The 1940 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 5, 1940. All contemporary 48 states were part of the 1940 United States presidential election. State voters chose five electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president. Maine was won by Republican businessman Wendell Willkie of New York, who was running against incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York. Willkie ran with Senator Charles L. McNary of Oregon while Roosevelt ran with Henry A. Wallace of Iowa.
Willkie won Maine by a narrow margin of 2.33%. This represented a swing of 11.66% to Roosevelt during an election where he lost eight states and almost 700 counties that had supported him four years earlier, mostly because of Midwestern German-American opposition to increasing tension with Nazi Germany.Dunn, Susan; 1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler–the Election Amid the Storm, p. 107 However, the Atlanticist tendencies of Yankee and French-Canadian Maine and support for aid to the United Kingdom and France in World War II led to substantial gains for Roosevelt in the state.Phillips, Kevin; The Emerging Republican Majority; p. 93 Maine ultimately became one of five states that shifted left from 1936, alongside New Hampshire, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Of these five, however, Maine's 11.66% swing was the strongest by far, almost three times the amount neighboring New Hampshire swung by.Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections; 1940 Presidential General Election Data -- National
This was the first time that Kennebec County, home of state capital Augusta, had ever voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 68
Results
Results by county CountyWendell Lewis WillkieRepublicanFranklin Delano RooseveltDemocraticEarl Russell BrowderCommunistMarginTotal votes castScammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; p. 203 # % # % # % # % Androscoggin 10,394 34.99% 19,273 64.88% 40 0.13% -8,879 -29.89% 29,707 Aroostook 13,888 58.34% 9,877 41.49% 39 0.16% 4,011 16.85% 23,804 Cumberland 29,795 52.47% 26,911 47.39% 76 0.13% 2,884 5.08% 56,782 Franklin 4,548 58.47% 3,224 41.44% 7 0.09% 1,324 17.02% 7,779 Hancock 8,539 66.36% 4,315 33.54% 13 0.10% 4,224 32.83% 12,867 Kennebec 14,877 48.36% 15,861 51.56% 27 0.09% -984 -3.20% 30,765 Knox 6,530 60.76% 4,197 39.05% 20 0.19% 2,333 21.71% 10,747 Lincoln 5,244 68.42% 2,415 31.51% 5 0.07% 2,829 36.91% 7,664 Oxford 8,656 53.49% 7,502 46.36% 25 0.15% 1,154 7.13% 16,183 Penobscot 18,674 55.79% 14,757 44.09% 40 0.12% 3,917 11.70% 33,471 Piscataquis 3,806 52.05% 3,499 47.85% 7 0.10% 307 4.20% 7,312 Sagadahoc 3,504 43.30% 4,575 56.54% 13 0.16% -1,071 -13.24% 8,092 Somerset 7,526 53.42% 6,534 46.38% 28 0.20% 992 7.04% 14,088 Waldo 5,170 61.56% 3,214 38.27% 14 0.17% 1,956 23.29% 8,398 Washington 6,253 43.65% 8,048 56.18% 25 0.17% -1,795 -12.53% 14,326 York 16,547 42.59% 22,276 57.33% 32 0.08% -5,729 -14.74% 38,855Totals163,95151.10%156,47848.77%4110.13%7,4732.33%320,840
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic Kennebec Sagadahoc
See also United States presidential elections in Maine
References