1916 United States presidential election in Michigan
November 7, 1916
All 15 Michigan votes to the Electoral College
 
Nominee Charles Evans Hughes Woodrow Wilson
Party Republican Democratic
Home state New York New Jersey
Running mate Charles W. Fairbanks Thomas R. Marshall
Electoral vote 15 0
Popular vote 339,097 286,775
Percentage 52.09% 44.05%
County Results
President before election

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic

 Elected President

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic

The 1916 United States presidential election in Michigan took place on November 7, 1916, as part of the 1916 United States presidential election. Voters chose 15[1] representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Following the Panic of 1893 and the Populist movement, Michigan would turn from a competitive Republican-leaning state into a rigidly one-party polity dominated by the Republican Party.[2] The dominance of the culture of the Lower Peninsula by anti-slavery Yankees[3] would be augmented by the turn of formerly Democratic-leaning German Catholics away from that party as a result of the remodelled party’s agrarian and free silver sympathies, which became rigidly opposed by both the upper class and workers who followed them.[4] The state Democratic Party was further crippled via the Populist movement severing its critical financial ties with business and commerce in Michigan as in other Northern states.[5] A brief turn of the strongly evangelical Cabinet Counties toward the Populist movement in the 1896 presidential election would reverse itself following the return to prosperity under President William McKinley, so that these joined in Republican hegemony until the Great Depression.

In the 1894 elections, the Democratic Party lost all but one seat in the Michigan legislature,[6] and over the four ensuing decades the party would never make major gains there.[2] Unlike the other states of the Upper Midwest, the Yankee influence on the culture of the Lower Peninsula was so strong that left-wing third parties did not provide significant opposition to the Republicans, nor was there more than a moderate degree of coordinated factionalism within the hegemonic Michigan Republican Party.[7]

Aided by the support of incumbent Governor Chase Osborn[8] and state party leader Frank Knox,[9] “Bull Moose” nominee Theodore Roosevelt would carry Michigan by a double-digit margin over conservative incumbent Taft in 1912. However, Roosevelt’s personal interests took over from developing his party after the election,[10] and after voting on the first ballot for favorite son Henry Ford due to his strong desire to keep America out of World War I,[11] Michigan’s Republicans would soon shift their support in the national convention to eventual nominee Charles Evans Hughes.[12]

At the beginning of the campaign, Michigan, where Republicans had regained their customary near-monopoly of House and state legislative seats in 1914, was seen by the Hughes campaign as a safe state.[13] However, early polls, taken only from rural areas of Central Michigan, indicated Wilson was receiving a substantial proportion of the 1912 “Bull Moose” vote.[14] No further polls would be taken in the state, and in the end Hughes won slightly more than 52 percent of the popular vote.[15]

Results

1916 United States presidential election in Michigan
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Charles E. Hughes 339,097 52.09%
Democratic Woodrow Wilson (inc.) 286,775 44.05%
Socialist Allan L. Benson 16,120 2.48%
Prohibition Frank Hanly 8,139 1.25%
Socialist Labor Arthur E. Reimer 842 0.13%
Total votes 650,973 100%

Results by county

1916 United States presidential election in Michigan by county
County Charles Evans Hughes
Republican		 Thomas Woodrow Wilson
Democratic		 Allan Louis Benson
Socialist		 James Franklin Hanly
Prohibition		 Arthur Elmer Reimer
Socialist Labor		 Margin Total votes cast[16]
#  % #  % #  % #  % #  % #  %
Alcona 573 53.20% 453 42.06% 38 3.53% 10 0.93% 3 0.28% 120 11.14% 1,077
Alger 687 48.31% 650 45.71% 55 3.87% 24 1.69% 6 0.42% 37 2.60% 1,422
Allegan 4,803 54.81% 3,591 40.98% 223 2.54% 136 1.55% 10 0.11% 1,212 13.83% 8,763
Alpena 2,020 57.93% 1,392 39.92% 61 1.75% 12 0.34% 2 0.06% 628 18.01% 3,487
Antrim 1,336 53.91% 932 37.61% 150 6.05% 52 2.10% 8 0.32% 404 16.30% 2,478
Arenac 911 46.86% 938 48.25% 59 3.03% 32 1.65% 4 0.21% -27 -1.39% 1,944
Baraga 748 57.19% 462 35.32% 88 6.73% 8 0.61% 2 0.15% 286 21.87% 1,308
Barry 3,157 53.82% 2,491 42.47% 112 1.91% 99 1.69% 7 0.12% 666 11.35% 5,866
Bay 6,708 51.09% 5,996 45.67% 317 2.41% 66 0.50% 43 0.33% 712 5.42% 13,130
Benzie 900 47.19% 770 40.38% 159 8.34% 64 3.36% 14 0.73% 130 6.82% 1,907
Berrien 7,511 53.68% 6,054 43.27% 231 1.65% 132 0.94% 63 0.45% 1,457 10.41% 13,991
Branch 3,100 48.77% 3,062 48.17% 93 1.46% 98 1.54% 3 0.05% 38 0.60% 6,356
Calhoun 6,484 42.07% 8,037 52.15% 648 4.20% 194 1.26% 49 0.32% -1,553 -10.08% 15,412
Cass 2,518 46.67% 2,666 49.42% 142 2.63% 60 1.11% 9 0.17% -148 -2.74% 5,395
Charlevoix 1,877 54.72% 1,152 33.59% 307 8.95% 70 2.04% 24 0.70% 725 21.14% 3,430
Cheboygan 1,576 51.17% 1,389 45.10% 89 2.89% 21 0.68% 5 0.16% 187 6.07% 3,080
Chippewa 2,365 54.64% 1,768 40.85% 140 3.23% 47 1.09% 8 0.18% 597 13.79% 4,328
Clare 1,049 54.38% 769 39.87% 76 3.94% 33 1.71% 2 0.10% 280 14.52% 1,929
Clinton 3,381 60.60% 2,094 37.53% 39 0.70% 64 1.15% 1 0.02% 1,287 23.07% 5,579
Crawford 409 46.21% 450 50.85% 19 2.15% 6 0.68% 1 0.11% -41 -4.63% 885
Delta 3,088 59.74% 1,781 34.46% 244 4.72% 40 0.77% 16 0.31% 1,307 25.29% 5,169
Dickinson 2,393 60.63% 1,291 32.71% 213 5.40% 43 1.09% 7 0.18% 1,102 27.92% 3,947
Eaton 3,802 50.82% 3,461 46.26% 107 1.43% 97 1.30% 14 0.19% 341 4.56% 7,481
Emmet 1,724 50.28% 1,363 39.75% 290 8.46% 45 1.31% 7 0.20% 361 10.53% 3,429
Genesee 9,353 48.42% 9,311 48.21% 416 2.15% 197 1.02% 38 0.20% 42 0.22% 19,315
Gladwin 935 52.88% 729 41.23% 62 3.51% 36 2.04% 6 0.34% 206 11.65% 1,768
Gogebic 2,204 55.04% 1,540 38.46% 123 3.07% 128 3.20% 9 0.22% 664 16.58% 4,004
Grand Traverse 1,917 45.81% 1,848 44.16% 331 7.91% 63 1.51% 26 0.62% 69 1.65% 4,185
Gratiot 3,434 52.16% 2,960 44.96% 60 0.91% 121 1.84% 9 0.14% 474 7.20% 6,584
Hillsdale 3,463 48.69% 3,424 48.14% 43 0.60% 178 2.50% 5 0.07% 39 0.55% 7,113
Houghton 8,013 60.18% 4,615 34.66% 273 2.05% 401 3.01% 14 0.11% 3,398 25.52% 13,316
Huron 4,743 70.85% 1,816 27.13% 74 1.11% 59 0.88% 2 0.03% 2,927 43.73% 6,694
Ingham 7,846 47.76% 7,664 46.65% 623 3.79% 235 1.43% 59 0.36% 182 1.11% 16,427
Ionia 3,950 48.36% 3,911 47.88% 139 1.70% 159 1.95% 9 0.11% 39 0.48% 8,168
Iosco 984 56.00% 729 41.49% 24 1.37% 19 1.08% 1 0.06% 255 14.51% 1,757
Iron 2,139 67.54% 877 27.69% 125 3.95% 21 0.66% 5 0.16% 1,262 39.85% 3,167
Isabella 2,700 53.91% 2,143 42.79% 73 1.46% 87 1.74% 5 0.10% 557 11.12% 5,008
Jackson 6,938 44.96% 8,058 52.22% 203 1.32% 219 1.42% 14 0.09% -1,120 -7.26% 15,432
Kalamazoo 5,951 41.99% 7,164 50.55% 794 5.60% 243 1.71% 21 0.15% -1,213 -8.56% 14,173
Kalkaska 724 57.46% 430 34.13% 80 6.35% 20 1.59% 6 0.48% 294 23.33% 1,260
Kent 16,095 42.46% 20,364 53.73% 939 2.48% 502 1.32% 3 0.01% -4,269 -11.26% 37,903
Keweenaw 860 77.97% 194 17.59% 21 1.90% 26 2.36% 2 0.18% 666 60.38% 1,103
Lake 588 60.68% 347 35.81% 29 2.99% 5 0.52% 0 0.00% 241 24.87% 969
Lapeer 3,345 61.77% 1,937 35.77% 23 0.42% 101 1.87% 9 0.17% 1,408 26.00% 5,415
Leelanau 984 53.89% 763 41.79% 56 3.07% 21 1.15% 2 0.11% 221 12.10% 1,826
Lenawee 6,247 52.01% 5,519 45.95% 78 0.65% 159 1.32% 9 0.07% 728 6.06% 12,012
Livingston 2,460 50.88% 2,297 47.51% 9 0.19% 65 1.34% 4 0.08% 163 3.37% 4,835
Luce 527 65.30% 257 31.85% 6 0.74% 17 2.11% 0 0.00% 270 33.46% 807
Mackinac 1,082 53.38% 908 44.80% 31 1.53% 6 0.30% 0 0.00% 174 8.58% 2,027
Macomb 4,552 58.33% 3,108 39.83% 42 0.54% 93 1.19% 9 0.12% 1,444 18.50% 7,804
Manistee 2,360 50.17% 2,177 46.28% 106 2.25% 52 1.11% 9 0.19% 183 3.89% 4,704
Marquette 5,263 63.18% 2,625 31.51% 331 3.97% 98 1.18% 13 0.16% 2,638 31.67% 8,330
Mason 2,198 53.17% 1,689 40.86% 175 4.23% 72 1.74% 0 0.00% 509 12.31% 4,134
Mecosta 2,455 57.37% 1,478 34.54% 255 5.96% 84 1.96% 7 0.16% 977 22.83% 4,279
Menominee 2,671 56.93% 1,854 39.51% 117 2.49% 48 1.02% 2 0.04% 817 17.41% 4,692
Midland 2,104 57.82% 1,454 39.96% 60 1.65% 15 0.41% 6 0.16% 650 17.86% 3,639
Missaukee 1,160 54.46% 917 43.05% 26 1.22% 25 1.17% 2 0.09% 243 11.41% 2,130
Monroe 3,787 46.64% 4,202 51.76% 47 0.58% 82 1.01% 1 0.01% -415 -5.11% 8,119
Montcalm 3,894 56.00% 2,801 40.28% 108 1.55% 140 2.01% 10 0.14% 1,093 15.72% 6,953
Montmorency 396 54.25% 272 37.26% 54 7.40% 7 0.96% 1 0.14% 124 16.99% 730
Muskegon 5,692 52.16% 4,465 40.91% 601 5.51% 128 1.17% 27 0.25% 1,227 11.24% 10,913
Newaygo 2,417 58.27% 1,625 39.18% 0 0.00% 90 2.17% 16 0.39% 792 19.09% 4,148
Oakland 7,730 51.86% 6,659 44.67% 292 1.96% 200 1.34% 25 0.17% 1,071 7.19% 14,906
Oceana 1,957 54.27% 1,387 38.46% 170 4.71% 82 2.27% 10 0.28% 570 15.81% 3,606
Ogemaw 878 51.20% 743 43.32% 42 2.45% 51 2.97% 1 0.06% 135 7.87% 1,715
Ontonagon 1,235 54.29% 888 39.03% 122 5.36% 25 1.10% 5 0.22% 347 15.25% 2,275
Osceola 2,193 61.90% 1,285 36.27% 18 0.51% 47 1.33% 0 0.00% 908 25.63% 3,543
Oscoda 245 56.98% 175 40.70% 5 1.16% 5 1.16% 0 0.00% 70 16.28% 430
Otsego 531 49.17% 519 48.06% 9 0.83% 16 1.48% 5 0.46% 12 1.11% 1,080
Ottawa 5,484 56.19% 3,941 40.38% 244 2.50% 85 0.87% 6 0.06% 1,543 15.81% 9,760
Presque Isle 1,407 61.52% 806 35.24% 60 2.62% 8 0.35% 6 0.26% 601 26.28% 2,287
Roscommon 311 53.44% 239 41.07% 24 4.12% 3 0.52% 5 0.86% 72 12.37% 582
Saginaw 9,544 51.70% 8,434 45.69% 312 1.69% 144 0.78% 27 0.15% 1,110 6.01% 18,461
Sanilac 4,639 69.62% 1,867 28.02% 38 0.57% 117 1.76% 2 0.03% 2,772 41.60% 6,663
Schoolcraft 994 58.96% 623 36.95% 45 2.67% 15 0.89% 9 0.53% 371 22.00% 1,686
Shiawassee 3,926 51.29% 3,308 43.22% 180 2.35% 233 3.04% 7 0.09% 618 8.07% 7,654
St. Clair 6,538 57.39% 4,617 40.53% 129 1.13% 99 0.87% 9 0.08% 1,921 16.86% 11,392
St. Joseph 3,132 45.01% 3,567 51.26% 191 2.74% 62 0.89% 7 0.10% -435 -6.25% 6,959
Tuscola 4,461 63.49% 2,329 33.15% 52 0.74% 171 2.43% 13 0.19% 2,132 30.34% 7,026
Van Buren 4,302 55.32% 3,225 41.47% 167 2.15% 66 0.85% 16 0.21% 1,077 13.85% 7,776
Washtenaw 6,505 54.09% 5,279 43.90% 136 1.13% 106 0.88% 0 0.00% 1,226 10.19% 12,026
Wayne 70,056 51.82% 60,935 45.08% 3,204 2.37% 980 0.72% 9 0.01% 9,121 6.75% 135,184
Wexford 2,333 55.21% 1,683 39.82% 115 2.72% 95 2.25% 0 0.00% 650 15.38% 4,226
Totals339,09752.09%286,77544.05%16,1202.48%8,1391.25%8420.13%52,3228.04%650,973

Analysis

Despite Hughes’ comfortable win, incumbent President Woodrow Wilson did nonetheless achieve the best performance in Michigan by a Democrat since Grover Cleveland in 1888.[17] Wilson improved seventeen percent on his 1912 showing when he finished third behind both Roosevelt and Taft, with most of his gains occurring in the heavily evangelical cabinet counties of the southern part of the state. Wilson was the first Democrat to ever carry Kalamazoo County.[18] As of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, this is the last time the Republican candidate won Michigan without carrying Kent County, home of Grand Rapids. This is the last time a Democrat won two terms without ever carrying the state.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "1916 Election for the Thirty-Third Term (1917-1921)". Retrieved April 3, 2018.
  2. 1 2 Burnham, Walter Dean. "The System of 1896: An Analysis". The Evolution of American Electoral Systems. pp. 178–179. ISBN 0313213798.
  3. ↑ English, Gustavus P.; Proceedings of the Ninth Republican National Convention (1888), p. 234
  4. ↑ Sundquist, James. Politics and Policy: The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson Years. p. 526. ISBN 0815719094.
  5. ↑ Rogowski, Ronald (2020). Commerce and Coalitions: How Trade Affects Domestic Political Alignments. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691219435.
  6. ↑ "Swamped! The Democrats Drowned Out by a Tremendous Republican Tidal Wave". The L'Anse Sentinel. L'Anse. November 10, 1894. p. 1.
  7. ↑ Hansen, John Mark; Shigeo, Hirano; Snyder Jr., James M. "Parties within Parties: Parties, Factions, and Coordinated Politics, 1900-1980". In Gerber, Alan S.; Schickler, Eric (eds.). Governing in a Polarized Age: Elections, Parties, and Political Representation in America. pp. 165–168. ISBN 978-1-107-09509-0.
  8. ↑ Pavord, Andrew C. (Summer 1996). "The Gamble for Power: Theodore Roosevelt's Decision to Run for the Presidency in 1912". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 26 (3): 633–647.
  9. ↑ Mark, Steven Macdonald (1977). An American Interventionist: Frank Knox and United States Foreign Relations (Thesis). University of Maryland, College Park ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. pp. 32–55.
  10. ↑ Gould, Lewis L. The First Modern Clash over Federal Power: Wilson versus Hughes in the Presidential Election of 1916. p. 12.
  11. ↑ Lovell, S.D. The Presidential Election of 1916. p. 28. ISBN 0809309653.
  12. ↑ Lovell; The Presidential Election of 1916
  13. ↑ Gould; The First Modern Clash over Federal Power, p. 78
  14. ↑ "Greatest Statesman We Have Ever Had — So Says Luther Burbank, Famous Scientist, of Wilson". Telegraph-Forum+date=September 22, 1916. Bucyrus, Ohio.
  15. ↑ "1916 Presidential General Election Results — Michigan". Retrieved April 3, 2018.
  16. ↑ Michigan Secretary of State; Michigan Manual (1917); pp. 714-715 (county totals), 739 (statewide totals)
  17. ↑ "Presidential General Election Results Comparison — Michigan". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas.
  18. ↑ Menendez, Albert J. (2005). The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004. pp. 222–227. ISBN 0786422173.
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