1956 United States presidential election

1956 United States presidential election

November 6, 1956
531 members of the Electoral College 266 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	60.6% 2.7 pp
Nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower Adlai Stevenson Party Republican Democratic Home state Pennsylvania Illinois Running mate Richard Nixon Estes Kefauver Electoral vote 457 73 States carried 41 7 Popular vote 35,579,180 26,028,028 Percentage 57.4% 42.0%
Presidential election results map. Red denotes those won by Eisenhower/Nixon, Blue denotes states won by Stevenson/Kefauver. Orange denotes won by Walter Burgwyn Jones by an Alabama faithless elector. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
President before election Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican Elected President Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican

The 1956 United States presidential election happened on November 6, 1956. President Dwight D. Eisenhower won reelection to a second term. He defeated former Governor of Illinois Adlai Stevenson in a rematch of the 1952 presidential election.

Incumbent president Dwight D. Eisenhower won the election by 457 electoral votes. Adlai Stevenson got 73 electoral votes. Walter Burgwyn Jones got one vote by a faithless elector in Alabama.

This was the last election in which Alaska and Hawaii were not states.

Eisenhower suffered a heart attack in September 1955 while in Colorado for a vacation. His doctors told him not to run for another election. However, Eisenhower announced his candidacy for re-election on television in early 1956.

Candidates

Republican Party

Republican Party (United States) 1956 Republican Party Ticket
Dwight D. Eisenhower	Richard Nixon
for President	for Vice President
34th President of the United States (1953–1961)	36th Vice President of the United States (1953–1961)
Campaign

Republican candidates

• Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States (1953-1961) from Pennsylvania (Nominee)
• John W. Bricker, U.S. Senator (1947-1959) and 1944 vice presidential nominee from Ohio
• William F. Knowland, U.S. senator from California (1947-1959)
• S. C. Arnold, Secretary of State of Montana (1955-1957) (Favorite son candidate)
• Joe Foss, Governor of South Dakota (1955-1959) (Favorite son candidate)

• 
  President of the United States
  Dwight D. Eisenhower
  from Pennsylvania
  (1953–1961)
• 
  Montana Secretary of State
  S. C. Arnold
  from Montana
  (1955–1957)
• 
  Senator
  John W. Bricker
  from Ohio
  (1947–1959)
• 
  Senator
  William Knowland
  from California
  (1945–1959)
• 
  Governor
  Joe Foss
  from South Dakota
  (1955–1959)

Democratic Party

Democratic Party (United States) 1956 Democratic Party Ticket
Adlai Stevenson II	Estes Kefauver
for President	for Vice President
31st Governor of Illinois (1949-1953)	U.S. Senator from Tennessee (1949–1963)
Campaign

• 
  Former Governor
  and 1952 nominee
  Adlai Stevenson II
  of Illinois
  (1949–1953)
• 
  Senator
  Estes Kefauver
  from Tennessee
  (1949–1953)
• 
  Governor
  W. Averell Harriman
  of New York
  (1955-1958)
• 
  Former Governor
  John S. Battle
  of Virginia
  (1950-1954)
  (Favorite son)
• 
  Governor
  Happy Chandler
  of Kentucky
  (1935-1939, 1955-1959)
  (Favorite son)
• 
  U.S. Representative
  James C. Davis
  from Georgia
  (1947–1963)
  (Favorite son)
• 
  Governor
  Frank Lausche
  of Ohio
  (1945-1947, 1949–1957)
  (Favorite son)
• 
  U.S. Representative
  John W. McCormack
  from Massachusetts
  (1928–1971)
  (Favorite son)
• 
  Governor
  George Bell Timmerman Jr.
  of South Carolina
  (1955–1959)
  (Favorite son)

Other websites

Media related to United States presidential election, 1956 at Wikimedia Commons