1920 United States presidential election in Idaho explained

See main article: 1920 United States presidential election.

Election Name:	1920 United States presidential election in Idaho
Country:	Idaho
Flag Year:	1923
Type:	presidential
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1916 United States presidential election in Idaho
Previous Year:	1916
Next Election:	1924 United States presidential election in Idaho
Next Year:	1924
Election Date:	November 2, 1920
Image1:	Warren G Harding-Harris & Ewing crop.jpg
Nominee1:	Warren G. Harding
Party1:	Republican Party (United States)
Home State1:	Ohio
Running Mate1:	Calvin Coolidge
Electoral Vote1:	4
Popular Vote1:	88,975
Percentage1:	65.60%
Nominee2:	James M. Cox
Party2:	Democratic Party (United States)
Home State2:	Ohio
Running Mate2:	Franklin D. Roosevelt
Electoral Vote2:	0
Popular Vote2:	46,579
Percentage2:	34.34%
Map Size:	200px
President
Before Election:	Woodrow Wilson
Before Party:	Democratic Party (United States)
After Election:	Warren G. Harding
After Party:	Republican Party (United States)

The 1920 United States presidential election in Idaho took place on November 2, 1920, as part of the 1920 United States presidential election. State voters chose four representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

At state level, Idaho had begun in 1902 to be very much a one-party Republican state,^[1] which it has largely remained since apart from the New Deal era of the 1930s and 1940s. For a time there was also a perception that the William Jennings Bryan-led Democratic Party had failed as a “party of reform”.^[2]

However, with the aid of a powerful “peace vote” due to opposition to participation in World War I,^[3] and a considerable part of the substantial vote for Eugene Debs,^[4] Woodrow Wilson almost completely swept the Western and Plains States in 1916, losing only South Dakota and Oregon.

However, the Democratic Party's gains in the West were not to last. By the beginning of 1920 skyrocketing inflation and Wilson's focus upon his proposed League of Nations at the expense of domestic policy had helped make the incumbent president very unpopular^[5] – besides which Wilson also had major health problems that had left First Lady Edith effectively running the nation. Political unrest seen in the Palmer Raids and the "Red Scare" further added to the unpopularity of the Democratic Party, since this global political turmoil produced considerable fear of alien revolutionaries invading the country.^[6] Demand in the West for exclusion of Asian immigrants became even stronger than before.^[7]

With the very strong interior isolationist and anti-League of Nations sentiment of Northern and Central Idaho,^[8] and local senator William Borah saying that all wars should be subject to a referendum in September,^[9] it was apparent that Idaho would swing very strongly against the pro-League Cox, especially as the extremely independent Borah endorsed Harding on October 3.^[10] Cox did make a brief visit to the state in mid-September,^[11] The state's opposition to Cox's platform became further apparent when on October 24 the Democratic nominee said he did not accept that Congress should be able to veto presidential calls for war against foreign countries.^[12]

As early as the end of August, Harding campaign strategists led by Washington State Senator Miles Poindexter were saying Cox's pro-League policies would lose him the West.^[13] a straw poll at the beginning of October vindicated Poindexter: Harding led Cox in Idaho by slightly less than a two-to-one margin.^[14] At the end of October, Idaho was described as “absolutely certain” for Harding,^[15] and such polls reflected the result. Whereas internationalist GOP nominee Charles Evans Hughes won just five counties in 1916, Harding carried every Idaho county by double digits.

Results

Presidential Candidate	Running Mate	Party	Electoral Vote (EV)	Popular Vote (PV)^[16]
Warren G. Harding	Calvin Coolidge	Republican	4	88,975	65.60%
James M. Cox	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Democratic	0	46,579	34.34%
Eugene V. Debs	Seymour Stedman	Socialist	0	38	0.03%
Aaron S. Watkins	D. Leigh Colvin	Prohibition	0	32	0.02%

Results by county

County	Warren Gamaliel Harding Republican		James Middleton Cox Democratic		Eugene Victor Debs Socialist		Aaron Sherman Watkins Prohibition		Margin		Total votes cast^[17]
		%		%		%		%		%
	Ada		8,419		66.72%		4,173		33.07%		8		0.06%		19		0.15%		4,246		33.65%		12,619
	Adams		682		63.62%		390		36.38%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		292		27.24%		1,072
	Bannock		4,871		62.00%		2,986		38.00%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		1,885		23.99%		7,857
	Bear Lake		1,831		61.67%		1,138		38.33%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		693		23.34%		2,969
	Benewah		1,351		62.98%		794		37.02%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		557		25.97%		2,145
	Bingham		3,293		73.55%		1,184		26.45%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		2,109		47.11%		4,477
	Blaine		1,169		67.57%		561		32.43%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		608		35.14%		1,730
	Boise		588		61.19%		373		38.81%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		215		22.37%		961
	Bonner		2,217		60.16%		1,468		39.84%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		749		20.33%		3,685
	Bonneville		3,260		69.67%		1,419		30.33%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		1,841		39.35%		4,679
	Boundary		883		62.71%		525		37.29%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		358		25.43%		1,408
	Butte		646		67.15%		316		32.85%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		330		34.30%		962
	Camas		400		59.08%		276		40.77%		1		0.15%		0		0.00%		124		18.32%		677
	Canyon		5,633		62.53%		3,375		37.47%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		2,258		25.07%		9,008
	Caribou		541		74.93%		181		25.07%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		360		49.86%		722
	Cassia		2,690		69.54%		1,178		30.46%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		1,512		39.09%		3,868
	Clark		594		76.25%		184		23.62%		1		0.13%		0		0.00%		410		52.63%		779
	Clearwater		947		66.22%		482		33.71%		1		0.07%		0		0.00%		465		32.52%		1,430
	Custer		808		67.22%		394		32.78%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		414		34.44%		1,202
	Elmore		1,065		55.12%		867		44.88%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		198		10.25%		1,932
	Franklin		1,612		64.20%		899		35.80%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		713		28.40%		2,511
	Fremont		1,994		65.27%		1,061		34.73%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		933		30.54%		3,055
	Gem		1,404		62.73%		832		37.18%		0		0.00%		2		0.09%		572		25.56%		2,238
	Gooding		1,878		70.42%		789		29.58%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		1,089		40.83%		2,667
	Idaho		2,386		67.90%		1,128		32.10%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		1,258		35.80%		3,514
	Jefferson		1,794		70.77%		741		29.23%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		1,053		41.54%		2,535
	Jerome		1,738		68.91%		784		31.09%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		954		37.83%		2,522
	Kootenai		3,518		65.93%		1,818		34.07%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		1,700		31.86%		5,336
	Latah		3,855		71.09%		1,568		28.91%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		2,287		42.17%		5,423
	Lemhi		1,289		64.71%		699		35.09%		4		0.20%		0		0.00%		590		29.62%		1,992
	Lewis		1,013		58.49%		712		41.11%		7		0.40%		0		0.00%		301		17.38%		1,732
	Lincoln		755		63.87%		427		36.13%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		328		27.75%		1,182
	Madison		1,883		65.79%		979		34.21%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		904		31.59%		2,862
	Minidoka		1,622		59.09%		1,107		40.33%		16		0.58%		0		0.00%		515		18.76%		2,745
	Nez Perce		2,761		64.05%		1,548		35.91%		0		0.00%		2		0.05%		1,213		28.14%		4,311
	Oneida		1,500		66.61%		752		33.39%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		748		33.21%		2,252
	Owyhee		971		65.34%		515		34.66%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		456		30.69%		1,486
	Payette		1,690		68.04%		785		31.60%		0		0.00%		9		0.36%		905		36.43%		2,484
	Power		1,155		67.31%		561		32.69%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		594		34.62%		1,716
	Shoshone		3,112		64.23%		1,733		35.77%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		1,379		28.46%		4,845
	Teton		906		68.90%		409		31.10%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		497		37.79%		1,315
	Twin Falls		5,894		67.16%		2,882		32.84%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		3,012		34.32%		8,776
	Valley		493		60.49%		322		39.51%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		171		20.98%		815
	Washington		1,864		59.59%		1,264		40.41%		0		0.00%		0		0.00%		600		19.18%		3,128
Totals	88,975	65.60%	46,579	34.34%	38	0.03%	32	0.02%	42,396	31.26%	135,624

See also

• United States presidential elections in Idaho

Notes and References

1. Burnham, Walter Dean; ‘The System of 1896’, in Kleppner, Paul (editor), The Evolution of American Electoral Systems, pp. 176-179
2. Robinson, Edgar Eugene; ‘The Decline of the Democratic Party’; American Journal of Sociology, vol. 20, no. 3 (November 1914), pp. 313-334
3. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 47
4. Sarasohn, David; 'The Election of 1916: Realigning the Rockies', Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 3 (July 1980), pp. 285-305
5. Goldberg, David Joseph; Discontented America: The United States in the 1920s, p. 44
6. Leuchtenburg, William E.; The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-1932, p. 75
7. Vought, Hans P. ; The Bully Pulpit and the Melting Pot: American Presidents And The Immigrant, 1897-1933, p. 167
8. [Kevin Phillips (political commentator)|Phillips, Kevin P.]
9. ‘War referendum Urged by Borah: Idaho Senator Says No Other Peace Scheme is Worthy of People's Confidence’; The Washington Post, September 15, 1920, p. 1
10. ‘Borah Spurns All Linking of Nations, but Is for Harding: Says There Is No Alternative to Voting for the Republican Nominee’; Special to the New York Times, October 5, 1920, p. 1
11. ‘Cox Now Charges $30,000,000 Is Goal: Declares Opponents Seek That Enormous Fund to Beat Him’; Special to the New York Times, September 14, 1920, p. 1
12. ‘Cox Would Take Reservation to Article X – No Obligation to Use Military Force Unless Congress approves in Each Case’; New York Times, October 24, 1920, p. 1
13. ‘Claims west for Harding: Poindexter Says Cox’s Wilsonian Policy Will Not Win Votes There’; Special to the New York Times, August 27, 1920, p. 1
14. ‘Harding Leads in the Straw Vote: Cox Weak in North and West in Rexall Balloting’; Boston Daily Globe, October 3, 1920, p. 10
15. ‘Harding 33 Sure, Cox 114, Is Prediction: John T. Adams of G. O. P. Committee Estimates Result of Electionm Lists Doubtful Votes. Republican Nominee, He Says, Will Capture at Least 380 in Total’; San Francisco Chronicle, October 31, 1920, p. F4
16. Web site: 1920 Presidential General Election Results – Idaho. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. 2019-12-30.
17. [Idaho Secretary of State]