1920 United States presidential election in Utah

Main article: 1920 United States presidential election
1920 United States presidential election in Utah
November 2, 1920
 
Nominee Warren G. Harding James M. Cox
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Ohio Ohio
Running mate Calvin Coolidge Franklin D. Roosevelt
Electoral vote 4 0
Popular vote 81,555 56,639
Percentage 55.93% 38.84%
County Results
Harding
  40–50%
  50–60%
  60–70%
  70–80%

President before election

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic

Elected President

Warren G. Harding
Republican

The 1920 United States presidential election in Utah took place on November 2, 1920. All contemporary forty-eight states took part as part of the 1920 United States presidential election, and the state voters selected four electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. This was the first presidential election to feature as a distinct voting unit Daggett County, the newest and least populous of Utah's current twenty-nine counties.

In 1916, Utah had turned strongly Democratic as a result of a powerful "peace vote" for incumbent President Woodrow Wilson;[1] however, by the beginning of 1920 skyrocketing inflation and Wilson's focus upon his proposed League of Nations at the expense of domestic policy had helped make the incumbent president very unpopular[2] – besides which Wilson also had major health problems that had left First Lady Edith effectively running the nation. Political unrest seen in the Palmer Raids and the "Red Scare" further added to the unpopularity of the Democratic Party, since this global political turmoil produced considerable fear of alien revolutionaries invading the country.[3] Demand in the West for exclusion of Asian immigrants became even stronger than it had been before.[4]

All these factors combined to produce a national landslide, with a swing of almost twenty-nine percentage points to the Republicans vis-à-vis the election of 1916. Utah followed the national trend closely: whereas Wilson had won the state by twenty percentage points in 1916 and had clean-swept the twenty-eight extant counties, in 1920 Harding by campaigning on a "return to normalcy" carried every county in Utah with a swing of thirty-seven percentage points. This was the first time Washington County had ever been carried by the Republican nominee.[5] Despite this large swing, Utah in 1920 still voted 9.08 percentage points more Democratic than the nation at-large.[6]

On the ballot in Utah in 1920 in addition to the two major party candidates were Utah native Parley P. Christensen of the "Farmer-Labor" Party, and imprisoned Socialist candidate Eugene Debs in his fifth and final run for president. Christensen was supported by some unionists and veterans of Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 presidential campaign.[7] Despite the endorsement of Herbert Croly,[8] Christensen received only one percent of the nationwide vote, and although he finished ahead of Cox in numerous counties in Washington State and South Dakota, Parley could only obtain three percent in his home state, whilst Debs accomplished even less.

Results

General Election Results[9][10][11]
Party Pledged to Elector Votes
Republican Party Warren G. Harding J. Howard Garrett 81,555
Republican Party Warren G. Harding Warren L. Watts 81,363
Republican Party Warren G. Harding Margaret Lewis Judd 81,343
Republican Party Warren G. Harding James A. Melville Jr. 81,325
Democratic Party James M. Cox Daisy Allen 56,639
Democratic Party James M. Cox Martha E. Barnes 56,601
Democratic Party James M. Cox William Edwards 56,548
Democratic Party James M. Cox E. E. Hoffman 56,435
Farmer-Labor Party Parley P. Christensen W. H. Schock 4,475
Farmer-Labor Party Parley P. Christensen Robert J. Dixon 4,443
Farmer-Labor Party Parley P. Christensen Elizabeth A. Donohue 4,437
Farmer-Labor Party Parley P. Christensen C. T. Martain 4,437
Socialist Party Eugene V. Debs Ole Arilson 3,159
Socialist Party Eugene V. Debs Lois N. Parsons 3,145
Socialist Party Eugene V. Debs Stanley Torsak 3,145
Socialist Party Eugene V. Debs Mary Shelton 3,143
Votes cast[a] 145,828

Results by county

County[9][10][12] Warren G. Harding
Republican 		James M. Cox
Democratic 		Parley P. Christensen
Farmer-Labor 		Eugene V. Debs
Socialist 		Margin Total votes cast[a]
# % # % # % # % # %
Beaver 1,056 57.49% 741 40.34% 15 0.82% 25 1.36% 315 17.15% 1,837
Box Elder 3,421 58.86% 2,330 40.09% 26 0.45% 35 0.60% 1,091 18.77% 5,812
Cache 5,063 53.88% 4,239 45.11% 42 0.45% 53 0.56% 824 8.77% 9,397
Carbon 1,675 47.05% 1,559 43.79% 224 6.29% 102 2.87% 116 3.26% 3,560
Daggett 94 73.44% 32 25.00% 0 0.00% 2 1.56% 62 48.44% 128
Davis 2,463 59.75% 1,632 39.59% 8 0.19% 19 0.46% 831 20.16% 4,122
Duchesne 1,523 61.76% 822 33.33% 73 2.96% 48 1.95% 701 28.43% 2,466
Emery 1,285 53.59% 1,029 42.91% 16 0.67% 68 2.84% 256 10.68% 2,398
Garfield 1,023 71.49% 393 27.46% 6 0.42% 9 0.63% 630 44.03% 1,431
Grand 306 51.17% 278 46.49% 6 1.00% 8 1.34% 28 4.68% 598
Iron 1,399 69.60% 561 27.91% 2 0.10% 48 2.39% 838 41.69% 2,010
Juab 1,692 53.12% 1,308 41.07% 40 1.26% 145 4.55% 384 12.05% 3,185
Kane 501 72.61% 186 26.96% 1 0.14% 2 0.29% 315 45.65% 690
Millard 2,199 62.56% 1,167 33.20% 23 0.65% 126 3.58% 1,032 29.36% 3,515
Morgan 544 57.57% 397 42.01% 2 0.21% 2 0.21% 147 15.56% 945
Piute 538 63.82% 283 33.57% 9 1.07% 13 1.54% 255 30.25% 843
Rich 449 66.92% 222 33.08% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 227 33.84% 671
Salt Lake 27,841 54.73% 19,249 37.84% 2,300 4.52% 1,483 2.92% 8,592 16.89% 50,873
San Juan 523 64.81% 260 32.22% 1 0.12% 23 2.85% 263 32.59% 807
Sanpete 3,741 60.15% 2,406 38.69% 11 0.18% 61 0.98% 1,335 21.46% 6,219
Sevier 2,506 62.84% 1,425 35.73% 22 0.55% 35 0.88% 1,081 27.11% 3,988
Summit 1,503 59.79% 874 34.77% 68 2.70% 69 2.74% 629 25.02% 2,514
Tooele 1,387 56.15% 916 37.09% 108 4.37% 59 2.39% 471 19.06% 2,470
Uintah 1,354 60.47% 817 36.49% 6 0.27% 62 2.77% 537 23.98% 2,239
Utah 7,752 53.34% 6,377 43.88% 131 0.90% 272 1.87% 1,375 9.46% 14,532
Wasatch 1,061 61.05% 665 38.26% 2 0.12% 10 0.58% 396 22.79% 1,738
Washington 1,138 52.78% 1,008 46.75% 3 0.14% 7 0.32% 130 6.03% 2,156
Wayne 396 61.97% 224 35.05% 5 0.78% 14 2.19% 172 26.92% 639
Weber 7,122 50.71% 5,239 37.30% 1,325 9.43% 359 2.56% 1,883 13.41% 14,045
Totals 81,555 55.93% 56,639 38.84% 4,475 3.07% 3,159 2.17% 24,916 17.09% 145,828

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Based on highest elector on each ticket

References

  1. ^ Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 47 ISBN 0786422173
  2. ^ Goldberg, David Joseph; Discontented America: The United States in the 1920s, p. 44 ISBN 0801860059
  3. ^ Leuchtenburg, William E.; The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-1932, p. 75 ISBN 0226473724
  4. ^ Vought, Hans P. ; The Bully Pulpit and the Melting Pot: American Presidents And The Immigrant, 1897-1933, p. 167 ISBN 0865548870
  5. ^ Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 320
  6. ^ Counting the Votes; Utah
  7. ^ Robertson, Andrew; Morrison, Michael A.; Shade, William G.; Johnston, Robert; Zieger, Robert; Langston, Thomas and Valelly Richard; Encyclopedia of U.S. Political History; p. 365 ISBN 1604266473
  8. ^ Kennedy, David M.; Over Here: The First World War and American Society, ISBN 019975845X
  9. ^ a b Utah State Archives, Abstract of the Returns of an Election held in the State of Utah, Tuesday, November 2nd, A.D. 1920 for Presidential Electors, for Representatives in the Sixty-seventh Congress of the United States, for State Officers, and for District Officers in Districts comprising more than one county, and for the Adoption of Rejection of Proposed Amendments to the Constitution of this State.
  10. ^ a b "State Election Returns Listed". The Ogden Standard-Examiner. Ogden. November 24, 1920. p. 3. Retrieved December 29, 2025.
  11. ^ "List of Nominations, General Election, Nov. 2nd, 1920". The Ogden Standard-Examiner. Ogden. November 1, 1920. p. 20. Retrieved December 29, 2025.
  12. ^ Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; p. 457 ISBN 0405077114
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