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 County Results Harding 50–60% 60–70% 70–80%
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The1920 United States presidential election in Kansas was held on November 2, 1920, as part of the1920 United States presidential election. Kansas voters chose ten electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.Kansas voted for theRepublican nominee,Ohio SenatorWarren G. Harding, over theDemocratic nominee,Ohio GovernorJames M. Cox. Harding ran withMassachusetts GovernorCalvin Coolidge, while Cox ran withAssistant Secretary of the NavyFranklin D. Roosevelt ofNew York.
Harding won the state by a margin of 32.23 percentage points. By the beginning of 1920 skyrocketinginflation and PresidentWoodrow Wilson's focus upon his proposedLeague of Nations at the expense of domestic policy had helped make the incumbent president very unpopular[1] – besides which Wilson also had major health problems that had left First LadyEdith Wilson effectively running the nation. Political unrest observed 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.[2] Another issue was the anti-Cox position taken by theKu Klux Klan,[3] and Cox's inconsistent stance on newly passed Prohibition – he had been a "wet" but announced he would support Prohibition enforcement in August[3]
The West had been the chief presidential battleground ever since the "System of 1896" emerged following that election.[4] For this reason, Cox chose to tour the entire nation[5] but the only attention Cox received in the Western press was severe criticism.[6] Moreover, at the beginning of the presidential campaign farmers – a critical constituency in Kansas – were highly critical of the likely effect of the Cox platform upon their cost of living.[7]
Wilson carried Kansas in his two election triumphs in1912 and1916. Cox did visit the state in early October,[8] but was aggressively heckled during his only speeches in the state.[9] Surveys earlier by Progressive journalistWilliam Allen White had shown that two-thirds of the Kansas population were opposed to Wilson'sLeague of Nations.[10] At the end of October, two days before the poll, editors estimated a majority of one hundred and twenty thousand votes for Harding in Kansas,[11] although Cox's campaign managers, especially Frank E. Doremus,[12] believed they had a chance of holding the state.[13]
As it turned out, Harding easily won Kansas by a two-to-one majority, fifty percent larger than predicted by the combined polls of editors at the end of October, and a swing of 37 percentage points from Wilson's victory in the state in 1916. Harding carried all 105 Kansas counties, whereas in 1916Charles Evans Hughes had carried only 26, although the trend – dramatic as it was – was substantially smaller than Harding's landslides in heavilyGerman-AmericanNorth andSouth Dakota.[14] In spite of Cox's two-to-one loss, as of2024[update] this remains the last presidential election when Kansas votedless Republican thanCalifornia,Illinois,Iowa,Minnesota,New York,Washington orWisconsin.
| Presidential Candidate | Running Mate | Party | Electoral Vote (EV) | Popular Vote (PV) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warren G. Harding | Calvin Coolidge | Republican | 10[15] | 369,268 | 64.75% |
| James M. Cox | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Democratic | 0 | 185,464 | 32.52% |
| Eugene V. Debs | Seymour Stedman | Socialist | 0 | 15,511 | 2.72% |
| Write-ins | — | — | 0 | 75 | 0.01% |
| 1920 United States presidential election in Kansas by county[16] | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| County | Warren Gamaliel Harding Republican | James Middleton Cox Democratic | Eugene Victor Debs Socialist | Various candidates Write-ins | Margin | Total votes cast | |||||
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Allen | 5,091 | 67.68% | 2,272 | 30.20% | 159 | 2.11% | 2,819 | 37.48% | 7,522 | ||
| Anderson | 3,068 | 62.82% | 1,708 | 34.97% | 108 | 2.21% | 1,360 | 27.85% | 4,884 | ||
| Atchison | 5,872 | 65.02% | 3,082 | 34.13% | 77 | 0.85% | 2,790 | 30.89% | 9,031 | ||
| Barber | 2,400 | 66.45% | 1,098 | 30.40% | 114 | 3.16% | 1,302 | 36.05% | 3,612 | ||
| Barton | 3,993 | 68.77% | 1,688 | 29.07% | 125 | 2.15% | 2,305 | 39.70% | 5,806 | ||
| Bourbon | 4,194 | 52.09% | 3,632 | 45.11% | 225 | 2.79% | 562 | 6.98% | 8,051 | ||
| Brown | 5,249 | 72.28% | 1,937 | 26.67% | 76 | 1.05% | 3,312 | 45.61% | 7,262 | ||
| Butler | 6,821 | 60.56% | 4,112 | 36.51% | 331 | 2.94% | 2,709 | 24.05% | 11,264 | ||
| Chase | 1,659 | 63.15% | 904 | 34.41% | 59 | 2.25% | 5 | 0.19% | 755 | 28.74% | 2,627 |
| Chautauqua | 2,539 | 68.58% | 936 | 25.28% | 227 | 6.13% | 1,603 | 43.30% | 3,702 | ||
| Cherokee | 5,466 | 55.83% | 3,832 | 39.14% | 492 | 5.03% | 1,634 | 16.69% | 9,790 | ||
| Cheyenne | 1,079 | 62.41% | 471 | 27.24% | 160 | 9.25% | 19 | 1.10% | 608 | 35.16% | 1,729 |
| Clark | 923 | 57.98% | 610 | 38.32% | 55 | 3.45% | 4 | 0.25% | 313 | 19.66% | 1,592 |
| Clay | 3,521 | 72.69% | 1,155 | 23.84% | 168 | 3.47% | 2,366 | 48.84% | 4,844 | ||
| Cloud | 4,090 | 69.82% | 1,534 | 26.19% | 234 | 3.99% | 2,556 | 43.63% | 5,858 | ||
| Coffey | 3,370 | 64.20% | 1,785 | 34.01% | 94 | 1.79% | 1,585 | 30.20% | 5,249 | ||
| Comanche | 1,121 | 63.05% | 612 | 34.42% | 45 | 2.53% | 509 | 28.63% | 1,778 | ||
| Cowley | 7,352 | 59.22% | 4,733 | 38.13% | 329 | 2.65% | 2,619 | 21.10% | 12,414 | ||
| Crawford | 7,957 | 54.68% | 5,362 | 36.84% | 1,234 | 8.48% | 2,595 | 17.83% | 14,553 | ||
| Decatur | 1,448 | 51.55% | 1,221 | 43.47% | 140 | 4.98% | 227 | 8.08% | 2,809 | ||
| Dickinson | 5,761 | 69.10% | 2,387 | 28.63% | 189 | 2.27% | 3,374 | 40.47% | 8,337 | ||
| Doniphan | 3,369 | 76.46% | 978 | 22.20% | 59 | 1.34% | 2,391 | 54.27% | 4,406 | ||
| Douglas | 6,266 | 73.23% | 2,197 | 25.67% | 94 | 1.10% | 4,069 | 47.55% | 8,557 | ||
| Edwards | 1,782 | 70.16% | 681 | 26.81% | 77 | 3.03% | 1,101 | 43.35% | 2,540 | ||
| Elk | 2,253 | 65.27% | 1,110 | 32.16% | 89 | 2.58% | 1,143 | 33.11% | 3,452 | ||
| Ellis | 2,385 | 75.17% | 740 | 23.32% | 48 | 1.51% | 1,645 | 51.84% | 3,173 | ||
| Ellsworth | 2,264 | 65.60% | 1,090 | 31.59% | 97 | 2.81% | 1,174 | 34.02% | 3,451 | ||
| Finney | 1,573 | 68.96% | 619 | 27.14% | 89 | 3.90% | 954 | 41.82% | 2,281 | ||
| Ford | 3,305 | 61.90% | 1,879 | 35.19% | 155 | 2.90% | 1,426 | 26.71% | 5,339 | ||
| Franklin | 5,216 | 65.16% | 2,606 | 32.55% | 183 | 2.29% | 2,610 | 32.60% | 8,005 | ||
| Geary | 2,404 | 69.56% | 962 | 27.84% | 90 | 2.60% | 1,442 | 41.72% | 3,456 | ||
| Gove | 950 | 74.92% | 285 | 22.48% | 33 | 2.60% | 665 | 52.44% | 1,268 | ||
| Graham | 1,658 | 64.06% | 762 | 29.44% | 168 | 6.49% | 896 | 34.62% | 2,588 | ||
| Grant | 339 | 73.70% | 108 | 23.48% | 13 | 2.83% | 231 | 50.22% | 460 | ||
| Gray | 962 | 62.18% | 507 | 32.77% | 78 | 5.04% | 455 | 29.41% | 1,547 | ||
| Greeley | 273 | 69.47% | 93 | 23.66% | 27 | 6.87% | 180 | 45.80% | 393 | ||
| Greenwood | 3,422 | 68.34% | 1,478 | 29.52% | 107 | 2.14% | 1,944 | 38.83% | 5,007 | ||
| Hamilton | 591 | 57.66% | 371 | 36.20% | 63 | 6.15% | 220 | 21.46% | 1,025 | ||
| Harper | 2,593 | 61.65% | 1,486 | 35.33% | 127 | 3.02% | 1,107 | 26.32% | 4,206 | ||
| Harvey | 4,454 | 63.09% | 2,457 | 34.80% | 149 | 2.11% | 1,997 | 28.29% | 7,060 | ||
| Haskell | 444 | 69.59% | 150 | 23.51% | 44 | 6.90% | 294 | 46.08% | 638 | ||
| Hodgeman | 945 | 73.31% | 306 | 23.74% | 38 | 2.95% | 639 | 49.57% | 1,289 | ||
| Jackson | 3,753 | 70.20% | 1,562 | 29.22% | 31 | 0.58% | 2,191 | 40.98% | 5,346 | ||
| Jefferson | 3,463 | 68.86% | 1,535 | 30.52% | 31 | 0.62% | 1,928 | 38.34% | 5,029 | ||
| Jewell | 3,925 | 65.97% | 1,899 | 31.92% | 116 | 1.95% | 10 | 0.17% | 2,026 | 34.05% | 5,950 |
| Johnson | 4,325 | 64.27% | 2,303 | 34.22% | 101 | 1.50% | 2,022 | 30.05% | 6,729 | ||
| Kearny | 617 | 63.74% | 266 | 27.48% | 85 | 8.78% | 351 | 36.26% | 968 | ||
| Kingman | 2,818 | 63.18% | 1,557 | 34.91% | 85 | 1.91% | 1,261 | 28.27% | 4,460 | ||
| Kiowa | 1,411 | 69.51% | 587 | 28.92% | 32 | 1.58% | 824 | 40.59% | 2,030 | ||
| Labette | 6,596 | 57.94% | 4,328 | 38.02% | 460 | 4.04% | 2,268 | 19.92% | 11,384 | ||
| Lane | 656 | 63.94% | 298 | 29.04% | 72 | 7.02% | 358 | 34.89% | 1,026 | ||
| Leavenworth | 6,846 | 65.05% | 3,409 | 32.39% | 269 | 2.56% | 3,437 | 32.66% | 10,524 | ||
| Lincoln | 2,298 | 69.51% | 935 | 28.28% | 73 | 2.21% | 1,363 | 41.23% | 3,306 | ||
| Linn | 3,189 | 62.84% | 1,764 | 34.76% | 122 | 2.40% | 1,425 | 28.08% | 5,075 | ||
| Logan | 781 | 68.51% | 312 | 27.37% | 45 | 3.95% | 2 | 0.18% | 469 | 41.14% | 1,140 |
| Lyon | 5,492 | 61.09% | 3,303 | 36.74% | 195 | 2.17% | 2,189 | 24.35% | 8,990 | ||
| Marion | 3,840 | 65.82% | 1,713 | 29.36% | 281 | 4.82% | 2,127 | 36.46% | 5,834 | ||
| Marshall | 5,706 | 71.47% | 2,026 | 25.38% | 252 | 3.16% | 3,680 | 46.09% | 7,984 | ||
| McPherson | 4,870 | 69.50% | 1,926 | 27.49% | 211 | 3.01% | 2,944 | 42.02% | 7,007 | ||
| Meade | 1,236 | 70.95% | 483 | 27.73% | 23 | 1.32% | 753 | 43.23% | 1,742 | ||
| Miami | 4,060 | 60.92% | 2,450 | 36.76% | 154 | 2.31% | 1,610 | 24.16% | 6,664 | ||
| Mitchell | 3,310 | 68.32% | 1,409 | 29.08% | 126 | 2.60% | 1,901 | 39.24% | 4,845 | ||
| Montgomery | 10,044 | 62.21% | 5,657 | 35.04% | 444 | 2.75% | 4,387 | 27.17% | 16,145 | ||
| Morris | 3,001 | 66.19% | 1,467 | 32.36% | 66 | 1.46% | 1,534 | 33.83% | 4,534 | ||
| Morton | 783 | 72.97% | 266 | 24.79% | 24 | 2.24% | 517 | 48.18% | 1,073 | ||
| Nemaha | 4,655 | 72.32% | 1,731 | 26.89% | 51 | 0.79% | 2,924 | 45.42% | 6,437 | ||
| Neosho | 5,150 | 60.82% | 3,195 | 37.73% | 122 | 1.44% | 1,955 | 23.09% | 8,467 | ||
| Ness | 1,402 | 69.30% | 492 | 24.32% | 111 | 5.49% | 18 | 0.89% | 910 | 44.98% | 2,023 |
| Norton | 2,288 | 65.24% | 1,082 | 30.85% | 137 | 3.91% | 1,206 | 34.39% | 3,507 | ||
| Osage | 4,507 | 62.80% | 2,414 | 33.64% | 256 | 3.57% | 2,093 | 29.16% | 7,177 | ||
| Osborne | 3,060 | 74.45% | 980 | 23.84% | 70 | 1.70% | 2,080 | 50.61% | 4,110 | ||
| Ottawa | 2,512 | 62.94% | 1,358 | 34.03% | 121 | 3.03% | 1,154 | 28.92% | 3,991 | ||
| Pawnee | 2,128 | 63.98% | 1,138 | 34.22% | 60 | 1.80% | 990 | 29.77% | 3,326 | ||
| Phillips | 2,862 | 68.60% | 1,230 | 29.48% | 80 | 1.92% | 1,632 | 39.12% | 4,172 | ||
| Pottawatomie | 4,481 | 76.95% | 1,293 | 22.21% | 49 | 0.84% | 3,188 | 54.75% | 5,823 | ||
| Pratt | 2,722 | 64.15% | 1,433 | 33.77% | 88 | 2.07% | 1,289 | 30.38% | 4,243 | ||
| Rawlins | 1,236 | 64.81% | 495 | 25.96% | 176 | 9.23% | 741 | 38.86% | 1,907 | ||
| Reno | 9,649 | 67.12% | 4,385 | 30.50% | 341 | 2.37% | 5,264 | 36.62% | 14,375 | ||
| Republic | 3,661 | 67.30% | 1,672 | 30.74% | 107 | 1.97% | 1,989 | 36.56% | 5,440 | ||
| Rice | 3,651 | 68.95% | 1,532 | 28.93% | 106 | 2.00% | 6 | 0.11% | 2,119 | 40.02% | 5,295 |
| Riley | 4,875 | 73.57% | 1,610 | 24.30% | 141 | 2.13% | 3,265 | 49.28% | 6,626 | ||
| Rooks | 2,143 | 69.94% | 843 | 27.51% | 78 | 2.55% | 1,300 | 42.43% | 3,064 | ||
| Rush | 2,017 | 73.43% | 605 | 22.02% | 125 | 4.55% | 1,412 | 51.40% | 2,747 | ||
| Russell | 2,407 | 75.27% | 724 | 22.64% | 67 | 2.10% | 1,683 | 52.63% | 3,198 | ||
| Saline | 5,554 | 64.42% | 2,808 | 32.57% | 260 | 3.02% | 2,746 | 31.85% | 8,622 | ||
| Scott | 636 | 58.51% | 379 | 34.87% | 63 | 5.80% | 9 | 0.83% | 257 | 23.64% | 1,087 |
| Sedgwick | 16,642 | 59.15% | 10,998 | 39.09% | 494 | 1.76% | 5,644 | 20.06% | 28,134 | ||
| Seward | 1,290 | 61.52% | 722 | 34.43% | 85 | 4.05% | 568 | 27.09% | 2,097 | ||
| Shawnee | 14,814 | 66.28% | 7,217 | 32.29% | 318 | 1.42% | 7,597 | 33.99% | 22,349 | ||
| Sheridan | 1,194 | 69.54% | 477 | 27.78% | 44 | 2.56% | 2 | 0.12% | 717 | 41.76% | 1,717 |
| Sherman | 1,066 | 54.33% | 789 | 40.21% | 107 | 5.45% | 277 | 14.12% | 1,962 | ||
| Smith | 3,251 | 66.10% | 1,535 | 31.21% | 132 | 2.68% | 1,716 | 34.89% | 4,918 | ||
| Stafford | 2,779 | 70.04% | 1,057 | 26.64% | 132 | 3.33% | 1,722 | 43.40% | 3,968 | ||
| Stanton | 269 | 73.10% | 89 | 24.18% | 10 | 2.72% | 180 | 48.91% | 368 | ||
| Stevens | 876 | 69.47% | 346 | 27.44% | 39 | 3.09% | 530 | 42.03% | 1,261 | ||
| Sumner | 5,830 | 60.49% | 3,454 | 35.84% | 354 | 3.67% | 2,376 | 24.65% | 9,638 | ||
| Thomas | 1,046 | 54.56% | 747 | 38.97% | 124 | 6.47% | 299 | 15.60% | 1,917 | ||
| Trego | 1,299 | 75.04% | 395 | 22.82% | 37 | 2.14% | 904 | 52.22% | 1,731 | ||
| Wabaunsee | 2,859 | 77.63% | 782 | 21.23% | 42 | 1.14% | 2,077 | 56.39% | 3,683 | ||
| Wallace | 632 | 70.38% | 203 | 22.61% | 63 | 7.02% | 429 | 47.77% | 898 | ||
| Washington | 4,390 | 76.06% | 1,287 | 22.30% | 95 | 1.65% | 3,103 | 53.76% | 5,772 | ||
| Wichita | 422 | 73.91% | 127 | 22.24% | 22 | 3.85% | 295 | 51.66% | 571 | ||
| Wilson | 4,024 | 66.23% | 1,768 | 29.10% | 284 | 4.67% | 2,256 | 37.13% | 6,076 | ||
| Woodson | 2,253 | 68.71% | 944 | 28.79% | 82 | 2.50% | 1,309 | 39.92% | 3,279 | ||
| Wyandotte | 19,294 | 57.25% | 13,737 | 40.76% | 671 | 1.99% | 5,557 | 16.49% | 33,702 | ||
| Totals | 369,268 | 64.75% | 185,464 | 32.52% | 15,511 | 2.72% | 75 | 0.01% | 183,804 | 32.23% | 570,318 |
State and district results of the1920 United States presidential election | ||
|---|---|---|
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