1920 U.S. presidential election

1920

Republican Warren G. Harding won a landslide on a promise of a 'return to normalcy' in the first presidential election in which women could vote nationwide.

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The story

On November 2, 1920, Republican Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio defeated Democrat James M. Cox, also from Ohio, in a landslide. Harding won 404 electoral votes and 60.3 percent of the popular vote to Cox's 127 and 34.1 percent. Their running mates were Calvin Coolidge and a young Franklin D. Roosevelt. It was the first presidential election held under the Nineteenth Amendment, so women in every state could vote for president.

Voters were tired after World War I, the deadly influenza pandemic, a wave of strikes, the Red Scare and a sharp postwar recession. President Wilson, partly paralyzed by a stroke, wanted the election to be a referendum on joining the League of Nations, which the Senate had refused to approve. Harding instead promised a 'return to normalcy': lower taxes, higher tariffs, less foreign entanglement. Socialist Eugene V. Debs won nearly a million votes while serving a prison sentence for opposing the war.

Why it mattered

Harding's win confirmed that the United States would never join the League of Nations.
His administration's corruption, exposed in the Teapot Dome scandal, became an issue in 1924.
Harding's death in 1923 made Calvin Coolidge president, setting up the 1924 race.

Sources

Warren G. Harding: Campaigns and Elections Miller Center
Milestones: Westinghouse Radio Station KDKA, 1920 Engineering and Technology History Wiki
Has Anyone Ever Run for President While in Prison? Smithsonian Magazine
Return to Normalcy Britannica

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Learn more ranked by votes

BookFrancis Russell

The Shadow of Blooming Grove

At a glance

When: November 2, 1920
Where: United States (48 states)
Key people: Warren G. Harding (Republican, winner)
James M. Cox (Democratic nominee)
Calvin Coolidge (Republican vice-presidential nominee)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic vice-presidential nominee)
Eugene V. Debs (Socialist nominee, campaigning from prison)

404 to 127electoral votes, Harding over Cox

60.3%Harding's share of the popular vote

more than 900,000votes for Debs while in federal prison

358earlier events it rests on

21later events that depend on it

Couldn't have happened without

1916 U.S. presidential election1916

ImportantWilson's second term and its war left Democrats defending an unpopular record and treaty.

Treaty of Versailles1919

ImportantThe Senate fight over the treaty and League of Nations was a central issue Harding ran against.

U.S. women win the vote1920

ImportantRatified in August 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment let women vote everywhere in this election.

Led to

1924 U.S. presidential election1924

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