1920 United States presidential election in Louisiana

The 1920 United States presidential election in Louisiana took place on November 2, 1920 as part of the 1920 United States presidential election. Voters chose ten representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1920 United States presidential election in Louisiana

November 2, 1920
 
Nominee James M. Cox Warren G. Harding
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Ohio Ohio
Running mate Franklin D. Roosevelt Calvin Coolidge
Electoral vote 10 0
Popular vote 87,519 38,538
Percentage 69.24% 30.49%

Parish Results

President before election

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic

Elected President

Warren G. Harding
Republican

Background

Ever since the passage of a new constitution in 1898, Louisiana had been a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party. The Republican Party became moribund due to the disenfranchisement of blacks and the complete absence of other support bases as the Pelican State completely lacked upland or German refugee whites opposed to secession.[1] Despite this absolute single-party dominance, non-partisan tendencies remained strong among wealthy sugar planters in Acadiana and within the business elite of New Orleans.[2]

Following disfranchisement, the state’s politics became dominated by the Choctaw Club of Louisiana, generally called the “Old Regulars”. This political machine was based in New Orleans and united with Black Belt cotton planters.[3] Opposition began to emerge with the Progressive movement in the 1910s, chiefly in the southern sugar-growing parishes, where conflicts with President Wilson’s Underwoood-Simmons Act[4] even allowed a Progressive Party member in Whitmell P. Martin[lower-alpha 1] to be elected to the Third Congressional District in 1914.

During the second term of President Wilson, the Acadian parishes became even more upset with him because of his deep disagreements with Georges Clemenceau, as well as continued problems with the issue of sugar tariffs.[5] There was also strong opposition is this part of Louisiana to the Nineteenth Amendment, and also substantial opposition in the Black Belt of the state because it was believed that enfranchising women could interfere with lily-white politics.[6] In the Ozark- and previously Socialist-influenced northern upcountry parishes, opposition to women’s suffrage was much weaker.[6]

Vote

In Acadiana, the 1920 election would see a temporary break with “Solid South” voting patterns, as anger at the Wilson Administration’s foreign and domestic policies caused the region’s voters – much more moderate on racial issues than the rest of Louisiana – to break powerfully from Democratic nominee James M. Cox.[7] Harding carried fourteen of the Acadian parishes, and in the two most sugar-dependent, Assumption and Lafourche, he received over three-quarters of the vote. In the remainder of Louisiana, as racially hardline as anywhere in the South, Democratic voting remained as rock-solid as ever despite nominee James M. Cox suffering a record 26.17 point landslide defeat and carrying only 41 counties outside antebellum slave states and Oklahoma. The revolt in Acadiana, however, was sufficient to drop Louisiana to Cox’ fourth-best state behind Georgia as well as South Carolina and Mississippi (as was typical in the “Solid South” era).

Results

Presidential Candidate Running Mate Party Electoral Vote (EV) Popular Vote (PV)
James M. Cox of Ohio Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic 10[8] 87,519 69.24%
Warren Harding Calvin Coolidge Republican 0 38,538 30.49%
Write-ins Independent Republican 0 339 0.27%

Results by parish

Parish James Middleton Cox
Democratic
Warren Gamaliel Harding
Republican
Write-ins
Independent Republican
Margin Total votes cast[9]
# % # % # % # %
Acadia 1,058 47.98% 1,141 51.75% 6 0.27% -83 -3.76% 2,205
Allen 1,008 80.64% 242 19.36% 766 61.28% 1,250
Ascension 622 55.64% 496 44.36% 126 11.27% 1,118
Assumption 202 21.79% 725 78.21% -523 -56.42% 927
Avoyelles 1,422 66.26% 724 33.74% 698 32.53% 2,146
Beauregard 1,146 84.14% 202 14.83% 14 1.03% 944 69.31% 1,362
Bienville 1,419 83.27% 257 15.08% 28 1.64% 1,162 68.19% 1,704
Bossier 731 94.32% 44 5.68% 687 88.65% 775
Caddo 4,264 91.40% 401 8.60% 3,863 82.81% 4,665
Calcasieu 2,480 83.33% 483 16.23% 13 0.44% 1,997 67.10% 2,976
Caldwell 539 80.81% 128 19.19% 411 61.62% 667
Cameron 146 92.99% 11 7.01% 135 85.99% 157
Catahoula 517 74.60% 176 25.40% 341 49.21% 693
Claiborne 1,216 96.20% 48 3.80% 1,168 92.41% 1,264
Concordia 380 96.94% 12 3.06% 368 93.88% 392
De Soto 1,219 95.61% 56 4.39% 1,163 91.22% 1,275
East Baton Rouge 2,336 84.09% 442 15.91% 1,894 68.18% 2,778
East Carroll 247 96.86% 8 3.14% 239 93.73% 255
East Feliciana 529 94.63% 30 5.37% 499 89.27% 559
Evangeline 542 48.01% 587 51.99% -45 -3.99% 1,129
Franklin 898 83.85% 173 16.15% 725 67.69% 1,071
Grant 674 86.08% 109 13.92% 565 72.16% 783
Iberia 438 25.57% 1,275 74.43% -837 -48.86% 1,713
Iberville 385 45.29% 465 54.71% -80 -9.41% 850
Jackson 1,229 88.10% 166 11.90% 1,063 76.20% 1,395
Jefferson 1,238 86.57% 192 13.43% 1,046 73.15% 1,430
Jefferson Davis 728 44.86% 895 55.14% -167 -10.29% 1,623
Lafayette 823 44.06% 1,045 55.94% -222 -11.88% 1,868
Lafourche 337 24.40% 1,044 75.60% -707 -51.19% 1,381
La Salle 570 82.13% 109 15.71% 15 2.16% 461 66.43% 694
Lincoln 989 84.39% 183 15.61% 806 68.77% 1,172
Livingston 674 75.48% 218 24.41% 1 0.11% 456 51.06% 893
Madison 331 98.81% 4 1.19% 327 97.61% 335
Morehouse 622 94.24% 38 5.76% 584 88.48% 660
Natchitoches 1,595 88.71% 203 11.29% 1,392 77.42% 1,798
Orleans 32,724 64.74% 17,819 35.26% 14,905 29.49% 50,543
Ouachita 1,481 89.98% 164 9.96% 1 0.06% 1,317 80.01% 1,646
Plaquemines 329 70.15% 124 26.44% 16 3.41% 205 43.71% 469
Pointe Coupee 407 74.00% 143 26.00% 264 48.00% 550
Rapides 2,765 86.11% 445 13.86% 1 0.03% 2,320 72.25% 3,211
Red River 766 80.38% 187 19.62% 579 60.76% 953
Richland 664 93.00% 50 7.00% 614 85.99% 714
Sabine 1,245 91.81% 111 8.19% 1,134 83.63% 1,356
Saint Bernard 358 86.47% 56 13.53% 302 72.95% 414
Saint Charles 183 66.55% 92 33.45% 91 33.09% 275
Saint Helena 366 91.04% 36 8.96% 330 82.09% 402
Saint James 342 39.09% 533 60.91% -191 -21.83% 875
Saint John the Baptist 239 48.88% 250 51.12% -11 -2.25% 489
Saint Landry 1,017 51.91% 942 48.09% 75 3.83% 1,959
Saint Martin 319 43.22% 419 56.78% -100 -13.55% 738
Saint Mary 539 40.62% 788 59.38% -249 -18.76% 1,327
Saint Tammany 967 77.80% 276 22.20% 691 55.59% 1,243
Tangipahoa 1,501 77.33% 440 22.67% 1,061 54.66% 1,941
Tensas 243 94.19% 15 5.81% 228 88.37% 258
Terrebonne 477 40.08% 713 59.92% -236 -19.83% 1,190
Union 1,221 92.57% 98 7.43% 1,123 85.14% 1,319
Vermilion 549 27.87% 1,420 72.08% 1 0.05% -871 -44.21% 1,970
Vernon 1,143 84.79% 205 15.21% 938 69.58% 1,348
Washington 1,094 86.89% 165 13.11% 929 73.79% 1,259
Webster 1,009 90.01% 112 9.99% 897 80.02% 1,121
West Baton Rouge 352 66.79% 175 33.21% 177 33.59% 527
West Carroll 346 73.62% 104 22.13% 20 4.26% 242 51.49% 470
West Feliciana 356 91.28% 34 8.72% 322 82.56% 390
Winn 963 65.20% 291 19.70% 223 15.10% 672 45.50% 1,477
Totals87,51969.24%38,53830.49%3390.27%48,98138.75%126,396

Notes

  1. Martin would join the Democratic Party in 1919.

References

  1. Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 208, 210 ISBN 9780691163246
  2. Schott, Matthew J.; ‘Progressives against Democracy: Electoral Reform in Louisiana, 1894-1921’; Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Summer, 1979), pp. 247-260
  3. Wall, Bennett H. and Rodriguez, John C.; Louisiana: A History, pp. 274-275 ISBN 1118619293
  4. Collin, Richard H.; ‘Theodore Roosevelt's Visit to New Orleans and the Progressive Campaign of 1914’; Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Winter, 1971), pp. 5-19
  5. See Howard, Perry H.; Political Tendencies in Louisiana, 1812-1952 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1957), p. 144, also maps on pp. 145 and 151.
  6. Wall and Rodriguez; Louisiana: A History, p. 277
  7. Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 268
  8. Dave Leip. "1920 Presidential General Election Results – Louisiana". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas.
  9. Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; pp. 189-190 ISBN 0405077114
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