The 1920 United States presidential election in Florida, was held on November 2, 1920. Voters chose six representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for the president and vice-president.

Ever since the disfranchisement of blacks at the beginning of the 1890s, Florida had been a one-party state ruled by the Democratic Party. The disfranchisement of blacks and poor whites by poll taxes in 1889Silbey, Joel H. and Bogue, Allan G.; The History of American Electoral Behavior, p. 210 had left the Republican Party – between 1872 and 1888 dependent upon black votes – virtually extinct.

With the single exception of William Howard Taft's win in Calhoun County in 1908Robinson, Edgar Eugene; The Presidential Vote; 1896-1932 (second edition); pp. 156-157 Published 1947 by Stanford University Press the Democratic Party won every county in Florida in every presidential election from 1892 until 1916. Only twice – and never for more than one term – did any Republican serve in either house of the state legislature between 1896 and 1928.

Despite this Democratic dominance and the restrictions on the franchise of the poorer classes due to the poll tax, significant socialist movements were to develop and persist in TampaFord, Edward J.; 'Life on the Campaign Trail: a Political Anthropology of Local Politics' (thesis), published 2008 by University of South Florida, pp. 114-118 and to a lesser extent over other parts of the state, especially against the powerful Ku Klux Klan.Gregory, Raymond F.; Norman Thomas: The Great Dissenter, pp. 150-151 In 1919, 4,800 miners led by the Mineral Workers Union would go on strike for seven and a half months in Polk County. The reason for the strike were that they wanted an eight-hour work day and a minimum wage of 37 cents. Governor Sidney J. Catts called on the Florida National Guard and the Polk County Home Guard to end the strike. At the end of the strike, five strikers would die.Griffin, R. Steven; ‘Workers of the Sunshine State, Unite! The Florida Socialist Party during the Progressive Era, 1900-1920’ (thesis)

Election day in Florida was marked with violence as the Ocoee massacre happened in Ocoee in Orange County. The massacre started after an African American man was rejected from his polling place by a white poll worker that he had not paid his poll tax. After being rejected he would try again which would lead to the massacre happening and it would be one of the worst incidents of political violence in the United States.

There was also a powerful Prohibitionist movement in older North Florida, which saw the Prohibition Party even win the governorship for one term under the notorious anti-Catholic minister Sidney J. Catts.

The 1920 election saw Harding make mild inroads into the absolute Democratic dominance of the state's politics, largely owing to considerable isolationist sentiment,Phillips, Kevin; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 210-211, 261 and major economic concerns following the decline of industries related to World War I.Gifford, Laura Jane; '"Dixie is No Longer in the Bag": South Carolina Republicans and the Election of 1960'; The Journal of Policy History, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2007. pp. 208-233 He carried three counties in the south of the state, being only the second Republican to carry a Florida county since black disfranchisement, and begun tentative steps towards establishing a white GOP base in what was to become the "Sun Belt" after the development of air conditioning decades later. Eugene Debs, who had taken advantage of substantial radicalism in parts of South Florida to run second to Woodrow Wilson in the state in 1912, did not do nearly so well and was only marginally ahead of Prohibition candidate Watkins.

Results

Results by county CountyJames Middleton CoxDemocraticWarren Gamaliel HardingRepublicanEugene Victor DebsSocialistAaron Sherman WatkinsProhibitionMarginTotal votes cast # % # % # % # % # % Alachua 3,310 72.52% 1,119 24.52% 112 2.45% 23 0.50% 2,191 48.00% 4,564 Baker 346 68.11% 115 22.64% 19 3.74% 28 5.51% 231 45.47% 508 Bay 818 54.90% 551 36.98% 71 4.77% 50 3.36% 267 17.92% 1,490 Bradford 1,269 78.82% 248 15.40% 8 0.50% 85 5.28% 1,021 63.42% 1,610 Brevard 894 53.31% 659 39.30% 63 3.76% 61 3.64% 235 14.01% 1,677 Broward 415 41.54% 442 44.24% 107 10.71% 35 3.50% -27 -2.70% 999 Calhoun 861 78.42% 99 9.02% 20 1.82% 118 10.75% 743 67.67% 1,098 Citrus 651 82.61% 94 11.93% 25 3.17% 18 2.28% 557 70.68% 788 Clay 558 49.69% 486 43.28% 38 3.38% 41 3.65% 72 6.41% 1,123 Columbia 1,248 80.88% 162 10.50% 68 4.41% 65 4.21% 1,086 70.38% 1,543 Dade 4,288 53.08% 3,077 38.09% 375 4.64% 338 4.18% 1,211 14.99% 8,078 De Soto 2,496 64.93% 1,077 28.02% 197 5.12% 74 1.93% 1,419 36.91% 3,844 Duval 13,650 64.21% 6,628 31.18% 450 2.12% 529 2.49% 7,022 33.03% 21,257 Escambia 3,485 65.20% 1,227 22.96% 205 3.84% 428 8.01% 2,258 42.24% 5,345 Flagler 206 55.08% 74 19.79% 73 19.52% 21 5.61% 132 35.29% 374 Franklin 587 62.05% 276 29.18% 24 2.54% 59 6.24% 311 32.87% 946 Gadsden 1,922 96.68% 38 1.91% 18 0.91% 10 0.50% 1,884 94.77% 1,988 Hamilton 706 74.39% 151 15.91% 15 1.58% 77 8.11% 555 58.48% 949 Hernando 622 76.04% 132 16.14% 29 3.55% 35 4.28% 490 59.90% 818 Hillsborough 6,976 56.49% 3,772 30.54% 968 7.84% 633 5.13% 3,204 25.95% 12,349 Holmes 869 54.31% 537 33.56% 42 2.63% 152 9.50% 332 20.75% 1,600 Jackson 2,443 78.70% 508 16.37% 67 2.16% 86 2.77% 1,935 62.33% 3,104 Jefferson 754 72.08% 239 22.85% 19 1.82% 34 3.25% 515 49.23% 1,046 Lafayette 618 86.55% 69 9.66% 10 1.40% 17 2.38% 549 76.89% 714 Lake 1,720 67.72% 734 28.90% 52 2.05% 34 1.34% 986 38.82% 2,540 Lee 938 55.37% 626 36.95% 54 3.19% 76 4.49% 312 18.42% 1,694 Leon 1,412 71.75% 452 22.97% 58 2.95% 46 2.34% 960 48.78% 1,968 Levy 882 69.01% 377 29.50% 12 0.94% 7 0.55% 505 39.51% 1,278 Liberty 416 91.63% 5 1.10% 18 3.96% 15 3.30% 416 87.67% 454 Madison 920 93.31% 30 3.04% 14 1.42% 22 2.23% 890 90.27% 986 Manatee 1,790 62.43% 884 30.83% 70 2.44% 123 4.29% 906 31.60% 2,867 Marion 2,436 62.43% 1,232 31.57% 82 2.10% 152 3.90% 1,204 30.86% 3,902 Monroe 979 56.04% 510 29.19% 149 8.53% 109 6.24% 469 26.85% 1,747 Nassau 900 72.12% 281 22.52% 22 1.76% 45 3.61% 619 49.60% 1,248 Okaloosa 568 56.63% 411 40.98% 20 1.99% 4 0.40% 157 15.65% 1,003 Okeechobee 237 65.11% 58 15.93% 28 7.69% 41 11.26% 179 49.18% 364 Orange 2,035 55.48% 1,447 39.45% 123 3.35% 63 1.72% 588 16.03% 3,668 Osceola 728 38.91% 1,035 55.32% 41 2.19% 67 3.58% -307 -16.41% 1,871 Palm Beach 1,488 38.29% 1,892 48.69% 308 7.93% 198 5.10% -404 -10.40% 3,886 Pasco 1,166 61.89% 630 33.44% 53 2.81% 35 1.86% 536 28.45% 1,884 Pinellas 2,848 48.94% 2,529 43.46% 202 3.47% 240 4.12% 319 5.48% 5,819 Polk 3,918 65.86% 1,782 29.95% 159 2.67% 90 1.51% 2,136 35.91% 5,949 Putnam 1,557 53.41% 1,181 40.51% 89 3.05% 88 3.02% 376 12.90% 2,915 Santa Rosa 813 70.51% 333 28.88% 2 0.17% 5 0.43% 480 41.63% 1,153 Seminole 1,485 62.50% 767 32.28% 73 3.07% 51 2.15% 718 30.22% 2,376 St. Johns 1,810 56.30% 1,221 37.98% 94 2.92% 90 2.80% 589 18.32% 3,215 St. Lucie 1,167 58.44% 707 35.40% 64 3.20% 59 2.95% 460 23.04% 1,997 Sumter 921 79.74% 219 18.96% 8 0.69% 7 0.61% 702 60.78% 1,155 Suwannee 1,486 72.56% 382 18.65% 111 5.42% 69 3.37% 1,104 53.91% 2,048 Taylor 563 77.98% 128 17.73% 8 1.11% 23 3.19% 435 60.25% 722 Volusia 2,763 52.47% 2,175 41.30% 126 2.39% 202 3.84% 588 11.17% 5,266 Wakulla 530 79.34% 119 17.81% 3 0.45% 16 2.40% 411 61.53% 668 Walton 1,297 64.24% 619 30.66% 36 1.78% 67 3.32% 678 33.58% 2,019 Washington 750 61.98% 307 25.37% 87 7.19% 66 5.45% 443 36.61% 1,210Totals90,51562.13%44,85330.79%5,1893.56%5,1273.52%45,66231.34%145,684

Notes

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