1900 United States presidential election in Tennessee

The 1900 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 6, 1900. All contemporary 45 states were part of the 1900 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose 12 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

1900 United States presidential election in Tennessee

November 6, 1900
 
Nominee William J. Bryan William McKinley
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Nebraska Ohio
Running mate Adlai Stevenson I Theodore Roosevelt
Electoral vote 12 0
Popular vote 145,240 123,108
Percentage 53.03% 44.95%

County Results

President before election

William McKinley
Republican

Elected President

William McKinley
Republican

Background

For over a century after the Civil War, Tennessee’s white citizenry was divided according to partisan loyalties established in that war. Unionist regions covering almost all of East Tennessee, Kentucky Pennyroyal-allied Macon County, and the five West Tennessee Highland Rim counties of Carroll, Henderson, McNairy, Hardin and Wayne[1] voted Republican – generally by landslide margins – as they saw the Democratic Party as the “war party” who had forced them into a war they did not wish to fight.[2] Contrariwise, the rest of Middle and West Tennessee who had supported and driven the state’s secession was equally fiercely Democratic as it associated the Republicans with Reconstruction.[3] After the state’s white landowning class re-established its rule in the early 1870s, blacks and Unionist whites combined to give a competitive political system for two decades,[4] although in this era the Republicans could only capture statewide offices when the Democratic Party was divided on this issue of payment of state debt.[4]

White Democrats in West Tennessee were always aiming to eliminate black political influence, which they first attempted to do by election fraud in the middle 1880s and did so much more successfully at the end of that decade by instituting in counties with significant black populations a secret ballot that prevented illiterates voting,[5] and a poll tax throughout the state, which cut turnout by at least a third in the 1890s.[6] Although the poll tax was supposedly relaxed or paid by party officials in Unionist Republican areas,[6] turnout would continue to decline seriously in later years, although overall presidential partisan percentages did not change substantially as the GOP attempted to attract Democrats who would benefit from tariffs.[7]

For the 1900 presidential election, a rematch of the fiercely contested 1896 campaign, neither Republican William McKinley nor Democrat William Jennings Bryan campaigned in Tennessee, and by the fourth week of October the state was generally contested, as it had consistently gone since 1872, to the Democrats.[8]

Vote

Bryan ultimately carried Tennessee by a margin of 8.08 percent, an increase of 2.32 percent on his 1896 margin over McKinley, a small change but a substantial one given the extremely deep partisan loyalties of white Tennesseeans. His increased margin reflected more complete black disenfranchisement and reduced suspicion of his free-silver policies in the major urban areas, which saw him carry normally Republican Knox County.

Results

1900 United States presidential election in Tennessee[9]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic William Jennings Bryan 145,240 53.03% 12
Republican William McKinley 123,108 44.95% 0
Prohibition John Woolley 3,844 1.40% 0
Populist Wharton Barker 1,322 0.48% 0
Social Democratic Eugene Debs 346 0.13% 0
Totals 273,860 100.00% 12
Voter turnout

Results by county

County William Jennings Bryan[10]
Democratic
William McKinley[10]
Republican
John Granville Woolley[10]
Prohibition
Wharton Barker[10]
Populist
Eugene Victor Debs[10]
Social Democratic
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # % # %
Anderson 732 26.73% 1,997 72.91% 10 0.37% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -1,265 -46.18% 2,739
Bedford 2,176 60.70% 1,357 37.85% 42 1.17% 10 0.28% 0 0.00% 819 22.85% 3,585
Benton 1,385 63.77% 720 33.15% 25 1.15% 42 1.93% 0 0.00% 665 30.62% 2,172
Bledsoe 498 40.32% 734 59.43% 3 0.24% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -236 -19.11% 1,235
Blount 825 26.74% 2,201 71.35% 59 1.91% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -1,376 -44.60% 3,085
Bradley 909 35.51% 1,579 61.68% 72 2.81% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -670 -26.17% 2,560
Campbell 479 17.54% 2,189 80.15% 42 1.54% 0 0.00% 21 0.77% -1,710 -62.61% 2,731
Cannon 1,213 60.95% 775 38.94% 2 0.10% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 438 22.01% 1,990
Carroll 1,931 41.64% 2,516 54.26% 55 1.19% 135 2.91% 0 0.00% -585 -12.62% 4,637
Carter 408 12.72% 2,763 86.13% 37 1.15% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -2,355 -73.41% 3,208
Cheatham 1,190 71.82% 440 26.55% 24 1.45% 3 0.18% 0 0.00% 750 45.26% 1,657
Chester 894 53.21% 702 41.79% 8 0.48% 76 4.52% 0 0.00% 192 11.43% 1,680
Claiborne 770 43.68% 987 55.98% 6 0.34% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -217 -12.31% 1,763
Clay 830 61.25% 498 36.75% 12 0.89% 11 0.81% 4 0.30% 332 24.50% 1,355
Cocke 1,001 29.69% 2,360 70.01% 10 0.30% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -1,359 -40.31% 3,371
Coffee 1,660 70.34% 624 26.44% 45 1.91% 2 0.08% 29 1.23% 1,036 43.90% 2,360
Crockett 1,428 56.62% 1,050 41.63% 41 1.63% 0 0.00% 3 0.12% 378 14.99% 2,522
Cumberland 405 34.67% 750 64.21% 13 1.11% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -345 -29.54% 1,168
Davidson 6,869 70.81% 2,501 25.78% 232 2.39% 31 0.32% 67 0.69% 4,368 45.03% 9,700
DeKalb 1,528 50.43% 1,442 47.59% 60 1.98% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 86 2.84% 3,030
Decatur 909 50.53% 890 49.47% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 19 1.06% 1,799
Dickson 1,691 62.47% 964 35.61% 39 1.44% 10 0.37% 3 0.11% 727 26.86% 2,707
Dyer 1,975 71.87% 728 26.49% 45 1.64% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,247 45.38% 2,748
Fayette 2,282 71.31% 885 27.66% 20 0.63% 12 0.38% 1 0.03% 1,397 43.66% 3,200
Fentress 320 29.01% 782 70.90% 1 0.09% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -462 -41.89% 1,103
Franklin 2,196 76.49% 613 21.35% 62 2.16% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,583 55.14% 2,871
Gibson 3,376 64.97% 1,509 29.04% 257 4.95% 54 1.04% 0 0.00% 1,867 35.93% 5,196
Giles 2,790 61.43% 1,703 37.49% 26 0.57% 23 0.51% 0 0.00% 1,087 23.93% 4,542
Grainger 960 34.68% 1,802 65.10% 6 0.22% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -842 -30.42% 2,768
Greene 2,868 47.89% 3,091 51.61% 30 0.50% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -223 -3.72% 5,989
Grundy 852 69.72% 357 29.21% 13 1.06% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 495 40.51% 1,222
Hamblen 959 41.52% 1,322 57.23% 29 1.26% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -363 -15.71% 2,310
Hamilton 3,188 42.57% 3,943 52.66% 257 3.43% 39 0.52% 61 0.81% -755 -10.08% 7,488
Hancock 382 21.09% 1,429 78.91% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -1,047 -57.81% 1,811
Hardeman 1,974 59.42% 1,336 40.22% 3 0.09% 9 0.27% 0 0.00% 638 19.21% 3,322
Hardin 1,159 45.88% 1,367 54.12% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -208 -8.23% 2,526
Hawkins 1,867 42.38% 2,515 57.09% 22 0.50% 1 0.02% 0 0.00% -648 -14.71% 4,405
Haywood 1,452 85.87% 214 12.66% 16 0.95% 4 0.24% 5 0.30% 1,238 73.21% 1,691
Henderson 1,308 39.87% 1,925 58.67% 42 1.28% 6 0.18% 0 0.00% -617 -18.81% 3,281
Henry 2,605 70.92% 929 25.29% 103 2.80% 26 0.71% 10 0.27% 1,676 45.63% 3,673
Hickman 1,292 58.22% 894 40.29% 9 0.41% 24 1.08% 0 0.00% 398 17.94% 2,219
Houston 738 66.85% 341 30.89% 25 2.26% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 397 35.96% 1,104
Humphreys 1,561 69.78% 614 27.45% 54 2.41% 4 0.18% 4 0.18% 947 42.33% 2,237
Jackson 1,479 61.12% 935 38.64% 0 0.00% 6 0.25% 0 0.00% 544 22.48% 2,420
James 283 32.01% 598 67.65% 3 0.34% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -315 -35.63% 884
Jefferson 816 25.67% 2,347 73.83% 16 0.50% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -1,531 -48.16% 3,179
Johnson 189 10.42% 1,618 89.20% 7 0.39% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -1,429 -78.78% 1,814
Knox 4,389 51.08% 3,982 46.35% 120 1.40% 47 0.55% 54 0.63% 407 4.74% 8,592
Lake 558 73.52% 201 26.48% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 357 47.04% 759
Lauderdale 1,807 78.46% 437 18.98% 24 1.04% 35 1.52% 0 0.00% 1,370 59.49% 2,303
Lawrence 1,480 52.73% 1,327 47.27% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 153 5.45% 2,807
Lewis 400 66.23% 202 33.44% 2 0.33% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 198 32.78% 604
Lincoln 2,463 72.19% 728 21.34% 168 4.92% 53 1.55% 0 0.00% 1,735 50.85% 3,412
Loudon 512 31.28% 1,116 68.17% 7 0.43% 2 0.12% 0 0.00% -604 -36.90% 1,637
Macon 871 39.66% 1,325 60.34% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -454 -20.67% 2,196
Madison 2,379 64.84% 1,147 31.26% 15 0.41% 123 3.35% 5 0.14% 1,232 33.58% 3,669
Marion 1,234 43.73% 1,585 56.17% 3 0.11% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -351 -12.44% 2,822
Marshall 2,184 69.27% 763 24.20% 95 3.01% 111 3.52% 0 0.00% 1,421 45.07% 3,153
Maury 3,325 56.42% 2,491 42.27% 53 0.90% 24 0.41% 0 0.00% 834 14.15% 5,893
McMinn 1,289 37.90% 2,057 60.48% 52 1.53% 3 0.09% 0 0.00% -768 -22.58% 3,401
McNairy 1,443 48.37% 1,498 50.22% 7 0.23% 35 1.17% 0 0.00% -55 -1.84% 2,983
Meigs 701 52.83% 619 46.65% 2 0.15% 5 0.38% 0 0.00% 82 6.18% 1,327
Monroe 1,634 47.40% 1,743 50.57% 69 2.00% 1 0.03% 0 0.00% -109 -3.16% 3,447
Montgomery 2,248 51.30% 1,815 41.42% 318 7.26% 1 0.02% 0 0.00% 433 9.88% 4,382
Moore 838 91.09% 66 7.17% 16 1.74% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 772 83.91% 920
Morgan 421 28.45% 1,053 71.15% 6 0.41% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -632 -42.70% 1,480
Obion 2,722 74.78% 771 21.18% 127 3.49% 20 0.55% 0 0.00% 1,951 53.60% 3,640
Overton 1,443 65.38% 764 34.62% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 679 30.77% 2,207
Perry 851 57.89% 608 41.36% 0 0.00% 11 0.75% 0 0.00% 243 16.53% 1,470
Pickett 345 40.16% 514 59.84% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -169 -19.67% 859
Polk 737 44.83% 906 55.11% 0 0.00% 1 0.06% 0 0.00% -169 -10.28% 1,644
Putnam 1,452 57.76% 1,058 42.08% 4 0.16% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 394 15.67% 2,514
Rhea 798 47.93% 832 49.97% 33 1.98% 1 0.06% 1 0.06% -34 -2.04% 1,665
Roane 740 22.06% 2,429 72.42% 148 4.41% 14 0.42% 23 0.69% -1,689 -50.36% 3,354
Robertson 2,564 68.10% 1,128 29.96% 67 1.78% 6 0.16% 0 0.00% 1,436 38.14% 3,765
Rutherford 2,517 62.29% 1,429 35.36% 13 0.32% 82 2.03% 0 0.00% 1,088 26.92% 4,041
Scott 171 10.23% 1,498 89.59% 3 0.18% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -1,327 -79.37% 1,672
Sequatchie 375 62.71% 216 36.12% 7 1.17% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 159 26.59% 598
Sevier 382 12.81% 2,595 86.99% 6 0.20% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -2,213 -74.19% 2,983
Shelby 5,143 62.50% 2,961 35.98% 42 0.51% 32 0.39% 51 0.62% 2,182 26.52% 8,229
Smith 1,940 61.16% 1,118 35.25% 80 2.52% 34 1.07% 0 0.00% 822 25.91% 3,172
Stewart 1,577 65.93% 793 33.15% 20 0.84% 2 0.08% 0 0.00% 784 32.78% 2,392
Sullivan 2,421 57.42% 1,739 41.25% 55 1.30% 1 0.02% 0 0.00% 682 16.18% 4,216
Sumner 2,589 75.68% 776 22.68% 26 0.76% 26 0.76% 4 0.12% 1,813 53.00% 3,421
Tipton 1,887 58.55% 1,308 40.58% 8 0.25% 20 0.62% 0 0.00% 579 17.96% 3,223
Trousdale 675 72.82% 222 23.95% 3 0.32% 27 2.91% 0 0.00% 453 48.87% 927
Unicoi 76 8.29% 822 89.64% 19 2.07% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -746 -81.35% 917
Union 566 27.22% 1,501 72.20% 12 0.58% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -935 -44.97% 2,079
Van Buren 425 73.40% 153 26.42% 1 0.17% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 272 46.98% 579
Warren 1,926 74.13% 672 25.87% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,254 48.27% 2,598
Washington 1,496 36.98% 2,488 61.51% 60 1.48% 1 0.02% 0 0.00% -992 -24.52% 4,045
Wayne 576 28.94% 1,405 70.60% 8 0.40% 1 0.05% 0 0.00% -829 -41.66% 1,990
Weakley 3,609 62.74% 1,990 34.60% 123 2.14% 30 0.52% 0 0.00% 1,619 28.15% 5,752
White 1,658 70.92% 656 28.06% 24 1.03% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,002 42.86% 2,338
Williamson 2,136 72.98% 704 24.05% 49 1.67% 38 1.30% 0 0.00% 1,432 48.92% 2,927
Wilson 2,674 70.20% 1,061 27.86% 66 1.73% 8 0.21% 0 0.00% 1,613 42.35% 3,809
Totals145,24953.04%123,10844.95%3,8441.40%1,3230.48%3460.13%22,1418.08%273,870

Notes

    References

    1. Wright, John K.; ‘Voting Habits in the United States: A Note on Two Maps’; Geographical Review, vol. 22, no. 4 (October 1932), pp. 666-672
    2. Key (Jr.), Valdimer Orlando; Southern Politics in State and Nation (New York, 1949), pp. 282-283
    3. Lyons, William; Scheb (II), John M. and Stair Billy; Government and Politics in Tennessee, pp. 183-184 ISBN 1572331410
    4. Kousser, J. Morgan; The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910, p. 104 ISBN 0-300-01973-4
    5. Kousser; The Shaping of Southern Politics, p. 110
    6. Kousser, The Shaping of Southern Politics, p. 118
    7. Kousser; The Shaping of Southern Politics, p. 104
    8. ‘Summary of the States Generally Conceded to McKinley or Bryan by Impartial Observers’; The Boston Globe, October 21, 1900, p. 33
    9. Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas; Presidential General Election Results – Tennessee
    10. Géoelections; Popular Vote at the Presidential Election for 1900 (.xlsx file for €30)
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