1924 United States presidential election in North Dakota explained

See main article: 1924 United States presidential election.

Election Name:1924 United States presidential election in North Dakota
Country:North Dakota
Type:presidential
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:1920 United States presidential election in North Dakota
Previous Year:1920
Next Election:1928 United States presidential election in North Dakota
Next Year:1928
Election Date:November 4, 1924
Image1:Calvin Coolidge cph.3g10777 crop.jpg
Nominee1:Calvin Coolidge
Party1:Republican Party (United States)
Home State1:Massachusetts
Running Mate1:Charles G. Dawes
Electoral Vote1:5
Popular Vote1:94,931
Percentage1:47.68%
Nominee2:Robert M. La Follette
Party2:Nonpartisan League
Alliance2:Progressive Party (United States, 1924-34)
Home State2:Wisconsin
Running Mate2:Burton K. Wheeler
Electoral Vote2:0
Popular Vote2:89,922
Percentage2:45.17%
Image3:John William Davis.jpg
Nominee3:John W. Davis
Party3:Democratic Party (United States)
Home State3:West Virginia
Running Mate3:Charles W. Bryan
Electoral Vote3:0
Popular Vote3:13,858
Percentage3:6.96%
Map Size:325px
President
Before Election:Calvin Coolidge
Before Party:Republican Party (United States)
After Election:Calvin Coolidge
After Party:Republican Party (United States)

The 1924 United States presidential election in North Dakota took place on November 4, 1924, as part of the 1924 United States presidential election which was held throughout all contemporary 48 states. Voters chose five representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Ever since statehood, North Dakota had been overwhelmingly Republican at state level and in many presidential elections,[1] although progressive Democrat Woodrow Wilson was able to carry the state in both his campaigns in 1912 and 1916, in the second due to his anti-war platform. The Russian-Germans who dominated North Dakota’s populace were vehemently opposed to President Wilson’s pushing of the nation into World War I and his “League of Nations” proposal.[2] To this populace descended from Germans who had settled in Russia, Wilson’s entry into the war and his support for the Treaty of Versailles was a betrayal, whilst farmers were also faced with a postwar agricultural depression as prices fell with reduced demand in Europe.[3] Consequently, North Dakota went for the isolationist Warren G. Harding over the pro-League Democrat Cox by four-to-one in 1920.

Despite Harding’s massive victory, discontent amongst North Dakota’s large farm population persisted during his term,[4] but the national Democratic Party did nothing to provide any hope of regaining Wilson’s prominence in North Dakota, being instead dominated by conflicts between its Southern and Western faction led by William Gibbs McAdoo and its urban Northeastern faction led by Al Smith.[5] A fierce debate ensued that saw a compromise candidate, former Congressman John W. Davis of West Virginia, nominated after one hundred and three ballots in hot summer weather at Madison Square Garden.[6] Although West Virginia was a border state whose limited African-American population had not been disenfranchised as happened in all former Confederate States,[7] Davis did share many views of Southern Democrats of his era. He supported poll taxes, opposed women's suffrage, and believed in strictly limited government with no expansion in nonmilitary fields.[8] In North Dakota, Davis had almost no appeal, especially as he unlike incumbent Calvin Coolidge supported the League of Nations and was opposed to the state’s isolationist views. Although in September he underwent an extensive tour of the Great Plains,[9] and campaigned to eliminate the income tax burden of the poorer classes,[10] Davis received a mere 6.96% of the vote in North Dakota, his second-weakest state behind neighbouring Minnesota.

The agrarian Nonpartisan League, as a response to the conservatism of the major parties, nominated Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin, with Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana, as a third-party ticket, supported by the state’s Senators Lynn J. Frazier and Gerald P. Nye. Davis and Coolidge both spent most of their campaign attacking La Follette as a political extremist,[11] but nonetheless opinion polls showed that La Follette was attracting large numbers of those German-American and Scandinavian-Americans who completely deserted Cox in 1920.[12] In September some polls had La Follette winning sufficient electoral votes to give no candidate an electoral majority and force the House to make a choice,[13] but as polling day approached newer polls suggested incumbent President Calvin Coolidge would hold the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nevada and Montana, which La Follette had been predicted to win in August.[13] Coolidge ultimately won North Dakota by a narrow margin of 2.51 percent, with his win coming from the relatively urbanized Scandinavian-settled counties in the east.

With 45.17 percent of the popular vote, North Dakota would prove to be La Follette's second strongest state in the 1924 election in terms of popular vote percentage after Wisconsin.[14] This was one of only two states, the other being Wisconsin, in which La Follette won a majority of counties (32 of 53 counties in North Dakota were carried by him).[15] LaFollette and Coolidge did tie in one state, Nevada, where they both won 8 counties, and Davis won one.

Results

Results by county

County[16] John Calvin Coolidge
Republican
John William Davis
Democratic
Robert Marion La Follette, Sr.
Nonpartisan League
William Z. Foster
Workers
MarginTotal votes cast
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" %data-sort-type="number" data-sort-type="number" %
Adams77640.25%1065.50%1,04554.20%10.05%-269-13.95%1,928
Barnes3,20551.46%3465.56%2,67542.95%20.03%5308.51%6,228
Benson1,87045.00%2465.92%2,03849.04%20.05%-168-4.04%4,156
Billings42148.34%323.67%41847.99%00.00%30.34%871
Bottineau1,33831.99%2215.28%2,62162.67%20.05%-1,283-30.68%4,182
Bowman77645.17%673.90%87550.93%00.00%-99-5.76%1,718
Burke99639.62%1355.37%1,37654.73%70.28%-380-15.12%2,514
Burleigh3,15253.17%3796.39%2,33839.44%591.00%81413.73%5,928
Cass9,90665.86%1,3528.99%3,76925.06%140.09%6,13740.80%15,041
Cavalier2,42854.65%53912.13%1,47133.11%50.11%95721.54%4,443
Dickey1,71643.66%3528.96%1,85647.23%60.15%-140-3.56%3,930
Divide74330.43%913.73%1,60565.72%30.12%-862-35.30%2,442
Dunn98042.78%1908.29%1,11248.54%90.39%-132-5.76%2,291
Eddy88139.33%1014.51%1,25856.16%00.00%-377-16.83%2,240
Emmons1,19839.66%1234.07%1,69556.11%50.17%-497-16.45%3,021
Foster92245.13%28714.05%83340.77%10.05%894.36%2,043
Golden Valley71848.29%1409.41%62842.23%10.07%906.05%1,487
Grand Forks6,69062.81%9438.85%3,01128.27%70.07%3,67934.54%10,651
Grant1,12039.07%1254.36%1,61856.44%40.14%-498-17.37%2,867
Griggs73833.33%1165.24%1,36061.43%00.00%-622-28.09%2,214
Hettinger93639.73%1285.43%1,29154.80%10.04%-355-15.07%2,356
Kidder84439.42%1105.14%1,18755.44%00.00%-343-16.02%2,141
LaMoure1,64743.23%2215.80%1,94050.92%20.05%-293-7.69%3,810
Logan78743.34%291.60%99454.74%60.33%-207-11.40%1,816
McHenry1,69236.89%2645.76%2,63057.34%10.02%-938-20.45%4,587
McIntosh63734.45%392.11%1,17263.39%10.05%-535-28.93%1,849
McKenzie1,11338.14%1374.69%1,66156.92%70.24%-548-18.78%2,918
McLean1,65136.02%1944.23%2,71859.31%200.44%-1,067-23.28%4,583
Mercer52225.02%703.36%1,48971.38%50.24%-967-46.36%2,086
Morton2,37744.26%2654.93%2,71650.58%120.22%-339-6.31%5,370
Mountrail1,35436.19%1303.48%2,20959.05%481.28%-855-22.85%3,741
Nelson1,69749.20%1755.07%1,57145.55%60.17%1263.65%3,449
Oliver36732.16%312.72%73964.77%40.35%-372-32.60%1,141
Pembina2,78359.02%58812.47%1,34128.44%30.06%1,44230.58%4,715
Pierce1,16046.89%1576.35%1,15646.73%10.04%40.16%2,474
Ramsey3,11062.35%3597.20%1,50530.17%140.28%1,60532.18%4,988
Ransom1,86245.59%3037.42%1,91946.99%00.00%-57-1.40%4,084
Renville64932.18%1205.95%1,24761.82%10.05%-598-29.65%2,017
Richland3,23548.84%76911.61%2,61739.51%30.05%6189.33%6,624
Rolette86935.92%1375.66%1,41058.29%30.12%-541-22.36%2,419
Sargent1,46843.68%2326.90%1,65649.27%50.15%-188-5.59%3,361
Sheridan59434.66%492.86%1,06962.37%20.12%-475-27.71%1,714
Sioux77762.21%584.64%40732.59%70.56%37029.62%1,249
Slope61639.09%472.98%91357.93%00.00%-297-18.85%1,576
Stark2,13050.58%2666.32%1,80842.94%70.17%3227.65%4,211
Steele1,24752.77%853.60%1,02943.55%20.08%2189.23%2,363
Stutsman3,95256.68%4636.64%2,55236.60%60.09%1,40020.08%6,973
Towner1,17347.66%2239.06%1,05342.79%120.49%1204.88%2,461
Traill2,59656.64%2345.11%1,75238.23%10.02%84418.42%4,583
Walsh2,83749.17%91715.89%2,00934.82%70.12%82814.35%5,770
Ward4,16647.99%7218.31%3,78443.59%100.12%3824.40%8,681
Wells1,64444.40%1383.73%1,91751.77%40.11%-273-7.37%3,703
Williams1,86536.76%3086.07%2,85956.36%410.81%-994-19.59%5,073
Totals94,93147.68%13,8586.96%89,92245.17%3700.19%5,0092.52%199,081

See also

Notes and References

  1. Hansen, John Mark; Shigeo Hirano, and Snyder, James M. Jr.; ‘Parties within Parties: Parties, Factions, and Coordinated Politics, 1900-1980’; in Gerber, Alan S. and Schickler, Eric; Governing in a Polarized Age: Elections, Parties, and Political Representation in America, pp. 143-159
  2. Lubell, Samuel; The Future of American Politics (1956), pp. 156-164
  3. [Kevin Phillips (political commentator)|Phillips, Kevin P.]
  4. Shiedeler, James H.; ‘The La Follette Progressive Party Campaign of 1924’; The Wisconsin Magazine of History Vol. 33, No. 4 (June 1950), pp. 444-457
  5. Grantham, Dewey; The South in Modern America A Region at Odds, p. 106
  6. Paulson, Arthur C.; Realignment and Party Revival: Understanding American Electoral Politics at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century, p. 51
  7. Ranney, Joseph A.; In the Wake of Slavery: Civil War, Civil Rights, and the Reconstruction of Southern Law; p. 141
  8. Newman, Roger K.; The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law, p. 153
  9. Tucker, Garland; High Tide of American Conservatism: Davis, Coolidge, and the 1924 Election, p. 191
  10. Richardson, Danny G.; Others: "Fighting Bob" La Follette and the Progressive Movement: Third-Party Politics in the 1920s, p. 180
  11. Parrish, Michael E.; Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression, 1920-1941, pp. 70-71
  12. Tucker; High Tide of American Conservatism, p. 181
  13. Tucker; High Tide of American Conservatism, p. 231
  14. Web site: 1924 Presidential Election Statistics. Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. 2018-03-05.
  15. The Presidential Vote, 1896–1932, Edgar E. Robinson, p. 67
  16. North Dakota Secretary of State Elections; Party Votes, General Election November 4, 1924