United States presidential election, 1924
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The U.S. presidential election of 1924 was won by incumbent President Calvin Coolidge. the Republican candidate in a landslide as he presided over a booming economy at home and no visible crises abroad.
Contents |
[edit] Nominations
[edit] Republican Party nomination
The Republican Convention was held in Cleveland from 10 June to 12 June, with the easy choice of nominating sitting President Coolidge for a full term of his own.
| ballot | 1 |
|---|---|
| President Coolidge | 1065 |
| Robert LaFollette | 34 |
| Hiram Johnson | 10 |
Coolidge's prospective running mate, former Illinois Governor Frank O. Lowden, became the only nominee to actually refuse to accept a major party nomination during the 20th century. He was replaced by Charles Dawes.
[edit] Democratic Party nomination
The 1924 Democratic National Convention was held in New York from 24 June to 9 July. The Convention was split over more than a hundred ballots between William G. McAdoo of California, former Secretary of the Treasury and son-in-law of former President Woodrow Wilson, supported by the "Drys" (pro-Prohibitionists), and Governor Al Smith of New York, supported by the "Wets," as well as over a proposed platform plank denouncing the Ku Klux Klan (which was opposed by William Jennings Bryan).
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 super-majority necessary, and the deadlock went on and on and on as neither of the two major candidates would back down, driving everyone in the party to distraction.
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 clairion "...casts 24 votes for Oscar... Dubya!...UNDERWOOD!!!" declaration for ballot after ballot became a symbol of the convention. Ultimately, on the 103rd ballot, the exhausted convention decided on John W. Davis, a former Congressman from West Virginia and Ambassador to Britain, 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 governor of Nebraska, was nominated for Vice President, in order to gain the Bryan element.
[edit] Other nominations
United States Progressive Party candidate Robert M. La Follette, Sr. received 4,822,856 popular votes for President (16.5 percent) and 13 electoral votes. Long a champion of unions, and an ardent foe of big business, LaFollette created a new Progressive party, which ran his presidential ticket but did not run candidates for other offices. Backed by radical farmers, the AFL labor unions, and Socialists, LaFollette ran on a platform of nationalizing railroads and the country's natural resources. He also strongly supported increased taxation on the wealthy and the right of collective bargaining. Despite a strong showing in labor strongholds, he carried only his home state of Wisconsin.
[edit] General election
[edit] Campaign
Ultimately, Coolidge won the election in a landslide, with Davis only winning the Solid South and Oklahoma, and losing the popular vote by 25 percentage points. The Republicans did so well that they won in New York City, a feat that has not been repeated since.
[edit] Results
| Presidential Candidate | Party | Home State | Popular Vote | Electoral Vote | Running Mate | Running Mate's Home State |
Running Mate's Electoral Vote |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Percentage | |||||||
| (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 Brehm | 0 | |
| William Z. Foster | Communist | 38,669 | 0.1% | 0 | Benjamin Gitlow | New York | 0 | |
| Other | 60,750 | 0.2% | 0 | Other | 0 | |||
| Total | 29,097,107 | 100.0% | 531 | Total | 531 | |||
| Needed to win | 266 | Needed to win | 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
- President of the United States
- U.S. Senate election, 1924
- History of the United States (1918-1945)
- Fourth Party System
[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)
[edit] External links
[edit] Navigation
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