# 1936 United States presidential election in North Dakota

"none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]]
Elections in North Dakota :
Federal government
Presidential
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Presidential primaries
Democratic
1996
2000
2004
2008
2016
2020
2024
Republican
2004
2008
2012
2024
U.S. Senate
1889
1891
1893
1897
1899
1903
1905
1909
1911
1911 sp
1914
1916
1920
1922
1926
1926 sp
1928
1932
1934
1938
1940
1944
1946
1946 sp
1950
1952
1956
1958
1960 sp
1962
1964
1968
1970
1974
1976
1980
1982
1986
1988
1992
1992 sp
1994
1998
2000
2004
2006
2010
2012
2016
2018
2022
2024
U.S. House
1889
1890
1892
1894
1896
1898
1900
1902
1904
1906
1908
1910
1912
1914
1916
1917
1st sp
1918
1920
1922
1924
2nd sp
1926
1928
1932
1934
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
1946
1948
1950
1952
1954
1956
1958
1960
1962
1963
1st sp
1964
1966
1968
1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024 :
State government
State elections
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
Gubernatorial elections
1889
1890
1892
1894
1896
1898
1900
1902
1904
1906
1908
1910
1912
1914
1916
1918
1920
1921 (recall)
1922
1924
1926
1928
1930
1932
1934
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
1946
1948
1950
1952
1954
1956
1958
1960
1962
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Secretary of State elections
2018
2022
Attorney General elections
2018
2022
State Treasurer elections
2020
2024
State Auditor elections
2020
2024
State Senate elections
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
House of Representatives elections
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024 :
Ballot measures
2004
Constitutional Measure 1
2022
Constitutional Measure 1 :
Fargo
City elections
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
Mayoral elections
1974
1978
1982
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2015
2018
2022 :
Bismarck
City elections
2020
2022
2024
2026
Mayoral elections
2022 :
Grand Forks
City elections
2020
2024
Mayoral elections
2020
2024 :
vte :
The 1936 United States presidential election in North Dakota took place on November 3, 1936, as part of the 1936 United States presidential election. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
Ever since statehood, North Dakota had been overwhelmingly Republican at state level and in many presidential elections, although progressive Democrat Woodrow Wilson was able to carry the state in both his campaigns in 1912 and 1916, in the second due to his opposition to American involvement in World War I. In the following three elections, the state's voting would be shaped by its extreme isolationism in the aftermath of the United States ultimately entering the war in 1917 and Wilson's “League of Nations” proposal, to which the Russian Germans who dominated North Dakota's populace at the time were vehemently opposed. North Dakota thus shifted markedly from voting four-to-one for Republican Warren G. Harding against pro-League Democrat James M. Cox in 1920, to being the second-strongest state for Robert M. La Follette under the Nonpartisan League banner in 1924, to Republican Herbert Hoover carrying the state by a comparatively narrow margin over anti-Prohibition Catholic Al Smith in 1928. Severe drought and depression in the following three years turned the state overwhelmingly to Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, despite President Hoover's call to “be safe” by supporting him; at the same time North Dakota elected progressive, pro-New Deal Republicans to fill its House and Senate seats. One of these, Gerald Nye, would say in 1934 that the party needed to
   turn its back up “that which has been its undoing, namely the private money bags”.
Roosevelt won North Dakota by a margin of 33.02 percentage points and for the second consecutive election carried every county in the state. As of the 2024 presidential election, this is the last time that a Democratic presidential candidate has carried every county in the state, and the last time that the Democratic candidate carried the following counties: Golden Valley, Grant, Kidder, Logan, McIntosh, Mercer, and Sheridan.

## Results

1936 United States presidential election in North Dakota :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Running mate | Votes | % | Electoral votes |
| | Democratic | Franklin D. Roosevelt | John Nance Garner | 163,148 | 59.60% | 4 |
| | Republican | Alf Landon | Frank Knox | 72,751 | 26.58% | 0 |
| | Union | William Lemke | Thomas C. O'Brien | 36,708 | 13.41% | 0 |
| | Socialist | Norman Thomas | George A. Nelson | 552 | 0.20% | 0 |
| | Communist | Earl Browder | James W. Ford | 360 | 0.13% | 0 |
| | Prohibition | D. Leigh Colvin | Claude A. Watson | 197 | 0.07% | 0 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | 273,716 | 100.0% | 4 |

### Results by county

| County | Franklin Delano Roosevelt Democratic | Franklin Delano Roosevelt Democratic | Alfred Mossman Landon Republican | Alfred Mossman Landon Republican | William Frederick Lemke Union | William Frederick Lemke Union | Norman Mattoon Thomas Socialist | Norman Mattoon Thomas Socialist | Earl Russell Browder Communist | Earl Russell Browder Communist | David Leigh Colvin Prohibition | David Leigh Colvin Prohibition | Margin | Margin | Total votes cast |
| County | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | Total votes cast |
| Adams | 1,321 | 54.95% | 746 | 31.03% | 310 | 12.90% | 5 | 0.21% | 7 | 0.29% | 15 | 0.62% | 575 | 23.92% | 2,404 |
| Barnes | 4,484 | 57.89% | 2,324 | 30.00% | 909 | 11.74% | 17 | 0.22% | 4 | 0.05% | 8 | 0.10% | 2,160 | 27.89% | 7,746 |
| Benson | 3,343 | 62.33% | 1,020 | 19.02% | 985 | 18.37% | 11 | 0.21% | 1 | 0.02% | 3 | 0.06% | 2,323 | 43.32% | 5,363 |
| Billings | 729 | 59.17% | 329 | 26.70% | 155 | 12.58% | 18 | 1.46% | 1 | 0.08% | 0 | 0.00% | 400 | 32.47% | 1,232 |
| Bottineau | 3,286 | 56.86% | 1,224 | 21.18% | 1,236 | 21.39% | 24 | 0.42% | 2 | 0.03% | 7 | 0.12% | 2,050 | 35.47% | 5,779 |
| Bowman | 1,118 | 55.62% | 534 | 26.57% | 346 | 17.21% | 11 | 0.55% | 1 | 0.05% | 0 | 0.00% | 584 | 29.05% | 2,010 |
| Burke | 1,821 | 48.81% | 684 | 18.33% | 1,180 | 31.63% | 25 | 0.67% | 17 | 0.46% | 4 | 0.11% | 641 | 17.18% | 3,731 |
| Burleigh | 6,314 | 64.94% | 2,447 | 25.17% | 905 | 9.31% | 22 | 0.23% | 27 | 0.28% | 8 | 0.08% | 3,867 | 39.77% | 9,723 |
| Cass | 12,400 | 57.22% | 7,632 | 35.22% | 1,548 | 7.14% | 62 | 0.29% | 14 | 0.06% | 14 | 0.06% | 4,768 | 22.00% | 21,670 |
| Cavalier | 3,533 | 60.82% | 1,657 | 28.52% | 614 | 10.57% | 1 | 0.02% | 1 | 0.02% | 3 | 0.05% | 1,876 | 32.29% | 5,809 |
| Dickey | 2,287 | 51.30% | 1,533 | 34.39% | 595 | 13.35% | 5 | 0.11% | 33 | 0.74% | 5 | 0.11% | 754 | 16.91% | 4,458 |
| Divide | 2,212 | 62.56% | 585 | 16.54% | 731 | 20.67% | 4 | 0.11% | 3 | 0.08% | 1 | 0.03% | 1,481 | 41.88% | 3,536 |
| Dunn | 2,257 | 66.76% | 732 | 21.65% | 379 | 11.21% | 1 | 0.03% | 11 | 0.33% | 1 | 0.03% | 1,525 | 45.10% | 3,381 |
| Eddy | 1,729 | 63.78% | 579 | 21.36% | 382 | 14.09% | 3 | 0.11% | 17 | 0.63% | 1 | 0.04% | 1,150 | 42.42% | 2,711 |
| Emmons | 2,424 | 57.95% | 1,117 | 26.70% | 638 | 15.25% | 2 | 0.05% | 2 | 0.05% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,307 | 31.25% | 4,183 |
| Foster | 1,894 | 68.65% | 685 | 24.83% | 175 | 6.34% | 4 | 0.14% | 1 | 0.04% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,209 | 43.82% | 2,759 |
| Golden Valley | 991 | 59.73% | 581 | 35.02% | 77 | 4.64% | 4 | 0.24% | 6 | 0.36% | 0 | 0.00% | 410 | 24.71% | 1,659 |
| Grand Forks | 9,222 | 63.39% | 4,312 | 29.64% | 980 | 6.74% | 17 | 0.12% | 9 | 0.06% | 9 | 0.06% | 4,910 | 33.75% | 14,549 |
| Grant | 1,858 | 53.76% | 1,022 | 29.57% | 566 | 16.38% | 6 | 0.17% | 4 | 0.12% | 0 | 0.00% | 836 | 24.19% | 3,456 |
| Griggs | 1,665 | 61.15% | 666 | 24.46% | 386 | 14.18% | 2 | 0.07% | 1 | 0.04% | 3 | 0.11% | 999 | 36.69% | 2,723 |
| Hettinger | 1,383 | 41.69% | 989 | 29.82% | 937 | 28.25% | 8 | 0.24% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 394 | 11.88% | 3,317 |
| Kidder | 1,492 | 50.89% | 872 | 29.74% | 561 | 19.13% | 1 | 0.03% | 6 | 0.20% | 0 | 0.00% | 620 | 21.15% | 2,932 |
| LaMoure | 2,412 | 49.52% | 1,614 | 33.13% | 826 | 16.96% | 11 | 0.23% | 1 | 0.02% | 7 | 0.14% | 798 | 16.38% | 4,871 |
| Logan | 1,292 | 45.11% | 984 | 34.36% | 584 | 20.39% | 1 | 0.03% | 2 | 0.07% | 1 | 0.03% | 308 | 10.75% | 2,864 |
| McHenry | 3,294 | 53.40% | 1,619 | 26.24% | 1,222 | 19.81% | 8 | 0.13% | 20 | 0.32% | 6 | 0.10% | 1,675 | 27.15% | 6,169 |
| McIntosh | 1,900 | 52.36% | 1,469 | 40.48% | 255 | 7.03% | 2 | 0.06% | 1 | 0.03% | 2 | 0.06% | 431 | 11.88% | 3,629 |
| McKenzie | 2,885 | 74.20% | 570 | 14.66% | 409 | 10.52% | 5 | 0.13% | 15 | 0.39% | 4 | 0.10% | 2,315 | 59.54% | 3,888 |
| McLean | 4,018 | 58.55% | 1,732 | 25.24% | 1,028 | 14.98% | 64 | 0.93% | 16 | 0.23% | 4 | 0.06% | 2,286 | 33.31% | 6,862 |
| Mercer | 1,924 | 53.16% | 1,142 | 31.56% | 548 | 15.14% | 3 | 0.08% | 2 | 0.06% | 0 | 0.00% | 782 | 21.61% | 3,619 |
| Morton | 5,612 | 69.37% | 1,857 | 22.95% | 608 | 7.52% | 3 | 0.04% | 3 | 0.04% | 7 | 0.09% | 3,755 | 46.42% | 8,090 |
| Mountrail | 2,775 | 58.19% | 700 | 14.68% | 1,227 | 25.73% | 20 | 0.42% | 39 | 0.82% | 8 | 0.17% | 1,548 | 32.46% | 4,769 |
| Nelson | 2,954 | 65.78% | 1,002 | 22.31% | 524 | 11.67% | 6 | 0.13% | 3 | 0.07% | 2 | 0.04% | 1,952 | 43.46% | 4,491 |
| Oliver | 906 | 57.60% | 469 | 29.82% | 197 | 12.52% | 1 | 0.06% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 437 | 27.78% | 1,573 |
| Pembina | 4,139 | 63.86% | 2,040 | 31.48% | 293 | 4.52% | 6 | 0.09% | 3 | 0.05% | 0 | 0.00% | 2,099 | 32.39% | 6,481 |
| Pierce | 2,168 | 57.60% | 912 | 24.23% | 676 | 17.96% | 4 | 0.11% | 3 | 0.08% | 1 | 0.03% | 1,256 | 33.37% | 3,764 |
| Ramsey | 4,559 | 65.19% | 1,784 | 25.51% | 642 | 9.18% | 6 | 0.09% | 1 | 0.01% | 1 | 0.01% | 2,775 | 39.68% | 6,993 |
| Ransom | 2,385 | 55.49% | 1,303 | 30.32% | 600 | 13.96% | 5 | 0.12% | 3 | 0.07% | 2 | 0.05% | 1,082 | 25.17% | 4,298 |
| Renville | 1,766 | 61.73% | 611 | 21.36% | 444 | 15.52% | 37 | 1.29% | 2 | 0.07% | 1 | 0.03% | 1,155 | 40.37% | 2,861 |
| Richland | 3,792 | 49.92% | 2,386 | 31.41% | 1,361 | 17.92% | 47 | 0.62% | 6 | 0.08% | 4 | 0.05% | 1,406 | 18.51% | 7,596 |
| Rolette | 3,186 | 71.89% | 857 | 19.34% | 386 | 8.71% | 3 | 0.07% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 2,329 | 52.55% | 4,432 |
| Sargent | 2,306 | 64.47% | 863 | 24.13% | 397 | 11.10% | 6 | 0.17% | 3 | 0.08% | 2 | 0.06% | 1,443 | 40.34% | 3,577 |
| Sheridan | 1,150 | 41.10% | 834 | 29.81% | 808 | 28.88% | 1 | 0.04% | 2 | 0.07% | 3 | 0.11% | 316 | 11.29% | 2,798 |
| Sioux | 877 | 52.70% | 585 | 35.16% | 198 | 11.90% | 2 | 0.12% | 2 | 0.12% | 0 | 0.00% | 292 | 17.55% | 1,664 |
| Slope | 896 | 63.05% | 331 | 23.29% | 193 | 13.58% | 1 | 0.07% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 565 | 39.76% | 1,421 |
| Stark | 4,012 | 65.35% | 1,602 | 26.10% | 511 | 8.32% | 8 | 0.13% | 2 | 0.03% | 4 | 0.07% | 2,410 | 39.26% | 6,139 |
| Steele | 1,444 | 50.26% | 724 | 25.20% | 698 | 24.30% | 4 | 0.14% | 3 | 0.10% | 0 | 0.00% | 720 | 25.06% | 2,873 |
| Stutsman | 5,564 | 59.39% | 2,725 | 29.09% | 1,064 | 11.36% | 11 | 0.12% | 2 | 0.02% | 3 | 0.03% | 2,839 | 30.30% | 9,369 |
| Towner | 1,744 | 54.26% | 720 | 22.40% | 743 | 23.12% | 3 | 0.09% | 4 | 0.12% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,001 | 31.14% | 3,214 |
| Traill | 2,780 | 52.76% | 1,807 | 34.29% | 666 | 12.64% | 5 | 0.09% | 6 | 0.11% | 5 | 0.09% | 973 | 18.47% | 5,269 |
| Walsh | 5,756 | 70.32% | 1,813 | 22.15% | 604 | 7.38% | 8 | 0.10% | 2 | 0.02% | 2 | 0.02% | 3,943 | 48.17% | 8,185 |
| Ward | 8,872 | 63.12% | 3,142 | 22.36% | 2,005 | 14.27% | 15 | 0.11% | 13 | 0.09% | 8 | 0.06% | 5,730 | 40.77% | 14,055 |
| Wells | 3,114 | 58.78% | 1,263 | 23.84% | 918 | 17.33% | 3 | 0.06% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,851 | 34.94% | 5,298 |
| Williams | 4,903 | 65.61% | 1,021 | 13.66% | 1,478 | 19.78% | 23 | 0.31% | 44 | 0.59% | 4 | 0.05% | 3,425 | 45.83% | 7,473 |
| Totals | 163,148 | 59.60% | 72,751 | 26.58% | 36,708 | 13.41% | 552 | 0.20% | 360 | 0.13% | 197 | 0.07% | 90,397 | 33.03% | 273,716 |

## Analysis

Controversial Democratic governor and Senator from Louisiana Huey P. Long had planned to run against Roosevelt on his "Share Our Wealth" platform in the 1936 election, but was assassinated in September 1935. The remains of the Share Our Wealth movement were taken over by “radio priest” Charles Coughlin, who nominated North Dakota Congressman William Lemke as the presidential candidate of the new “Union Party” on June 9, whose isolationist platform was vague and Coughlin's personal creation. Lemke had had a long history as a progressive reformer since endorsing Woodrow Wilson in 1912.
A poor campaigner and speaker, Lemke was unable to build his hoped-for “consensus of despair” amongst agrarian radicals, Southern poor whites, Catholics, and the elderly. North Dakota's extreme isolationism and support for its favorite son meant Lemke received 13.41 percent of his home state's vote: over four and a half times the 2.88 percent of on-ballot votes he won nationally. Lemke exceeded 28 percent in the counties of Burke, Sheridan and Hettinger, and ran second ahead of Republican nominee Alf Landon in six counties. However, he did not make the impact personally expected when nominated, and unlike elsewhere in the nation, Lemke's best vote was not where ethnic and religious influences might have been expected to give him the largest vote, but in the northwest where local leaders held votes for him. Nonetheless, only Ross Perot in 1992 and Evan McMullin in 2016 have since equaled Lemke's performance for a third-party candidate in any non-Southern county.