1924 United States presidential election in California

The 1924 United States presidential election in California took place on November 4, 1924, as part of the 1924 United States presidential election. State voters chose 13 electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Since the "Panic of 1893" and large-scale voter registration, California had become a one-party state dominated by the Republican Party.Burnham, Walter Dean; 'The System of 1896: An Analysis'; in The Evolution of American Electoral Systems, pp. 178-179 The Democratic Party was largely moribund as a result of its association with the Populist revolt, the rural formerly slave South, and the polyglot metropolis – which held no appeal in an old-stock Western state with very few Southern and Eastern European immigrants.Burnham Walter Dean; 'The "System of 1896" and the American Electorate', in Critical elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics (1970), pp. 74-79 Rigid registration laws and, before 1914, poll taxes, largely disfranchised what immigrants (who had leaned Democratic during the Third Party System) did when entering the state.Bentele, Keith G. and O'Brien, Erin E.; 'Jim Crow 2.0? Why States Consider and Adopt Restrictive Voter Access Policies', p. 1092; in Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 11, No. 4 (December 2013), pp. 1088-1116

Nonetheless, the appeal of Progressivism and tendency towards nonpartisan politics allowed Woodrow Wilson to nearly carry the state in 1912 and do so in 1916 despite substantial Socialist votes in both elections; however, James M. Cox lost most of this support by 1920 as a result of a powerful reaction in the West against the social upheaval Wilson had caused.Faykosh, Joseph D., Bowling Green State University; The Front Porch of the American People: James Cox and the Presidential Election of 1920 (thesis), p. 68

Following the Cox debacle, the Democratic Party disintegrated even further. In that same 1920 election they failed to re-elect U.S. Senator James D. Phelan, and after the 1922 election they claimed only five seats in the 80-member California State Assembly, the lower house of the state Legislature, and just two seats out of 40 in the upper house, the California State Senate. Phelan's efforts to have William Gibbs McAdoo chosen as the Democratic presidential nominee in 1924 were defeated, and further ruined the party's organization and furthered cleavages between the "dry" and "wet" sections of the party.Hennings, Robert E.; 'California Democratic Politics in the Period of Republican Ascendancy'; Pacific Historical Review, vol. 31, no. 3 (August 1962), pp. 267-280

California's large "Progressive" electorate had been divided by issues such as the League of Nations and Prohibition, and was weakened by the election of economy-minded Friend W. Richardson as Governor in 1922.Shover, John L.; 'The California Progressives and the 1924 Campaign', in California Historical Quarterly, vol. 51, no. 1 (Spring, 1972), pp. 59-74 When Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette announced he would run a third-party presidential campaign in 1924,Richardson, Danny G.; Others: "Fighting Bob" La Follette and the Progressive Movement: Third-Party Politics in the 1920s, p. 180 there remained division, but San Francisco Progressive Rudolph Spreckels supported him on the "Socialist" lineJohnston, Scott D.; 'Robert La Follette and the Socialists: Aspects of the 1924 Presidential Campaign Reexamined'; Social Science, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Spring 1975), pp. 69-77 against indifference from Hiram Johnson (who had attempted to unseat Coolidge in the GOP primaries) and state senators Herbert C. Jones and Joseph M. Inman.

Democratic nominee John W. Davis of West Virginia and Coolidge both spent most of their campaign attacking La Follette as a political extremist.Parrish, Michael E.; Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression, 1920-1941, pp. 70-71 At the beginning of the campaign, Davis had substantial hope of recovering support lost in 1920.Melcher, Daniel P.; 'The Challenge to Normalcy: The 1924 Election in California'; Southern California Quarterly, Vol. 60, No. 2 (Summer 1978), pp. 155-182 However, Davis' opposition to women's suffrage, and belief in strictly limited government with no expansion in nonmilitary fieldsNewman, Roger K.; The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law, p. 153 had almost no appeal in California.Stark, Rodney and Christiano, Kevin J.; 'Support for the American Left, 1920-1924: The Opiate Thesis Reconsidered'; Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 31, No. 1 (March, 1992), pp. 62-75 Although in September Davis underwent an extensive tour of the region and of the Great Plains,Tucker, Garland; High Tide of American Conservatism: Davis, Coolidge, and the 1924 Election, p. 191 and campaigned to eliminate the income tax burden of the poorer classes, he received a mere 8.23 percent of the vote in California – the worst for any major party nominee in the state's history and his fourth-worst state nationwide.

Reduced to a battle between Coolidge and La Follette, the incumbent president campaigned upon present prosperity in addition to his opponent's perceived extremism. Despite perception the state may be doubtful, Coolidge won a plurality of over 24 percentage points, aided by a campaign based upon vilification.Melcher, Daniel; "The Politics of Discontent: California Politics, 1920-1932,' (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, San Diego, 1975), pp. 152-156, 164-173. La Follette did nonetheless match Coolidge outside conservative, heavily populated Southern California, and he carried most urban working-class districts in Northern California, as well as most of the Sierra logging counties that were to become Democratic strongholds between FDR and Jimmy Carter. La Follette's vote was later to revive the moribund Democratic Party when it turned largely to Al Smith (whom La Follette's family was to endorse when he died) in the following election.

Results + General Election ResultsParty Pledged to Elector Votes Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Louis M. Cole733,250 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Mrs. John M. Eshleman733,196 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge John L. McNab732,893 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge George C. Pardee732,788 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge James M. Cremin732,749 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Jesse W. Lilienthal Jr.732,697 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge C. R. Clinch732,681 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge George W. Peltier732,681 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Madison T. Owens732,649 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Charles A. Wayland732,626 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Thomas W. McManus732,619 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Martin C. Neuner732,552 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Louise Harvey Clark732,512 Socialist Party Robert M. La Follette Sr. Albert G. Rogers424,649 Socialist Party Robert M. La Follette Sr. Agnes H. Downing424,170 Socialist Party Robert M. La Follette Sr. W. E. Murphy424,170 Socialist Party Robert M. La Follette Sr. Lola Coggins424,102 Socialist Party Robert M. La Follette Sr. Walter S. Fogg424,098 Socialist Party Robert M. La Follette Sr. Frank C. Page424,095 Socialist Party Robert M. La Follette Sr. Hugo Ernst424,086 Socialist Party Robert M. La Follette Sr. John C. Packard424,068 Socialist Party Robert M. La Follette Sr. William M. Falls424,057 Socialist Party Robert M. La Follette Sr. Alice S. Eddy424,017 Socialist Party Robert M. La Follette Sr. Samuel Weisenberg424,009 Socialist Party Robert M. La Follette Sr. E. Backus423,996 Socialist Party Robert M. La Follette Sr. Walter E. Walker423,968 Democratic Party John W. Davis James D. Phelan105,514 Democratic Party John W. Davis Mattison B. Jones105,504 Democratic Party John W. Davis Annette A. Adams105,485 Democratic Party John W. Davis R. F. Del Valle105,468 Democratic Party John W. Davis Thomas M. Storke105,396 Democratic Party John W. Davis Mary E. Foy105,393 Democratic Party John W. Davis William M. Conley105,392 Democratic Party John W. Davis William Kettner105,392 Democratic Party John W. Davis Katherine Braddock105,323 Democratic Party John W. Davis E. S. Heller105,320 Democratic Party John W. Davis James F. Peck105,299 Democratic Party John W. Davis C. L. Culbert105,270 Democratic Party John W. Davis Edna L. Knight105,229 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris J. S. Edwards18,436 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris H. A. Johnson18,365 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris S. P. Meads18,259 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris Helen M. Brown18,250 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris John H. Kendall18,243 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris J. C. Bell18,216 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris J. L. Rollings18,212 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris H. Clay Needham18,205 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris Dana G. Boleyn18,188 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris Frederick Head18,173 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris Wiley J. Phillips18,172 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris Lucius C. Dale18,155 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris O. U. Hull18,141 Write-in Scattering122Votes cast 1,281,900

Results by county