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The United States Presidential Election of 1920, the 34th US presidential election, took place on November 2, 1920. Warren G. Harding of the National American Party defeated Democrat James M. Cox and Socialist Eugene V. Debs to become the 27th President of the United States.
Background[]
This election took place in the late stages of World War I. The war in Europe had ended in 1919 with a Central Power victory, and now German reinforcements in the Confederacy turned the tide of the war against the US. President Henry Cabot Lodge considered several options for this election. He was at first leaning towards running for an unprecedented third term in order to maintain continuity of government during the vital last stages of the war. As the Confederacy gained more and more ground, though, President Lodge began to loose popularity. He became concerned that he might not be able to win the National American nomination for president. Believing his continued service as president to be vital to a winning war effort, Lodge instead decided to take the drastic move of postponing the election until after the war.
Lodge justified his move in several ways. First, he pointed out how he had been president for the entire duration of the war, and a total change in leadership would be disastrous to the war effort. Second, he pledged that he would resign the presidency as soon as the war was over and hold the election as soon as possible after that. Third (though he did not express this point publicly), Lodge was concerned that the growing popularity of the Socialist Party would deliver them a good showing in this election, and he could not risk the anti-war sentiment that might rise if that were to happen.
Despite his attempts at justification, both the public and the politicians were blindsided and outraged over Lodge's proclamation. Never in American history had a presidential election been postponed, even in the closing stages of the Civil War. Many saw it as an unprecedented violation of American democracy, even in the midst of a destructive war. Protests and riots broke out in many urban centers. The Socialist Party in particular gained from this move, as they lambasted the anti-democratic administration and used the postponement as evidence that American democracy was no longer working.
Painted as a tyrant and faced with rebellion both among the people and among politicians in his party, and facing several legal challenges that were likely to reach the Supreme Court, Lodge reversed his decision in June. Despite the reversal, the move had widespread effects that lingered for long after Lodge's term was over. For one, Lodge now had no chance of winning the National American nomination. A bigger consequence was that the socialists gained popularity on a large scale, as it now seemed clear to many Americans that the current political establishment did not respect their rights. The Supreme Court still decided to rule on one of the major cases brought against Lodge. They ruled that only Congress had the authority to change election dates, and, even if the election had been postponed, Lodge would have had to leave office on the scheduled ending date of his four year term.
Democratic Nomination[]
The 1920 Democratic National Convention was held from July 28-August 3 in New York. Out of a multitude of candidates, Governor of Ohio James M. Cox was the consistent front runner. Despite this, he didn't win the nomination until the 25th ballot, fighting off challenges by Alfred Smith, Edward Edwards, Thomas Marshall, and others.
National American Nomination[]
The 1920 National American Convention was held from August 5-10 in Detroit. Numerous contenders sought the nomination. The race essentially started from scratch, as many National Americans had cancelled their plans to run back when the election was postponed. Hiram Johnson was the candidate of the progressive wing, once again integrated into the party after the fall of the Progressive Party. Warren G. Harding was the initial favorite of the conservative Lodge wing of the party, but he fell out of favor by the convention. Frank Orren Lowden, Governor of Illinois, was considered a moderate choice. The convention went to many ballots like the Democrats did. At one point, conservatives put Lodge's name back into contention, and Lodge's campaign staff tried to orchestrate a "draft" effort for the president. When this fell through, Lodge's supporters switched back to Harding, who won the nomination on the 16th ballot. Irvine Lenroot of Wisconsin won the vice presidential nomination without much controversy, though about 100 delegates voted for Calvin Coolidge.
Socialist Nomination[]
The socialists once again nominated Eugene V. Debs, despite his current imprisonment for anti-draft agitation. Debs's imprisonment may have actually boosted his campaign, as it was seen as a symbol of the anti-war movement and resistance to the harsh wartime policies of the Lodge Administration. The socialist vice presidential nominee, Seymour Stedman, did most of the actual campaigning.
The Campaign[]
Wartime travel restrictions made active campaigning difficult. Cox spent almost all of the campaign in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, as capturing the electoral votes of all those states would essentially guarantee victory. Harding carried out a traditional front porch campaign, barely travelling at all. Party leaders asked President Lodge to stay away from the campaign efforts, in an attempt to distance Harding from the president's recent unpopular actions. Lodge thus spent all of his time focusing on the war and did no personal campaigning, nor did he ever release a statement in support of Harding.
The socialist campaign was most popular in urban centers, where immigrant populations strongly resisted the draft. Labor unions were divided in their support between the socialists and the Democrats, with only a few supporting the National Americans. This was the first election in which the socialists truly expanded their base of voters to rural areas. While less than their national share of 20 percent, the socialists were able to gain over 10 percent of the vote in some agrarian counties, much better than their prior efforts.
Both the socialists and the Democrats were anti-war, though to different degrees. Cox promised a quick ending to the war on "reasonable terms" if he became president. Debs promised more, pledging (through letters sent from prison) that he would end the war and the draft on his first day in office, no matter what. Harding was not fully pro-war, but he presented a stark contrast to his two opponents. He promised to fight the war to "an honorable end." He called both Cox and Debs unpatriotic for their opposition to the war efforts. He also emphasized the danger in electing an outwardly anti-war president. If America's enemies knew that the president was opposed to the war, he said, the US would get a much worse deal in peace negotiations. Harding also placed an emphasis on the economy, pledging that he would get America back on its feet after the war with a roaring economy.
Results and Aftermath[]
Harding won by a very slim margin. With 203 electoral votes needed to win a majority, Harding won 204. He also lost the popular vote plurality to Cox by about 25,000 votes.
Ohio and New York went to Harding by even slimmer margins. New York was essentially divided three ways between the three major candidates, and Harding won the state with 38 percent of the vote compared to 35 for Cox and 28 for Debs. Ohio went to Harding by 1 percent, with Debs only gaining 15 percent due to both of his opponents being from the state. If any state that Harding won went to an opponent, the election would have went to the House of Representatives.
The states bordering the Confederacy- the ones that had seen actual fighting within their borders- all went to Cox strongly. People in those states were widely exhausted by the war. People in the west felt that they had been abandoned by the army in the early stages of the war, when only 25 percent of the US forces were deployed there and the Confederates made quick gains. Cox and Debs effectively split the anti-war vote nationwide, which may be the main factor responsible for Harding's win despite his party's growing unpopularity.
Two states went to Debs, as well as over 2 million votes nationwide. This was a surprising and startling result for the political elite at the time, who never seriously believed that socialism could gain a substantial following in the US. Debs did not gain a majority of votes in any state, with his 41 percent in North Dakota being his strongest showing. He won with 36 percent of the vote in Wisconsin. Still, this result caused widespread alarm among the political establishment, who began a strong backlash against socialists across the nation. Both Lodge and Harding instituted bans against socialist demonstrations and distribution of socialist pamphlets and other such materials. While this was eventually ruled unconstitutional by a 5-4 Supreme Court decision, the ban was enough to enrage the socialists even further and bolster their support as people felt they were being muzzled unfairly and illegally. By the time of the 1924 presidential election, socialist support was strong enough for them to have a serious chance at winning the presidency outright.
Harding oversaw the last few months of the war, eventually leading the US to a slight victory over the Confederacy. His administration was ill-equipped to follow through on his promise of rebuilding the US peacetime economy. War-ravaged areas in Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, and the West lingered for months or even years without any federal support. The economy entered a large depression due to this lack of support and other factors, especially US debt owed to European countries (who were also ravaged by war). To top it off, numerous corruption scandals plagued Harding's administration. To the public, it appeared that the funds that should have gone to rebuilding the country were actually going in the pockets of corrupt politicians. By the time of Harding's death in 1923, he was considered the worst president in history by far, and his image only worsened as even more corruption scandals surfaced after his death. Irvine Lenroot couldn't do much better. Radicals, mostly socialists, gained more and more support as traditional American pillars of government failed to provide for the people. Secessionist movements arose in the West, where the people felt betrayed and left behind by the federal government. This election is one of the main events that can be seen as the beginning of the end for the United States.
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