1920 United States presidential election in Florida

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1920 United States presidential election in Florida
Flag of Florida (1900-1985).svg
  1916 November 2, 1920 1924  
  James M. Cox 1920.jpg Warren G Harding-Harris & Ewing crop.jpg
Nominee James Cox Warren Harding
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Ohio Ohio
Running mate Franklin D. Roosevelt Calvin Coolidge
Electoral vote60
Popular vote90,51544,853
Percentage62.13%30.79%

Florida Presidential Election Results 1920.svg
County Results

President before election

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic

Elected President

Warren Harding
Republican

The 1920 United States presidential election in Florida, was held on November 2, 1920. Voters chose six representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for the president and vice-president.

Contents

Ever since the disfranchisement of blacks at the beginning of the 1890s, Florida had been a one-party state ruled by the Democratic Party. The disfranchisement of blacks and poor whites by poll taxes in 1889 [1] had left the Republican Party – between 1872 and 1888 dependent upon black votes – virtually extinct.

With the single exception of William Howard Taft's win in Calhoun County in 1908 [2] the Democratic Party won every county in Florida in every presidential election from 1892 [a] until 1916. Only twice – and never for more than one term – did any Republican serve in either house of the state legislature between 1896 and 1928.

Despite this Democratic dominance and the restrictions on the franchise of the poorer classes due to the poll tax, significant socialist movements were to develop and persist in Tampa [3] and to a lesser extent over other parts of the state, especially against the powerful Ku Klux Klan. [4] In 1919, 4,800 miners led by the Mineral Workers Union would go on strike for seven and a half months in Polk County. The reason for the strike were that they wanted an eight-hour work day and a minimum wage of 37 cents. Governor Sidney J. Catts called on the Florida National Guard and the Polk County Home Guard to end the strike. At the end of the strike, five strikers would die. [5]

There was also a powerful Prohibitionist movement in older North Florida, which saw the Prohibition Party even win the governorship for one term under the notorious anti-Catholic minister Sidney J. Catts.

The 1920 election saw Harding make mild inroads into the absolute Democratic dominance of the state's politics, largely owing to considerable isolationist sentiment, [6] and major economic concerns following the decline of industries related to World War I. [7] He carried three counties in the south of the state, being only the second Republican to carry a Florida county since black disfranchisement, and begun tentative steps towards establishing a white GOP base in what was to become the "Sun Belt" after the development of air conditioning decades later. Eugene Debs, who had taken advantage of substantial radicalism in parts of South Florida to run second to Woodrow Wilson in the state in 1912, did not do nearly so well and was only marginally ahead of Prohibition candidate Watkins.

Results

1920 United States presidential election in Florida [8]
PartyCandidateRunning matePopular voteElectoral vote
Count%Count%
Democratic James Cox of Ohio Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York 90,51562.13%6100.00%
Republican Warren Harding of Ohio Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts 44,85330.79%00.00%
Socialist Eugene Debs of Indiana Seymour Stedman of Illinois 5,1893.56%00.00%
Prohibition Aaron Watkins of Ohio David Colvin of New York 5,1243.52%00.00%
Total145,684100.00%6100.00%

Results by county

CountyJames Middleton Cox
Democratic
Warren Gamaliel Harding [b]
Republican
Eugene Victor Debs
Socialist
Aaron Sherman Watkins
Prohibition
MarginTotal votes cast [9]
# %# %# %# %# %
Alachua 3,31072.52%1,11924.52%1122.45%230.50%2,19148.00%4,564
Baker 34668.11%11522.64%193.74%285.51%23145.47%508
Bay 81854.90%55136.98%714.77%503.36%26717.92%1,490
Bradford 1,26978.82%24815.40%80.50%855.28%1,02163.42%1,610
Brevard 89453.31%65939.30%633.76%613.64%23514.01%1,677
Broward 41541.54%44244.24%10710.71%353.50%-27-2.70%999
Calhoun 86178.42%999.02%201.82%11810.75%743 [c] 67.67%1,098
Citrus 65182.61%9411.93%253.17%182.28%55770.68%788
Clay 55849.69%48643.28%383.38%413.65%726.41%1,123
Columbia 1,24880.88%16210.50%684.41%654.21%1,08670.38%1,543
Dade 4,28853.08%3,07738.09%3754.64%3384.18%1,21114.99%8,078
De Soto 2,49664.93%1,07728.02%1975.12%741.93%1,41936.91%3,844
Duval 13,65064.21%6,62831.18%4502.12%5292.49%7,02233.03%21,257
Escambia 3,48565.20%1,22722.96%2053.84%4288.01%2,25842.24%5,345
Flagler 20655.08%7419.79%7319.52%215.61%13235.29%374
Franklin 58762.05%27629.18%242.54%596.24%31132.87%946
Gadsden 1,92296.68%381.91%180.91%100.50%1,88494.77%1,988
Hamilton 70674.39%15115.91%151.58%778.11%55558.48%949
Hernando 62276.04%13216.14%293.55%354.28%49059.90%818
Hillsborough 6,97656.49%3,77230.54%9687.84%6335.13%3,20425.95%12,349
Holmes 86954.31%53733.56%422.63%1529.50%33220.75%1,600
Jackson 2,44378.70%50816.37%672.16%862.77%1,93562.33%3,104
Jefferson 75472.08%23922.85%191.82%343.25%51549.23%1,046
Lafayette 61886.55%699.66%101.40%172.38%54976.89%714
Lake 1,72067.72%73428.90%522.05%341.34%98638.82%2,540
Lee 93855.37%62636.95%543.19%764.49%31218.42%1,694
Leon 1,41271.75%45222.97%582.95%462.34%96048.78%1,968
Levy 88269.01%37729.50%120.94%70.55%50539.51%1,278
Liberty 41691.63%51.10%183.96%153.30%416 [d] 87.67%454
Madison 92093.31%303.04%141.42%222.23%89090.27%986
Manatee 1,79062.43%88430.83%702.44%1234.29%90631.60%2,867
Marion 2,43662.43%1,23231.57%822.10%1523.90%1,20430.86%3,902
Monroe 97956.04%51029.19%1498.53%1096.24%46926.85%1,747
Nassau 90072.12%28122.52%221.76%453.61%61949.60%1,248
Okaloosa 56856.63%41140.98%201.99%40.40%15715.65%1,003
Okeechobee 23765.11%5815.93%287.69%4111.26%17949.18%364
Orange 2,03555.48%1,44739.45%1233.35%631.72%58816.03%3,668
Osceola 72838.91%1,03555.32%412.19%673.58%-307-16.41%1,871
Palm Beach 1,48838.29%1,89248.69%3087.93%1985.10%-404-10.40%3,886
Pasco 1,16661.89%63033.44%532.81%351.86%53628.45%1,884
Pinellas 2,84848.94%2,52943.46%2023.47%2404.12%3195.48%5,819
Polk 3,91865.86%1,78229.95%1592.67%901.51%2,13635.91%5,949
Putnam 1,55753.41%1,18140.51%893.05%883.02%37612.90%2,915
Santa Rosa 81370.51%33328.88%20.17%50.43%48041.63%1,153
Seminole 1,48562.50%76732.28%733.07%512.15%71830.22%2,376
St. Johns 1,81056.30%1,22137.98%942.92%902.80%58918.32%3,215
St. Lucie 1,16758.44%70735.40%643.20%592.95%46023.04%1,997
Sumter 92179.74%21918.96%80.69%70.61%70260.78%1,155
Suwannee 1,48672.56%38218.65%1115.42%693.37%1,10453.91%2,048
Taylor 56377.98%12817.73%81.11%233.19%43560.25%722
Volusia 2,76352.47%2,17541.30%1262.39%2023.84%58811.17%5,266
Wakulla 53079.34%11917.81%30.45%162.40%41161.53%668
Walton 1,29764.24%61930.66%361.78%673.32%67833.58%2,019
Washington 75061.98%30725.37%877.19%665.45%44336.61%1,210
Totals90,51562.13%44,85330.79%5,1893.56%5,1273.52%45,66231.34%145,684

Notes

  1. In the 1892 presidential election, Republican Benjamin Harrison was not on the ballot and the party backed Populist James B. Weaver.
  2. Result of the fusion elector between regular Republicans and White Republicans. Highest Republican elector got 37,409 votes while highest White Republican elector got 10,118 votes.
  3. In this county where Watkins ran second ahead of Harding, margin given is Cox vote minus Watkins vote and percentage margin Cox percentage minus Watkins percentage.
  4. In this county where Debs ran second ahead of Harding, margin given is Cox vote minus Debs vote and percentage margin Cox percentage minus Debs percentage.

References

  1. Silbey, Joel H. and Bogue, Allan G.; The History of American Electoral Behavior, p. 210 ISBN   140087114X
  2. Robinson, Edgar Eugene; The Presidential Vote; 1896-1932 (second edition); pp. 156-157 Published 1947 by Stanford University Press
  3. Ford, Edward J.; 'Life on the Campaign Trail: a Political Anthropology of Local Politics' (thesis), published 2008 by University of South Florida, pp. 114-118
  4. Gregory, Raymond F.; Norman Thomas: The Great Dissenter, pp. 150-151 ISBN   0875866239
  5. Griffin, R. Steven; ‘Workers of the Sunshine State, Unite! The Florida Socialist Party during the Progressive Era, 1900-1920’ (thesis)
  6. Phillips, Kevin; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 210-211, 261 ISBN   9780691163246
  7. Gifford, Laura Jane; '"Dixie is No Longer in the Bag": South Carolina Republicans and the Election of 1960'; The Journal of Policy History, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2007. pp. 208-233
  8. "1920 Presidential General Election Results – Florida". U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  9. Florida. Office of Secretary of State. (1921). Report of the Secretary of State of the State of Florida. State Library and Archives of Florida. Florida. Office of Secretary of State.