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1924 U.S. presidential election

1924

President Calvin Coolidge won a full term in a three-way race against Democrat John W. Davis and Progressive Robert La Follette.

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The story

On November 4, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge, a taciturn former Massachusetts governor, won a full term. He took 382 electoral votes and 54.0 percent of the popular vote. Democrat John W. Davis, a Wall Street lawyer from West Virginia, won 136 electoral votes and 28.8 percent. Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin, running on a Progressive ticket backed by farmers and labor unions, won 16.6 percent and carried his home state's 13 electoral votes.

Coolidge had become president in August 1923 when Warren Harding died, just as the Teapot Dome scandal over leased naval oil reserves was breaking. Coolidge kept his distance from the scandal and benefited from a booming economy, with the slogan 'Keep Cool with Coolidge.' The Democrats tore themselves apart at their New York convention, divided between urban and rural wings and over whether to condemn the Ku Klux Klan, and took a record 103 ballots to choose Davis. La Follette's run was the strongest third-party showing between 1912 and 1968.

Why it mattered

Coolidge's low-tax, light-regulation term coincided with the stock market boom of the late 1920s.
The Democrats' urban wing, led by Al Smith, won the nomination in 1928.
La Follette's farmer-labor coalition foreshadowed parts of the later New Deal coalition.

Sources

Calvin Coolidge: Campaigns and Elections Miller Center
Calvin Jr. Dies Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation

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At a glance

When: November 4, 1924
Where: United States (48 states)
Key people: Calvin Coolidge (Republican, winner)
John W. Davis (Democratic nominee)
Robert M. La Follette (Progressive nominee)
Charles G. Dawes (vice president-elect)

382electoral votes for Coolidge

103ballots needed to nominate Davis at the Democratic convention

16.6%La Follette's share of the popular vote

363earlier events it rests on

20later events that depend on it

Couldn't have happened without

1920 U.S. presidential election1920

EssentialCoolidge was Harding's running mate in 1920 and became president when Harding died in 1923.

Teapot Dome scandal1922

ImportantThe Harding scandals were Democrats' main attack, and Coolidge had to run clear of them.

Led to

1928 U.S. presidential election1928

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