Since the 1890s, Alabama had been effectively a one-party state ruled by the Democratic Party.Disenfranchisement of almost all African-Americans and a large proportion ofpoor whites viapoll taxes, literacy tests[2] and extralegal violence[3] had essentially eliminated opposition parties outside ofUnionistWinston County and a few nearbynorthern hill counties that had beenPopulist strongholds.[4] The only competitive statewide elections became Democratic Party primaries that were limited by law to white voters.
Unlike the other Deep South states, however, soon after black disenfranchisement Alabama's white Republicans made rapid efforts to expel blacks from the state Republican Party.[5] Forthe 1904 Convention, President Theodore Roosevelt rejected this proposal, unlike in North Carolina where he acquiesced without opposition to the demands ofJeter Connelly Pritchard.[5] Nevertheless, underOscar D. Street, who ironically was appointed state party boss as part of the pro-Taft“black and tan” faction in 1912,[6] the state GOP would turn completely“lily-white”, with1920 seeing the final black delegates at anyRepublican National Convention.[5]
After having doubled their representation in the state legislature from three to six in 1918 the now lily-white Alabama Republican Party would make substantial efforts to break the stranglehold of the Democrats in state politics. Isolationism inAppalachianNorth Alabama would substantially affect this election,[7] as the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, opposition to outgoing PresidentWoodrow Wilson’s interventionism in Europe, and major labor disputes in coal mining that were unresolved at the time of the election and would affect the results of Democratic nomineeJames M. Cox and other Democrats in the less partisan north.[8]
The result of this was that the Republican candidatesOhio SenatorWarren G. Harding andMassachusetts GovernorCalvin Coolidge were able to make substantial gains, although Cox and running mateFranklin D. Roosevelt still won the election in Alabama with over 61 percent of the vote. Nonetheless, Harding managed to carry nine counties as against onlyUnion holdoutWinston County,Populist strongholdChilton County and urbanizedShelby County carried byHughes in 1916, with his most pronounced triumph being inDeKalb County, where he was the first Republican to win since the 1872 Presidential Election. Despite wants to make seat inroads not coming into fruition, the Republicans used Appalachian isolationism and the call for “return to normalcy” to come within ten percent of winning the4th,7th and10th congressional districts.[7]
^abcThe county data used sum to 156,064, suggesting some votes not allocated by county.[1]
^abcThe county data used sum to 74,719, suggesting some votes not allocated by county.[1]
^Sources for the total state and county votes vary. All figures are for the highest elector for each slate.
^In this county where Debs ran second ahead of Harding, margin given is Cox vote minus Debs vote and percentage margin Cox percentage minus Debs percentage.
^abc"Vote for Presidential Electors from State at Large, November 2, 1920".Alabama Official and Statistical Register. State of Alabama Department of Archives and History. 1923.
^abcHeersink, Boris; Jenkins, Jeffery A. (2020).Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968. Cambridge University Press. pp. 251–253.ISBN9781107158436.
