The 1920 United States presidential election in Arkansas took place on November 2, 1920, as part of the 1920 United States presidential election in which all 48 states participated. State voters chose nine electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting Democratic nominee James M. Cox and his running mate, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin Roosevelt, against Republican challenger U.S. Senator Warren G. Harding and his running mate, Governor Calvin Coolidge.
Except for the Unionist Ozark counties of Newton and Searcy where Republicans controlled local government, Arkansas since the end of Reconstruction had been a classic one-party Democratic “Solid South” state.See Disfranchisement during the 1890s of effectively all blacks and most poor whites had meant that outside those two aberrant counties, the Republican Party was completely moribund and Democratic primaries the only competitive elections. Although the northwest of the state was to develop a strong Socialist Party movement that served as a swing vote in county elections, political repression and internal party divisionsReed. Faubus, p. 33 diminished that party's strength substantially.
The Democratic Party, under the influence of future federal Senate Minority and Majority Leader Joseph Taylor Robinson and demagogic Governor and Senator Jeff Davis, was to make many familiar progressive changes in railroad regulation and child labor, but under the administration of George W. Donaghey – who saw his administration and Democratic primary candidacy as a fight against the “Davis Machine”Moneyhon. Arkansas and the New South, p. 122 – more rapid development occurred, especially in abolishing convict leasing and improving bank regulation.
The aftermath of World War I, however, made for a temporary turn in Arkansas voter allegiances. The League of Nations was to be spurned in the isolationist and fundamentalist Ozark region, and outgoing President Woodrow Wilson was thus stigmatised for his advocacy of that organization. New Democratic nominee James M. Cox also supported American participation in the League, whereas his rival Warren Harding was largely opposed to the League and was helped in the South by racial and labor unrest elsewhere in the country.Faykosh. A Party in Peril (Thesis) p. 42
Despite this, the solid Democratic majority of Arkansas was always conceded by polls across the nation at the end of October, even as the possibility of Harding breaking the “Solid South” was seen in Tennessee and even North Carolina. In culmination, Cox won the election in Arkansas with 58.05 percent of the vote; Harding received 39.15 percent of the vote and the only other candidate on the ballot, imprisoned Socialist Eugene Debs received the remaining 2.80 percent. Harding's result was nonetheless a major improvement upon the mere 28 percent won by Charles Evans Hughes in 1916, and rivaled any Republican performance in the state since the advent of the poll tax, although Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 had done marginally better. Harding was the first Republican to ever carry Van Buren County, the first to carry Logan County since Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, and the first Republican since Benjamin Harrison to carry Arkansas County and Lincoln County.
Results 1920 United States presidential election in ArkansasPartyCandidateRunning mateVotesPercentageElectoral votes Democratic James M. Cox Franklin D. Roosevelt 106,682 58.05% 9 Republican Warren G. Harding Calvin Coolidge 71,948 39.15% 0 Socialist Eugene V. Debs Seymour Stedman 5,141 2.80% 0 Totals 183,637 100.00% 9
Results by county +1920 United States presidential election in Arkansas by countyCountyJames Middleton CoxDemocraticWarren Gamaliel HardingRepublicanEugene Victor DebsSocialistMarginTotal votes cast # % # % # % # % Arkansas 1,156 48.43% 1,199 50.23% 32 1.34% -43 -1.80% 2,387 Ashley 1,312 63.41% 725 35.04% 32 1.55% 587 28.37% 2,069 Baxter 707 56.07% 484 38.38% 70 5.55% 223 17.69% 1,261 Benton 2,838 58.28% 1,916 39.34% 116 2.38% 922 18.94% 4,870 Boone 1,106 60.87% 647 35.61% 64 3.52% 459 25.26% 1,817 Bradley 1,146 65.22% 540 30.73% 71 4.04% 606 34.49% 1,757 Calhoun 736 64.62% 337 29.59% 66 5.79% 399 35.03% 1,139 Carroll 1,344 48.93% 1,338 48.71% 65 2.37% 6 0.22% 2,747 Chicot 887 64.00% 489 35.28% 10 0.72% 398 28.72% 1,386 Clark 1,507 59.19% 1,020 40.06% 19 0.75% 487 19.13% 2,546 Clay 1,775 50.83% 1,536 43.99% 181 5.18% 239 6.84% 3,492 Cleburne 678 56.22% 459 38.06% 69 5.72% 219 18.16% 1,206 Cleveland 809 62.28% 475 36.57% 15 1.15% 334 25.71% 1,299 Columbia 2,052 70.13% 857 29.29% 17 0.58% 1,195 40.84% 2,926 Conway 1,791 58.32% 1,243 40.48% 37 1.20% 548 17.84% 3,071 Craighead 2,079 64.15% 1,058 32.64% 104 3.21% 1,021 31.51% 3,241 Crawford 1,861 54.77% 1,497 44.06% 40 1.18% 364 10.71% 3,398 Crittenden 905 83.80% 167 15.46% 8 0.74% 738 68.34% 1,080 Cross 845 62.87% 457 34.00% 42 3.13% 388 28.87% 1,344 Dallas 1,140 62.60% 659 36.19% 22 1.21% 481 26.41% 1,821 Desha 931 70.85% 360 27.40% 23 1.75% 571 43.45% 1,314 Drew 1,397 63.56% 773 35.17% 28 1.27% 624 28.39% 2,198 Faulkner 1,971 60.63% 1,148 35.31% 132 4.06% 823 25.32% 3,251 Franklin 1,502 62.79% 769 32.15% 121 5.06% 733 30.64% 2,392 Fulton 763 59.47% 502 39.13% 18 1.40% 261 20.34% 1,283 Garland 1,670 57.57% 1,055 36.37% 176 6.07% 615 21.20% 2,901 Grant 619 71.56% 230 26.59% 16 1.85% 389 44.97% 865 Greene 1,865 61.82% 1,072 35.53% 80 2.65% 793 26.29% 3,017 Hempstead 2,239 55.72% 1,754 43.65% 25 0.62% 485 12.07% 4,018 Hot Spring 1,061 52.42% 910 44.96% 53 2.62% 151 7.46% 2,024 Howard 1,452 54.02% 1,208 44.94% 28 1.04% 244 9.08% 2,688 Independence 1,546 57.05% 1,077 39.74% 87 3.21% 469 17.31% 2,710 Izard 841 62.20% 485 35.87% 26 1.92% 356 26.33% 1,352 Jackson 1,575 56.17% 1,131 40.34% 98 3.50% 444 15.83% 2,804 Jefferson 2,670 70.58% 1,048 27.70% 65 1.72% 1,622 42.88% 3,783 Johnson 1,579 57.31% 996 36.15% 180 6.53% 583 21.16% 2,755 Lafayette 954 65.61% 500 34.39% 0 0.00% 454 31.22% 1,454 Lawrence 1,686 69.27% 699 28.72% 49 2.01% 987 40.55% 2,434 Lee 1,108 73.87% 354 23.60% 38 2.53% 754 50.27% 1,500 Lincoln 888 47.11% 988 52.41% 9 0.48% -100 -5.30% 1,885 Little River 853 56.08% 618 40.63% 50 3.29% 235 15.45% 1,521 Logan 1,840 49.58% 1,871 50.42% 0 0.00% -31 -0.84% 3,711 Lonoke 1,711 68.96% 697 28.09% 73 2.94% 1,014 40.87% 2,481 Madison 1,463 45.29% 1,715 53.10% 52 1.61% -252 -7.81% 3,230 Marion 744 57.36% 371 28.60% 182 14.03% 373 28.76% 1,297 Miller 1,545 62.65% 836 33.90% 85 3.45% 709 28.75% 2,466 Mississippi 1,809 60.70% 1,050 35.23% 121 4.06% 759 25.47% 2,980 Monroe 834 46.96% 912 51.35% 30 1.69% -78 -4.39% 1,776 Montgomery 430 38.43% 615 54.96% 74 6.61% -185 -16.53% 1,119 Nevada 1,220 47.82% 1,292 50.65% 39 1.53% -72 -2.83% 2,551 Newton 486 35.37% 828 60.26% 60 4.37% -342 -24.89% 1,374 Ouachita 1,307 52.83% 1,141 46.12% 26 1.05% 166 6.71% 2,474 Perry 738 53.99% 592 43.31% 37 2.71% 146 10.68% 1,367 Phillips 1,965 69.14% 868 30.54% 9 0.32% 1,097 38.60% 2,842 Pike 849 46.73% 921 50.69% 47 2.59% -72 -3.96% 1,817 Poinsett 1,201 62.49% 633 32.93% 88 4.58% 568 29.56% 1,922 Polk 1,208 47.65% 1,173 46.27% 154 6.07% 35 1.38% 2,535 Pope 2,082 63.65% 1,120 34.24% 69 2.11% 962 29.41% 3,271 Prairie 962 52.14% 842 45.64% 41 2.22% 120 6.50% 1,845 Pulaski 6,506 62.76% 3,711 35.80% 150 1.45% 2,795 26.96% 10,367 Randolph 1,412 67.50% 652 31.17% 28 1.34% 760 36.33% 2,092 St. Francis 1,252 56.60% 903 40.82% 57 2.58% 349 15.78% 2,212 Saline 1,206 72.22% 403 24.13% 61 3.65% 803 48.09% 1,670 Scott 771 48.13% 751 46.88% 80 4.99% 20 1.25% 1,602 Searcy 594 33.75% 1,070 60.80% 96 5.45% -476 -27.05% 1,760 Sebastian 3,852 50.78% 3,492 46.03% 242 3.19% 360 4.75% 7,586 Sevier 1,236 61.89% 599 29.99% 162 8.11% 637 31.90% 1,997 Sharp 995 65.72% 400 26.42% 119 7.86% 595 39.30% 1,514 Stone 516 55.19% 367 39.25% 52 5.56% 149 15.94% 935 Union 1,967 78.06% 493 19.56% 60 2.38% 1,474 58.50% 2,520 Van Buren 440 23.13% 1,388 72.98% 74 3.89% -948 -49.85% 1,902 Washington 2,637 54.05% 2,118 43.41% 124 2.54% 519 10.64% 4,879 White 2,086 58.06% 1,359 37.82% 148 4.12% 727 20.24% 3,593 Woodruff 1,049 51.62% 943 46.41% 40 1.97% 106 5.21% 2,032Yell 1,925 63.20% 1,042 34.21% 79 2.59% 883 28.99% 3,046Totals106,68258.05%71,94839.15%5,1412.80%34,73418.90%183,771
See also United States presidential elections in Arkansas
References