‹ 1952  1960 ›
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| United States Presidential Election, 1956 | ||||
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| November 6, 1956 | ||||
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| Nominee | Estes Kefauver | Alf Landon | Henry Wallace | |
| Party | Democratic | Republican | Progressive | |
| Home state | Tennessee | Kansas | Iowa | |
| Running mate | Adlai Stevenson | Joseph McCarthy | Wayne Morse | |
| Electoral vote | 271 | 158 | 102 | |
| States carried | 22+DC | 16 | 10 | |
| Popular vote | 39.00% | 25.95% | 33.1% | |
The United States presidential election was one fought under a grim shadow, as the Soviet Union became more nuclear and expansive in Asia, and in the wake of the McCarthy Commission's 1954 cleaning-house of Communists in the State Department, the voters were on high alert. Democrat Estes Kefauver made a logical argument for peace with the Soviet Union, while President Landon increasingly dug in his heels, and Progressive Henry Wallace argued for full cooperation. Faced with potential nuclear war on one hand and the possibility of a compromised peace on the other, the voters overwhelmingly chose peace, leaving Landon in last place by popular vote and sending Kefauver to the White House.