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 County Results
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The1920 United States presidential election in Florida, was held on November 2, 1920. Voters chose six representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted for the president and vice-president.
Ever sincethe disfranchisement of blacks at the beginning of the 1890s, Florida had been a one-party state ruled by the Democratic Party. The disfranchisement of blacks and poor whites bypoll taxes in 1889[1] had left the Republican Party – between 1872 and 1888 dependent upon black votes – virtually extinct.
With the single exception ofWilliam Howard Taft's win inCalhoun County in 1908[2] the Democratic Party won every county in Florida in every presidential election from 1892[a] until 1916. Only twice – and never for more than one term – did any Republican serve in either house of the state legislature between 1896 and 1928.
Despite this Democratic dominance and the restrictions on the franchise of the poorer classes due to the poll tax, significant socialist movements were to develop and persist inTampa[3] and to a lesser extent over other parts of the state, especially against the powerfulKu Klux Klan.[4] In 1919, 4,800 miners led by the Mineral Workers Union wouldgo on strike for seven and a half months inPolk County. The reason for the strike were that they wanted an eight-hour work day and a minimum wage of 37 cents. GovernorSidney J. Catts called on the Florida National Guard and the Polk County Home Guard to end the strike. At the end of the strike, five strikers would die.[5]
There was also a powerful Prohibitionist movement in olderNorth Florida, which saw the Prohibition Party even win the governorship for one term under the notorious anti-Catholic minister Sidney J. Catts.
The 1920 election saw Harding make mild inroads into the absolute Democratic dominance of the state's politics, largely owing to considerable isolationist sentiment,[6] and major economic concerns following the decline of industries related toWorld War I.[7] He carried three counties in the south of the state, being only the second Republican to carry a Florida county since black disfranchisement, and begun tentative steps towards establishing a white GOP base in what was to become the "Sun Belt" after the development of air conditioning decades later. Eugene Debs, who had taken advantage of substantial radicalism in parts ofSouth Florida to run second toWoodrow Wilson in the state in 1912, did not do nearly so well and was only marginally ahead of Prohibition candidate Watkins.
| 1920 United States presidential election in Florida[8] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Popular vote | Electoral vote | ||||
| Count | % | Count | % | |||||
| Democratic | James Cox ofOhio | Franklin Delano Roosevelt ofNew York | 90,515 | 62.13% | 6 | 100.00% | ||
| Republican | Warren Harding ofOhio | Calvin Coolidge ofMassachusetts | 44,853 | 30.79% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Socialist | Eugene Debs ofIndiana | Seymour Stedman ofIllinois | 5,189 | 3.56% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Prohibition | Aaron Watkins ofOhio | David Colvin ofNew York | 5,124 | 3.52% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Total | 145,684 | 100.00% | 6 | 100.00% | ||||
| County | James Middleton Cox Democratic | Warren Gamaliel Harding[b] Republican | Eugene Victor Debs Socialist | Aaron Sherman Watkins Prohibition | Margin | Total votes cast[9] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Alachua | 3,310 | 72.52% | 1,119 | 24.52% | 112 | 2.45% | 23 | 0.50% | 2,191 | 48.00% | 4,564 |
| Baker | 346 | 68.11% | 115 | 22.64% | 19 | 3.74% | 28 | 5.51% | 231 | 45.47% | 508 |
| Bay | 818 | 54.90% | 551 | 36.98% | 71 | 4.77% | 50 | 3.36% | 267 | 17.92% | 1,490 |
| Bradford | 1,269 | 78.82% | 248 | 15.40% | 8 | 0.50% | 85 | 5.28% | 1,021 | 63.42% | 1,610 |
| Brevard | 894 | 53.31% | 659 | 39.30% | 63 | 3.76% | 61 | 3.64% | 235 | 14.01% | 1,677 |
| Broward | 415 | 41.54% | 442 | 44.24% | 107 | 10.71% | 35 | 3.50% | -27 | -2.70% | 999 |
| Calhoun | 861 | 78.42% | 99 | 9.02% | 20 | 1.82% | 118 | 10.75% | 743[c] | 67.67% | 1,098 |
| Citrus | 651 | 82.61% | 94 | 11.93% | 25 | 3.17% | 18 | 2.28% | 557 | 70.68% | 788 |
| Clay | 558 | 49.69% | 486 | 43.28% | 38 | 3.38% | 41 | 3.65% | 72 | 6.41% | 1,123 |
| Columbia | 1,248 | 80.88% | 162 | 10.50% | 68 | 4.41% | 65 | 4.21% | 1,086 | 70.38% | 1,543 |
| Dade | 4,288 | 53.08% | 3,077 | 38.09% | 375 | 4.64% | 338 | 4.18% | 1,211 | 14.99% | 8,078 |
| De Soto | 2,496 | 64.93% | 1,077 | 28.02% | 197 | 5.12% | 74 | 1.93% | 1,419 | 36.91% | 3,844 |
| Duval | 13,650 | 64.21% | 6,628 | 31.18% | 450 | 2.12% | 529 | 2.49% | 7,022 | 33.03% | 21,257 |
| Escambia | 3,485 | 65.20% | 1,227 | 22.96% | 205 | 3.84% | 428 | 8.01% | 2,258 | 42.24% | 5,345 |
| Flagler | 206 | 55.08% | 74 | 19.79% | 73 | 19.52% | 21 | 5.61% | 132 | 35.29% | 374 |
| Franklin | 587 | 62.05% | 276 | 29.18% | 24 | 2.54% | 59 | 6.24% | 311 | 32.87% | 946 |
| Gadsden | 1,922 | 96.68% | 38 | 1.91% | 18 | 0.91% | 10 | 0.50% | 1,884 | 94.77% | 1,988 |
| Hamilton | 706 | 74.39% | 151 | 15.91% | 15 | 1.58% | 77 | 8.11% | 555 | 58.48% | 949 |
| Hernando | 622 | 76.04% | 132 | 16.14% | 29 | 3.55% | 35 | 4.28% | 490 | 59.90% | 818 |
| Hillsborough | 6,976 | 56.49% | 3,772 | 30.54% | 968 | 7.84% | 633 | 5.13% | 3,204 | 25.95% | 12,349 |
| Holmes | 869 | 54.31% | 537 | 33.56% | 42 | 2.63% | 152 | 9.50% | 332 | 20.75% | 1,600 |
| Jackson | 2,443 | 78.70% | 508 | 16.37% | 67 | 2.16% | 86 | 2.77% | 1,935 | 62.33% | 3,104 |
| Jefferson | 754 | 72.08% | 239 | 22.85% | 19 | 1.82% | 34 | 3.25% | 515 | 49.23% | 1,046 |
| Lafayette | 618 | 86.55% | 69 | 9.66% | 10 | 1.40% | 17 | 2.38% | 549 | 76.89% | 714 |
| Lake | 1,720 | 67.72% | 734 | 28.90% | 52 | 2.05% | 34 | 1.34% | 986 | 38.82% | 2,540 |
| Lee | 938 | 55.37% | 626 | 36.95% | 54 | 3.19% | 76 | 4.49% | 312 | 18.42% | 1,694 |
| Leon | 1,412 | 71.75% | 452 | 22.97% | 58 | 2.95% | 46 | 2.34% | 960 | 48.78% | 1,968 |
| Levy | 882 | 69.01% | 377 | 29.50% | 12 | 0.94% | 7 | 0.55% | 505 | 39.51% | 1,278 |
| Liberty | 416 | 91.63% | 5 | 1.10% | 18 | 3.96% | 15 | 3.30% | 416[d] | 87.67% | 454 |
| Madison | 920 | 93.31% | 30 | 3.04% | 14 | 1.42% | 22 | 2.23% | 890 | 90.27% | 986 |
| Manatee | 1,790 | 62.43% | 884 | 30.83% | 70 | 2.44% | 123 | 4.29% | 906 | 31.60% | 2,867 |
| Marion | 2,436 | 62.43% | 1,232 | 31.57% | 82 | 2.10% | 152 | 3.90% | 1,204 | 30.86% | 3,902 |
| Monroe | 979 | 56.04% | 510 | 29.19% | 149 | 8.53% | 109 | 6.24% | 469 | 26.85% | 1,747 |
| Nassau | 900 | 72.12% | 281 | 22.52% | 22 | 1.76% | 45 | 3.61% | 619 | 49.60% | 1,248 |
| Okaloosa | 568 | 56.63% | 411 | 40.98% | 20 | 1.99% | 4 | 0.40% | 157 | 15.65% | 1,003 |
| Okeechobee | 237 | 65.11% | 58 | 15.93% | 28 | 7.69% | 41 | 11.26% | 179 | 49.18% | 364 |
| Orange | 2,035 | 55.48% | 1,447 | 39.45% | 123 | 3.35% | 63 | 1.72% | 588 | 16.03% | 3,668 |
| Osceola | 728 | 38.91% | 1,035 | 55.32% | 41 | 2.19% | 67 | 3.58% | -307 | -16.41% | 1,871 |
| Palm Beach | 1,488 | 38.29% | 1,892 | 48.69% | 308 | 7.93% | 198 | 5.10% | -404 | -10.40% | 3,886 |
| Pasco | 1,166 | 61.89% | 630 | 33.44% | 53 | 2.81% | 35 | 1.86% | 536 | 28.45% | 1,884 |
| Pinellas | 2,848 | 48.94% | 2,529 | 43.46% | 202 | 3.47% | 240 | 4.12% | 319 | 5.48% | 5,819 |
| Polk | 3,918 | 65.86% | 1,782 | 29.95% | 159 | 2.67% | 90 | 1.51% | 2,136 | 35.91% | 5,949 |
| Putnam | 1,557 | 53.41% | 1,181 | 40.51% | 89 | 3.05% | 88 | 3.02% | 376 | 12.90% | 2,915 |
| Santa Rosa | 813 | 70.51% | 333 | 28.88% | 2 | 0.17% | 5 | 0.43% | 480 | 41.63% | 1,153 |
| Seminole | 1,485 | 62.50% | 767 | 32.28% | 73 | 3.07% | 51 | 2.15% | 718 | 30.22% | 2,376 |
| St. Johns | 1,810 | 56.30% | 1,221 | 37.98% | 94 | 2.92% | 90 | 2.80% | 589 | 18.32% | 3,215 |
| St. Lucie | 1,167 | 58.44% | 707 | 35.40% | 64 | 3.20% | 59 | 2.95% | 460 | 23.04% | 1,997 |
| Sumter | 921 | 79.74% | 219 | 18.96% | 8 | 0.69% | 7 | 0.61% | 702 | 60.78% | 1,155 |
| Suwannee | 1,486 | 72.56% | 382 | 18.65% | 111 | 5.42% | 69 | 3.37% | 1,104 | 53.91% | 2,048 |
| Taylor | 563 | 77.98% | 128 | 17.73% | 8 | 1.11% | 23 | 3.19% | 435 | 60.25% | 722 |
| Volusia | 2,763 | 52.47% | 2,175 | 41.30% | 126 | 2.39% | 202 | 3.84% | 588 | 11.17% | 5,266 |
| Wakulla | 530 | 79.34% | 119 | 17.81% | 3 | 0.45% | 16 | 2.40% | 411 | 61.53% | 668 |
| Walton | 1,297 | 64.24% | 619 | 30.66% | 36 | 1.78% | 67 | 3.32% | 678 | 33.58% | 2,019 |
| Washington | 750 | 61.98% | 307 | 25.37% | 87 | 7.19% | 66 | 5.45% | 443 | 36.61% | 1,210 |
| Totals | 90,515 | 62.13% | 44,853 | 30.79% | 5,189 | 3.56% | 5,127 | 3.52% | 45,662 | 31.34% | 145,684 |
State and district results of the1920 United States presidential election | ||
|---|---|---|
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