1904 United States presidential election in Kentucky

1904 United States presidential election in Kentucky
← 1900 November 8, 1904 1908 →
 
Nominee Alton B. Parker Theodore Roosevelt
Party Democratic Republican
Home state New York New York
Running mate Henry G. Davis Charles W. Fairbanks
Electoral vote 13 0
Popular vote 217,170 205,457
Percentage 49.82% 47.13%

County Results

President before election

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican

Elected President

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican

The 1904 United States presidential election in Kentucky took place on November 8, 1904. All contemporary 45 states were part of the 1904 United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

Ever since the Civil War, Kentucky had been shaped politically by divisions created by that war between secessionist, Democratic counties and Unionist, Republican ones,[1] although the state as a whole leaned Democratic throughout this era and the GOP had carried the state only once[2] – by a very narrow margin in 1896[3] when northern parts of the state were affected by hostility towards William Jennings Bryan, and state native John M. Palmer drew votes from the Democrats.[4]

Kentucky was won by the Democratic nominees, Chief Judge Alton B. Parker of New York and his running mate Henry G. Davis of West Virginia. They defeated the Republican nominees, incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt of New York and his running mate Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana. Parker won the state by a narrow margin of 2.69%.

Despite Parker losing nationally in a landslide, he marginally improved on Bryan's win from 1900, although doing less well than predicted a week beforehand, when polls suggested Parker would win by 22 thousand votes or twice his actual plurality.[5]

  1. ^ Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
  2. ^ Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 350 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6
  3. ^ "Presidential General Election Results Comparison – Kentucky". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas.
  4. ^ Harrison, Lowell Hayes; A New History of Kentucky, p. 268 ISBN 9780813176307
  5. ^ ‘Forecasts of Presidential Election’; Montgomery Advertiser, October 29, 1904, pp. 13-14