1920 United States presidential election in South Dakota

Main article: 1920 United States presidential election

1920 United States presidential election in South Dakota

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Nominee Warren G. Harding James M. Cox Parley P. Christensen Party Republican Democratic Nonpartisan League Alliance Farmer–Labor Home state Ohio Ohio Illinois Running mate Calvin Coolidge Franklin D. Roosevelt Max S. Hayes Electoral vote 5 0 0 Popular vote 110,692 35,938 34,707 Percentage 60.74% 19.72% 19.04%

County Results Harding   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80% The 1920 United States presidential election in South Dakota took place on November 2, 1920 as part of the 1920 United States presidential election in which all contemporary forty-eight states participated. Voters chose five electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. The 1918 mid-term elections had seen the Midwestern farming community largely desert the Democratic Party due to supposed preferential treatment of Southern farmers: [1] Democratic seats in the Midwest fell from thirty-four to seventeen, [2] whilst Scandinavian-Americans were also vigorously opposed to entering the war. [3] Moreover, Democratic fear of Communism seen in the Palmer Raids and "Red Scare" led to Cox, then Governor of Ohio, to ban German-language instruction in public schools in 1919. [2] Much more critical for German-Americans was the view that outgoing President Woodrow Wilson was deliberately trying to punish Germany and Austria for starting the war, especially via his disregard for the United Kingdom's continuing blockade of Germany. [4] Stressing Harding's German ancestry, the German press drummed up the view that "a vote for Harding is a vote against the persecutions suffered by German-Americans during the war." [5] As the campaign began after the Republican Party had nominated U.S. Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio and the Democratic Party former Ohio governor James M. Cox, a further blow to the Democrats occurred when the national economy suffered a major downturn following the wartime boom, resulting in plummeting agricultural prices that were especially problematic in the Midwest. [6] Whereas Cox travelled throughout the nation apart from the "Solid South" during September, [7] Harding, despite having four times the budget, campaigned from his home in Marion, Ohio. A poll by the giant Rexall drug store chain – which in 1916 had been accurate enough to predict Wilson's razor-thin wins in New Hampshire and California [8] – suggested Harding would win 382 electoral votes, [9] and at the end of October, although no more opinion polls had been published, most observers were even more convinced that the Republicans would take complete control of all branches of government. [10] The late-October predictions of a complete takeover of the federal government by the Republican Party were entirely born out. So unpopular was Wilson that – although South Dakota was the only Plains state Wilson had lost in 1916 – Cox lost over half the Wilson vote from that election, and lost every county. In fact, Non Partisan League [lower-alpha 1] candidate Parley Parker Christensen finished second ahead of Cox in twenty-nine counties and was only 1,231 votes behind the Democratic candidate in South Dakota as a whole. Aided by German Lutheran hostility towards Prohibition, Christensen gained over 41 percent in Hutchinson County, and over thirty percent in three other East River counties. Results Presidential Candidate Running Mate Party Electoral Vote (EV) Popular Vote (PV) Warren G. Harding Calvin Coolidge Republican 5 [11] 110,692 60.74% James M. Cox Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic 0 35,938 19.72% Parley P. Christensen Max S. Hayes Non Partisan League 0 34,707 19.04% Aaron S. Watkins D. Leigh Colvin Independent 0 900 0.49% Results by county County [12] Warren Gamaliel Harding Republican James Middleton Cox Democratic Parley Parker Christensen Nonpartisan League Aaron Sherman Watkins Independent Margin Total votes cast # % # % # % # % # % Aurora 1,004 49.19% 445 21.80% 589 28.86% 3 0.15% 415 [lower-alpha 2] 20.33% 2,041 Beadle 2,852 56.54% 925 18.34% 1,240 24.58% 27 0.54% 1,612 [lower-alpha 2] 31.96% 5,044 Bennett 220 48.67% 199 44.03% 30 6.64% 3 0.66% 21 4.65% 452 Bon Homme 1,872 53.23% 960 27.30% 676 19.22% 9 0.26% 912 25.93% 3,517 Brookings 2,743 68.64% 564 14.11% 613 15.34% 76 1.90% 2,130 [lower-alpha 2] 53.30% 3,996 Brown 5,581 56.54% 1,364 13.82% 2,893 29.31% 33 0.33% 2,688 [lower-alpha 2] 27.23% 9,871 Brule 1,036 51.03% 671 33.05% 310 15.27% 13 0.64% 365 17.98% 2,030 Buffalo 200 59.70% 101 30.15% 30 8.96% 4 1.19% 99 29.55% 335 Butte 1,722 54.51% 672 21.27% 741 23.46% 24 0.76% 981 [lower-alpha 2] 31.05% 3,159 Campbell 1,128 71.26% 67 4.23% 383 24.19% 5 0.32% 745 [lower-alpha 2] 47.06% 1,583 Charles Mix 2,021 50.17% 1,305 32.40% 696 17.28% 6 0.15% 716 17.78% 4,028 Clark 1,753 60.24% 437 15.02% 692 23.78% 28 0.96% 1,061 [lower-alpha 2] 36.46% 2,910 Clay 1,885 61.88% 907 29.78% 248 8.14% 6 0.20% 978 32.11% 3,046 Codington 2,706 59.84% 867 19.17% 929 20.54% 20 0.44% 1,777 [lower-alpha 2] 39.30% 4,522 Corson 1,448 60.89% 484 20.35% 424 17.83% 22 0.93% 964 40.54% 2,378 Custer 784 60.82% 383 29.71% 116 9.00% 6 0.47% 401 31.11% 1,289 Davison 2,605 54.16% 1,105 22.97% 1,073 22.31% 27 0.56% 1,500 31.19% 4,810 Day 2,739 59.82% 436 9.52% 1,378 30.09% 26 0.57% 1,361 [lower-alpha 2] 29.72% 4,579 Deuel 1,569 69.95% 159 7.09% 498 22.20% 17 0.76% 1,071 [lower-alpha 2] 47.75% 2,243 Dewey 880 63.31% 335 24.10% 172 12.37% 3 0.22% 545 39.21% 1,390 Douglas 1,247 63.49% 386 19.65% 325 16.55% 6 0.31% 861 43.84% 1,964 Edmunds 1,486 60.36% 283 11.49% 681 27.66% 12 0.49% 805 [lower-alpha 2] 32.70% 2,462 Fall River 1,236 61.01% 680 33.56% 106 5.23% 4 0.20% 556 27.44% 2,026 Faulk 1,341 65.51% 346 16.90% 353 17.24% 7 0.34% 988 [lower-alpha 2] 48.27% 2,047 Grant 1,813 59.99% 350 11.58% 856 28.33% 3 0.10% 957 [lower-alpha 2] 31.67% 3,022 Gregory 1,833 57.61% 744 23.38% 601 18.89% 4 0.13% 1,089 34.22% 3,182 Haakon 713 49.65% 393 27.37% 321 22.35% 9 0.63% 320 22.28% 1,436 Hamlin 1,322 63.68% 337 16.23% 398 19.17% 19 0.92% 924 [lower-alpha 2] 44.51% 2,076 Hand 1,511 61.08% 655 26.48% 291 11.76% 17 0.69% 856 34.60% 2,474 Hanson 1,001 51.87% 418 21.66% 508 26.32% 3 0.16% 493 [lower-alpha 2] 25.54% 1,930 Harding 648 58.43% 213 19.21% 241 21.73% 7 0.63% 407 [lower-alpha 2] 36.70% 1,109 Hughes 1,313 68.31% 433 22.53% 172 8.95% 4 0.21% 880 45.79% 1,922 Hutchinson 1,873 51.15% 243 6.64% 1,528 41.73% 18 0.49% 345 [lower-alpha 2] 9.42% 3,662 Hyde 710 68.53% 233 22.49% 92 8.88% 1 0.10% 477 46.04% 1,036 Jackson 595 70.58% 206 24.44% 42 4.98% 0 0.00% 389 46.14% 843 Jerauld 1,038 57.03% 357 19.62% 397 21.81% 28 1.54% 641 [lower-alpha 2] 35.22% 1,820 Jones 609 62.33% 255 26.10% 110 11.26% 3 0.31% 354 36.23% 977 Kingsbury 2,344 71.66% 481 14.70% 429 13.12% 17 0.52% 1,863 56.96% 3,271 Lake 2,333 69.98% 398 11.94% 590 17.70% 13 0.39% 1,743 [lower-alpha 2] 52.28% 3,334 Lawrence 2,986 68.50% 1,201 27.55% 151 3.46% 21 0.48% 1,785 40.95% 4,359 Lincoln 2,790 73.54% 441 11.62% 555 14.63% 8 0.21% 2,235 [lower-alpha 2] 58.91% 3,794 Lyman 1,050 59.63% 463 26.29% 244 13.86% 4 0.23% 587 33.33% 1,761 Marshall 1,557 55.97% 266 9.56% 954 34.29% 5 0.18% 603 [lower-alpha 2] 21.68% 2,782 McCook 1,864 60.52% 565 18.34% 623 20.23% 28 0.91% 1,241 [lower-alpha 2] 40.29% 3,080 McPherson 1,470 72.92% 112 5.56% 415 20.59% 19 0.94% 1,055 [lower-alpha 2] 52.33% 2,016 Meade 1,894 58.37% 894 27.55% 436 13.44% 21 0.65% 1,000 30.82% 3,245 Mellette 533 63.53% 261 31.11% 44 5.24% 1 0.12% 272 32.42% 839 Miner 1,450 56.73% 651 25.47% 448 17.53% 7 0.27% 799 31.26% 2,556 Minnehaha 8,290 63.15% 2,534 19.30% 2,220 16.91% 83 0.63% 5,756 43.85% 13,127 Moody 1,667 63.55% 371 14.14% 570 21.73% 15 0.57% 1,097 [lower-alpha 2] 41.82% 2,623 Pennington 2,568 64.23% 1,205 30.14% 212 5.30% 13 0.33% 1,363 34.09% 3,998 Perkins 1,326 60.41% 417 19.00% 441 20.09% 11 0.50% 885 [lower-alpha 2] 40.32% 2,195 Potter 1,073 72.30% 255 17.18% 140 9.43% 16 1.08% 818 55.12% 1,484 Roberts 2,335 49.73% 447 9.52% 1,889 40.23% 24 0.51% 446 [lower-alpha 2] 9.50% 4,695 Sanborn 1,125 49.89% 517 22.93% 594 26.34% 19 0.84% 531 [lower-alpha 2] 23.55% 2,255 Spink 2,923 65.09% 785 17.48% 760 16.92% 23 0.51% 2,138 47.61% 4,491 Stanley 598 56.79% 394 37.42% 58 5.51% 3 0.28% 204 19.37% 1,053 Sully 542 62.95% 147 17.07% 170 19.74% 2 0.23% 372 [lower-alpha 2] 43.21% 861 Tripp 1,819 59.33% 968 31.57% 275 8.97% 4 0.13% 851 27.76% 3,066 Turner 2,703 67.59% 604 15.10% 689 17.23% 3 0.08% 2,014 [lower-alpha 2] 50.36% 3,999 Union 1,942 66.17% 841 28.65% 142 4.84% 10 0.34% 1,101 37.51% 2,935 Walworth 1,411 61.40% 478 20.80% 398 17.32% 11 0.48% 933 40.60% 2,298 Yankton 2,555 61.80% 1,147 27.75% 420 10.16% 12 0.29% 1,408 34.06% 4,134 Ziebach 507 65.42% 177 22.84% 87 11.23% 4 0.52% 330 42.58% 775 Totals 110,692 60.74% 35,938 19.72% 34,707 19.04% 900 0.49% 74,754 41.02% 182,237 See also United States presidential elections in South Dakota Notes In the other eighteen states where Christensen was on the ballot, he was listed under the label of “Farmer-Labor” or “Labor”. In this county where Cox ran third behind Christensen as well as behind Harding, margin given is Harding vote minus Christensen vote and percentage margin Harding percentage minus Christensen percentage. References Morello, John A.; Albert D. Lasker, Advertising, and the Election of Warren G. Harding, p. 64 ISBN   0275970302 Hough, Jerry F.; Changing Party Coalitions: The Mystery of the Red State-Blue State Alignment, pp. 86-87 ISBN   0875864090 Saldin, Robert P., 'World War I and the System of 1896' (2010); Political Science Faculty Publications, Paper 1, pp. 825-836 Lichtman, Allan J.; Prejudice and the Old Politics: The Presidential Election of 1928, pp. 102, 115 Lubell, Samuel; The Future of American Politics, p. 135 Published 1952 by Harper and Brothers, New York Goldberg, David Joseph; Discontented America: The United States in the 1920s, p. 47 ISBN   0801860059 Faykosh, Joseph D., Bowling Green State University; The Front Porch of the American People: James Cox and the Presidential Election of 1920 (thesis), p. 69 Pietrusza, David; 1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, p. 398 ISBN   0786721022 Bagby, Rexby; The Road to Normalcy: The Presidential Campaign and Election of 1920, pp. 158-159 ISBN   0801800455 'Republicans Going to Win: Prospects of a Complete Victory'; The Observer , October 31, 1920, p. 13 Dave Leip. "1920 Presidential General Election Results – South Dakota". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas. South Dakota Secretary of State; Official Vote November, 1920 Presidential Electors (highest elector) This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.