| Election Name: | 1920 Democratic Party presidential primaries |
| Country: | United States |
| Flag Year: | 1912 |
| Type: | primary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1916 Democratic Party presidential primaries |
| Previous Year: | 1916 |
| Next Election: | 1924 Democratic Party presidential primaries |
| Next Year: | 1924 |
| Election Date: | March 9 to June 5, 1920 |
| Votes For Election: | 1,097 delegates to the Democratic National Convention |
| Needed Votes: | 732 (two-thirds) |
| Color1: | D99A6C |
| Candidate1: | A. Mitchell Palmer |
| Home State1: | Pennsylvania |
| Delegate Count1: | 104 (256) |
| States Carried1: | 2 |
| Popular Vote1: | 140,010 |
| Percentage1: | 19.32% |
| Color2: | 00308F |
| Candidate2: | James M. Cox |
| Home State2: | Ohio |
| Delegate Count2: | 74 (134) |
| States Carried2: | 2 |
| Popular Vote2: | 86,194 |
| Percentage2: | 11.89% |
| Color3: | 006A4E |
| Candidate3: | William G. McAdoo |
| Home State3: | California |
| Delegate Count3: | 10 (266) |
| States Carried3: | 1 |
| Popular Vote3: | 74,987 |
| Percentage3: | 10.35% |
| Color4: | ffe4cd |
| Candidate4: | James Watson Gerard |
| Home State4: | New York |
| States Carried4: | 2 |
| Color5: | 800080 |
| Candidate5: | Robert Latham Owen |
| Home State5: | Oklahoma |
| States Carried5: | 2 |
| Color6: | c83737 |
| Candidate6: | Edward I. Edwards |
| Home State6: | New Jersey |
| States Carried6: | 1 |
| Democratic nominee | |
| Before Election: | Woodrow Wilson |
| After Election: | James M. Cox |
From March 9 to June 5, 1920, voters of the Democratic Party elected delegates to the 1920 Democratic National Convention, for the purposing of choosing a nominee for president in the 1920 United States presidential election.[1]
The race for delegates was made under a cloud of uncertainty because the party's two leading names, President Woodrow Wilson and three-time nominee William Jennings Bryan, withheld their intentions; both men privately hoped for the nomination, but neither's name was formally submitted before the voters or the convention as a candidate.
The delegate elections were inconclusive, with Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo, and Ohio governor James A. Cox leading the candidate field. With no clear front-runner, many states withheld their delegates from any one candidate, instead sending an uncommitted slate of delegates or preferring to back a favorite son on the first ballot. At the convention, Cox was ultimately nominated on the forty-fourth ballot.
| Democratic Presidential Nominating State Conventions and Primaries | |||||||
| Date | State | Contest Type | Candidate | Votes Won (#) | Votes Won (%) | Delegates Won | Reference(s) |
| March 9 | New Hampshire | Primary (8 of 8 delegates) | Uninstructed | 7,103 | |||
| March 16 | North Dakota | Primary (10 of 10 delegates) | William Jennings Bryan | 340 (W) | |||
| William Gibbs McAdoo | 49 (W) | ||||||
| Uninstructed | |||||||
| March 23 | South Dakota | Primary (10 of 10 delegates) | James W. Gerard | 2,530 | |||
| Scattering | 2,162 | ||||||
| James O. Monroe | 1,920 | ||||||
| April 5 | Michigan | Primary (0 of 30 delegates) | Herbert Hoover | 24,006 (W) | |||
| William Gibbs McAdoo | 18,665 (W) | ||||||
| William Jennings Bryan | 17,954 (W) | ||||||
| Edward I. Edwards | 16,642 (W) | ||||||
| Alexander Mitchell Palmer | 11,187 (W) | ||||||
| April 6 | New York | Primary (90 of 90 delegates) | Uninstructed | 113,300 | |||
| Wisconsin | Primary (26 of 26 delegates) | Scattering | 3,391 | ||||
| James M. Cox | 76 (W) | ||||||
| Uninstructed | |||||||
| April 13 | Illinois | Primary (50 of 58 delegates) | Edward I. Edwards | 6,933 (W) | |||
| Scattering | 6,931 (W) | ||||||
| William Gibbs McAdoo | 3,838 (W) | ||||||
| William Jennings Bryan | 1,968 (W) | ||||||
| Woodrow Wilson | 931 (W) | ||||||
| Champ Clark | 548 (W) | ||||||
| James M. Cox | 266 (W) | ||||||
| James Hamilton Lewis | 40 (W) | ||||||
| Uninstructed | |||||||
| April 20 | Georgia | Primary (0 of 28 delegates) | Thomas E. Watson | 51,974 | [2] [3] | ||
| Alexander Mitchell Palmer | 48,460 | ||||||
| Michael Hoke Smith | 45,568 | ||||||
| Nebraska | Primary (16 of 16 delegates) | Gilbert Hitchcock | 37,452 | ||||
| Robert G. Ross | 13,179 | ||||||
| William Jennings Bryan | 3,466 (W) | ||||||
| Scattering | 1,585 (W) | ||||||
| April 23 | Montana | Primary (8 of 8 delegates) | Scattering | 2,994 | |||
| Uninstructed | |||||||
| April 27 | Massachusetts | Primary (36 of 36 delegates) | Uninstructed | 28,261 | |||
| New Jersey | Primary (28 of 28 delegates) | Edward I. Edwards | 4,163 | ||||
| William Gibbs McAdoo | 180 (W) | ||||||
| Woodrow Wilson | 149 (W) | ||||||
| William Jennings Bryan | 64 (W) | ||||||
| Herbert Hoover | 64 (W) | ||||||
| Hiram Johnson | 55 (W) | ||||||
| Scattering | 27 (W) | ||||||
| Ohio | Primary (48 of 48 delegates) | James M. Cox | 85,838 | ||||
| William Jennings Bryan | 971 (W) | ||||||
| Scattering | 394 (W) | ||||||
| William Gibbs McAdoo | 292 (W) | ||||||
| Herbert Hoover | 282 (W) | ||||||
| April 28 | Alaska | Primary (6 of 6 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| May 4 | California | Primary (26 of 26 delegates) | Uninstructed | 23,861 | |||
| May 10 | Alabama | Primary (24 of 24 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| May 18 | Pennsylvania | Primary (76 of 76 delegates) | Alexander Mitchell Palmer | 80,356 | |||
| William Gibbs McAdoo | 26,875 | ||||||
| Scattering | 718 (W) | ||||||
| Edward I. Edwards | 674 (W) | ||||||
| William Jennings Bryan | 285 (W) | ||||||
| Woodrow Wilson | 129 (W) | ||||||
| Vermont | Primary (0 of 8 delegates) | William Gibbs McAdoo | 137 (W) | ||||
| Woodrow Wilson | 68 (W) | ||||||
| Edward I. Edwards | 58 (W) | ||||||
| Herbert Hoover | 39 (W) | ||||||
| William Jennings Bryan | 26 (W) | ||||||
| Hiram Johnson | 18 (W) | ||||||
| Champ Clark | 16 (W) | ||||||
| James M. Cox | 14 (W) | ||||||
| Eugene V. Debs | 8 (W) | ||||||
| Henry Ford | 7 (W) | ||||||
| Thomas R. Marshall | 7 (W) | ||||||
| Alexander Mitchell Palmer | 7 (W) | ||||||
| May 21 | Oregon | Primary (10 of 10 delegates) | William Gibbs McAdoo | 24,951 | |||
| Scattering | 361 (W) | ||||||
| May 22 | Hawaii | Primary (6 of 6 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| May 25 | Texas | Primary (40 of 40 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| West Virginia | Primary (16 of 16 delegates) | Uninstructed | |||||
| June 8 | Florida | Primary (12 of 12 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| June 10 | Washington, D.C. | Primary (11 of 11 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
Many delegations were not selected in public primaries. The following table shows delegates awarded at a state level by convention, committees, and other means.
| Delegates not awarded via primaries | |||||||
| Other delegate allocation | |||||||
| Date | State | Contest Type | Candidate | Votes Won (#) | Votes Won (%) | Delegates Won | Reference(s) |
| February 5 | Oklahoma | Convention (20 of 20 delegates) | Robert Latham Owen | [4] | |||
| February 27 | Arizona | Convention (6 of 6 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| February 28 | Iowa | Convention (26 of 26 delegates) | Uninstructed (Later Supported Edwin T. Meredith) | ||||
| March 9 | Nevada | Convention (6 of 6 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| April 6 | Minnesota | Convention (24 of 24 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| Philippines | Convention (6 of 6 delegates) | Uninstructed | |||||
| April 8 | North Carolina | Convention (24 of 24 delegates) | Furnifold McLendel Simmons | ||||
| April 10 | Puerto Rico | Convention (6 of 6 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| May 3 | Maryland | Convention (16 of 16 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| May 4 | Kentucky | Convention (26 of 26 delegates) | James M. Cox | ||||
| May 6 | Connecticut | Convention (14 of 14 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| Rhode Island | Convention (10 of 10 delegates) | Uninstructed | |||||
| May 10 | Illinois | Convention (8 of 50 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| Michigan | Convention (30 of 30 delegates) | Uninstructed | |||||
| Wyoming | Convention (6 of 6 delegates) | Uninstructed | |||||
| April 22 | Missouri | Convention (36 of 36 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| April 23 | Kansas | Convention (20 of 20 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| May 17 | Colorado | Convention (12 of 12 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| Washington | Convention (14 of 14 delegates) | Uninstructed | |||||
| May 18 | Georgia | Convention (28 of 28 delegates) | Alexander Mitchell Palmer | ||||
| May 19 | Virginia | Convention (24 of 24 delegates) | Carter Glass | ||||
| May 20 | Indiana | Convention (30 of 30 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| May 25 | Delaware | Convention (6 of 6 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| May 26 | South Carolina | Convention (18 of 18 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| June 1 | Indiana | State Committee (18 of 18 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| June 2 | Vermont | Convention (8 of 8 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| June 3 | Louisiana | Convention (20 of 20 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| New Mexico | Convention (6 of 6 delegates) | Uninstructed | |||||
| June 8 | Tennessee | Convention (24 of 24 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| June 12 | Utah | Convention (8 of 8 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| June 15 | Idaho | Convention (8 of 8 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||
| June 16 | Mississippi | Convention (20 of 20 delegates) | Uninstructed | ||||