1956 United States presidential election in California
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The 1956 United States presidential election in California took place in November 1956 as part of the 1956 United States presidential election. State voters chose 32 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
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November 6, 1956
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| Turnout | 86.56% (of registered voters)  0.29 pp 67.59% (of eligible voters) 6.48 pp[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 County Results
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The Democratic primary in California was seen as such a decisive win for Adlai Stevenson that it ended the insurgent Kefauver campaign.
California voted for the Republican incumbent, Dwight D. Eisenhower (with incumbent vice president and California native Richard Nixon as his running mate), in a landslide over the Democratic challenger, former Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson. However, Stevenson did improve his performance in California from four years previous. California's result was about 4.3% more Democratic than the nation-at-large.
As of the 2024 presidential election, this is the last presidential election in California where the Republican candidate won the counties of Alameda and San Francisco, both of which have become strongholds of the Democratic Party.
Results
| 1956 United States presidential election in California[4] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Partys | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Republican | Dwight D. Eisenhower (incumbent) | 3,027,668 | 55.39% | 32 | |
| Democratic | Adlai Stevenson | 2,420,135 | 44.27% | 0 | |
| Prohibition | Enoch A. Holtwick | 11,119 | 0.20% | 0 | |
| No party | T. Coleman Andrews (write-in) | 6,087 | 0.11% | 0 | |
| No party | Write-ins | 819 | 0.01% | 0 | |
| No party | Eric Hass (write-in) | 300 | 0.01% | 0 | |
| No party | Darlington Hoopes (write-in) | 123 | 0.00% | 0 | |
| No party | Farrell Dobbs (write-in) | 96 | 0.00% | 0 | |
| No party | Gerald L. K. Smith (write-in) | 8 | 0.00% | 0 | |
| Invalid or blank votes | — | ||||
| Totals | 5,466,355 | 100.00% | 32 | ||
| Voter turnout | — | ||||
Results by county
| County | Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican |
Adlai Stevenson Democratic |
Various candidates Other parties |
Margin | Total votes cast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Alameda | 192,911 | 52.40% | 174,033 | 47.27% | 1,187 | 0.33% | 18,878 | 5.13% | 368,131 |
| Alpine | 114 | 79.72% | 29 | 20.28% | 0 | 0.00% | 85 | 59.44% | 143 |
| Amador | 2,126 | 49.16% | 2,181 | 50.43% | 18 | 0.41% | -55 | -1.27% | 4,325 |
| Butte | 18,382 | 58.43% | 12,933 | 41.11% | 147 | 0.46% | 5,449 | 17.32% | 31,462 |
| Calaveras | 2,843 | 57.91% | 2,049 | 41.74% | 17 | 0.35% | 794 | 16.17% | 4,909 |
| Colusa | 2,474 | 53.23% | 2,171 | 46.71% | 3 | 0.06% | 303 | 6.52% | 4,648 |
| Contra Costa | 74,971 | 50.98% | 71,733 | 48.78% | 347 | 0.24% | 3,238 | 2.20% | 147,051 |
| Del Norte | 2,918 | 53.18% | 2,552 | 46.51% | 17 | 0.31% | 366 | 6.67% | 5,487 |
| El Dorado | 4,613 | 53.60% | 3,957 | 45.97% | 37 | 0.43% | 656 | 7.63% | 8,607 |
| Fresno | 51,611 | 43.33% | 67,234 | 56.44% | 270 | 0.23% | -15,623 | -13.11% | 119,115 |
| Glenn | 3,463 | 51.96% | 3,192 | 47.89% | 10 | 0.15% | 271 | 4.07% | 6,665 |
| Humboldt | 19,019 | 52.57% | 17,025 | 47.06% | 133 | 0.37% | 1,994 | 5.51% | 36,177 |
| Imperial | 10,526 | 56.05% | 8,197 | 43.65% | 58 | 0.30% | 2,329 | 12.40% | 18,781 |
| Inyo | 3,524 | 66.19% | 1,782 | 33.47% | 18 | 0.34% | 1,742 | 32.72% | 5,324 |
| Kern | 46,220 | 51.31% | 43,533 | 48.33% | 322 | 0.36% | 2,687 | 2.98% | 90,075 |
| Kings | 6,195 | 42.28% | 8,417 | 57.45% | 40 | 0.27% | -2,222 | -15.17% | 14,652 |
| Lake | 4,073 | 64.84% | 2,185 | 34.78% | 24 | 0.38% | 1,888 | 30.06% | 6,282 |
| Lassen | 2,533 | 42.48% | 3,412 | 57.22% | 18 | 0.30% | -879 | -14.74% | 5,963 |
| Los Angeles | 1,260,206 | 55.38% | 1,007,887 | 44.29% | 7,331 | 0.33% | 252,319 | 11.09% | 2,275,424 |
| Madera | 5,239 | 42.12% | 7,162 | 57.58% | 38 | 0.30% | -1,923 | -15.46% | 12,439 |
| Marin | 33,792 | 65.94% | 17,301 | 33.76% | 151 | 0.30% | 16,491 | 32.18% | 51,244 |
| Mariposa | 1,577 | 60.31% | 1,031 | 39.43% | 7 | 0.26% | 546 | 20.88% | 2,615 |
| Mendocino | 10,327 | 56.94% | 7,767 | 42.82% | 43 | 0.24% | 2,560 | 14.12% | 18,137 |
| Merced | 11,430 | 45.99% | 13,366 | 53.78% | 56 | 0.23% | -1,936 | -7.79% | 24,852 |
| Modoc | 1,981 | 53.21% | 1,729 | 46.44% | 13 | 0.35% | 252 | 6.77% | 3,723 |
| Mono | 673 | 73.79% | 237 | 25.99% | 2 | 0.22% | 436 | 47.80% | 912 |
| Monterey | 29,514 | 59.54% | 19,932 | 40.21% | 127 | 0.25% | 9,582 | 19.33% | 49,573 |
| Napa | 13,610 | 55.93% | 10,623 | 43.66% | 100 | 0.41% | 2,987 | 12.27% | 24,333 |
| Nevada | 5,475 | 59.69% | 3,667 | 39.98% | 31 | 0.33% | 1,808 | 19.71% | 9,173 |
| Orange | 113,510 | 66.82% | 54,895 | 32.31% | 1,474 | 0.87% | 58,615 | 34.51% | 169,879 |
| Placer | 9,059 | 45.89% | 10,611 | 53.76% | 69 | 0.35% | -1,552 | -7.87% | 19,739 |
| Plumas | 2,267 | 41.87% | 3,127 | 57.75% | 21 | 0.38% | -860 | -15.88% | 5,415 |
| Riverside | 56,766 | 62.16% | 34,098 | 37.34% | 465 | 0.50% | 22,668 | 24.82% | 91,329 |
| Sacramento | 67,686 | 45.10% | 82,134 | 54.73% | 260 | 0.17% | -14,448 | -9.63% | 150,080 |
| San Benito | 3,252 | 59.53% | 2,201 | 40.29% | 10 | 0.18% | 1,051 | 19.24% | 5,463 |
| San Bernardino | 86,263 | 56.88% | 64,946 | 42.83% | 443 | 0.29% | 21,317 | 14.05% | 151,652 |
| San Diego | 195,742 | 64.47% | 106,716 | 35.15% | 1,147 | 0.38% | 89,026 | 29.32% | 303,605 |
| San Francisco | 173,648 | 51.53% | 161,766 | 48.01% | 1,553 | 0.46% | 11,882 | 3.52% | 336,967 |
| San Joaquin | 44,491 | 54.52% | 36,941 | 45.27% | 168 | 0.21% | 7,550 | 9.25% | 81,600 |
| San Luis Obispo | 16,223 | 58.47% | 11,407 | 41.11% | 118 | 0.42% | 4,816 | 17.36% | 27,748 |
| San Mateo | 100,049 | 61.04% | 63,637 | 38.83% | 217 | 0.13% | 36,412 | 22.21% | 163,903 |
| Santa Barbara | 31,294 | 64.55% | 16,925 | 34.91% | 265 | 0.54% | 14,369 | 29.64% | 48,484 |
| Santa Clara | 105,657 | 59.09% | 72,528 | 40.56% | 633 | 0.35% | 33,129 | 18.53% | 178,818 |
| Santa Cruz | 22,109 | 63.58% | 12,574 | 36.16% | 93 | 0.26% | 9,535 | 27.42% | 34,776 |
| Shasta | 8,833 | 43.84% | 11,239 | 55.78% | 77 | 0.38% | -2,406 | -11.94% | 20,149 |
| Sierra | 638 | 50.55% | 620 | 49.13% | 4 | 0.32% | 18 | 1.42% | 1,262 |
| Siskiyou | 6,841 | 49.79% | 6,837 | 49.76% | 63 | 0.45% | 4 | 0.03% | 13,741 |
| Solano | 17,865 | 41.68% | 24,903 | 58.10% | 95 | 0.22% | -7,038 | -16.42% | 42,863 |
| Sonoma | 33,659 | 61.92% | 20,616 | 37.92% | 86 | 0.16% | 13,043 | 24.00% | 54,361 |
| Stanislaus | 26,695 | 48.60% | 28,040 | 51.05% | 192 | 0.35% | -1,345 | -2.45% | 54,927 |
| Sutter | 6,327 | 62.79% | 3,673 | 36.45% | 77 | 0.76% | 2,654 | 26.34% | 10,077 |
| Tehama | 4,866 | 53.82% | 4,143 | 45.82% | 33 | 0.36% | 723 | 8.00% | 9,042 |
| Trinity | 1,447 | 50.42% | 1,406 | 48.99% | 17 | 0.59% | 41 | 1.43% | 2,870 |
| Tulare | 26,051 | 52.50% | 23,407 | 47.17% | 160 | 0.33% | 2,644 | 5.33% | 49,618 |
| Tuolumne | 3,619 | 52.12% | 3,310 | 47.67% | 14 | 0.21% | 309 | 4.45% | 6,943 |
| Ventura | 26,342 | 49.92% | 26,276 | 49.80% | 149 | 0.28% | 66 | 0.12% | 52,767 |
| Yolo | 9,347 | 47.99% | 10,075 | 51.72% | 57 | 0.29% | -728 | -3.73% | 19,479 |
| Yuba | 4,782 | 55.76% | 3,767 | 43.92% | 27 | 0.32% | 1,015 | 11.84% | 8,576 |
| Total | 3,027,668 | 55.39% | 2,420,135 | 44.27% | 18,552 | 0.34% | 607,533 | 11.12% | 5,466,355 |