The 1920 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 2, 1920, as part of the 1920 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose 12 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

For over a century after the Civil War, Tennessee was divided according to political loyalties established in that war. Unionist regions covering almost all of East Tennessee, Kentucky Pennyroyal-allied Macon County, and the five West Tennessee Highland Rim counties of Carroll, Henderson, McNairy, Hardin and Wayne voted Republican – generally by landslide margins – as they saw the Democratic Party as the “war party” who had forced them into a war they did not wish to fight. On the other hand, the rest of Middle and West Tennessee, which had supported and driven the state's secession, was equally fiercely Democratic because it associated the Republicans with Reconstruction.

After the disenfranchisement of the state's African-American population by a poll tax was largely complete by the 1890s,Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 208, 210 the Democratic Party was certain of winning statewide elections if united, although, unlike the Deep South Republicans, the Republican Party would almost always gain thirty to forty percent of the statewide vote from mountain and Highland Rim support. The Republicans did win the governorship in 1910 and 1912, when the Democratic Party was bitterly divided, but did not gain at other levels of government.

During the period before the 1920 presidential election, Tennessee was the center of bitter debate over the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which the state, with its Democratic Party still seriously divided, ultimately passed by a very close margin, 50 to 46, in the House of Representatives.

Although most Republicans in the state legislature had supported the Nineteenth Amendment, outgoing Democratic President Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nations was deeply unpopular in the isolationist and fundamentalist Appalachian regions,Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 211 and the President was thus stigmatized for his advocacy of that organization. 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

Campaign At the end of October, opinions were divided on whether Harding could break the “Solid South” in Tennessee. It had had the strongest Republican Party in the region since Reconstruction was overthrown, and some suggested he could make a challenge in North Carolina where the poll tax had just been abolished by a state constitutional amendment in 1919. Claims continued to be divisive even after the polls in Tennessee had closed.

Ultimately, a late swing to Harding ensured the "Solid South" was broken for the first time since 1896, and Harding became only the second Republican to carry Tennessee after Ulysses S. Grant in 1868. Harding's victory did not see a major change in partisan alignments, but was due to gains in normally Democratic rural white counties of Middle Tennessee – where he was the only Republican to carry Perry County between Ulysses S. Grant in 1868 and John McCain in 2008 and the solitary GOP victor in Jackson County until Mitt Romney in 2012 – plus abnormally high voter turnout amongst isolationist mountaineers in rock-ribbed Republican East Tennessee. Harding also gained important help through overwhelming support from the few blacks able to vote – all residing within the state's largest cities – due to his public support for civil rights for African-Americans.

In the concurrent Tennessee gubernatorial election, the Republican Party also gained the governorship.

Results Presidential CandidateRunning MatePartyElectoral Vote (EV)Popular Vote (PV) Warren G. Harding of Ohio Calvin Coolidge Republican 12 219,829 51.29% James M. Cox Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic 0 206,558 48.19% Eugene Debs Seymour Stedman Socialist 0 2,239 0.52%

Results by county 1920 United States presidential election in Tennessee by countyCountyWarren G. HardingRepublicanJames M. CoxDemocraticEugene V. DebsSocialistMarginTotal votescast # % # % # % # % Anderson 3,127 80.30% 748 19.21% 19 0.49% 2,379 61.09% 3,894 Bedford 2,056 48.51% 2,182 51.49% 0 0.00% -126 -2.97% 4,238 Benton 1,514 44.04% 1,914 55.67% 10 0.29% -400 -11.63% 3,438 Bledsoe 1,198 71.31% 482 28.69% 0 0.00% 716 42.62% 1,680 Blount 5,540 78.09% 1,550 21.85% 4 0.06% 3,990 56.24% 7,094 Bradley 2,255 67.33% 1,058 31.59% 36 1.07% 1,197 35.74% 3,349 Campbell 3,368 83.82% 650 16.18% 0 0.00% 2,718 67.65% 4,018 Cannon 687 47.15% 770 52.85% 0 0.00% -83 -5.70% 1,457 Carroll 4,141 56.29% 3,215 43.71% 0 0.00% 926 12.59% 7,356 Carter 6,059 89.99% 674 10.01% 0 0.00% 5,385 79.98% 6,733 Cheatham 569 31.77% 1,219 68.06% 3 0.17% -650 -36.29% 1,791 Chester 1,088 48.81% 1,105 49.57% 36 1.62% -17 -0.76% 2,229 Claiborne 2,612 67.88% 1,236 32.12% 0 0.00% 1,376 35.76% 3,848 Clay 1,044 57.14% 772 42.26% 11 0.60% 272 14.89% 1,827 Cocke 3,283 77.36% 929 21.89% 32 0.75% 2,354 55.47% 4,244 Coffee 822 28.69% 2,043 71.31% 0 0.00% -1,221 -42.62% 2,865 Crockett 2,326 50.81% 2,252 49.19% 0 0.00% 74 1.62% 4,578 Cumberland 1,485 72.69% 557 27.26% 1 0.05% 928 45.42% 2,043 Davidson 6,811 33.48% 13,354 65.63% 181 0.89% -6,543 -32.16% 20,346 Decatur 1,608 57.84% 1,149 41.33% 23 0.83% 459 16.51% 2,780 DeKalb 2,572 56.47% 1,983 43.53% 0 0.00% 589 12.93% 4,555 Dickson 1,412 39.70% 2,145 60.30% 0 0.00% -733 -20.61% 3,557 Dyer 1,166 26.76% 3,181 73.01% 10 0.23% -2,015 -46.25% 4,357 Fayette 346 13.11% 2,294 86.89% 0 0.00% -1,948 -73.79% 2,640 Fentress 1,808 71.66% 694 27.51% 21 0.83% 1,114 44.15% 2,523 Franklin 1,558 30.77% 3,504 69.19% 2 0.04% -1,946 -38.43% 5,064 Gibson 3,209 34.99% 5,942 64.80% 19 0.21% -2,733 -29.80% 9,170 Giles 2,224 41.50% 3,129 58.39% 6 0.11% -905 -16.89% 5,359 Grainger 2,158 70.66% 895 29.31% 1 0.03% 1,263 41.36% 3,054 Greene 5,677 65.97% 2,924 33.98% 5 0.06% 2,753 31.99% 8,606 Grundy 447 32.99% 745 54.98% 163 12.03% -298 -21.99% 1,355 Hamblen 1,571 53.86% 1,301 44.60% 45 1.54% 270 9.26% 2,917 Hamilton 10,793 51.30% 9,910 47.11% 334 1.59% 883 4.20% 21,037 Hancock 1,740 81.92% 384 18.08% 0 0.00% 1,356 63.84% 2,124 Hardeman 895 28.59% 2,212 70.67% 23 0.73% -1,317 -42.08% 3,130 Hardin 3,077 68.58% 1,398 31.16% 12 0.27% 1,679 37.42% 4,487 Hawkins 2,650 65.11% 1,381 33.93% 39 0.96% 1,269 31.18% 4,070 Haywood 101 4.64% 2,068 95.04% 7 0.32% -1,967 -90.40% 2,176 Henderson 3,112 71.61% 1,217 28.00% 17 0.39% 1,895 43.60% 4,346 Henry 1,957 29.50% 4,613 69.55% 63 0.95% -2,656 -40.04% 6,633 Hickman 1,470 51.63% 1,362 47.84% 15 0.53% 108 3.79% 2,847 Houston 385 32.27% 790 66.22% 18 1.51% -405 -33.95% 1,193 Humphreys 674 30.21% 1,534 68.76% 23 1.03% -860 -38.55% 2,231 Jackson 1,187 51.97% 1,097 48.03% 0 0.00% 90 3.94% 2,284 Jefferson 3,583 81.58% 741 16.87% 68 1.55% 2,842 64.71% 4,392 Johnson 3,627 92.57% 291 7.43% 0 0.00% 3,336 85.15% 3,918 Knox 12,005 63.41% 6,801 35.93% 125 0.66% 5,204 27.49% 18,931 Lake 352 22.68% 1,192 76.80% 8 0.52% -840 -54.12% 1,552 Lauderdale 1,190 33.97% 2,313 66.03% 0 0.00% -1,123 -32.06% 3,503 Lawrence 3,843 59.55% 2,610 40.45% 0 0.00% 1,233 19.11% 6,453 Lewis 446 52.29% 403 47.25% 4 0.47% 43 5.04% 853 Lincoln 1,091 30.65% 2,463 69.19% 6 0.17% -1,372 -38.54% 3,560 Loudon 1,872 72.70% 686 26.64% 17 0.66% 1,186 46.06% 2,575 Macon 3,208 75.02% 1,066 24.93% 2 0.05% 2,142 50.09% 4,276 Madison 2,665 33.54% 5,280 66.46% 0 0.00% -2,615 -32.91% 7,945 Marion 2,662 58.12% 1,874 40.92% 44 0.96% 788 17.21% 4,580 Marshall 753 29.01% 1,828 70.42% 15 0.58% -1,075 -41.41% 2,596 Maury 1,379 33.53% 2,693 65.48% 41 1.00% -1,314 -31.95% 4,113 McMinn 2,800 62.63% 1,636 36.59% 35 0.78% 1,164 26.03% 4,471 McNairy 3,212 63.29% 1,863 36.71% 0 0.00% 1,349 26.58% 5,075 Meigs 915 56.24% 712 43.76% 0 0.00% 203 12.48% 1,627 Monroe 2,575 58.26% 1,845 41.74% 0 0.00% 730 16.52% 4,420 Montgomery 1,780 40.60% 2,564 58.49% 40 0.91% -784 -17.88% 4,384 Moore 90 15.33% 497 84.67% 0 0.00% -407 -69.34% 587 Morgan 2,248 73.18% 816 26.56% 8 0.26% 1,432 46.61% 3,072 Obion 1,307 22.25% 4,547 77.41% 20 0.34% -3,240 -55.16% 5,874 Overton 1,939 51.91% 1,779 47.63% 17 0.46% 160 4.28% 3,735 Perry 747 51.91% 692 48.09% 0 0.00% 55 3.82% 1,439 Pickett 896 59.61% 607 40.39% 0 0.00% 289 19.23% 1,503 Polk 1,018 56.21% 775 42.79% 18 0.99% 243 13.42% 1,811 Putnam 2,132 41.58% 2,996 58.42% 0 0.00% -864 -16.85% 5,128 Rhea 1,341 55.57% 1,051 43.56% 21 0.87% 290 12.02% 2,413 Roane 1,974 70.20% 838 29.80% 0 0.00% 1,136 40.40% 2,812 Robertson 1,191 28.04% 3,046 71.70% 11 0.26% -1,855 -43.67% 4,248 Rutherford 1,881 35.58% 3,406 64.42% 0 0.00% -1,525 -28.84% 5,287 Scott 2,537 90.54% 221 7.89% 44 1.57% 2,316 82.66% 2,802 Sequatchie 509 48.16% 545 51.56% 3 0.28% -36 -3.41% 1,057 Sevier 6,006 93.60% 404 6.30% 7 0.11% 5,602 87.30% 6,417 Shelby 8,597 34.61% 15,986 64.35% 260 1.05% -7,389 -29.74% 24,843 Smith 1,981 38.61% 3,150 61.39% 0 0.00% -1,169 -22.78% 5,131 Stewart 849 26.17% 2,366 72.93% 29 0.89% -1,517 -46.76% 3,244 Sullivan 3,593 45.37% 4,327 54.63% 0 0.00% -734 -9.27% 7,920 Sumner 1,268 25.55% 3,674 74.03% 21 0.42% -2,406 -48.48% 4,963 Tipton 906 23.99% 2,816 74.58% 54 1.43% -1,910 -50.58% 3,776 Trousdale 574 37.52% 955 62.42% 1 0.07% -381 -24.90% 1,530 Unicoi 2,584 82.42% 547 17.45% 4 0.13% 2,037 64.98% 3,135 Union 2,607 85.98% 423 13.95% 2 0.07% 2,184 72.03% 3,032 Van Buren 223 38.32% 351 60.31% 8 1.37% -128 -21.99% 582 Warren 1,010 33.53% 1,986 65.94% 16 0.53% -976 -32.40% 3,012 Washington 4,858 68.21% 2,260 31.73% 4 0.06% 2,598 36.48% 7,122 Wayne 2,617 79.69% 654 19.91% 13 0.40% 1,963 59.77% 3,284 Weakley 2,741 38.25% 4,395 61.33% 30 0.42% -1,654 -23.08% 7,166 White 1,456 39.81% 2,201 60.19% 0 0.00% -745 -20.37% 3,657 Williamson 946 32.07% 2,004 67.93% 0 0.00% -1,058 -35.86% 2,950 Wilson 1,532 41.45% 2,160 58.44% 4 0.11% -628 -16.99% 3,696Totals219,82951.29%206,55848.19%2,2390.52%13,2713.10%428,626

See also

1920 Tennessee gubernatorial election

Notes

References