1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina 1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina The 1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 7, 1944, as part of the 1944 United States presidential election. State voters chose eight electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president. South Carolina was won by Democratic candidate, incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt won the state over New York governor Thomas E. Dewey by a landslide margin of 83.18 percent. Unpledged Southern Democrats – foreshadowing the Dixiecrat bolt that would begin in the following election to completely transform the state’s politics – received
Franklin D. Roosevelt transformed American politics and started what political scientists call the "New Deal Party System" or the Fifth Party System. Between the Civil War and 1929, Democrats had rarely controlled both houses of Congress and had won just four of seventeen presidential elections; from 1932 to 1979, Democrats won eight of twelve presidential elections and generally controlled both houses of Congress. Roosevelt was elected in November 1932 but, like his predecessors, would not take office until the following March. After the election, Hoover sought to convince Roosevelt to renounce much of his campaign platform and to endorse the Hoover administration's policies.