1908 United States presidential election in Arkansas

The 1908 United States presidential election in Arkansas took place on November 3, 1908. All contemporary 46 states were part of the 1908 United States presidential election. Arkansas voters chose nine electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

1908 United States presidential election in Arkansas

November 3, 1908
 
Nominee William Jennings Bryan William Howard Taft
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Nebraska Ohio
Running mate John W. Kern James S. Sherman
Electoral vote 9 0
Popular vote 87,015 56,624
Percentage 57.31% 37.30%

County Results

President before election

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican

Elected President

William Howard Taft
Republican

Since 1890, Arkansas had been a classic Jim Crow Southern state in which most blacks and poor whites had been disfranchised by poll taxes.[1] This would confine significant Republican Party politics to the two Unionist Ozark counties of Newton and Searcy that remained controlled by the GOP at a local level throughout the “Solid South” era.[2] Because the coinage of silver had been the dominant political issue apart from black disfranchisement ever since the poll tax was passed,[3] the state would powerfully back “free silver” Democrat William Jennings Bryan in 1896.[4] However, in the following elections disfranchisement affected poor whites more than blacks, with the result that the Republican Party became somewhat more competitive despite being still associated with Reconstruction.[5] The GOP was helped in the earlier 1900s elections by the view that 1904 Democratic nominee Alton B. Parker had betrayed Bryan with his support for the gold standard.[6]

By October polls made it clear that Arkansas would stay firmly with the “Solid South”,[7] and this is what was observed: indeed Bryan improved on Parker's 1904 margin by almost five percentage points despite dislike of Bryan's retreat from free silver.

Results

1908 United States presidential election in Arkansas[8]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic William Jennings Bryan 87,015 57.31% 9
Republican William Howard Taft 56,624 37.30% 0
Social Democratic Eugene Debs 5,842 3.85% 0
Prohibition Eugene Chafin 1,026 0.68% 0
Populist Thomas E. Watson 1,026 0.68% 0
Independence Thomas Hisgen 289 0.19% 0
Totals 151,822 100.00% 9
Voter turnout 40%

Results by county

County William Jennings Bryan[9]
Democratic
William Howard Taft[9]
Republican
Eugene Victor Debs[9]
Socialist
Various candidates[9]
Other parties
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # %
Arkansas 937 56.04% 672 40.19% 42 2.51% 21 1.26% 265 15.85% 1,672
Ashley 1,100 55.25% 821 41.24% 45 2.26% 25 1.26% 279 14.01% 1,991
Baxter 607 62.19% 300 30.74% 64 6.56% 5 0.51% 307 31.45% 976
Benton 3,067 63.82% 1,527 31.77% 155 3.23% 57 1.19% 1,540 32.04% 4,806
Boone 1,149 60.25% 681 35.71% 64 3.36% 13 0.68% 468 24.54% 1,907
Bradley 906 71.96% 316 25.10% 30 2.38% 7 0.56% 590 46.86% 1,259
Calhoun 554 69.34% 234 29.29% 8 1.00% 3 0.38% 320 40.05% 799
Carroll 1,295 53.25% 1,051 43.22% 72 2.96% 14 0.58% 244 10.03% 2,432
Chicot 438 40.29% 644 59.25% 2 0.18% 3 0.28% -206 -18.95% 1,087
Clark 1,206 52.07% 1,007 43.48% 27 1.17% 76 3.28% 199 8.59% 2,316
Clay 1,527 56.35% 1,069 39.45% 106 3.91% 8 0.30% 458 16.90% 2,710
Cleburne 506 54.47% 294 31.65% 55 5.92% 74 7.97% 212 22.82% 929
Cleveland 771 61.48% 426 33.97% 39 3.11% 18 1.44% 345 27.51% 1,254
Columbia 1,613 65.57% 817 33.21% 9 0.37% 21 0.85% 796 32.36% 2,460
Conway 2,533 74.43% 818 24.04% 45 1.32% 7 0.21% 1,715 50.40% 3,403
Craighead 1,653 64.47% 711 27.73% 165 6.44% 35 1.37% 942 36.74% 2,564
Crawford 1,261 47.07% 1,339 49.98% 67 2.50% 12 0.45% -78 -2.91% 2,679
Crittenden 428 52.20% 382 46.59% 6 0.73% 4 0.49% 46 5.61% 820
Cross 705 55.38% 507 39.83% 59 4.63% 2 0.16% 198 15.55% 1,273
Dallas 721 50.17% 636 44.26% 33 2.30% 47 3.27% 85 5.92% 1,437
Desha 518 65.40% 263 33.21% 6 0.76% 5 0.63% 255 32.20% 792
Drew 1,123 60.44% 679 36.54% 40 2.15% 16 0.86% 444 23.90% 1,858
Faulkner 1,771 67.01% 740 28.00% 93 3.52% 39 1.48% 1,031 39.01% 2,643
Franklin 1,311 63.58% 565 27.40% 119 5.77% 67 3.25% 746 36.18% 2,062
Fulton 741 62.69% 366 30.96% 63 5.33% 12 1.02% 375 31.73% 1,182
Garland 1,340 52.04% 1,105 42.91% 105 4.08% 25 0.97% 235 9.13% 2,575
Grant 524 74.64% 160 22.79% 16 2.28% 2 0.28% 364 51.85% 702
Greene 1,606 71.60% 549 24.48% 82 3.66% 6 0.27% 1,057 47.12% 2,243
Hempstead 1,779 55.09% 1,346 41.68% 27 0.84% 77 2.38% 433 13.41% 3,229
Hot Spring 833 53.19% 686 43.81% 23 1.47% 24 1.53% 147 9.39% 1,566
Howard 967 55.86% 610 35.24% 83 4.79% 71 4.10% 357 20.62% 1,731
Independence 1,529 57.61% 948 35.72% 109 4.11% 68 2.56% 581 21.89% 2,654
Izard 873 64.00% 392 28.74% 53 3.89% 46 3.37% 481 35.26% 1,364
Jackson 1,055 51.77% 864 42.39% 101 4.96% 18 0.88% 191 9.37% 2,038
Jefferson 1,585 50.72% 1,386 44.35% 125 4.00% 29 0.93% 199 6.37% 3,125
Johnson 1,164 62.35% 544 29.14% 140 7.50% 19 1.02% 620 33.21% 1,867
Lafayette 739 56.37% 552 42.11% 4 0.31% 16 1.22% 187 14.26% 1,311
Lawrence 1,188 64.78% 583 31.79% 59 3.22% 4 0.22% 605 32.99% 1,834
Lee 1,182 75.33% 354 22.56% 29 1.85% 4 0.25% 828 52.77% 1,569
Lincoln 389 66.95% 159 27.37% 16 2.75% 17 2.93% 230 39.59% 581
Little River 660 53.35% 435 35.17% 105 8.49% 37 2.99% 225 18.19% 1,237
Logan 1,716 57.62% 1,151 38.65% 88 2.96% 23 0.77% 565 18.97% 2,978
Lonoke 1,385 67.33% 592 28.78% 30 1.46% 50 2.43% 793 38.55% 2,057
Madison 1,441 47.01% 1,541 50.28% 69 2.25% 14 0.46% -100 -3.26% 3,065
Marion 705 60.83% 370 31.92% 81 6.99% 3 0.26% 335 28.90% 1,159
Miller 1,035 56.19% 722 39.20% 36 1.95% 49 2.66% 313 16.99% 1,842
Mississippi 930 41.10% 1,167 51.57% 155 6.85% 11 0.49% -237 -10.47% 2,263
Monroe 912 46.01% 1,022 51.56% 41 2.07% 7 0.35% -110 -5.55% 1,982
Montgomery 553 46.59% 522 43.98% 87 7.33% 25 2.11% 31 2.61% 1,187
Nevada 890 45.32% 784 39.92% 47 2.39% 243 12.37% 106 5.40% 1,964
Newton 377 37.74% 582 58.26% 36 3.60% 4 0.40% -205 -20.52% 999
Ouachita 1,166 43.20% 1,505 55.76% 14 0.52% 14 0.52% -339 -12.56% 2,699
Perry 608 54.14% 445 39.63% 65 5.79% 5 0.45% 163 14.51% 1,123
Phillips 1,194 74.91% 393 24.65% 3 0.19% 4 0.25% 801 50.25% 1,594
Pike 568 47.22% 601 49.96% 21 1.75% 13 1.08% -33 -2.74% 1,203
Poinsett 843 64.11% 462 35.13% 2 0.15% 8 0.61% 381 28.97% 1,315
Polk 824 49.70% 628 37.88% 165 9.95% 41 2.47% 196 11.82% 1,658
Pope 1,664 64.75% 811 31.56% 78 3.04% 17 0.66% 853 33.19% 2,570
Prairie 1,103 55.88% 812 41.13% 41 2.08% 18 0.91% 291 14.74% 1,974
Pulaski 3,893 50.33% 3,533 45.68% 228 2.95% 81 1.05% 360 4.65% 7,735
Randolph 1,348 70.35% 517 26.98% 28 1.46% 23 1.20% 831 43.37% 1,916
Saline 899 66.94% 369 27.48% 53 3.95% 22 1.64% 530 39.46% 1,343
Scott 893 55.92% 481 30.12% 175 10.96% 48 3.01% 412 25.80% 1,597
Searcy 597 42.89% 636 45.69% 141 10.13% 18 1.29% -39 -2.80% 1,392
Sebastian 3,035 52.90% 2,050 35.73% 620 10.81% 32 0.56% 985 17.17% 5,737
Sevier 1,073 57.75% 526 28.31% 199 10.71% 60 3.23% 547 29.44% 1,858
Sharp 940 69.89% 317 23.57% 78 5.80% 10 0.74% 623 46.32% 1,345
St. Francis 619 41.91% 755 51.12% 80 5.42% 23 1.56% -136 -9.21% 1,477
Stone 496 61.92% 267 33.33% 34 4.24% 4 0.50% 229 28.59% 801
Union 1,407 71.60% 535 27.23% 11 0.56% 12 0.61% 872 44.38% 1,965
Van Buren 797 50.64% 667 42.38% 39 2.48% 71 4.51% 130 8.26% 1,574
Washington 2,748 58.36% 1,704 36.19% 185 3.93% 72 1.53% 1,044 22.17% 4,709
White 1,718 57.88% 887 29.89% 176 5.93% 187 6.30% 831 28.00% 2,968
Woodruff 1,046 56.18% 752 40.39% 51 2.74% 13 0.70% 294 15.79% 1,862
Yell 1,743 58.16% 1,040 34.70% 194 6.47% 20 0.67% 703 23.46% 2,997
Totals87,02057.31%56,68437.33%5,8423.85%2,2991.51%30,33619.98%151,845

References

  1. Perman, Michael; Struggle for Mastery: Disfranchisement in the South, 1888-1908, p. 65 ISBN 0807860255
  2. See Urwin, Cathy Kunzinger; Agenda for Reform: Winthrop Rockefeller as Governor of Arkansas, 1967-71, p. 32 ISBN 1557282005
  3. Dougan, Michael B.; Arkansas Odyssey: The Saga of Arkansas from Prehistoric Times to Present: a History, pp. 305, 307 ISBN 9780914546658
  4. Niswonger, Richard L.; ‘Arkansas and the Election of 1896’; The Arkansas Historical Quarterly; nol. 34, no. 1 (Spring, 1975), pp. 41-78
  5. Bemko, Dior Jurij; From the new freedom to the New Deal: Southern politics, 1900-1932 (thesis), p. 13
  6. Bemko; From the new freedom to the New Deal, p. 15
  7. ‘Poll Gives Taft Lead of 27 Votes’; Boston Globe, October 18, 1908, p. 1
  8. Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas; Presidential General Election Results – Arkansas
  9. Géoelections; Popular Vote at the Presidential Election for 1908 (.xlsx file for €30 including full minor party figures)
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