If DC could have always voted...

[redeagleofficial]

When was the last time it would have gone Republican?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

1928

[America Needs a 13-6 Progressive SCOTUS]

1956. Eisehower won both the Black Vote and the White Vote in both the adjoining states of Virginia and Maryland that year.

[One Term Floridian]

1864. Lol being under literal attack by southern Democrats will do that. I honestly don't think it would have ever really voted Republican to begin with. It started out as a "southern city" with Democratic whites dominating the city and its politics, and as blacks became enfranchised and successfully fought for civil rights it became Democratic in a majority-minority kind of sense.

[One Term Floridian]

1956. Eisehower won both the Black Vote and the White Vote in both the adjoining states of Virginia and Maryland that year.

Doubt it for the handful of Virginia blacks who were able to vote then (judging by the Tidewater vote that went so heavily for Stevenson), but Ike probably did carry the black vote in Maryland as he did manage to win Baltimore

[UWS]

I'd say 1928.

[redeagleofficial]

Lots of people here assuming blacks were the majority block that could have voted

[One Term Floridian]

Lots of people here assuming blacks were the majority block that could have voted

Yep. There's our winner

[brucejoel99]

I honestly wouldn't doubt it being 1956. Eisenhower supported Home Rule, the vote for president, & representation in Congress.

[Vittorio]

EDIT: Yeah, Washington being beseiged during the Civil War probably changes the calculus for 1864. Little doubt that a quintessentially Southern city returns to its roots in 1868, though.

No blacks voting:

1860: Breckenridge
1864: Lincoln
1868: Seymour
1872: Greeley
1876: Tilden
1880: Hancok
1884: Cleveland
1888: Cleveland
1892:Hancock
1896: Palmer
1900:Bryan
1904: Parker
1908: Bryan
1912: Taft
1916: Wilson
1920: Cox
1924: Davis
1928: Hoover
1932: Roosevelt
1936: Roosevelt
1940: Roosevelt
1944: Roosevelt
1948: Truman
1952: Eisenhower
1956: Stevenson
1960: Kennedy

Blacks can vote:

1860: Lincoln
1864: Lincoln
1868: Grant
1872: Grant
1876: Hayes
1880: Garfield
1884: Blaine
1888: Harrison
1892: Harrison
1896: McKinley
1900: McKinley
1904: Roosevelt
1908: Taft
1912: Wilson
1916: Hughes
1920: Harding
1924: Coolidge
1928: Smith
1932: Roosevelt
1936: Roosevelt
1940: Roosevelt
1944: Roosevelt
1948: Truman
1952: Eisenhower
1956: Eisenhower
1960: Kennedy

[One Term Floridian]

I honestly wouldn't doubt it being 1956. Eisenhower supported Home Rule, the vote for president, & representation in Congress.

He’d have certainly done very well for a Republican, but I doubt he would have won it outright. As for the other Republicans running since Lincoln, some I imagine may have gotten relatively close due to landslides (TR, Harding & Hoover) or third-Party splitting (Coolidge). Of course this all depends on the level of Jim Crow tinkering going on in the District at the time, which I reckon would have effectively disenfranchised a majority of its residents.

I could also imagine DC voting even more Democratic in some of the elections than it does now, especially during FDR’s tenure with all the jobs coming in during WWII. Just imagine it voting 97 or 98% Democratic like MS & SC at the time. Honestly makes me wonder what Trump would have to do to get DC to vote like that in 2020 or in 2024 if he happens to get re-elected.

[America Needs a 13-6 Progressive SCOTUS]

Lots of people here assuming blacks were the majority block that could have voted

I doubt that Whites in DC would ever have managed to retake Control over the District and implement the Jim Crow South policies (including the voter suppression measures) in the way they did in the Southern States. Blacks were probably a large enough majority in the District that the tactics used by White Supremacists to regain control of Southern State Governments would not be enough to overcome the gap in DC.

[brucejoel99]

I honestly wouldn't doubt it being 1956. Eisenhower supported Home Rule, the vote for president, & representation in Congress.

He’d have certainly done very well for a Republican, but I doubt he would have won it outright.

I mean, in 1956, DC was probably still white enough (keep in mind that DC didn't finally become majority black until later in the decade) where the magnitude of Eisenhower's landslide combined with having taken 39% of the black vote nationwide & his aforementioned support re: DC-specific issues would've all probably been enough to give it to him, even if narrowly.