in the early twentieth century pitt was a typical democratic "solid south" county, where there were large numbers of disenfranchised blacks and the small white electorate voted overwhelming majorities for the democratic party. pitt voted for the democratic party in every election from at least 1876 until american independent candidate george wallace gained a plurality in 1968. apart from richard nixon's overwhelming victory over george mcgovern in 1972, pitt has since been a closely contested swing county, with no major party candidate post-mcgovern falling under forty percent.