBN 0786422173
  3. ^ Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas; 1912 Presidential General Election Data – National by State: Sorted by Vote Percentage for Wilson
  4. ^ Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas; 1912 Presidential Election Statistics
  5. ^ "1916 Presidential General Election Results – Utah". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
  6. ^ a b Utah State Elections Office; Abstract of the Returns of an Election Held in the State of Utah, Tuesday, November 7th, A.D. 1916
  7. ^ Robinson, Edgar Eugene; The Presidential Vote 1896-1932, pp. 350-352 ISBN 9780804716963