The United States presidential election of 1924 was won by Calvin Coolidge, the Republican candidate who served as vice president under Warren G. Harding and became president in 1923 when Harding died unexpectedly while still in office. Coolidge, the former governor of Massachusetts, was given credit for a prosperous economy at home and no visible crises abroad, which was especially important in the decade following the carnage of World War I. Coolidge’s candidacy was aided by a split within the Democratic Party that caused liberals to vote for a third-party Progressive candidate.
Calvin Coolidge, 1923
Coolidge's successful 1924 Republican campaign for president was aided by a split within the Democratic Party.
Democratic Party Split
The Democratic Party candidate for president in 1924 was John W. Davis, a little-known former congressman and diplomat from West Virginia. Davis was a conservative, causing many liberal Democrats to move their support to the third-party campaign of Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin, who ran as the candidate of the Progressive Party.
The Democratic National Convention of 1924 was considered a disaster that deeply divided the party. Held at Madison Square Garden in New York City from June 24 to July 29, the convention became known as “Klanbake” due to the strong influence of the Ku Klux Klan among the southern delegates. It was the longest continually running convention in U.S. political history and required 103 ballots before former U.S. Solicitor General Davis received the nomination, carrying only the traditionally Democratic “Solid South” bloc of states and Oklahoma. His nomination was considered a compromise following a battle between the front runners, former Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo of California and New York Governor Al Smith.
The party that went forward with Davis in 1924 was decidedly Wilsonian, as clearly indicated by the published party platform that read in part, “We, the representatives of the Democratic Party, in national convention assembled, pay our profound homage to the memory of Woodrow Wilson.” The platform made direct comparisons with the Republican administration then in the White House, stating, “The tariff, the destruction of our foreign markets and the high cost of transportation are taking the profit out of agriculture, mining and other raw material industries. Large standing armies and the cost of preparing for war still cast their burdens upon humanity. These conditions the existing Republican administration has proven itself unwilling or unable to redress.”
John William Davis
John W. Davis ran as the nominee of a divided Democratic Party in the presidential election of 1924.
Republican Party Advantage
The Republican Party National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, ran from June 10 to June 12 and made history by being the first GOP convention to provide equal representation to women, with a rule change that provided each state with a national committee-man and national committee-woman. This likely gained Republicans favor among females, who had only achieved the right to vote four years earlier with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. The GOP in 1924 also enjoyed the continuing support of African-Americans who considered it the Party of Lincoln, with the majority of black voters favoring Republicans in every national election since the Civil War.
The 1924 GOP convention platform called for a “rigid economy in government” and made note of the economic accomplishments under President Harding, which undoubtedly were influential in convincing many Americans to vote Republican. The platform stated in part that the reduction of taxes by $1.25 billion per year, reduction of public debt by $2.4 billion, reduction of public expenditures from $5.5 billion to a pre-war figure of $3.4 billion, “all during the short period of three years – presents a record unsurpassed in the history of public finance.” Riding that booming economy, there was little doubt that Coolidge would win the election. Yet he gained an additional advantage from an unexpected place: a third party.
The La Follette Swing
La Follette, a former U.S. Representative and Governor of Wisconsin, was originally a Republican and launched his Progressive Party as a vehicle for his vocal opposition to World War I, the League of Nations and railroad trusts. The 1924 Progressive Party, comprised solely of La Follette supporters, was different than the party of the same name that ran Theodore Roosevelt for president in 1912; the new Progressives were generally agrarian, populist and Midwestern as opposed to Roosevelt’s urban, eastern elite following.
La Follette’s appeal among liberal Democrats allowed Coolidge to achieve a 25.2% margin of victory over Davis in the popular vote, the second largest since 1824. In 12 states, the La Follette vote was greater than that cast for Davis. In Wisconsin, La Follette also defeated the Republican ticket, thus gaining one state in the Electoral College.
Robert M. La Follette
Robert La Follette's Progressive Party politics drew support away from the Democrats in 1924, hurting the Davis campaign and helping Coolidge to an overwhelming election victory.
Historic Results
The 1924 presidential election was the first in which all Native Americans were recognized as citizens and allowed to vote. The distribution of the vote was subsequently altered throughout the country and particularly in 18 states in the Middle and Far West. La Follette’s 17% vote total was the third highest for a third-party candidate since the Civil War and has only been surpassed by Theodore Roosevelt’s 27% in 1912 and Ross Perot’s 19% total in 1992.
Davis, running with Charles W. Bryan of Nebraska, and La Follette, paired with Montana Senator Burton K. Wheeler, saw Coolidge exceed their combined national tally by 2.5 million votes. Coolidge and his running mate, Charles G. Dawes of Ohio, topped the polls in 35 states, leaving the electoral vote for Davis in only 12 states.
Coolidge won all five boroughs of New York City, primarily due to his popularity among Irish Catholics and other immigrant communities, which is still considered a nearly impossible feat for a Republican candidate in a historically Democratic stronghold. Coolidge’s campaign slogan, "Keep Cool with Coolidge," not only was highly popular with the nation, but an indicator of how easily he won the presidency in 1924.