How did Eisenhower win Louisiana?

[SailorMars1994]

I know it's not trans related but I dono who else or where else to ask this question that has puzzled me for 10 years. During his Re-elections Eisenhower won Louisiana by roughly 15 points. In those days Republicans were lucky to win the upper south and slightly less Democratic states like Florida in the Deep South (which was still a huge Democratic state then). Texas I can understand Eisenhower winning but the Deep South was uniformly Democratic during Eisenhowers elections, expect LA that voted for him. given  LA was massively Democratic back then (be the equivalent of a Democrat winning North Dakota today) why would LA ditch the Deep south  transition and vote for a moderate northern GOP person back then? Does anyone know? Thanks!

[Dena]

For a long time blacks supported Republicans because the Republican party was the party of Lincoln thus giving them their freedom. What likely caused the upset is many southern state had tests and other ways to keep the black population from voting. It's possible that these restrictions didn't exist in Louisiana so the black vote was able to over power the democrat vote. You can prove or disprove this by finding out how open elections were in Louisiana.

[SailorMars1994]

Hey thank you for reply! It has always puzzled me. I'm not all too sure about the ability of blacks to vote in Louisiana back then, granted New Orleans actually voted even more strongly for Eisenhower then the rest of Louisiana so it's possible!

[Deborah]

Eisenhower was also somewhat unique due to his military service as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during WWII.  I imagine that earned him a lot of approval that a more mundane Republican would not have gotten.


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[Joelene9]

Eisenhower was also somewhat unique due to his military service as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during WWII.  I imagine that earned him a lot of approval that a more mundane Republican would not have gotten.


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True with that point. Eisenhower was reluctant to run but he was popular because he was the European Supreme Commander and Truman was firing a lot of good people. Adlai Stevenson, his 1952 opponent had his problems during the campaign. Also, this was the first time that television was involved in hosting debates, putting on political commercials and covering the elections. I was born the day before Eisenhower was elected for his first term. I read that Adlai Stevenson on that night tried to squeeze in another speech on TV, but he was cut off in the middle of that speech by the networks due to time constraints. This still goes on as old politicians get used to new types of media. Twitter anyone?
  When we moved in to live with grandma for a while in late 1960 right after Kennedy was elected, she still had her "I Like Ike" campaign buttons on display. Remember, Eisenhower was a 2-term president.

Joelene