Presidential electoral votes by state.

At the time of the U.S. presidential election of 1956, the Eisenhower administration remained popular with the public after his first term.

Racial segregation was a hot topic. After debate, both major parties endorsed planks giving lukewarm support for the right of the Supreme Court to decide issues like Brown v. Board of Education as to school desegregation; groups of delegates failed to get planks endorsing end to Jim Crow laws on one hand or support for continuing segregation on the other.

Nominations

Republican Party nomination

Although there was some speculation that Eisenhower would not run for a second term due to ill health, he did seek the nomination and won with little opposition. The Republican Party convention was held in San Francisco, California.

Democratic Party nomination

Losing 1952 nominee Adlai Stevenson fought a tight battle with populist Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver for the nomination. In the end Stevenson won and chose Kefauver as his running mate.

General election

Campaign

Stevenson campaigned hard against Eisenhower, with television ads for the first time being the dominant medium for both sides. The most notable ad for "Ike" Eisenhower was an issue-free feel-good animated cartoon with a soundtrack song by Irving Berlin called I Like Ike.

Stevenson proposed significant increases in social programs and treaties with the Soviet Union to lower military spending and nuclear testing on both sides. However, Eisenhower was highly popular and maintained a comfortable lead throughout the campaign.

In the end Eisenhower won with a large lead in the popular vote and the electoral votes of 41 states.

Results

|- | Adlai Ewing Stevenson II | Democrat | Illinois | style="text-align:right;" | 25,738,765 | style="text-align:right;" | 41.7% | style="text-align:right;" | 73 | (Carey) Estes Kefauver | Tennessee | style="text-align:right;" | 73

|- | Walter Burgwyn Jones | Democrat | Alabama | style="text-align:right;" | —^(a) | style="text-align:right;" | —^(a) | style="text-align:right;" | 1 | Herman Talmadge | Georgia | style="text-align:right;" | 1

|- | T. Coleman Andrews |   | Virginia | style="text-align:right;" | 107,929 | style="text-align:right;" | 0.2% | style="text-align:right;" | 0 |   |   | style="text-align:right;" | 0 ^(a) Alabama elector W.F. Turner , who was pledged to Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver, instead cast his votes for Walter Burgwyn Jones, who was a circuit court judge in Turner's home town, and Herman Talmadge, governor of the neighboring state of Georgia.
^(b) Includes unpledged electors

Source: U.S. Office of the Federal Register

See also

• President of the United States
• U.S. Senate election, 1956
• History of the United States (1945-1964)