Coolidge Landslide!

The Coolidge Campaign Family. L to R, front row: Dawes, Grace, CC, Mrs. Dawes, Frank Stearns, Campaign Chairman William M. Butler, Cal Jr. and John. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The Coolidge Campaign Official Family. L to R, front row: Dawes, Grace, CC, Mrs. Dawes; second row: Frank Stearns, Campaign Chairman William M. Butler; back row: Cal Jr. and John. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

“I haven’t any specific reports about any states. My reports indicate that I shall probably carry Northampton. That is about as far as I can go into details. That is based more on experience” — Calvin Coolidge, when asked about returns for the upcoming election of 1924.

This electoral map not only underscores Coolidge's landslide but also the demographic differences under the 1920 Census from political conditions now. The Solid South, not nearly as solid as it appeared after Harding and Coolidge back-to-back victories, would continue to crack and finally shatter after four more years of Coolidge Prosperity. Hoover, piggybacking on Cal's record, would see six more states added to the "red" column: TX, OK, TN, VA, NC and FL.

This electoral map not only underscores Coolidge’s landslide but also the demographic differences under the 1920 Census compared to political conditions now. The Solid South, not nearly as solid as it appeared after Harding and Coolidge back-to-back victories, would continue to crack and finally shatter after four more years of Coolidge Prosperity. Hoover, piggybacking on Cal’s record, would see six more states added to the “red” column: TX, OK, TN, VA, NC and FL.

County-by-county breakdown of 1924 Election can be found in The Presidential Vote, 1896-1932 by Edgar E. Robinson.

County-by-county breakdown of the 1924 Election can be found in The Presidential Vote, 1896-1932 by Edgar E. Robinson.

As the maps illustrate above, Cal undersold but over-delivered, promising (with characteristic wit) only his adopted hometown, in what experience bears out should have been impossible: A Republican landslide when the vote is split three ways. The fact that this election was neither thrown into the House, as feared by many at the time, nor siphoned to the Democrat Davis speaks to the strength of Coolidge’s victory. Had the Republican vote not been split, the outcome would have been even stronger. It still stands as one of the most decisive electoral wins in our history. America genuinely loved Coolidge and what he stood for — debt and tax reduction, limited government, return to the normalcy of constitutional law and order, and economic growth — resonating with voters across the spectrum. Women, participating in their second Presidential election since the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment four years before, maintained a fifty-percent turnout rate (Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections, Sabato and Ernst 476), while American Indians, enfranchised nationwide for the first time, also participated in the vote. Coolidge continued to exploit the fissures in the Solid South, winning Kentucky for the GOP for the first time since 1896. This is all the more impressive considering Coolidge’s prospects were dismissed by the establishment of his day a year before.

The paper, rushed to print before Nevada’s outcome was known, would not include 3 more electoral votes (11,243 votes statewide for Coolidge) until the following day. Courtesy of Newspapers.com.