1920 United States presidential election in Maryland

Main article: 1920 United States presidential election

1920 United States presidential election in Maryland

←  1916 November 2, 1920 1924  →

Nominee Warren G. Harding James M. Cox Party Republican Democratic Home state Ohio Ohio Running mate Calvin Coolidge Franklin D. Roosevelt Electoral vote 8 0 Popular vote 236,117 180,626 Percentage 55.11% 42.16%

County Results Harding   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80% Cox   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%

President before election Woodrow Wilson Democratic Elected President Warren G. Harding Republican

The 1920 United States presidential election in Maryland took place on November 2, 1920, as part of the 1920 United States presidential election which was held throughout all contemporary 48 states. Voters chose eight representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

With its history as a slave state and substantial historic secessionist support, Maryland had been strongly Democratic during the Third Party System despite having Federalist and Whig tendencies under previous systems. ^[1] However, hostility towards William Jennings Bryan’s free silver and Populist tendencies in the cities meant that the state shifted Republican in 1896 ^[2] and became very close in subsequent elections during the “System of 1896”. Unlike former Confederate states and Oklahoma, Maryland did not succeed in disenfranchising its large black population despite several attempts, ^[3] which helped the Republicans remain highly competitive in early twentieth-century state elections.

Woodrow Wilson had carried Maryland by 4.84 percentage points more than his national margin in 1916, which made it his best state outside the former Confederacy or West. Democratic nominee and former Ohio Governor James M. Cox did not campaign in the state, but Republican nominee and Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding, fearing that Cox might add the machine-controlled states of the Northeast to his “Solid South”, did campaign in Maryland during September. ^[4] The first straw vote in mid-October showed Harding leading by around 300 votes out of 4,300, ^[5] although that had reversed in a poll a week later, ^[6] and at the end of October polls were divided with one giving the state to Cox ^[7] but another saying that it would be safe for Harding if black women could be mustered to vote. ^[8]

As it turned out, Harding carried the state comfortably: his margin was comparable to the other border states except Kentucky (where Cox was helped by Fayette County political boss Billy Kair ^[9] ) but Maryland was still 13.22 points more Democratic than the nation at-large or an 8 percent bigger differential than in 1916.

Results

Presidential Candidate	Running Mate	Party	Electoral Vote (EV)	Popular Vote (PV)
Warren G. Harding of Ohio	Calvin Coolidge	Republican	8 [10]	236,117	55.11%
James M. Cox	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Democratic	0	180,626	42.16%
Eugene V. Debs	Seymour Stedman	Socialist	0	8,876	2.07%
Parley P. Christensen	Max S. Hayes	Third Party	0	1,645	0.38%
William Wesley Cox	August Gillhaus	Labor	0	1,178	0.27%
Write-ins	—	—	0	1	0.00%

Results by county

County	Warren Gamaliel Harding Republican		James Middleton Cox Democratic		Eugene Victor Debs Socialist		Parley Parker Christensen Third Party		William Wesley Cox Labor		Margin		Total votes cast [11]
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Allegany	9,595	57.37%	5,643	33.74%	1,291	7.72%	96	0.57%	100	0.60%	3,952	23.63%	16,725
Anne Arundel	6,199	54.52%	5,053	44.44%	70	0.62%	15	0.13%	33	0.29%	1,146	10.08%	11,370
Baltimore	12,432	56.04%	9,365	42.22%	233	1.05%	113	0.51%	40	0.18%	3,067	13.83%	22,183
Baltimore City	125,526	57.02%	86,748	39.40%	6,272	2.85%	1,091	0.50%	509	0.23%	38,778	17.61%	220,146
Calvert	1,741	58.01%	1,230	40.99%	8	0.27%	12	0.40%	10	0.33%	511	17.03%	3,001
Caroline	2,929	48.90%	3,012	50.28%	29	0.48%	17	0.28%	3	0.05%	-83	-1.39%	5,990
Carroll	5,784	57.13%	4,273	42.20%	18	0.18%	25	0.25%	25	0.25%	1,511	14.92%	10,125
Cecil	3,435	49.37%	3,468	49.85%	7	0.10%	26	0.37%	21	0.30%	-33	-0.47%	6,957
Charles	2,585	60.54%	1,642	38.45%	12	0.28%	2	0.05%	29	0.68%	943	22.08%	4,270
Dorchester	4,218	51.38%	3,950	48.11%	15	0.18%	6	0.07%	21	0.26%	268	3.26%	8,210
Frederick	9,559	54.57%	7,747	44.22%	98	0.56%	44	0.25%	70	0.40%	1,812	10.34%	17,518
Garrett	2,805	70.25%	1,070	26.80%	91	2.28%	6	0.15%	21	0.53%	1,735	43.45%	3,993
Harford	4,175	49.86%	4,134	49.37%	36	0.43%	13	0.16%	16	0.19%	41	0.49%	8,374
Howard	2,608	51.46%	2,397	47.30%	23	0.45%	13	0.26%	27	0.53%	211	4.16%	5,068
Kent	2,838	48.22%	3,034	51.55%	2	0.03%	4	0.07%	8	0.14%	-196	-3.33%	5,886
Montgomery	5,948	47.96%	6,277	50.61%	76	0.61%	50	0.40%	51	0.41%	-329	-2.65%	12,402
Prince George's	6,628	56.83%	4,857	41.64%	110	0.94%	45	0.39%	23	0.20%	1,771	15.18%	11,663
Queen Anne's	2,157	37.43%	3,519	61.07%	38	0.66%	29	0.50%	19	0.33%	-1,362	-23.64%	5,762
St. Mary's	2,175	53.13%	1,861	45.46%	27	0.66%	7	0.17%	24	0.59%	314	7.67%	4,094
Somerset	3,658	57.57%	2,634	41.45%	16	0.25%	3	0.05%	43	0.68%	1,024	16.12%	6,354
Talbot	3,050	49.19%	3,130	50.48%	11	0.18%	2	0.03%	7	0.11%	-80	-1.29%	6,200
Washington	8,757	54.75%	6,852	42.84%	353	2.21%	8	0.05%	25	0.16%	1,905	11.91%	15,995
Wicomico	4,225	45.39%	5,054	54.29%	12	0.13%	6	0.06%	12	0.13%	-829	-8.91%	9,309
Worcester	3,090	45.13%	3,676	53.69%	28	0.41%	12	0.18%	41	0.60%	-586	-8.56%	6,847
Totals	236,117	55.11%	180,626	42.16%	8,876	2.07%	1,645	0.38%	1,178	0.27%	55,491	12.95%	428,442

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Anne Arundel
• Baltimore (City)
• Baltimore (County)
• Carroll
• Dorchester
• Frederick
• Harford
• Howard
• Prince George's
• St. Mary's
• Washington

See also

• United States presidential elections in Maryland
• 1920 United States presidential election
• 1920 United States elections

References

1. Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 30, 130 ISBN   978-0-691-16324-6
2. Diamond, William; ‘Urban and Rural Voting in 1896’; The American Historical Review, vol. 46, no. 2 (January 1941), pp. 281-305
3. Shufelt, Gordeon H.; 'Jim Crow among strangers: The growth of Baltimore's Little Italy and Maryland's disfranchisement campaigns'; Journal of American Ethnic History; vol. 19, issue 4 (Summer 2000), pp. 49-78
4. Price, Harry N.; ‘Alter Harding Tour: Managers Abridge Western Trip; Arrange Tryout in East. Now Aim to Win Maryland’; The Washington Post , September 17, 1920, p. 1
5. ‘Shows Harding Leading: Nation-Wide Straw Vote Gives Him 371,461, Against 242,432 for Cox’; New York Times , October 10, 1920, p. 6
6. ‘Cox Gains Slightly in Big Straw Vote: But Harding Leads on Ballot with 495,961 Against 325,004 for Governor’; New York Times, October 17, 1920, p. 5
7. ‘Harding 363 Votes, Cox 168, Is Result Obtained From Estimates by 47 Editors: Maryland, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Montana, Utah and Arizona, With Solid South, Are Only States Conceded to Democratic Candidate in Nation-Wide Canvass’; Special to the Washington Post, October 31, 1920, p. 1
8. ‘Maryland Appears Safely Republican: Harding May Get Record Vote if Colored Women Can Master Ballot’; The Washington Post, October 31, 1920, p. 4
9. Bolin, Janes Duane; Bossism and Reform in a Southern City: Lexington, Kentucky, 1880-1940, pp. 82-83 ISBN   9780813121505
10. "1920 Presidential General Election Results – Maryland". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas.
11. Maryland State Board of Elections; ‘Maryland Election Returns, 1920’; Maryland Manual (1921) pp. 133-137