1920 United States presidential election in Louisiana explained

See main article: 1920 United States presidential election.

Election Name:1920 United States presidential election in Louisiana
Country:Louisiana
Flag Year:1912
Type:presidential
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:1916 United States presidential election in Louisiana
Previous Year:1916
Next Election:1924 United States presidential election in Louisiana
Next Year:1924
Election Date:November 2, 1920
Image1:James M. Cox 1920.jpg
Nominee1:James M. Cox
Party1:Democratic Party (United States)
Home State1:Ohio
Running Mate1:Franklin D. Roosevelt
Electoral Vote1:10
Popular Vote1:87,519
Percentage1:69.24%
Nominee2:Warren G. Harding
Party2:Republican Party (United States)
Home State2:Ohio
Running Mate2:Calvin Coolidge
Electoral Vote2:0
Popular Vote2:38,538
Percentage2:30.49%
President
Before Election:Woodrow Wilson
Before Party:Democratic Party (United States)
After Election:Warren G. Harding
After Party:Republican Party (United States)
Map Size:350px

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

Ever since the passage of a new constitution in 1898, Louisiana had been a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party. The Republican Party became moribund due to the disenfranchisement of blacks and the complete absence of other support bases as Louisiana completely lacked upland or German refugee whites opposed to secession.[1] Despite this absolute single-party dominance, non-partisan tendencies remained strong among wealthy sugar planters in Acadiana and within the business elite of New Orleans.[2]

Following disfranchisement, the state’s politics became dominated by the Choctaw Club of Louisiana, generally called the “Old Regulars”. This political machine was based in New Orleans and united with Black Belt cotton planters.[3] Opposition began to emerge with the Progressive movement in the 1910s, chiefly in the southern sugar-growing parishes, where conflicts with President Wilson’s Underwoood-Simmons Act[4] even allowed a Progressive Party member in Whitmell P. Martin to be elected to the Third Congressional District in 1914. Continued opposition to the Choctaws would elect the reformer John M. Parker, originally part of Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party, as governor at the beginning of 1920.[5]

During the second term of President Wilson, the Acadian parishes became even more upset with him because of his deep disagreements with Georges Clemenceau, as well as continued problems with the issue of sugar tariffs.[6] [7] .There was also strong opposition is this part of Louisiana to the Nineteenth Amendment, and also substantial opposition in the Black Belt of the state because it was believed that enfranchising women could interfere with lily-white politics.[8] In the Ozark- and previously Socialist-influenced northern upcountry parishes, opposition to women’s suffrage was much weaker.[8]

In Acadiana, the 1920 election would see a temporary break with “Solid South” voting patterns, as anger at the Wilson Administration’s foreign and domestic policies caused the region’s voters – much more moderate on racial issues than the rest of Louisiana[9] – to break powerfully from Democratic nominee James M. Cox.[10] Harding carried fourteen of the Acadian parishes, and in the two most sugar-dependent, Assumption and Lafourche, he received over three-quarters of the vote. In the remainder of Louisiana, as racially hardline as anywhere in the South, Democratic voting remained as rock-solid as ever despite nominee James M. Cox suffering a record 26.17 point landslide defeat and carrying only 41 counties outside antebellum slave states and Oklahoma. The revolt in Acadiana, however, was sufficient to drop Louisiana to Cox’ fourth-best state behind Georgia as well as South Carolina and Mississippi (as was typical in the “Solid South” era). As of the 2020 election, this is the last time that a Republican has won a majority in Iberville Parish and St. James Parish, as Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon only received pluralities in these parishes.

Results

Presidential CandidateRunning MatePartyElectoral Vote (EV)Popular Vote (PV)
James M. Cox of OhioFranklin D. RooseveltDemocratic10[11] 87,51969.24%
Warren HardingCalvin CoolidgeRepublican038,53830.49%
Write-ins03390.27%

Results by parish

1920 United States presidential election in Louisiana by parish[12] ! rowspan="2"
Parish
Democratic

Republican

Margin
data-sort-type="number" data-sort-type="number" %data-sort-type="number" data-sort-type="number" %data-sort-type="number" data-sort-type="number" %data-sort-type="number" data-sort-type="number" %
Acadia1,05847.98%1,14151.75%60.27%-83-3.76%2,205
Allen1,00880.64%24219.36%76661.28%1,250
Ascension62255.64%49644.36%12611.27%1,118
Assumption20221.79%72578.21%-523-56.42%927
Avoyelles1,42266.26%72433.74%69832.53%2,146
Beauregard1,14684.14%20214.83%141.03%94469.31%1,362
Bienville1,41983.27%25715.08%281.64%1,16268.19%1,704
Bossier73194.32%445.68%68788.65%775
Caddo4,26491.40%4018.60%3,86382.81%4,665
Calcasieu2,48083.33%48316.23%130.44%1,99767.10%2,976
Caldwell53980.81%12819.19%41161.62%667
Cameron14692.99%117.01%13585.99%157
Catahoula51774.60%17625.40%34149.21%693
Claiborne1,21696.20%483.80%1,16892.41%1,264
Concordia38096.94%123.06%36893.88%392
1,21995.61%564.39%1,16391.22%1,275
2,33684.09%44215.91%1,89468.18%2,778
24796.86%83.14%23993.73%255
52994.63%305.37%49989.27%559
Evangeline54248.01%58751.99%-45-3.99%1,129
Franklin89883.85%17316.15%72567.69%1,071
Grant67486.08%10913.92%56572.16%783
Iberia43825.57%1,27574.43%-837-48.86%1,713
Iberville38545.29%46554.71%-80-9.41%850
Jackson1,22988.10%16611.90%1,06376.20%1,395
Jefferson1,23886.57%19213.43%1,04673.15%1,430
72844.86%89555.14%-167-10.29%1,623
Lafayette82344.06%1,04555.94%-222-11.88%1,868
Lafourche33724.40%1,04475.60%-707-51.19%1,381
57082.13%10915.71%152.16%46166.43%694
Lincoln98984.39%18315.61%80668.77%1,172
Livingston67475.48%21824.41%10.11%45651.06%893
Madison33198.81%41.19%32797.61%335
Morehouse62294.24%385.76%58488.48%660
Natchitoches1,59588.71%20311.29%1,39277.42%1,798
Orleans32,72464.74%17,81935.26%14,90529.49%50,543
Ouachita1,48189.98%1649.96%10.06%1,31780.01%1,646
Plaquemines32970.15%12426.44%163.41%20543.71%469
40774.00%14326.00%26448.00%550
Rapides2,76586.11%44513.86%10.03%2,32072.25%3,211
76680.38%18719.62%57960.76%953
Richland66493.00%507.00%61485.99%714
Sabine1,24591.81%1118.19%1,13483.63%1,356
35886.47%5613.53%30272.95%414
18366.55%9233.45%9133.09%275
36691.04%368.96%33082.09%402
34239.09%53360.91%-191-21.83%875
23948.88%25051.12%-11-2.25%489
1,01751.91%94248.09%753.83%1,959
31943.22%41956.78%-100-13.55%738
53940.62%78859.38%-249-18.76%1,327
96777.80%27622.20%69155.59%1,243
Tangipahoa1,50177.33%44022.67%1,06154.66%1,941
Tensas24394.19%155.81%22888.37%258
Terrebonne47740.08%71359.92%-236-19.83%1,190
Union1,22192.57%987.43%1,12385.14%1,319
Vermilion54927.87%1,42072.08%10.05%-871-44.21%1,970
Vernon1,14384.79%20515.21%93869.58%1,348
Washington1,09486.89%16513.11%92973.79%1,259
Webster1,00990.01%1129.99%89780.02%1,121
35266.79%17533.21%17733.59%527
34673.62%10422.13%204.26%24251.49%470
35691.28%348.72%32282.56%390
Winn96365.20%29119.70%22315.10%67245.50%1,477
Totals87,51969.24%38,53830.49%3390.27%48,98138.75%126,396

See also

Notes and References

  1. Book: [[Kevin Phillips (political commentator)|Phillips]], Kevin P.. The Emerging Republican Majority. 208, 210. 9780691163246.
  2. Schott. Matthew J.. Progressives against Democracy: Electoral Reform in Louisiana, 1894-1921. Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association. 20. 3. Summer 1979. 247–260.
  3. Book: Wall. Bennett H.. Rodriguez. John C.. Louisiana: A History. 274–275. 1118619293.
  4. Collin. Richard H.. Theodore Roosevelt's Visit to New Orleans and the Progressive Campaign of 1914. Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association. 12. 1. Winter 1971. 5–19.
  5. Book: Sindler, Allan P.. Huey Long's Louisiana: State Politics, 1920-1952. 1956. Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore. 40–41.
  6. See Howard. Perry H.. 1954. Political Tendencies in Louisiana, 1812-1952; An Ecological Analysis of Voting Behavior. 144. One-Party Politics and the Rise of Longism. LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 8115.
  7. Howard. Perry H.. 1957. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 1920 — REPUBLICAN SUPPORT IN SELECTED PARISHES. 145. also maps on pp. 145 and 151
  8. Wall and Rodriguez. Louisiana: A History, p. 277
  9. Howard. Perry H.. 1954. Political Tendencies in Louisiana, 1812-1952; An Ecological Analysis of Voting Behavior. 112-113. A New Look at Reconstruction. LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 8115.
  10. Phillips. The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 268
  11. Web site: Dave Leip. 1920 Presidential General Election Results – Louisiana. Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas.
  12. Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; pp. 189-190