Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 4, 1924. The Republican ticket of incumbent President Calvin Coolidge and former Director of the Bureau of the Budget Charles G. Dawes defeated the Democratic ticket of former ambassador John W. Davis and Nebraska Governor Charles W. Bryan and the Progressive ticket of Senator Robert M. La Follette and Senator Burton K Wheeler. Coolidge was the second vice president, after Theodore Roosevelt, to ascend to the presidency and then win a full term.
Coolidge had been vice president under Warren G. Harding and became president in 1923 upon Harding's unexpected death. Coolidge was given credit for a booming economy at home and no visible crises abroad, and he faced little opposition at the 1924 Republican National Convention. The Democratic Party nominated former Congressman and ambassador to the United Kingdom John W. Davis of West Virginia. Davis, a compromise candidate, triumphed on the 103rd ballot of the 1924 Democratic National Convention after a deadlock between supporters of William Gibbs McAdoo and Al Smith. Dissatisfied by the conservatism of both major party candidates, the newly formed Progressive Party nominated Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin.
The election has been characterized as marking the "high tide of American conservatism", as both major-party candidates campaigned for limited government, reduced taxes, and less regulation.Garland S. Tucker III, The High Tide of American Conservatism: Davis, Coolidge and the 1924 Election (Emerald, 2010) By contrast, La Follette called for the gradual nationalization of the railroads and increased taxes on the wealthy, policies that foreshadowed the New Deal.
Coolidge won a landslide victory, taking majorities in both the popular vote and the Electoral College and winning almost every state outside of the Solid South (while still making headway by winning Kentucky). La Follette won 16.6% of the popular vote, a strong showing for a third-party candidate, while Davis won the lowest share of the popular vote of any Democratic nominee in history. This is the most recent election to date in which a third-party candidate won a non-Southern state, and the last time a Republican won the presidency without winning any of the former Confederate states. It was also the US election with the lowest per capita voter turnout since records were kept. Also, it was the only election from 1868 to 1952 in which none of the candidates were from New York or Ohio. As of 2026, this is the last presidential election in which the winning candidate did not carry any of the former Confederate states.
Nominations
Republican Party nomination
1924 Republican Party ticket for Presidentfor Vice President 30thPresident of the United States(1923–1929) 1stDirector of the Bureau of the Budget(1921–1922)
Republican candidates
The Republican Convention was held in Cleveland, Ohio, from June 10 to 12, with the easy choice of nominating incumbent President Coolidge for a full term of his own. Coolidge won with only token competition from Senators Robert M. La Follette and Hiram Johnson, both members of the party's progressive wing; an attempt to have Coolidge's nomination declared unanimous failed when La Follette's delegates refused to support Coolidge.
Former Illinois Governor Frank Orren Lowden was nominated as Coolidge's running mate, but he declined the honor, a unique event in 20th-century American political history. Charles G. Dawes, a prominent Republican businessman, was nominated for vice-president instead. Byron E. Shafer, and Elizabeth M. Sawyer. "Factions, Constituencies, and Candidates: The Republicans" in Eternal Bandwagon: The Politics of Presidential Selection (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020) pp. 121-157.
1924 RNC presidential ballot (1)1924 RNC vice presidential ballots (1–3) Presidential ballot 1 Vice presidential ballot 1 2 Before shifts 2 After shifts 3Calvin Coolidge 1065 Charles G. Dawes 149 111 49 682.5Robert M. La Follette 34 Frank Orren Lowden 222 413 766 0Hiram Johnson10 Theodore E. Burton 139 288 94 0 Herbert Hoover 0 0 0 234.5 William S. Kenyon 172 95 68 75 George Scott Graham 81 0 0 0 James Eli Watson 79 55 7 45 Charles Curtis 56 31 24 0 Arthur M. Hyde 55 36 36 0 George W. Norris 35 0 0 0 Smith W. Brookhart 0 31 0 0 Frank T. Hines 28 1 0 0 Charles A. March28 0 0 0 J. Will Taylor 21 20 27 27 William Purnell Jackson 23 0 0 10 Charles B. Warren 10 1 23 14 T. Coleman du Pont 0 0 3 11 Joseph M. Dixon 6 0 0 2 Everett Sanders 0 0 0 4 James Harbord 1 0 0 3 Albert J. Beveridge 0 0 0 2 John L. Coulter1 0 0 1 William Wrigley 1 0 0 1 John J. Pershing 0 0 0 0
Democratic Party nomination
1924 Democratic Party ticket for Presidentfor Vice President U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom(1918–1921) 20thGovernor of Nebraska(1923–1925)
Democratic candidates:
While the Democratic Party had been largely able to unite around strong leaders including Grover Cleveland, William Jennings Bryan, and Woodrow Wilson during the previous four decades, the party had become increasingly fragmented and factionalized during the first half of the 1920s. By 1924, Cleveland and Wilson were both dead, and Bryan had largely left politics in favor of religious activism. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the party's vice-presidential candidate at the previous election had been looked at as a potential unifying figure able to appeal to all sides of the party, but he had fallen severely ill and been left paralysed in 1921. Though his health had generally recovered by 1924, he believed he could still eventually regain full use of his legs and resolved not to put himself forward as a presidential candidate until he had done so.
The 1924 Democratic National Convention was held in New York City from June 24 to July 9. The two leading candidates were William Gibbs McAdoo of California, former Secretary of the Treasury and son-in-law of former President Woodrow Wilson, and Governor Al Smith of New York. The balloting revealed a clear geographic and cultural split in the party, as McAdoo was supported mostly by rural, Protestant delegates from the South, West, and small-town Midwest who were supporters of Prohibition (called "drys"). In some cases, McAdoo's delegates were also supporters of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), which was at its peak of nationwide popularity in the 1920s, with chapters in all 48 states and 4 to 5 million members. Governor Smith was supported by the anti-Prohibition forces (called "wets"), many Roman Catholics and other ethnic minorities, big-city delegates in the Northeast and urban Midwest, and by liberal delegates opposed to the influence of the Ku Klux Klan.
An example of the deep split within the party came in a brutal floor fight over a proposal to publicly condemn the Klan. Most of McAdoo's delegates in the South and West opposed the motion, while most of Smith's big-city delegates supported it. In the end the motion failed to carry by a single vote. William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential candidate, argued against condemning the Klan for fear that it would permanently split the party. Wendell Willkie, who would go on to become the Republican Party's 1940 presidential candidate, was a Democratic delegate in 1924, and he supported the proposal to condemn the KKK. The bitter fight between the McAdoo and Smith delegates over the KKK set the stage for the nominating ballots to come. Most of the ensuing ballots followed a pattern of having McAdoo leading, Smith second, Davis third, and 1920 candidate James M. Cox fourth, followed by various favorite son candidates.
Due to the two-thirds rule governing nominations, neither McAdoo, who briefly got a majority of the votes halfway through the balloting, nor Smith was able to get the two-thirds majority necessary to win. However, neither candidate would back down, and so the deadlock continued for days on end, as ballot after ballot was taken with neither McAdoo or Smith getting close to enough delegates to win the nomination. Cox withdrew after the 64th ballot, only for his support to split relatively evenly between the three frontrunners, leaving the situation no closer to being resolved. Eventually the convention would go to over 100 ballots, becoming the longest-running political convention in American history. Humorist Will Rogers joked that New York had invited the Democratic delegates to visit the city, not to live there. As the convention approached the hundredth ballot, a movement to draft Indiana senator Samuel M. Ralston gained traction and began to look like it might break the deadlock; Ralston, who had been content for his name to be put forward purely as a favorite son candidate, quickly sent the convention a message stating that due to his poor health, he could not accept the nomination.
Due to the great divide in the Democratic Party, the convention could have gone on for a great deal longer. However, with some state delegations running low on money and unable to stay in the city any longer, on the 100th ballot both Smith and McAdoo mutually withdrew as candidates. This allowed the convention's delegates to search for a compromise candidate acceptable to both Smith and McAdoo supporters. Finally, on the 103rd ballot, the exhausted convention turned to John W. Davis, a former Congressman from West Virginia, former Solicitor General of the United States, and former United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, as the presidential nominee. The Democrats' disarray prompted Will Rogers's famous quip: "I'm not a member of any organized political party, I'm a Democrat!"
Governor of Nebraska Charles W. Bryan, William Jennings Bryan's brother, was nominated for vice-president in order to gain the support of the party's rural voters, many of whom still saw Bryan as their leader.
(1-20)Presidential Ballot1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th J.W. Davis 3132343434.555.555576357.5596064.564.56163646684.5122McAdoo 431.5431437443.6443.1443.1442.6444.6444.6471.6476.3478.5477475.5479478471.5470.5474432Smith241251.5255.5260261261.5261.5273.5278299.5303.2301303.5306.5305.5305.5312.5312.5311.5307.5Cox5961605959595960606060606060606060606060Harrison43.523.523.520.520.520.520.520.520.531.520.521.520.520.520.500000Underwood42.5424241.541.542.542.54845.543.942.541.540.540.539.541.54239.539.545.5Silzer38302828282828282800000000000Ferris303030303030306.5000000000000Ralston303030303030303030.530.532.531.531.531313130303130Glass2525294525252526252525.5262524252544303025Ritchie22.521.522.521.542.922.920.919.917.517.517.517.517.517.517.517.517.518.517.517.5Robinson2141411919191921212020191919204628222221J.M. Davis202320292827302932.4121113.5111111111010910C.W. Bryan1818191919181816151211111011111111111011Brown1712.512.59.98.5889889999910000Sweet1212000000000000000000Saulsbury76666666666666666666Kendrick66600000000000000000Thompson11111111111100000000Walsh01111111111111111228W.J. Bryan00000001100000000000Baker00000000011011100001Berry00000000001000000000Krebs00000000000010000000Copeland0000000000000000.50.5010Hull000000000000000002000Hitchcock00000000000000000001Dever00000000000000000000.5