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 County Results Harding 50–60% 60–70% 70–80%
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| Elections in Wyoming | ||||||||||||
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The1920 United States presidential election in Wyoming took place on November 2, 1920, as part of the1920 United States presidential election. State voters chose three representatives, or electors, to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.
Wyoming was won byRepublican OhioSenatorWarren G. Harding, running withgovernor of Massachusetts and the future30th president of the United StatesCalvin Coolidge, with 64.15 percent of the popular vote, against theDemocratic46th and 48th Governor of OhioJames M. Cox, running with the futureGovernor of New York and32nd President of the United StatesFranklin D. Roosevelt, with 31.86 percent of the popular vote.[1]
Like all of the Western United States, severe anger at PresidentWoodrow Wilson's failure to maintain his promise to keep the United States out ofWorld War I produced extreme hostility among the strongly isolationist population of remote Wyoming.[2] In addition, by the beginning of 1920 skyrocketinginflation and Wilson's focus upon his proposedLeague of Nations at the expense of domestic policy had helped make the incumbent president very unpopular[3] – besides which Wilson also had major health problems that had left First LadyEdith effectively running the nation. Political unrest seen in thePalmer Raids and the "Red Scare" further added to the unpopularity of the Democratic Party, since this global political turmoil produced considerable fear of alien revolutionaries invading the country.[4] Demand in the West for exclusion of Asian immigrants became even stronger than it had been before.[5] Another factor hurting the Democratic Party was the migration of many people from the traditionally Republican Upper Midwest into the state.[2]
Because the West had been the chief presidential battleground ever since the "System of 1896" emerged following that election,[6] Governor Cox traveled across the western states in August and September, but he did not visit Wyoming with its tiny population and poverty of electoral votes. No polls were taken in the state, but a Republican success was universally assumed.
Like every Mountain state, Wyoming, which had voted strongly for Woodrow Wilson in1916 – turned very strongly against Cox, who was to lose the state by a two-to-one majority, afterCharles Evans Hughes had lost the state by double digits in 1916. Harding carried every county in Wyoming with an absolute majority, and passed sixty percent in all but three.SocialistEugene Debs was noton the ballot in Wyoming, butLabor candidateParley Christensen managed double figures in Sheridan County. This would prove the last timeSweetwater County voted Republican untilRichard Nixon's landslide1972 victory.[7]
| Party | Pledged to | Elector | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican Party | Warren G. Harding | Peter Kooi | 35,091 | |
| Republican Party | Warren G. Harding | James Mickelson | 34,678 | |
| Republican Party | Warren G. Harding | J. M. Schwoob | 34,590 | |
| Democratic Party | James M. Cox | Mable H. Crouter | 17,429 | |
| Democratic Party | James M. Cox | D. P. B. Marshall | 17,331 | |
| Democratic Party | James M. Cox | William B. Ross | 17,130 | |
| Labor Party | Parley P. Christensen | Martin Cahill | 2,180 | |
| Labor Party | Parley P. Christensen | J. H. Giroux | 2,132 | |
| Labor Party | Parley P. Christensen | Thomas G. Freshney | 2,109 | |
| Votes cast[a] | 54,700 | |||
| County[8] | Warren G. Harding Republican | James M. Cox Democrat | Parley P. Christensen Labor | Margin | Total votes cast[b] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Albany | 1,769 | 59.16% | 1,145 | 38.29% | 76 | 2.54% | 624 | 20.87% | 2,990 |
| Big Horn | 2,157 | 65.80% | 1,082 | 33.01% | 39 | 1.19% | 1,075 | 32.79% | 3,278 |
| Campbell | 1,027 | 66.69% | 493 | 32.01% | 20 | 1.30% | 534 | 34.68% | 1,540 |
| Carbon | 1,871 | 60.65% | 1,039 | 33.68% | 175 | 5.67% | 832 | 26.97% | 3,085 |
| Converse | 1,561 | 69.41% | 679 | 30.19% | 9 | 0.40% | 882 | 39.22% | 2,249 |
| Crook | 934 | 67.24% | 451 | 32.47% | 4 | 0.29% | 483 | 34.77% | 1,389 |
| Fremont | 2,194 | 67.61% | 994 | 30.63% | 57 | 1.76% | 1,200 | 36.98% | 3,245 |
| Goshen | 1,496 | 72.73% | 552 | 26.84% | 9 | 0.44% | 944 | 45.89% | 2,057 |
| Hot Springs | 1,212 | 64.61% | 529 | 28.20% | 135 | 7.20% | 683 | 36.41% | 1,876 |
| Johnson | 1,202 | 69.36% | 525 | 30.29% | 6 | 0.35% | 677 | 39.07% | 1,733 |
| Laramie | 3,399 | 62.60% | 1,810 | 33.33% | 221 | 4.07% | 1,589 | 29.26% | 5,430 |
| Lincoln | 2,043 | 61.06% | 1,154 | 34.49% | 149 | 4.45% | 889 | 26.57% | 3,346 |
| Natrona | 2,957 | 66.20% | 1,153 | 25.81% | 357 | 7.99% | 1,804 | 40.39% | 4,467 |
| Niobrara | 969 | 73.52% | 345 | 26.18% | 4 | 0.30% | 624 | 47.34% | 1,318 |
| Park | 1,630 | 70.53% | 666 | 28.82% | 15 | 0.65% | 964 | 41.71% | 2,311 |
| Platte | 1,405 | 65.68% | 694 | 32.45% | 40 | 1.87% | 711 | 33.24% | 2,139 |
| Sheridan | 2,645 | 60.43% | 1,192 | 27.23% | 540 | 12.34% | 1,453 | 33.20% | 4,377 |
| Sweetwater | 1,744 | 54.14% | 1,216 | 37.75% | 261 | 8.10% | 528 | 16.39% | 3,221 |
| Uinta | 1,194 | 55.82% | 914 | 42.73% | 31 | 1.45% | 280 | 13.09% | 2,139 |
| Washakie | 609 | 64.31% | 333 | 35.16% | 5 | 0.53% | 276 | 29.14% | 947 |
| Weston | 1,073 | 68.65% | 463 | 29.62% | 27 | 1.73% | 610 | 39.03% | 1,563 |
| Totals | 35,091 | 64.15% | 17,429 | 31.86% | 2,180 | 3.99% | 17,662 | 32.29% | 54,700 |
