1924 United States presidential election in North Dakota

The 1924 United States presidential election in North Dakota took place on November 4, 1924, as part of the 1924 United States presidential election which was held throughout all contemporary 48 states. Voters chose five representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1924 United States presidential election in North Dakota

← 1920 November 4, 1924 1928 →
 
Nominee Calvin Coolidge Robert M. La Follette John W. Davis
Party Republican Nonpartisan League Democratic
Alliance Progressive
Home state Massachusetts Wisconsin West Virginia
Running mate Charles G. Dawes Burton K. Wheeler Charles W. Bryan
Electoral vote 5 0 0
Popular vote 94,931 89,922 13,858
Percentage 47.68% 45.17% 6.96%

County Results

President before election

Calvin Coolidge
Republican

Elected President

Calvin Coolidge
Republican

Ever since statehood, North Dakota had been overwhelmingly Republican at state level and in many presidential elections,[1] although progressive Democrat Woodrow Wilson was able to carry the state in both his campaigns in 1912 and 1916, in the second due to his anti-war platform. The Russian-Germans who dominated North Dakota’s populace were vehemently opposed to President Wilson’s pushing of the nation into World War I and his “League of Nations” proposal.[2] To this populace descended from Germans who had settled in Russia, Wilson’s entry into the war and his support for the Treaty of Versailles was a betrayal, whilst farmers were also faced with a postwar agricultural depression as prices fell with reduced demand in Europe.[3] Consequently, North Dakota went for the isolationist Warren G. Harding over the pro-League Democrat Cox by four-to-one in 1920.

Despite Harding’s massive victory, discontent amongst North Dakota’s large farm population persisted during his term,[4] but the national Democratic Party did nothing to provide any hope of regaining Wilson’s prominence in North Dakota, being instead dominated by conflicts between its Southern and Western faction led by William Gibbs McAdoo and its urban Northeastern faction led by Al Smith.[5] A fierce debate ensued that saw a compromise candidate, former Congressman John W. Davis of West Virginia, nominated after one hundred and three ballots in hot summer weather at Madison Square Garden.[6] Although West Virginia was a border state whose limited African-American population had not been disenfranchised as happened in all former Confederate States,[7] Davis did share many views of Southern Democrats of his era. He supported poll taxes, opposed women's suffrage, and believed in strictly limited government with no expansion in nonmilitary fields.[8] In North Dakota, Davis had almost no appeal, especially as he unlike incumbent Calvin Coolidge supported the League of Nations and was opposed to the state’s isolationist views. Although in September he underwent an extensive tour of the Great Plains,[9] and campaigned to eliminate the income tax burden of the poorer classes,[10]

The agrarian Nonpartisan League, as a response to the conservatism of the major parties, nominated Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin, with Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana, as a third-party ticket, supported by the state’s Senators Lynn J. Frazier and Gerald P. Nye. Davis and Coolidge both spent most of their campaign attacking La Follette as a political extremist,[11] but nonetheless opinion polls showed that La Follette was attracting large numbers of those German-American and Scandinavian-Americans who completely deserted Cox in 1920.[12] In September some polls had La Follette winning sufficient electoral votes to give no candidate an electoral majority and force the House to make a choice,[13] but as polling day approached newer polls suggested incumbent President Calvin Coolidge would hold the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nevada and Montana, which La Follette had been predicted to win in August.[13] Coolidge ultimately won North Dakota by a narrow margin of 2.51 percent, with his win coming from the relatively urbanized Scandinavian-settled counties in the east.

Results

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1924 United States presidential election in North Dakota[14]
Party Candidate Running mate Popular vote Electoral vote
Count % Count %
Republican Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts Charles Gates Dawes of Illinois 94,931 47.68% 5 100.00%
Nonpartisan League Robert Marion La Follette of Wisconsin Burton Kendall Wheeler of Montana 89,922 45.17% 0 0.00%
Democratic John William Davis of West Virginia Charles Wayland Bryan of Nebraska 13,858 6.96% 0 0.00%
Communist William Z. Foster of Massachusetts Benjamin Gitlow of New York 370 0.19% 0 0.00%
Total 199,081 100.00% 5 100.00%

Results by county

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County[15] John Calvin Coolidge
Republican
John William Davis
Democratic
Robert Marion La Follette, Sr.
Nonpartisan League
William Z. Foster
Workers
Margin[a] Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # %
Adams 776 40.25% 106 5.50% 1,045 54.20% 1 0.05% -269 -13.95% 1,928
Barnes 3,205 51.46% 346 5.56% 2,675 42.95% 2 0.03% 530 8.51% 6,228
Benson 1,870 45.00% 246 5.92% 2,038 49.04% 2 0.05% -168 -4.04% 4,156
Billings 421 48.34% 32 3.67% 418 47.99% 0 0.00% 3 0.34% 871
Bottineau 1,338 31.99% 221 5.28% 2,621 62.67% 2 0.05% -1,283 -30.68% 4,182
Bowman 776 45.17% 67 3.90% 875 50.93% 0 0.00% -99 -5.76% 1,718
Burke 996 39.62% 135 5.37% 1,376 54.73% 7 0.28% -380 -15.12% 2,514
Burleigh 3,152 53.17% 379 6.39% 2,338 39.44% 59 1.00% 814 13.73% 5,928
Cass 9,906 65.86% 1,352 8.99% 3,769 25.06% 14 0.09% 6,137 40.80% 15,041
Cavalier 2,428 54.65% 539 12.13% 1,471 33.11% 5 0.11% 957 21.54% 4,443
Dickey 1,716 43.66% 352 8.96% 1,856 47.23% 6 0.15% -140 -3.56% 3,930
Divide 743 30.43% 91 3.73% 1,605 65.72% 3 0.12% -862 -35.30% 2,442
Dunn 980 42.78% 190 8.29% 1,112 48.54% 9 0.39% -132 -5.76% 2,291
Eddy 881 39.33% 101 4.51% 1,258 56.16% 0 0.00% -377 -16.83% 2,240
Emmons 1,198 39.66% 123 4.07% 1,695 56.11% 5 0.17% -497 -16.45% 3,021
Foster 922 45.13% 287 14.05% 833 40.77% 1 0.05% 89 4.36% 2,043
Golden Valley 718 48.29% 140 9.41% 628 42.23% 1 0.07% 90 6.05% 1,487
Grand Forks 6,690 62.81% 943 8.85% 3,011 28.27% 7 0.07% 3,679 34.54% 10,651
Grant 1,120 39.07% 125 4.36% 1,618 56.44% 4 0.14% -498 -17.37% 2,867
Griggs 738 33.33% 116 5.24% 1,360 61.43% 0 0.00% -622 -28.09% 2,214
Hettinger 936 39.73% 128 5.43% 1,291 54.80% 1 0.04% -355 -15.07% 2,356
Kidder 844 39.42% 110 5.14% 1,187 55.44% 0 0.00% -343 -16.02% 2,141
LaMoure 1,647 43.23% 221 5.80% 1,940 50.92% 2 0.05% -293 -7.69% 3,810
Logan 787 43.34% 29 1.60% 994 54.74% 6 0.33% -207 -11.40% 1,816
McHenry 1,692 36.89% 264 5.76% 2,630 57.34% 1 0.02% -938 -20.45% 4,587
McIntosh 637 34.45% 39 2.11% 1,172 63.39% 1 0.05% -535 -28.93% 1,849
McKenzie 1,113 38.14% 137 4.69% 1,661 56.92% 7 0.24% -548 -18.78% 2,918
McLean 1,651 36.02% 194 4.23% 2,718 59.31% 20 0.44% -1,067 -23.28% 4,583
Mercer 522 25.02% 70 3.36% 1,489 71.38% 5 0.24% -967 -46.36% 2,086
Morton 2,377 44.26% 265 4.93% 2,716 50.58% 12 0.22% -339 -6.31% 5,370
Mountrail 1,354 36.19% 130 3.48% 2,209 59.05% 48 1.28% -855 -22.85% 3,741
Nelson 1,697 49.20% 175 5.07% 1,571 45.55% 6 0.17% 126 3.65% 3,449
Oliver 367 32.16% 31 2.72% 739 64.77% 4 0.35% -372 -32.60% 1,141
Pembina 2,783 59.02% 588 12.47% 1,341 28.44% 3 0.06% 1,442 30.58% 4,715
Pierce 1,160 46.89% 157 6.35% 1,156 46.73% 1 0.04% 4 0.16% 2,474
Ramsey 3,110 62.35% 359 7.20% 1,505 30.17% 14 0.28% 1,605 32.18% 4,988
Ransom 1,862 45.59% 303 7.42% 1,919 46.99% 0 0.00% -57 -1.40% 4,084
Renville 649 32.18% 120 5.95% 1,247 61.82% 1 0.05% -598 -29.65% 2,017
Richland 3,235 48.84% 769 11.61% 2,617 39.51% 3 0.05% 618 9.33% 6,624
Rolette 869 35.92% 137 5.66% 1,410 58.29% 3 0.12% -541 -22.36% 2,419
Sargent 1,468 43.68% 232 6.90% 1,656 49.27% 5 0.15% -188 -5.59% 3,361
Sheridan 594 34.66% 49 2.86% 1,069 62.37% 2 0.12% -475 -27.71% 1,714
Sioux 777 62.21% 58 4.64% 407 32.59% 7 0.56% 370 29.62% 1,249
Slope 616 39.09% 47 2.98% 913 57.93% 0 0.00% -297 -18.85% 1,576
Stark 2,130 50.58% 266 6.32% 1,808 42.94% 7 0.17% 322 7.65% 4,211
Steele 1,247 52.77% 85 3.60% 1,029 43.55% 2 0.08% 218 9.23% 2,363
Stutsman 3,952 56.68% 463 6.64% 2,552 36.60% 6 0.09% 1,400 20.08% 6,973
Towner 1,173 47.66% 223 9.06% 1,053 42.79% 12 0.49% 120 4.88% 2,461
Traill 2,596 56.64% 234 5.11% 1,752 38.23% 1 0.02% 844 18.42% 4,583
Walsh 2,837 49.17% 917 15.89% 2,009 34.82% 7 0.12% 828 14.35% 5,770
Ward 4,166 47.99% 721 8.31% 3,784 43.59% 10 0.12% 382 4.40% 8,681
Wells 1,644 44.40% 138 3.73% 1,917 51.77% 4 0.11% -273 -7.37% 3,703
Williams 1,865 36.76% 308 6.07% 2,859 56.36% 41 0.81% -994 -19.59% 5,073
Totals 94,931 47.68% 13,858 6.96% 89,922 45.17% 370 0.19% 5,009 2.52% 199,081

Analysis

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With 45.17 percent of the popular vote, North Dakota would prove to be La Follette's second strongest state in the 1924 election in terms of popular vote percentage after Wisconsin. Davis received a mere 6.96% of the vote in North Dakota, his second-weakest state behind neighboring Minnesota.[16] This was one of only two states, the other being Wisconsin, in which La Follette won a majority of counties (32 of 53 counties in North Dakota were carried by him).[17] LaFollette and Coolidge did tie in one state, Nevada, where they both won 8 counties, and Davis won one.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Because Coolidge and La Follette finished in the first two places in North Dakota as a whole and in all counties in the state, all margins given are Coolidge vote minus La Follette vote and all percentage margins Coolidge percentage minus La Follette percentage.

References

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  1. ^ Hansen, John Mark; Shigeo Hirano, and Snyder, James M. Jr.; ‘Parties within Parties: Parties, Factions, and Coordinated Politics, 1900-1980’; in Gerber, Alan S. and Schickler, Eric; Governing in a Polarized Age: Elections, Parties, and Political Representation in America, pp. 143-159 ISBN 978-1-107-09509-0
  2. ^ Lubell, Samuel; The Future of American Politics (1956), pp. 156-164
  3. ^ Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 420-423 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6
  4. ^ Shiedeler, James H.; ‘The La Follette Progressive Party Campaign of 1924’; The Wisconsin Magazine of History Vol. 33, No. 4 (June 1950), pp. 444-457
  5. ^ Grantham, Dewey; The South in Modern America A Region at Odds, p. 106 ISBN 1610753895
  6. ^ Paulson, Arthur C.; Realignment and Party Revival: Understanding American Electoral Politics at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century, p. 51 ISBN 0275968650
  7. ^ Ranney, Joseph A.; In the Wake of Slavery: Civil War, Civil Rights, and the Reconstruction of Southern Law; p. 141 ISBN 0275989720
  8. ^ Newman, Roger K.; The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law, p. 153 ISBN 0300113005
  9. ^ Tucker, Garland; High Tide of American Conservatism: Davis, Coolidge, and the 1924 Election, p. 191 ISBN 193711029X
  10. ^ Richardson, Danny G.; Others: "Fighting Bob" La Follette and the Progressive Movement: Third-Party Politics in the 1920s, p. 180 ISBN 0595481264
  11. ^ Parrish, Michael E.; Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression, 1920-1941, pp. 70-71 ISBN 0393311341
  12. ^ Tucker; High Tide of American Conservatism, p. 181
  13. ^ a b Tucker; High Tide of American Conservatism, p. 231
  14. ^ "1924 Presidential General Election Results – North Dakota". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  15. ^ North Dakota Secretary of State Elections; Party Votes, General Election November 4, 1924
  16. ^ "1924 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  17. ^ The Presidential Vote, 1896–1932, Edgar E. Robinson, p. 67