1920 United States presidential election in North Carolina

The 1920 United States presidential election in North Carolina took place on November 2, 1920, as part of the 1920 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all contemporary forty-eight states. Voters chose twelve representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1920 United States presidential election in North Carolina

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 12 0
Popular vote 305,447 232,848
Percentage 56.69% 43.22%

County Results

President before election

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic

Elected President

Warren G. Harding
Republican

Background

Like all former Confederate states, North Carolina would during its “Redemption” develop a politics based upon Jim Crow laws, disfranchisement of its African-American population and dominance of the Democratic Party. Unlike the Deep South, the Republican Party possessed sufficient historic Unionist white support from the mountains and northwestern Piedmont to gain a stable one-third of the statewide vote total in general elections even after blacks lost the right to vote.[1] Although with disfranchisement of blacks the state introduced a poll tax, it was less severe than other former Confederate states with the result that a greater proportion of whites participated than anywhere else in the South.[2] Like Virginia, Tennessee and Oklahoma, the relative strength of Republican opposition meant that North Carolina did not have statewide white primaries, although certain counties did use the white primary.[3]

Although North Carolina had never given women suffrage rights at any level of government before 1919, nor did its legislature consider the Nineteenth Amendment when it passed the Federal House and Senate, during 1920 the state passed by more a more than three-to-one margin a constitutional amendment that made it the first former Confederate state to abolish its poll tax.[4] This amendment was first proposed as early as 1908,[5] but was only given serious thought by the state legislature after the Sixteenth Amendment took effect in 1913 and it was recognized that North Carolina was burdened with an inefficient and regressive tax system.[6] The abolition of the poll tax and women's suffrage, as it turned out, would cause in the Tar Heel State amongst the largest mobilizations of new voters in the Union.[7]

Vote

Although Republican nominee Warren G. Harding had urged the state's mountain Republican legislators to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment,[8] neither Harding nor Democratic nominee and Ohio Governor James M. Cox did any campaigning in a state which had voted Democratic at every election since 1876. However, at the end of October the GOP, sensing a landslide, believed based on an early Rexall straw poll that it had a chance of carrying North Carolina as well as Tennessee[lower-alpha 1] for its first victory in a former Confederate state since 1876.[9] Later returns, however, gave Cox a larger win than Woodrow Wilson had gained in 1916.[10] As it turned out, Cox would carry the state comfortably, and North Carolina would prove the state that most resisted the anti-Wilson trend, with Cox losing fewer than 3 percentage points on Wilson and Polk County even switching from voting for Republican Charles Evans Hughes in 1916 to voting for Cox.[11]

Results

Presidential Candidate Running Mate Party Electoral Vote (EV) Popular Vote (PV)
James M. Cox of Ohio Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic 12[12] 305,447 56.69%
Warren G. Harding Calvin Coolidge Republican 0 232,848 43.22%
Eugene V. Debs Seymour Stedman Socialist 0 446[lower-alpha 2] 0.08%
Aaron S. Watkins D. Leigh Colvin Prohibition 0 17[lower-alpha 2] 0.00%

Results by county

County James Middleton Cox[13]
Democratic
Warren Gamaliel Harding[13]
Republican
Margin
% # % # % #
Edgecombe 99.29% 3,343 0.71% 24 98.57% 3,319
Northampton 93.32% 2,305 6.68% 165 86.64% 2,140
Currituck 92.08% 1,000 7.92% 86 84.16% 914
Bertie 89.67% 1,840 10.33% 212 79.34% 1,628
Hoke 88.41% 1,266 11.59% 166 76.82% 1,100
Anson 88.00% 3,175 12.00% 433 76.00% 2,742
Halifax 86.74% 3,429 13.26% 524 73.49% 2,905
Warren 86.34% 1,865 13.66% 295 72.69% 1,570
New Hanover 85.21% 4,102 14.79% 712 70.42% 3,390
Scotland 84.78% 1,705 15.22% 306 69.57% 1,399
Chowan 83.92% 1,091 16.08% 209 67.85% 882
Hertford 83.32% 1,104 16.68% 221 66.64% 883
Pitt 82.92% 4,196 17.08% 864 65.85% 3,332
Martin 82.85% 2,561 17.15% 530 65.71% 2,031
Craven 82.36% 3,413 17.64% 731 64.72% 2,682
Franklin 82.32% 2,742 17.68% 589 64.64% 2,153
Camden 79.18% 540 20.82% 142 58.36% 398
Greene 78.98% 1,649 21.02% 439 57.95% 1,210
Pasquotank 77.40% 1,736 22.60% 507 54.79% 1,229
Mecklenburg 76.78% 11,313 23.22% 3,421 53.56% 7,892
Granville 75.89% 2,622 24.11% 833 51.78% 1,789
Vance 75.10% 2,461 24.90% 816 50.20% 1,645
Richmond 74.83% 3,341 25.17% 1,124 49.65% 2,217
Union 74.80% 4,168 25.20% 1,404 49.61% 2,764
Robeson 73.58% 6,183 26.42% 2,220 47.16% 3,963
Nash 72.15% 4,031 27.85% 1,556 44.30% 2,475
Wilson 71.79% 3,496 28.21% 1,374 43.57% 2,122
Jones 71.46% 964 28.54% 385 42.92% 579
Caswell 71.04% 1,239 28.96% 505 42.09% 734
Gates 70.88% 796 29.12% 327 41.76% 469
Pender 69.33% 1,580 30.67% 699 38.66% 881
Lenoir 68.95% 2,560 31.05% 1,153 37.89% 1,407
Wake 68.71% 8,020 31.29% 3,653 37.41% 4,367
Perquimans 68.15% 1,042 31.85% 487 36.30% 555
Hyde 68.15% 1,134 31.85% 530 36.30% 604
Lee 67.06% 2,327 32.94% 1,143 34.12% 1,184
Onslow 64.61% 1,557 35.39% 853 29.21% 704
Bladen 64.57% 1,939 35.43% 1,064 29.14% 875
Cleveland 63.70% 5,181 36.30% 2,953 27.39% 2,228
Columbus 63.57% 3,111 36.43% 1,783 27.14% 1,328
Wayne 62.95% 4,794 37.05% 2,822 25.89% 1,972
Cumberland 62.11% 3,233 37.89% 1,972 24.23% 1,261
Beaufort 60.85% 3,522 39.15% 2,266 21.70% 1,256
Iredell 59.51% 6,470 40.49% 4,402 19.02% 2,068
Haywood 58.50% 4,229 41.50% 3,000 17.00% 1,229
Tyrrell 57.44% 718 42.56% 532 14.88% 186
Rowan 56.78% 6,421 43.22% 4,888 13.56% 1,533
Durham 56.69% 4,646 43.31% 3,550 13.37% 1,096
Dare 56.62% 825 43.38% 632 13.25% 193
Pamlico 56.06% 1,286 43.94% 1,008 12.12% 278
Rutherford 55.96% 5,101 44.04% 4,015 11.91% 1,086
Buncombe 55.91% 10,167 44.09% 8,017 11.82% 2,150
Duplin 55.75% 3,398 44.25% 2,697 11.50% 701
Rockingham 55.56% 4,507 44.44% 3,605 11.12% 902
Gaston 55.19% 7,148 44.81% 5,803 10.39% 1,345
Guilford 54.83% 9,615 45.17% 7,920 9.67% 1,695
Forsyth 54.46% 8,123 45.54% 6,792 8.92% 1,331
Harnett 54.20% 3,919 45.80% 3,311 8.41% 608
Moore 54.03% 2,679 45.97% 2,279 8.07% 400
Alleghany 53.98% 1,409 46.02% 1,201 7.97% 208
Washington 53.47% 1,116 46.53% 971 6.95% 145
Orange 53.43% 1,993 46.57% 1,737 6.86% 256
Alamance 53.22% 5,255 46.78% 4,619 6.44% 636
McDowell 52.31% 2,809 47.69% 2,561 4.62% 248
Chatham 52.30% 3,186 47.70% 2,906 4.60% 280
Johnston 51.90% 6,030 48.10% 5,588 3.80% 442
Macon 51.50% 2,177 48.50% 2,050 3.00% 127
Lincoln 51.50% 3,331 48.50% 3,137 3.00% 194
Person 51.25% 1,646 48.75% 1,566 2.49% 80
Polk 50.65% 1,361 49.35% 1,326 1.30% 35
Jackson 50.32% 2,385 49.68% 2,355 0.63% 30
Montgomery 50.18% 2,321 49.82% 2,304 0.37% 17
Brunswick 47.92% 1,253 52.08% 1,362 -4.17% -109
Transylvania 47.86% 1,542 52.14% 1,680 -4.28% -138
Catawba 47.66% 5,404 52.34% 5,935 -4.68% -531
Burke 47.59% 3,262 52.41% 3,592 -4.81% -330
Ashe 47.40% 3,431 52.60% 3,808 -5.21% -377
Carteret 47.21% 2,070 52.79% 2,315 -5.59% -245
Stanly 47.12% 3,843 52.88% 4,312 -5.75% -469
Caldwell 47.05% 2,931 52.95% 3,298 -5.89% -367
Yancey 46.76% 2,280 53.24% 2,596 -6.48% -316
Cabarrus 46.18% 4,418 53.82% 5,148 -7.63% -730
Clay 45.32% 755 54.68% 911 -9.36% -156
Randolph 44.80% 5,110 55.20% 6,297 -10.41% -1,187
Davidson 44.59% 4,797 55.41% 5,960 -10.81% -1,163
Alexander 43.62% 2,045 56.38% 2,643 -12.76% -598
Henderson 42.79% 2,496 57.21% 3,337 -14.42% -841
Graham 41.31% 644 58.69% 915 -17.38% -271
Cherokee 41.27% 1,761 58.73% 2,506 -17.46% -745
Surry 40.69% 3,547 59.31% 5,170 -18.62% -1,623
Stokes 40.59% 1,999 59.41% 2,926 -18.82% -927
Watauga 39.55% 1,721 60.45% 2,631 -20.91% -910
Swain 39.04% 1,434 60.96% 2,239 -21.92% -805
Davie 38.53% 1,624 61.47% 2,591 -22.94% -967
Sampson 31.19% 2,426 68.81% 5,353 -37.63% -2,927
Wilkes 30.59% 2,843 69.41% 6,451 -38.82% -3,608
Yadkin 29.03% 1,350 70.97% 3,301 -41.95% -1,951
Madison 27.04% 1,340 72.96% 3,616 -45.92% -2,276
Mitchell 24.46% 697 75.54% 2,153 -51.09% -1,456
Avery 13.69% 397 86.31% 2,503 -72.62% -2,106

Notes

  1. Harding would actually carry Tennessee by 13,271 votes and thus achieve the first GOP victory in the former Confederacy since 1876 and in Tennessee since 1868.
  2. These third-party votes were not separated by county but listed only as a statewide total.[13]

References

  1. Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 210, 242 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6
  2. Rusk. J.J, and Stucker J.J.; ‘The Effect of Southern Election Laws on Turnout Rates’ in Silbey, Joel H. and Bogue, Allan G., The History of American Electoral Behavior, p. 246 ISBN 0691606625
  3. Klarman, Michael J.; ‘The White Primary Rulings: A Case Study in the Consequences of Supreme Court Decision-Making’; Florida State University Law Review, volume 29 (2001), pp. 55-107
  4. ‘Vote for Constitutional Amendments by Counties’, in North Carolina Manual (1920), pp. 324-328
  5. ‘Poll-Tax Abolition Urged.: North Carolina Board Favors Levy of 2-3 Per Cent on Assessments’; Special to the Washington Post, December 24, 1908, p. 3
  6. Steelman, Joseph F.; Origins of the Campaign for Constitutional Reform in North Carolina, 1912-1913; The North Carolina Historical Review, vol. 56, no. 4 (October, 1979) pp. 396-418
  7. Schuyler, Lorraine Gates; The Weight of Their Votes: Southern Women and Political Leverage in the 1920s, p. 190 ISBN 9780807857762
  8. ‘Harding resents Suffrage Attack: Declares He Is Impatient Over Charges That Republicans Oppose Women’; New York Times, July 15, 1920, p. 1
  9. ‘Victory is Claimed by Rival Chairmen: Hays Sees 368 Electoral Votes for Harding’; The Washington Post, October 31, 1920, p. 1
  10. ‘Cox Gains in Straw Vote: Late Returns Give Him Missouri – Some Other States Close’; New York Times, October 31, 1920, p. 6
  11. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 52 ISBN 0786422173
  12. "1920 Presidential General Election Results – North Carolina". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas.
  13. North Carolina State Board of Elections; ‘Vote for President by Counties, 1912-1920’; North Carolina Manual 1921
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