United States presidential election, 1924

The United States presidential election of 1924 was the 35th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 1924. In a three-way contest, Republican Republican Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover defeated both the Democrat William Gibbs McAdoo and Progressive Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette Sr..
Incumbent Republican President Charles Evans Hughes declined seeking the nomination. He had ascended to the presidency through an unprecedented sequence of events. Philander C. Knox, the successfully elected Republican candidate in 1920, died on October 12th, 1921, only months into his term. Vice President Warren G. Harding ascended to the Presidency, leaving the Vice Presidency vacant, but died himself on August 2nd, 1923. As a result, for the first time in American history, the Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes ascended to the Presidency. Hughes had famously ran a narrowly unsuccessful campaign against Woodrow Wilson in 1916. The period became known as the "Three Presidents Era", and proved to be damaging for the Republican Party in the short term.
The situation prompted a divisive Republican convention. Dozens of candidates were presented, with the major candidates being Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette Sr., California Senator Hiram Johnson, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover and Former Illinois Governor Frank Orren Lowden. Hoover, a moderate progressive, emerged as the favorite of the party leadership, having made a name for himself for his extensive work in the cabinet. This was to the dismay of dedicated progressives like La Follette and Johnson. Ultimately Hoover was nominated on the fifteenth ballot.
The Democratic Party likewise turned to a moderate progressive, William Gibbs McAdoo. McAdoo received support from the Ku Klux Klan, but in turn received opposition from Catholics and German-Americans. His image was damaged by his former position as Secretary of the Treasury under his unpopular father-in-law, President Woodrow Wilson. He was additionally brought down by his relations to the Teapot Dome scandal, which damaged his progressive image. McAdoo's ability to attract the progressive vote was further brought down by the third-party candidacy of progressive Robert M. La Follette Sr., who had previously failed to secure the Republican nomination. He built a large coalition that received the support of the Socialist Party of America and the Farmer–Labor Party. This made the 1924 election a unique situation where all three candidates were progressives.
Hoover was able to mount an effective campaign, both to discredit McAdoo and to draw many Republican voters away from La Follette. He used the slogan "a vote for La Follette is a vote for McAdoo, a vote for McAdoo is a vote for [Woodrow] Wilson" to discredit both La Follette and McAdoo. Despite this, La Follette mounted an effective campaign that gained a large amount of support among Midwestern German-Americans as well as farmers and socialists. His popular vote share of 20.9% was surpassed only by that of Theodore Roosevelt twelve years prior. Ultimately, Hoover won by a significant margin over both his opponents, but by far less of a margin than Knox four years prior.
Category:Presidential elections in the United States