1920 United States presidential election — 34th quadrennial U.S. presidential election
Harding's 1920 landslide, the first U.S. election with nationwide women's suffrage, produced the largest popular-vote margin in modern American electoral history.
Key Facts
- Harding popular vote margin
- 26.2 percent
- Total popular votes cast
- 26.8 million
- Cox popular vote share
- 34.1 percent
- Debs (Socialist) vote share
- 3.4 percent
- First election with women's suffrage
- All 48 states, per 19th Amendment
- Harding nomination ballot
- 10th ballot at Republican National Convention
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Post-World War I disillusionment, a collapsing wartime economy, widespread labor strikes, race riots, and public opposition to Woodrow Wilson's internationalist foreign policy—especially his push for U.S. entry into the League of Nations—created deep dissatisfaction with the Democratic administration and fueled demand for change.
On November 2, 1920, Republican Warren G. Harding of Ohio, running alongside Calvin Coolidge, defeated Democratic candidate James M. Cox and his running mate Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide presidential election. It was the first national election held after ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, dramatically expanding the electorate.
Harding's victory ended the Progressive Era's reform impulse and inaugurated a period of Republican dominance. He became the first Republican since Reconstruction to carry a former Confederate state (Tennessee). Both vice-presidential nominees—Coolidge and Roosevelt—later reached the presidency, shaping American politics for the following two decades.
Political Outcome
Republican Warren G. Harding won a landslide victory with a 26.2-point popular-vote margin, the largest in modern U.S. electoral history, sweeping all states outside the South plus Tennessee.
Democratic administration under President Woodrow Wilson
Republican administration under President Warren G. Harding