United States presidential election, 1924

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‹ 1920 1928 ›
United States presidential election, 1924
4 November 1924

Nominee	Calvin Coolidge	John W. Davis	Robert M. La Follette, Sr.
Party	Republican	Democratic	Progressive
Home state	Massachusetts	West Virginia	Wisconsin
Running mate	Charles G. Dawes	Charles W. Bryan	Burton K. Wheeler
Electoral vote	382	136	13
States carried	35	12	1
Popular vote	15,723,789	8,386,242	4,831,706
Percentage	54.0%	28.8%	16.6%

Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Coolidge/Dawes, Blue denotes those won by Davis/Bryan, Green denotes those won by La Follette/Wheeler. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
Incumbent President Calvin Coolidge Republican President-Elect Calvin Coolidge Republican

The United States presidential election of 1924 was won by incumbent President Calvin Coolidge, the Republican candidate. Coolidge was given credit for a booming economy at home and no visible crises abroad. He was aided by a split within the Democratic Party. The regular Democratic candidate was John W. Davis, a little-known former congressman and diplomat from West Virginia. Since Davis was a conservative, many liberal Democrats bolted the party and backed the third-party campaign of Wisconsin Senator Robert M. LaFollette, Sr., who ran as the candidate of the Progressive Party. This was the first presidential election in which all American Indians were citizens and thus allowed to vote. Coolidge's 25.2-point victory margin is the second largest ever, after Warren Harding's 26.2-point victory margin in 1920.

1 Nominations
2 General election
- 2.1 The Fall Campaign
- 2.2 Results
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
6 Navigation

[edit] Nominations

[edit] Republican Party nomination

Republican Candidates

President Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts

Senator Hiram Johnson of California

Senator Robert M. LaFollette of Wisconsin

The Republican Convention was held in Cleveland from 10 June to 12 June, with the easy choice of nominating incumbent President Coolidge for a full term of his own.

Presidential vote
ballot	1
Calvin Coolidge	1065
Robert LaFollette	34
Hiram Johnson	10

Although Coolidge offered the vice-presidential nomination to Idaho Senator William E. Borah, Borah declined the offer. He was replaced by Charles Dawes, a prominent Republican businessman.

[edit] Democratic Party Nomination

Democratic Candidates

Former Secretary of War Newton D. Baker of Ohio	Owner and publisher George L. Berry of Tennessee	Governor Fred H. Brown of New Hampshire	Governor Charles W. Bryan of Nebraska
Former Governor and 1920 nominee James M. Cox of Ohio	Former Secretary of Navy Josephus Daniels of North Carolina	Former Solicitor General and Ambassador to the United Kingdom John W. Davis of West Virginia	Senator Woodbridge Nathan Ferris of Michigan
Former Ambassador to Germany James W. Gerard of New York	Senator Carter Glass of Virginia	Senator Pat Harrison of Mississippi	Former Secretary of Treasury David F. Houston of Missouri
Senator John B. Kendrick of Wyoming	Former Secretary of Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo of California	Former Secretary of Agriculture Edwin Meredith of Iowa	Senator Robert L. Owen of Oklahoma
Senator Samuel M. Ralston of Indiana	Governor Albert Ritchie of Maryland	Senate Minority Leader Joseph Taylor Robinson of Arkansas	Senator Willard Saulsbury, Jr. of Delaware
Governor George Sebastian Silzer of New Jersey	Governor Al Smith of New York	Governor William Ellery Sweet of Colorado	Senator Oscar W. Underwood of Alabama
Senator Thomas J. Walsh of Montana

The 1924 Democratic National Convention was held in New York from 24 June to 9 July. The two leading candidates were William G. McAdoo of California, former Secretary of the Treasury and son-in-law of former President Woodrow Wilson; and Governor Al Smith of New York, a popular former mayor of New York City. The balloting revealed a clear geographic and cultural split in the party, as McAdoo was supported mostly by rural, Protestant delegates from the South, West, and small-town Midwest who were supporters of Prohibition (called "drys"). In some cases McAdoo's delegates were also supporters of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), which was at its peak of nationwide popularity in the 1920's, with chapters in all 48 states and 4 to 5 million members. Governor Smith was supported by the anti-Prohibition forces (called "wets"), many Roman Catholics and other ethnic minorities, big-city delegates in the Northeast and urban Midwest, and by liberal delegates opposed to the influence of the Ku Klux Klan. An example of the deep split within the party came in a brutal floor fight over a proposal to publicly condemn the Klan; most of McAdoo's delegates in the South and West opposed the motion, while most of Smith's big-city delegates supported it. In the end the motion failed to carry by a single vote; William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential candidate, argued against condemning the Klan for fear that it would permanently split the party. Wendell Willkie, who would go on to become the Republican Party's 1940 presidential candidate, was a Democratic delegate in 1924 and he supported the proposal to condemn the KKK. The bitter fight between the McAdoo and Smith delegates over the KKK set the stage for the nominating ballots to come.

Due to the two-thirds rule governing nominations, neither McAdoo, who briefly got a majority of the votes halfway through the balloting, nor Smith, were able to get the two-thirds majority necessary to win. However, neither candidate would back down, and so the deadlock continued for days on end, as ballot after ballot was taken with neither McAdoo or Smith getting close to enough delegates to win the nomination. Eventually the convention would go to over 100 ballots, becoming the longest-running political convention in American history. Will Rogers, a popular comedian of the era, joked that New York had invited the Democratic delegates to visit the city, not to live there.

Senator Oscar W. Underwood of Alabama, the Democratic leader in the Senate, also had some support, and as this was the first Democratic Convention to be broadcast on radio, Alabama's clarion "...casts 24 votes for Oscar... Dubya!...UNDERWOOD!!!" declaration for ballot after ballot became a symbol of the convention. With neither McAdoo nor Smith able to break the deadlock, on the 103rd ballot the exhausted convention turned to John W. Davis, an obscure former Congressman from West Virginia and Ambassador to the United Kingdom, as a compromise candidate. The disarray prompted Will Rogers's famous quip: "I'm not a member of any organized political party, I'm a Democrat!"

Charles W. Bryan, William Jennings Bryan's brother and the Governor of Nebraska, was nominated for Vice President, in order to gain the support of the party's rural voters who still saw Bryan as their leader.

Presidential vote
Ballot	1	15	100	Ballot	1	15	100
John W. Davis	31	61	203.5	Calvin Coolidge	1	0	0
William G. Mcadoo	431.5	479	190	Henry T. Allen	1	1	0
Alfred E. Smith	241	305.5	351.5	John T. Barnett	1	0	0
James M. Cox	59	60	0	William J. Bryan	1	1	1
John W. Davis	31	61	203.5	John M. Callahan	0	0	1
Pat Harrison	43.5	20.5	0	William Coyne	0	0	1
Oscar W. Underwood	42.5	39.5	41.5	William Dever	1	1	0
George S. Silzer	38	0	0	Edward L. Dohney	0	0	1
Samuel M. Ralston	30	31	0	Edward I. Edwards	1	1	0
Woodbridge N. Ferris	30	0	0	William A. Gaston	1	1	0
Carter Glass	25	25	35	Gilbert M. Hitchcock	1	1	0
Albert C. Ritchie	22.5	17.5	17.5	J. Holmes Jackson	0	0	1
Joseph T. Robinson	21	20.5	46	J. Richard Kevin	0	1	1
Martin Behrman	20	18	5	Rowland Kreds	0	0	1
Jonathan M. Davis	20	11	0	William Maloney	1	1	0
Charles W. Bryan	18	11	2	Fred Martin	1	1	0
Fred H. Brown	17	9	0	Belle Miller	0	0	1
Royal S. Copeland	17	12	0	Atlee Pomerene	1	0	0
Cordell Hull	13	18	20	Will Rogers	1	0	1
William Sweet	12	0	0	Thomas J. Spellacy	1	0	0
Homer S. Cummings	9	0	0	Cora Wilson Stewart	1	1	0
David F. Houston	9	5	2	George L. Berry	0	1	2
Willard Saulsbury	7	6	6	Newton D. Baker	1	28	58
John Kendrick	6	0	0	David F. Houston	0	0	9
A.A. Murphree	4	6	2	James W. Gerard	0	0	10
John S. Battle	3	7	20	Robert L. Owen	0	0	20
Thomas R. Marshall	3	0	0	Thomas J. Walsh	33	50	123
David I. Walsh	3	5	0	Houston Thompson	1	0	0
Franklin D. Roosevelt	2	5	1	Burton K. Wheeler	2	0	0

[edit] Progressive Party

Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr., who had left the Republican Party and formed his own political party, the Progressive Party, in Wisconsin, was so upset over both political parties choosing conservative candidates that he decided to run as a third-party candidate to give liberals from both parties an alternative. He thus accepted the presidential nomination of the United States Progressive Party. Long a champion of labor unions, and an ardent foe of Big Business, La Follette was a fiery orator who had dominated Wisconsin's political scene for more than two decades. Backed by radical farmers, the AFL labor unions, and Socialists, LaFollette ran on a platform of nationalizing cigarette factories and other large industries. He also strongly supported increased taxation on the wealthy and the right of collective bargaining for factory workers. Despite a strong showing in labor strongholds and winning over 16% of the national popular vote, he carried only his home state of Wisconsin in the electoral college.

[edit] General election

[edit] The Fall Campaign

With the disastrous Democratic Convention having badly divided the Democrats, there was little doubt that Coolidge would win the election. His campaign slogan, "Keep Cool with Coolidge", was highly popular. Davis carried only the traditionally Democratic Solid South and Oklahoma; due to liberal Democrats voting for La Follette, Davis lost the popular vote to Coolidge by 25 percentage points. The Republicans did so well that they carried New York City, a feat they have not repeated since.

[edit] Results

Presidential Candidate	Party	Home State	Popular Vote		Electoral Vote	Running Mate	Running Mate's Home State	RM's Electoral Vote
Presidential Candidate	Party	Home State	Count	Pct	Electoral Vote	Running Mate	Running Mate's Home State	RM's Electoral Vote
(John) Calvin Coolidge, Jr.	Republican	Massachusetts	15,723,789	54.0%	382	Charles Gates Dawes	Illinois	382
John William Davis	Democratic	West Virginia	8,386,242	28.8%	136	Charles Wayland Bryan	Nebraska	136
Robert Marion LaFollette	Progressive	Wisconsin	4,831,706	16.6%	13	Burton Kendall Wheeler	Montana	13
Herman P. Faris	Prohibition	Missouri	55,951	0.2%	0	Marie C. Brehm	California	0
William Z. Foster	Communist	Massachusetts	38,669	0.1%	0	Benjamin Gitlow	New York	0
Gilbert Nations	American		24,325	0.1%	0	Charles Hiram Randall	California	0
Other			60,750	0.2%	–	Other		–
Total			29,121,432	100 %	531			531
Needed to win					266			266

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1924 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (July 28, 2005).

Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (July 31, 2005).

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Hicks, John Donald. Republican Ascendancy 1921-1933 (1955)
K. C. MacKay, The Progressive Movement of 1924 (1947)
Donald R. McCoy, Calvin Coolidge: The Quiet President (1967)
Murray, Robert K. The 103rd Ballot: Democrats and Disaster in Madison Square Garden (1976),
Nancy C. Unger. Fighting Bob LaFollette: The Righteous Reformer (2000)