# 1928 United States presidential election in Florida

"none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]]
Elections in Florida :
Federal government
Presidential elections
1848
1852
1856
1860
1868
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
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
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Republican
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
U.S. Senate elections
1845
1848
1851
1855
1857
1868
1875
1879
1881
1885
1887
1890
1891
1893 sp
1897
1899
1899 sp
1903
1905 sp
1908
1909 sp
1911
1914
1916
1920
1922
1926
1928
1932
1934
1936 sp
1938
1940
1944
1946
1950
1952
1956
1958
1962
1964
1968
1970
1974
1976
1980
1982
1986
1988
1992
1994
1998
2000
2004
2006
2010
2012
2016
2018
2022
2024
2028
U.S. House of Representatives elections
1845
AL sp
1846
1848
1850
1852
1854
1856
1858
1860
1865
1868
1870
1872
1874
1876
1878
1880
1882
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
1896
1898
1900
1902
1904
1906
1908
1910
1912
1914
1916
1918
1920
1922
1924
1926
1928
1930
1932
1934
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
1946
1948
1950
1952
1954
1955
6th sp
1956
1958
1960
1962
1964
1966
1968
1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1989
18th sp
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2001
1st sp
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
19th sp
2012
2014
13th sp
19th sp
2016
2018
2020
2022
20th sp
2024
C.S. House of Representatives elections
1861
1863
1st sp :
State government
General elections
2006
2010
2014
2018
2020
2022
2026
Gubernatorial elections
1845
1848
1852
1856
1860
1865
1868
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1954 sp
1956
1960
1964
1966
1970
1974
1978
1982
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
Attorney General elections
1966
1970
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
Chief Financial Officer elections
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
Agriculture Commissioner elections
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
Senate elections
2018
2020
2022
2024
House of Representatives elections
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
Ballot measures
1998 Florida Amendment 8
2008 Florida Amendment 2
2014 Florida Amendment 2
2016 Florida Amendment 1
2016 Florida Amendment 2
2018 Florida Amendment 4
2020 Florida Amendment 1
2020 Florida Amendment 2
2020 Florida Amendment 3
2020 Florida Amendment 4
2020 Florida Amendment 5
2022 Florida Amendment 1
2022 Florida Amendment 2
2022 Florida Amendment 3
2024 Florida Amendment 3
2024 Florida Amendment 4 :
Jacksonville
Mayoral elections
2003
2007
2011
2015
2019
2023
Sheriff elections
2022 sp :
Miami
Mayoral elections
1997
2001
2005
2009
2013
2017
2021 :
Miami-Dade County
Mayoral elections
1996
2008
2011 (recall)
2011 sp
2012
2016
2020
2024 :
Orlando
Mayoral elections
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2003 sp
2004
2008
2012
2015
2019
2023 :
St. Petersburg
Mayoral elections
2001
2005
2009
2013
2017
2021 :
Tallahassee
Mayoral elections
1997
2003 sp
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022 :
Tampa
Mayoral elections
2003
2007
2011
2015
2019
2023 :
Other localities
Fort Lauderdale
1994
1997
2000
2003
2006
2009
2012
2015
2018
2020
Gainesville
2016
2019
2022
Hialeah
2011
Miami Beach
2011
2013
2015
North Miami
2013
2014 sp
2017
2021
Orange County
2010
2022
Pensacola
2022 :
Government :
vte :
The 1928 United States presidential election in Florida was held on November 6, 1928, as part of the 1928 United States presidential election held throughout all contemporary forty-eight states. Florida voters chose six electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
Ever since the disfranchisement of blacks at the beginning of the 1890s, Florida had been a one-party state ruled by the Democratic Party. The disfranchisement of blacks and poor whites by poll taxes in 1889 had left the Republican Party – between 1872 and 1888 dependent upon black votes – virtually extinct. With the single exception of William Howard Taft's win in Calhoun County in 1908 the Democratic Party won every county in Florida in every presidential election from 1892 until 1916. Only twice – and never for more than one term – did any Republican serve in either house of the state legislature between 1896 and 1928. Despite this Democratic dominance and the restrictions on the franchise of the poorer classes due to the poll tax, significant socialist movements were to develop and persist in Tampa and to a lesser extent over other parts of the state, especially against the powerful Ku Klux Klan. There was also a powerful Prohibitionist movement in older North Florida, which saw the Prohibition Party even win the governorship for one term under the notorious anti-Catholic minister Sidney J. Catts, who was later to be a major foe of Alfred Emmanuel Smith.
The 1920 presidential election saw Warren Harding, aided substantially by isolationist sentiment in the region, gain more support in the former Confederacy than any Republican since black disfranchisement, in the process winning three Florida counties. Calvin Coolidge in 1924 was to do no more than maintain these gains, but did show that the presidential GOP vote from transplanted Northerners was equal to or greater than the traditional Unionist GOP vote (which Florida entirely lacked) of Texas, Arkansas, Alabama or Georgia.
During the months between the beginning of the campaign and the actual vote, a number of newspapers – including the Orlando Sentinel and the St. Petersburg Times – utilized voting machines to take a sample ballot. All these polls, in spite of the fact that the newspapers in question favored Smith, gave large majorities to Hoover, in the case of the Times by over two-to-one. Despite these polls, Smith campaigners took a long time to realize the danger that he would not carry the traditional "Solid South".
After a heated campaign in which he had played little part, Herbert Hoover won Florida against Al Smith by 42,404 votes or by a margin of 16.71 percentage points. Vis-à-vis the 1924 election, swings of up to 100 percentage points occurred in the western Panhandle pineywoods, where opposition to Smith's Catholic religion reached the fanatical, and Hoover also gained from increased Republican voting by northern migrants in Miami, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Sarasota and Jacksonville, along with the growth of an urban middle class in those cities. This was the first time since 1876 that the state voted Republican. The 1928 US presidential election would be the first time that Florida would become a crucial bellwether state in presidential elections: from 1928 and on, the winner of the presidential election has carried the state in every election except in 1960, in 1992, and in 2020.
In contrast, the counties of the central and eastern Panhandle remained loyal to Smith, who still carried ten counties in this region, all over thirty-five percent nonvoting African-American, by three-to-one or larger majorities, because they saw party regularity as essential to preserving white supremacy against African Americans. However, unlike Alabama and Georgia, Florida lacked the strength to counter anti-Catholic voting – which was indeed stronger than in most other parts of the white South – with the result that Hoover gained his largest margin among the five Confederate states he carried.

## Results

Electoral results :
| Presidential candidate | Party | Home state | Popular vote | Popular vote | Electoral vote | Running mate | Running mate | Running mate |
| Presidential candidate | Party | Home state | Count | Percentage | Electoral vote | Vice-presidential candidate | Home state | Electoral vote |
| Herbert Hoover | Republican | California | 144,168 | 56.83% | 6 | Charles Curtis | Kansas | 6 |
| Al Smith | Democrat | New York | 101,764 | 40.12% | 0 | Joseph Taylor Robinson | Arkansas | 0 |
| Norman Thomas | Socialist | New York | 4,036 | 1.59% | 0 | James Maurer | Pennsylvania | 0 |
| William Z. Foster | Communist | Illinois | 3,704 | 1.46% | 0 | Benjamin Gitlow | New York | 0 |
| — | Write-ins | — | 2 | 0.00% | 0 | — | — | 0 |
| Total | Total | Total | 253,674 | 100% | 6 | | | 6 |
| Needed to win | Needed to win | Needed to win | Needed to win | Needed to win | 266 | | | 266 |

### Results by county

| County | Herbert Clark Hoover Republican | Herbert Clark Hoover Republican | Alfred Emmanuel Smith Democratic | Alfred Emmanuel Smith Democratic | Various candidates Other parties | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Margin | Total votes cast |
| County | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | Total votes cast |
| Alachua | 1,824 | 45.51% | 1,965 | 49.03% | 219 | 5.46% | -141 | -3.52% | 4,008 |
| Baker | 676 | 72.38% | 242 | 25.91% | 16 | 1.71% | 434 | 46.47% | 934 |
| Bay | 974 | 44.27% | 1,190 | 54.09% | 36 | 1.64% | -216 | -9.82% | 2,200 |
| Bradford | 534 | 43.73% | 679 | 55.61% | 8 | 0.66% | -145 | -11.88% | 1,221 |
| Brevard | 1,830 | 62.12% | 1,063 | 36.08% | 53 | 1.80% | 767 | 26.04% | 2,946 |
| Broward | 2,889 | 63.63% | 1,564 | 34.45% | 87 | 1.92% | 1,325 | 29.19% | 4,540 |
| Calhoun | 409 | 35.02% | 727 | 62.24% | 32 | 2.74% | -318 | -27.23% | 1,168 |
| Charlotte | 593 | 55.73% | 441 | 41.45% | 30 | 2.82% | 152 | 14.29% | 1,064 |
| Citrus | 505 | 37.77% | 816 | 61.03% | 16 | 1.20% | -311 | -23.26% | 1,337 |
| Clay | 1,088 | 72.05% | 394 | 26.09% | 28 | 1.85% | 694 | 45.96% | 1,510 |
| Collier | 151 | 37.01% | 256 | 62.75% | 1 | 0.25% | -105 | -25.74% | 408 |
| Columbia | 418 | 24.36% | 1,276 | 74.36% | 22 | 1.28% | -858 | -50.00% | 1,716 |
| Dade | 15,860 | 60.15% | 10,136 | 38.44% | 372 | 1.41% | 5,724 | 21.71% | 26,368 |
| De Soto | 1,382 | 64.04% | 748 | 34.66% | 28 | 1.30% | 634 | 29.38% | 2,158 |
| Dixie | 463 | 57.52% | 342 | 42.48% | 0 | 0.00% | 121 | 15.03% | 805 |
| Duval | 16,919 | 63.39% | 9,316 | 34.91% | 454 | 1.70% | 7,603 | 28.49% | 26,689 |
| Escambia | 4,443 | 53.32% | 3,772 | 45.27% | 118 | 1.42% | 671 | 8.05% | 8,333 |
| Flagler | 325 | 58.14% | 219 | 39.18% | 15 | 2.68% | 106 | 18.96% | 559 |
| Franklin | 334 | 44.30% | 417 | 55.31% | 3 | 0.40% | -83 | -11.01% | 754 |
| Gadsden | 346 | 22.31% | 1,184 | 76.34% | 21 | 1.35% | -838 | -54.03% | 1,551 |
| Gilchrist | 125 | 22.73% | 392 | 71.27% | 33 | 6.00% | -267 | -48.55% | 550 |
| Glades | 331 | 53.73% | 281 | 45.62% | 4 | 0.65% | 50 | 8.12% | 616 |
| Gulf | 156 | 34.98% | 275 | 61.66% | 15 | 3.36% | -119 | -26.68% | 446 |
| Hamilton | 167 | 16.83% | 741 | 74.70% | 84 | 8.47% | -574 | -57.86% | 992 |
| Hardee | 2,087 | 70.06% | 826 | 27.73% | 66 | 2.22% | 1,261 | 42.33% | 2,979 |
| Hendry | 337 | 54.18% | 266 | 42.77% | 19 | 3.05% | 71 | 11.41% | 622 |
| Hernando | 661 | 47.79% | 701 | 50.69% | 21 | 1.52% | -40 | -2.89% | 1,383 |
| Highlands | 1,393 | 66.52% | 669 | 31.95% | 32 | 1.53% | 724 | 34.57% | 2,094 |
| Hillsborough | 11,703 | 52.98% | 9,993 | 45.24% | 392 | 1.77% | 1,710 | 7.74% | 22,088 |
| Holmes | 2,260 | 74.44% | 735 | 24.21% | 41 | 1.35% | 1,525 | 50.23% | 3,036 |
| Indian River | 847 | 55.61% | 657 | 43.14% | 19 | 1.25% | 190 | 12.48% | 1,523 |
| Jackson | 1,398 | 35.43% | 2,516 | 63.76% | 32 | 0.81% | -1,118 | -28.33% | 3,946 |
| Jefferson | 235 | 20.22% | 919 | 79.09% | 8 | 0.69% | -684 | -58.86% | 1,162 |
| Lafayette | 135 | 23.48% | 435 | 75.65% | 5 | 0.87% | -300 | -52.17% | 575 |
| Lake | 3,383 | 68.08% | 1,474 | 29.66% | 112 | 2.25% | 1,909 | 38.42% | 4,969 |
| Lee | 2,058 | 63.17% | 1,154 | 35.42% | 46 | 1.41% | 904 | 27.75% | 3,258 |
| Leon | 630 | 24.72% | 1,888 | 74.07% | 31 | 1.22% | -1,258 | -49.35% | 2,549 |
| Levy | 711 | 46.23% | 797 | 51.82% | 30 | 1.95% | -86 | -5.59% | 1,538 |
| Liberty | 147 | 39.20% | 226 | 60.27% | 2 | 0.53% | -79 | -21.07% | 375 |
| Madison | 266 | 25.70% | 769 | 74.30% | 0 | 0.00% | -503 | -48.60% | 1,035 |
| Manatee | 2,705 | 63.87% | 1,472 | 34.76% | 58 | 1.37% | 1,233 | 29.11% | 4,235 |
| Marion | 1,927 | 49.75% | 1,863 | 48.10% | 83 | 2.14% | 64 | 1.65% | 3,873 |
| Martin | 703 | 58.05% | 474 | 39.14% | 34 | 2.81% | 229 | 18.91% | 1,211 |
| Monroe | 1,142 | 36.93% | 1,899 | 61.42% | 51 | 1.65% | -757 | -24.48% | 3,092 |
| Nassau | 863 | 65.13% | 445 | 33.58% | 17 | 1.28% | 418 | 31.55% | 1,325 |
| Okaloosa | 1,385 | 72.70% | 503 | 26.40% | 17 | 0.89% | 882 | 46.30% | 1,905 |
| Okeechobee | 657 | 68.87% | 287 | 30.08% | 10 | 1.05% | 370 | 38.78% | 954 |
| Orange | 6,524 | 70.04% | 2,616 | 28.08% | 175 | 1.88% | 3,908 | 41.95% | 9,315 |
| Osceola | 1,760 | 60.25% | 1,127 | 38.58% | 34 | 1.16% | 633 | 21.67% | 2,921 |
| Palm Beach | 5,298 | 64.23% | 2,652 | 32.15% | 298 | 3.61% | 2,646 | 32.08% | 8,248 |
| Pasco | 1,591 | 54.26% | 1,308 | 44.61% | 33 | 1.13% | 283 | 9.65% | 2,932 |
| Pinellas | 10,545 | 74.52% | 3,439 | 24.30% | 167 | 1.18% | 7,106 | 50.22% | 14,151 |
| Polk | 7,460 | 60.23% | 4,576 | 36.94% | 350 | 2.83% | 2,884 | 23.28% | 12,386 |
| Putnam | 2,105 | 63.01% | 1,156 | 34.60% | 80 | 2.39% | 949 | 28.40% | 3,341 |
| St. John's | 1,939 | 36.65% | 3,307 | 62.50% | 45 | 0.85% | -1,368 | -25.86% | 5,291 |
| St. Lucie | 983 | 55.88% | 741 | 42.13% | 35 | 1.99% | 242 | 13.76% | 1,759 |
| Santa Rosa | 1,628 | 73.97% | 541 | 24.58% | 32 | 1.45% | 1,087 | 49.39% | 2,201 |
| Sarasota | 1,603 | 56.46% | 1,181 | 41.60% | 55 | 1.94% | 422 | 14.86% | 2,839 |
| Seminole | 1,788 | 58.89% | 1,187 | 39.10% | 61 | 2.01% | 601 | 19.80% | 3,036 |
| Sumter | 1,152 | 55.60% | 909 | 43.87% | 11 | 0.53% | 243 | 11.73% | 2,072 |
| Suwannee | 606 | 31.68% | 1,286 | 67.22% | 21 | 1.10% | -680 | -35.55% | 1,913 |
| Taylor | 465 | 38.05% | 739 | 60.47% | 18 | 1.47% | -274 | -22.42% | 1,222 |
| Union | 177 | 25.69% | 503 | 73.00% | 9 | 1.31% | -326 | -47.31% | 689 |
| Volusia | 6,648 | 67.78% | 3,043 | 31.03% | 117 | 1.19% | 3,605 | 36.76% | 9,808 |
| Wakulla | 66 | 12.18% | 470 | 86.72% | 6 | 1.11% | -404 | -74.54% | 542 |
| Walton | 1,475 | 61.36% | 908 | 37.77% | 21 | 0.87% | 567 | 23.59% | 2,404 |
| Washington | 1,672 | 69.72% | 671 | 27.98% | 55 | 2.29% | 1,001 | 41.74% | 2,398 |
| Totals | 145,860 | 57.87% | 101,764 | 40.37% | 4,444 | 1.76% | 44,096 | 17.49% | 252,068 |

## Analysis

With all other prominent Democrats sitting the election out, the party nominated Alfred E. Smith, four-term Governor of New York as its nominee for 1928, with little opposition. There was nonetheless almost no pro-Smith sympathy in Florida, which as part of the "Solid South" had been a major force in his 1924 defeat. This defeat was related to four characteristics of Smith that made him anything but an ideal candidate for Southern Democrats: he was a devout Catholic, opposed to Prohibition, linked with New York City's Tammany Hall political machine, and the son of Irish and Italian immigrants. His Wall Street connections also had Smith viewed by poorer Southern whites as a "Gold Democrat". Whilst it is generally thought that the South would have accepted a man possessing one of those characteristics, the combination proved a bitter dose for many of Florida's loyal Democrats. Many Florida Protestants believed Smith's election would endanger religious liberty and lead to the Pope controlling the White House.
More critically, the Southern Baptist Convention similarly said that
   We enter into a sacred covenant and solemn pledge that we will support for the office of President, or any other office, only such men as stand for our present order of prohibition.
Much of this anti-Smith political program was led by the Jacksonville Baptist Association, joined by the Indian River Missionary Baptist Association, Seminole Baptist Association, Peace River Baptist Association, Alachua Baptist Association, and the Florida Baptist Association in issuing similar resolutions at their 1928 annual meetings. The Methodist Episcopal Church took the same viewpoint, and it was Bishop James Cannon who stood behind militant "drys" to organize the "Anti-Smith Democrats" in Asheville, North Carolina, pledging to keep the country dry against Smith's support of modifying the Volstead Act.
The leader of the defense of Smith was Senator Duncan Upshaw Fletcher who argued that Smith was a "throroughgoing Democrat" and that the Republican Party was the party who had, in typical "Solid South" style, denounced the Southern people as rebels and traitors.
Echoing this, several Florida judges said it would be better to have a Catholic with some religion in the White House than a Republican with none. Smith's strongest supporter, Chief Justice William H. Ellis, also argued that the GOP was hypocritical in its support for Prohibition, and that because religious tests for elective office were forbidden by the Constitution, Smith would be unable to fill these offices with only Catholics. For Ellis, the election of Smith was the only way the Democratic Party could maintain itself. The Suwanee Democrat indeed argued that Hoover's Quaker faith meant he could not be elected President because it believed that Hoover's religious would not permit him to fight for his country and commanded racial equality in a state whose electorate was all-white.