1956 United States presidential election

This election was between Incumbent United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower/Vice President Richard Nixon and former Governor of Illinois Adlai Stevenson/Running mate Estes Kefauver.

United States presidential election, 1956

November 6, 1956

Nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower Adlai Stevenson Party Republican Democratic Home state New York Illinois Running mate Richard Nixon Estes Kefauver Electoral vote 457 73 States carried 41 7 Popular vote 35,579,180 26,028,028 Percentage 57.4% 42.0%

Presidential election results map. Red denotes those won by Eisenhower/Nixon, Blue denotes states won by Stevenson/Kefauver. Orange denotes won by Walter Burgwyn Jones by an Alabama faithless elector. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

President before election Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican Elected President Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican

Incumbent president Dwight D. Eisenhower won the election by 457 electoral votes. Adlai Stevenson got 73 electoral votes. Walter Burgwyn Jones got one vote by a faithless elector in Alabama.

This was the last election when Alaska and Hawaii were not states. It did not include Washington, D.C. until the 1964 election.

Eisenhower suffered a heart attack in September 1955 while in Colorado for a vacation. His doctors told him not to run for another election. However, his doctors told him he was feeling better. Eisenhower announced his re-election by an announcement on television in early 1956.