Hello, and welcome back to another edition of Lace ‘Em Up’s Presidential Election series for today we will be going over the Election of 1924; The current president is seeking re-election as he takes on not one but two political opponents who are looking to take him down.

Harding’s Presidency & The Teapot Dome Scandal

Following his landslide victory in the 1920 election, President Warren G. Harding attempted to return the United States back to some normalcy after so many years of war overseas and instablity at home. His plans for doing so saw the former Ohio Senator become an advocate for anti-lynching laws and racial equality where he gave speeched especially in the South as the Ku Klun Klan were rising back into popularity. 

The President also signed a number of bills which had the effect of which improving America’s highway system, withdrawing troops out of Cuba after years of intervention, restricting U.S. entry for immigrants and commuted the prison sentence of Socialist and former president candidate, Eugene Debs.

By far the biggest thing to occur under Harding’s time in office was a rebounding economy following a depression and the woes of World War One. Like all Republicans, President Harding was determined on balancing the country’s budget which led to him using a hands off style of politics to business also referred to “Laissez Faire Economics”.

Harding’s reputation took a massive hit following revelations of corruption within his administration after many of his associates who made up most of his cabinet were found guility of conspiracy, fraud, bribery and cronyism which led to many of them resigning from their positions and facing jail time.

While Harding himself wasn’t involved in the corruption, it still did a number on how the public saw him. By far the biggest crime out of them all was the Teapot Dome Scandal which saw Secretary of the Territory, Albert B. Fall leasing out areas of land in Wyoming to private companies that could use the oil for their own means and this led to Fall being caught and convicted with this becoming the biggest political scandal in U.S. history until Watergate.

Tragically on August 2nd, 1923 President Warren G. Harding died at the age of 57 while his wife, Florence was reading The Saturday Evening Post to him after an extensive trip to explore the Alaskan Territories left him feeling exhausted.

Some were unsure as to how President Harding died as his death was so sudden, but unbeknownst to the general public Harding had a history of health problems which came from his habit of drinking and smoking as well as contracting influenza years prior.

Many speculated that Harding’s death was the cause of food poison, a cerebral hemorrhage or the most outlandish claim was that his wife has actually poisoned him as a result of President Harding’s extra marital affairs and the fact she didn’t want an autopsy done on her husband following his death; However it was ultimately ruled that a heart attack led to Warren Harding’s passing.

President Calvin Coolidge

With Harding’s unexpected death, Vice President Calvin Coolidge was woken from his sleep in the early hours of the night and sworn as the 30th President in U.S. History on August 3rd, 1923.

Not long after becoming the new commander and chief, Coolidge began opening up investigations into the corrupt activities that involved Harding’s cabinet and his efforts made him appear as an effective leader at a time when the country needed it.

Coolidge also had the benefit being president as the economy was at an all-time high at this point leading to a period of wealth, hedonism and success for most in Americans known as “The Roaring Twenties”.

Much like Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, Calvin Coolidge is looking to win the upcoming presidential election on his own terms.

At the Republican National Convention, Coolidge was able to fend off challengers like Hiram Johnson, who was the former progressive Governor now Senator from California with many in Coolidge’s inner circle putting another guy with a similar name on the ballot as a way to confuse the delegates and in the end, Coolidge got the Republican Party’s nomination but his pick for running mate was unclear.

Originally, the president was looking to have Idaho Senator William Borah as his running mate, but he declined; Frank Orren Lowden, the former Governor of Illinois won the nomination but he refused the offer, so the party went with Charles Dawes as Coolidge’s running mate. Dawes became best known for the ‘Dawes Plan’ which would provide aid to the struggling Germany economy following World War One.

Chaos In the Democratic Convention

Following their massive loss in the previous election, The Democrats needed to choose someone who that could keep the party together, but that was easier said than done when it came to the Democrats 1924 National Convention.

Going into the convention there were a few contenders trying to get the nomination, but it soon becomes clear that the two leading candidates were William Gibbs McAdoo, the former Secretary of the Treasury under the Wilson Administration and Al Smith, the Governor of New York who’s name was added into the mix by former Vice Presidential candidate, Franklin Roosevelt during a rousing speech.

While both men supported labor unions like all Democrats do, Smith and McAdoo were polar opposites of each other in a number of with Al Smith being both a Northerner and a Roman Catholic who opposed Prohibition, while McAdoo was a Protestant and a Southerner who supported Prohibition and was supported by the infamous Ku Klun Klan.

Things quickly became a back-and-forth contest between the McAdoo and Smith supporters to get the most votes with violence even breaking out between some of the delegates, however McAdoo’s connections to a businessman named Edward Doheny who was implicated in the Teapot Dome Scandal, destroyed his chances of winning but Smith wasn’t able to get enough votes to secure the nomination either.

In order to break up the deadlock within the convention, party bosses met and decided on a compromise candidate that both Southern and Northern Democrats could support.

They ended up choosing John W. Davis, the former Ambassador to the United Kingdom and former U.S. Representative from West Virginia as their nominee on the 103th ballot with his running mate being Charles Wayland Bryan, the Governor of Nebraska and younger brother of former presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan.

Davis wasn’t well known by many in his party and most Democrats weren’t too enthusiastic about their party’s pick for nominee especially due to his connections with Wall St. and big business. The party bosses believed that putting a progressive like Governor Bryan would be enough to balance the ticket and fire up some the party, but this and Davis’s policy ideas still weren’t enough to excite the base.

Fighting Bob & The Progressive Party

Due the corruption that surrounded both political parties by way of the Teapot Dome Scandal and the fact that both Coolidge and Davis agreed on similar issue…left some of the American people disappointed about this election and others were looking for another option to vote for in this race and this came in the form of Robert La Follette Sr.

A progressive titan and legendary Senator from Wisconsin, Robert La Follette Sr. also known as “Fighting Bob” spend the majority of his political career fighting for things like regulating monopiles, supporting unions and factory workers, attempting to pass child labor laws and social welfare while also being a big opponent to corruption both in business and politics.

After failing to get the Republican Party’s nomination once again, La Follette decided to leave the GOP and create a new Progressive Party that was different from the 1912 version with much of La Follette’s support coming from groups like the American Federation of Labor and the Socialist Party which Eugene Debs even endorsing La Follette’s candidacy

“Fighting Bob” became the Progressive Party’s nominee for president with Burton Wheeler, a progressive Senator from Montana as his running mate.

Political Issues & Party Platforms

With booming econony and his actions in cleaning up the mess left behind by the Harding Adminsration, Calvin Coolidge appeared to have things under control going into election day with the GOP promising to continue the prosperity while also supporting the idea of a small/limited government while also keeping taxes low and tariff rates high.

The Democrats are also running on similar views on government and taxes whilst pushing for less regulations and continuing prohibition which again were things the president was in support of, but the one big difference between Coolidge and his two opponents in this election is issue of the KKK.

At the Democratic Convention, a platform was made to condemn the KKK however Southern Democrats were not on board, yet that didn’t stop Davis from publically condemning the Ku Klun Klan as well as La Follette, but surprisingly Coolidge doesn’t condemn the KKK during this election which angered many black voters as Coolidge would end up will be giving speeches to crowds in support of African American rights including in the South

La Follette’s plan is to try and gather up as much votes he can from many Democrats who were unsatisfied with party’s nominee while also drawing in a few Republicans who supported his progressive ideas.

To do this, the Progressive Party’s platform pushed for an end to U.S. imperialism, reducing cronyism in Washington, passing labor laws and government ownership of railroads, however much like many third parties before and after they simply don’t have the money to compete with the two major parties.

Election of 1924: The Results

At the end of it all, Calvin Coolidge easily won re-election with 382 electoral votes and 54% of the popular vote; Mostly thanks to a successful economy and cleaning up much of the corruption following the Teapot Dome Scandal, Coolidge was able to pick up a landslide victory for the Republicans and officially earning himself an official term as President of the United States.

John Davis came in second place with 136 electoral votes and 28.8% of the popular vote; In fact, Davis not only lost his home state to Coolidge in this election but his popular vote total was the second lowest for a Democratic presidential nominee since John C. Breckinridge in the election of 1860.

Robert La Follette Sr. came in third place with only 13 electoral votes, all coming from his home state of Wisconsin and pulled in an impressive 16.6% of the popular vote as his support was pretty consistent across the country.

Tragically “Fighting Bob” would die on June 18th, 1925 due to complications from pneumonia just days after his 70th birthday leading to the Progressive Party once again falling apart upon the death of their leader, that said La Follette did have the best performance in the electoral and popular vote for the Progressive Party since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. 

The election of 1924 marked the first time Rhode Island and Massachusetts voted for the Republicans until the 1950’s and it also became the list time a Republican won a presidential election without the states of Tennessee Florida, and Oklahoma.

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