1922 California gubernatorial election

1922 California gubernatorial election

←  1918 November 7, 1922 1926  →

Nominee Friend William Richardson Thomas Lee Woolwine Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 576,445 347,530 Percentage 59.69% 35.98%

County results Richardson:     40-50%     50-60%      60-70%     70-80% Woolwine:      40-50%     50-60%

Governor before election William Stephens Republican Elected Governor Friend Richardson Republican

The 1922 California gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 1922. Republican state treasurer Friend Richardson easily defeated Los Angeles County district attorney Thomas L. Woolwine. This was the first of three consecutive elections in which the incumbent lost in the Republican primary.

In the Republican primary, incumbent governor William Stephens faced a challenge from Richardson, who ran on a conservative platform opposed to the prior decade of progressive Republican rule in the state. Richardson won by nearly 25,000 votes. Although Stephens won the Prohibition Party primary, he was unable to accept the nomination under the Hawson amendment, having lost his own party's primary. In the Democratic primary, Woolwine defeated defeated Mattison B. Jones by a large margin of over 30,000 votes. ^[1]

Richardson would defeat Woolwine in the general election by over 200,000 votes. His 59.69% vote share was the largest yet achieved by a gubernatorial candidate in California, though that record would be broken in the next election. As governor, Richardson would roll back many of the progressive reforms of Stephens and his predecessor, Hiram Johnson. ^[2]

Primaries

Republican primary

Incumbent Republican governor William Stephens, who had succeeded Hiram Johnson upon his resignation in 1917 and then was elected to a term of his own in 1918, sought a second term as governor. By that time, Republicans had grown more conservative than the years prior, pushing against Progressives like Stephens. ^[3] California State Treasurer Friend Richardson, previously a Progressive in 1914, campaigned on a conservative platform and utilizing a fatigue on Progressive politics in the state. In the Republican primary, Stephens lost to Richardson by 25,000 votes. ^[4]

Republican primary results ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Friend William Richardson	286,442	52.27%
	Republican	William D. Stephens (incumbent)	261,521	47.73%
Total votes			547,963	100.00%

Democratic primary

Los Angeles County District Attorney Thomas L. Woolwine and attorney Mattison B. Jones ran in the Democratic ticket. ^[6] Woolwine defeated Jones in the primary. ^[7]

Democratic primary results ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Thomas Lee Woolwine	75,868	60.40%
	Democratic	Mattison B. Jones	45,631	36.11%
	Democratic	Friend William Richardson (write-in)	2,313	1.84%
	Democratic	William D. Stephens (write-in)	2,061	1.64%
Total votes			125,603	100.00%

Prohibition primary

Governor Stephens and Jones cross-filed in the Prohibition primary, but due to Stephens not winning the Republican primary, the Prohibition Party was unable to run a candidate in the race.

Prohibition primary results ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Prohibition	William D. Stephens	5,632	66.38%
	Prohibition	Mattison B. Jones	2,289	26.98%
	Prohibition	Friend William Richardson (write-in)	563	6.64%
Total votes			8,484	100.00%

Socialist primary

Socialist primary results ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Socialist	Alexander Horr	6,719	100.00%
Total votes			6,719	100.00%

General election results

1922 California gubernatorial election ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Friend William Richardson	576,445	59.69%	+3.41%
	Democratic	Thomas Lee Woolwine	347,530	35.98%	+35.98%
	Socialist	Alexander Horr	41,418	4.29%	+0.08%
		Scattering	394	0.04%
Majority			228,915	23.70%
Total votes			965,787	100.00%
	Republican hold		Swing	+3.90%

Results by county

County	Friend William Richardson Republican		Thomas Lee Woolwine Democratic		Alexander Horr Socialist		Scattering Write-in		Margin		Total votes cast [8]
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Alameda	60,130	61.38%	33,250	33.94%	4,584	4.68%	0	0.00%	26,880	27.44%	97,964
Alpine	45	77.59%	12	20.69%	0	0.00%	1	1.72%	33	56.90%	58
Amador	1,111	49.80%	1,082	48.50%	37	1.66%	1	0.04%	29	1.30%	2,231
Butte	5,493	56.52%	3,922	40.36%	303	3.12%	0	0.00%	1,571	16.17%	9,718
Calaveras	1,325	56.89%	908	38.99%	94	4.04%	2	0.09%	417	17.90%	2,329
Colusa	1,723	53.29%	1,469	45.44%	41	1.27%	0	0.00%	254	7.86%	3,233
Contra Costa	8,860	54.22%	6,620	40.51%	862	5.27%	0	0.00%	2,240	13.71%	16,342
Del Norte	653	65.63%	291	29.25%	51	5.13%	0	0.00%	362	36.38%	995
El Dorado	1,308	46.01%	1,438	50.58%	97	3.41%	0	0.00%	-130	-4.57%	2,843
Fresno	19,354	60.37%	11,164	34.82%	1,540	4.80%	0	0.00%	8,190	25.55%	32,058
Glenn	2,659	66.88%	1,257	31.61%	59	1.48%	1	0.03%	1,402	35.26%	3,976
Humboldt	7,984	73.91%	2,345	21.71%	474	4.39%	0	0.00%	5,639	52.20%	10,803
Imperial	4,376	63.17%	2,328	33.61%	223	3.22%	0	0.00%	2,048	29.57%	6,927
Inyo	1,678	66.27%	692	27.33%	160	6.32%	2	0.08%	986	38.94%	2,532
Kern	9,706	53.90%	6,970	38.71%	1,325	7.36%	7	0.04%	2,736	15.19%	18,008
Kings	3,550	58.65%	2,304	38.06%	199	3.29%	0	0.00%	1,246	20.58%	6,053
Lake	951	57.29%	669	40.30%	40	2.41%	0	0.00%	282	16.99%	1,660
Lassen	1,138	50.87%	1,026	45.86%	73	3.26%	0	0.00%	112	5.01%	2,237
Los Angeles	169,563	66.06%	74,892	29.18%	12,072	4.70%	146	0.06%	94,671	36.88%	256,673
Madera	2,031	53.62%	1,575	41.58%	181	4.78%	1	0.03%	456	12.04%	3,788
Marin	5,211	56.49%	3,738	40.52%	276	2.99%	0	0.00%	1,473	15.97%	9,225
Mariposa	456	45.92%	496	49.95%	41	4.13%	0	0.00%	-40	-4.03%	993
Mendocino	3,531	57.59%	2,380	38.82%	220	3.59%	0	0.00%	1,151	18.77%	6,131
Merced	3,550	57.89%	2,311	37.69%	268	4.37%	3	0.05%	1,239	20.21%	6,132
Modoc	1,110	59.90%	696	37.56%	47	2.54%	0	0.00%	414	22.34%	1,853
Mono	221	67.38%	86	26.22%	21	6.40%	0	0.00%	135	41.16%	328
Monterey	4,145	57.90%	2,826	39.47%	188	2.63%	0	0.00%	1,319	18.42%	7,159
Napa	3,541	49.64%	3,401	47.67%	182	2.55%	10	0.14%	140	1.96%	7,134
Nevada	1,959	54.33%	1,478	40.99%	169	4.69%	0	0.00%	481	13.34%	3,606
Orange	15,137	75.01%	4,351	21.56%	684	3.39%	8	0.04%	10,786	53.45%	20,180
Placer	2,817	49.01%	2,702	47.01%	229	3.98%	0	0.00%	115	2.00%	5,748
Plumas	580	46.14%	559	44.47%	118	9.39%	0	0.00%	21	1.67%	1,257
Riverside	10,351	75.86%	2,921	21.41%	371	2.72%	2	0.01%	7,430	54.45%	13,645
Sacramento	14,530	49.98%	13,474	46.35%	1,033	3.55%	35	0.12%	1,056	3.63%	29,072
San Benito	1,782	58.99%	1,165	38.56%	74	2.45%	0	0.00%	617	20.42%	3,021
San Bernardino	13,699	66.14%	5,566	26.87%	1,448	6.99%	0	0.00%	8,133	39.27%	20,713
San Diego	22,792	69.29%	8,271	25.14%	1,823	5.54%	8	0.02%	14,521	44.14%	32,894
San Francisco	56,302	42.58%	70,464	53.29%	5,336	4.04%	123	0.09%	-14,162	-10.71%	132,225
San Joaquin	12,567	60.23%	7,539	36.13%	758	3.63%	0	0.00%	5,028	24.10%	20,864
San Luis Obispo	4,344	62.60%	2,185	31.49%	400	5.76%	10	0.14%	2,159	31.11%	6,939
San Mateo	6,227	50.20%	5,658	45.61%	508	4.10%	11	0.09%	569	4.59%	12,404
Santa Barbara	6,754	68.06%	2,873	28.95%	295	2.97%	1	0.01%	3,881	39.11%	9,923
Santa Clara	17,977	63.64%	9,484	33.57%	787	2.79%	0	0.00%	8,493	30.07%	28,248
Santa Cruz	5,789	66.56%	2,591	29.79%	318	3.66%	0	0.00%	3,198	36.77%	8,698
Shasta	2,659	51.77%	2,272	44.24%	205	3.99%	0	0.00%	387	7.54%	5,136
Sierra	320	54.05%	251	42.40%	20	3.38%	1	0.17%	69	11.66%	592
Siskiyou	2,922	50.84%	2,487	43.27%	338	5.88%	0	0.00%	435	7.57%	5,747
Solano	5,168	47.51%	5,343	49.12%	366	3.36%	0	0.00%	-175	-1.61%	10,877
Sonoma	9,004	55.45%	6,748	41.55%	487	3.00%	0	0.00%	2,256	13.89%	16,239
Stanislaus	8,997	67.18%	3,831	28.61%	547	4.08%	17	0.13%	5,166	38.58%	13,392
Sutter	1,728	59.88%	1,107	38.36%	51	1.77%	0	0.00%	621	21.52%	2,886
Tehama	2,528	64.08%	1,264	32.04%	153	3.88%	0	0.00%	1,264	32.04%	3,945
Trinity	597	56.80%	377	35.87%	77	7.33%	0	0.00%	220	20.93%	1,051
Tulare	11,978	69.62%	4,640	26.97%	586	3.41%	0	0.00%	7,338	42.65%	17,204
Tuolumne	1,709	51.06%	1,445	43.17%	191	5.71%	2	0.06%	264	7.89%	3,347
Ventura	5,145	66.24%	2,377	30.60%	243	3.13%	2	0.03%	2,768	35.64%	7,767
Yolo	2,964	54.59%	2,375	43.74%	91	1.68%	0	0.00%	589	10.85%	5,430
Yuba	1,716	51.16%	1,584	47.23%	54	1.61%	0	0.00%	132	3.94%	3,354
Total	576,445	59.69%	347,530	35.98%	41,418	4.29%	394	0.04%	228,915	23.70%	965,787

Counties that flipped from Independent to Republican

• Marin
• Napa
• Sonoma

Counties that flipped from Independent to Democratic

• San Francisco
• Solano

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• El Dorado
• Mariposa

References

1. "JOHNSON AND RICHARDSON LEADING IN COUNT: CONTESTS FOR SENATOR AND FOR GOVERNOR ARE CLOSE Lineberger Decisively Defeats Randall for Congress; Young Ahead for Lieutenant-Governor; Lawlor Beats Wilbur; Traeger is Victor RACE IS CLOSE FOR SENATOR". Los Angeles Times . August 30, 1922. ProQuest   161175068.
2. "FINAL VOTE COUNT SHOWSLARGELEAD GIVEN RICHARDSON". The Sacramento Union . December 16, 1922.
3. "ELECTION RESULTS". Los Angeles Times . August 31, 1922. ProQuest   161172604.
4. "RICHARDSON IS NOMINATED!: Stephens Loses Race by 15,000; Johnson is Safe RICHARDSON'S LEAD 15,000 Meet Our Next Governor". Los Angeles Times . August 31, 1922. ProQuest   161169670.
5. California Secretary of State. Statement of Vote at Primary Election held on August 29, 1922 in the State of California. Sacramento, California: State Printing Office. p. 4. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
6. "ANGELENO WILL SEEK HIGH POST: Mattison B. Jones Named by Democrats as Candidate for Governorship". Los Angeles Times . July 6, 1922. ProQuest   161135376.
7. Apostol, Jane (Winter 2005–2006). "District Attorney Thomas Lee Woolwine: Stormy Petrel of Politics" . Southern California Quarterly. 87 (4). University of California Press: 377–396. doi:10.2307/41172284. JSTOR   41172284.
8. California Secretary of State. Statement of Vote at General Election held on November 7, 1922 in the State of California. Sacramento, California: State Printing Office. p. 12. Retrieved July 19, 2024.

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