Editing Carroll County, Tennessee (section)

==Politics==
[[File:Carroll County Mayoral office.jpg|thumb|right|Carroll County's mayoral office]]

In the 21st century, Carroll County is overwhelmingly Republican. In general, the alignment of voters with the two major parties has shifted since the late 20th century, but Carroll County had a different history. Conservative whites in the upland and Deep South largely shifted away from the Democratic Party in the late 20th century to the Republican Party, but Carroll County had only briefly supported Democratic presidential candidates in the 20th century: 1912, when Southerner [[Woodrow Wilson]] was elected; from 1932 to 1948, for [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and [[Harry Truman]] during the Depression and years of World War II and after, and Southerners [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] in 1964, [[Jimmy Carter]] in 1976, and [[Bill Clinton]] in 1992–1996.<ref name="leip"/>

But at the time of the [[American Civil War]] and for decades after, Carroll was the northernmost county in the [[Southern Unionist|Unionist]] Republican bloc, made up of [[Wayne County, Tennessee|Wayne]], [[Henderson County, Tennessee|Henderson]], [[Hardin County, Tennessee|Hardin]] and [[McNairy County, Tennessee|McNairy]] counties, within historically Democratic [[West Tennessee]]. The whites in this bloc were yeomen farmers who owned few slaves; most identified as Unionist. In Tennessee's Ordinance of Secession referendum on June 8, 1861, Carroll County voted to remain in the Union by a margin of 1,349 to 967,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://votearchive.com/tn-sec-ref-1861/|publisher=Vote Archive|title=Tennessee Secession Referendum, 1861}}</ref> whilst earlier on February 9, 1861, county voters voted against holding a secession convention by a margin of 1,495 to 678.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://votearchive.com/tn-sec-conv-vote-1861/|title=Tennessee Vote on Secession Convention, 1861|publisher=[[The Fayetteville Observer|Fayetteville Observer]]|date=March 21, 1861}}</ref> Historians note that the enclave developed this way because, unlike in the fertile Delta, this region of the [[Highland Rim]] had soils that were shallow, humus-poor and easily erodible. Settlers who were poor could acquire land here, as the area could not support the plantations more typical of [[Middle Tennessee|Middle]] and West Tennessee, which were dependent on the labor of [[Slavery in the United States|enslaved African Americans]].<ref name="wright">{{cite journal|last=Wright|first=John K.|title=Voting Habits in the United States: A Note on Two Maps|journal=Geographical Review|volume=22|issue=4|date=October 1932|pages=666–672|doi=10.2307/208821 |jstor=208821 |bibcode=1932GeoRv..22..666W }}</ref>

{{PresHead|place=Carroll County, Tennessee|source=<ref name="leip">{{Cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections|last=Leip|first=David|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=March 10, 2018}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|9,547|2,233|102|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|9,205|2,559|141|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|7,756|2,327|301|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|7,225|3,475|151|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|7,455|3,980|211|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|6,605|5,070|82|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|5,465|5,239|123|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1996|Democratic|4,206|4,912|731|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|4,842|5,741|1,216|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|5,635|4,151|44|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|6,017|4,568|77|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|5,681|5,277|185|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|4,031|5,581|109|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|5,784|2,290|275|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1968|Republican|3,757|1,932|3,298|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|3,734|4,056|0|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1960|Republican|4,517|2,961|131|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|4,235|3,232|123|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1952|Republican|3,741|2,841|44|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|2,651|2,818|704|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1944|Republican|2,996|2,077|15|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|2,782|2,830|30|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|2,282|2,989|52|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|2,505|2,603|48|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1928|Republican|2,981|1,743|23|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1924|Republican|2,199|1,962|100|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1920|Republican|4,141|3,215|0|Tennessee}}
{{PresRow|1916|Republican|2,217|2,001|41|Tennessee}}
{{PresFoot|1912|Democratic|1,362|1,653|1,036|Tennessee}}
{{clear}}