1924 United States presidential election in Rhode Island
The 1924 United States presidential election in Rhode Island took place on November 4, 1924, as part of the 1924 United States presidential election which was held throughout all contemporary 48 states. Voters chose five representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
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 County Results
Coolidge 50-60% 60-70% 70-80%
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| Elections in Rhode Island |
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Rhode Island voted for the Republican nominee, incumbent President Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts, over the Democratic nominee, Ambassador John W. Davis of West Virginia. Coolidge ran with former Budget Director Charles G. Dawes of Illinois, while Davis ran with Governor Charles W. Bryan of Nebraska. Also in the running that year was the Progressive Party nominee, Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin and his running mate Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana. La Follette’s support base was primarily among rural German and Scandinavian Americans,[1] and he possessed little appeal in the Northeast outside a few New York and Boston anti-Prohibition precincts. This was especially true in Rhode Island where La Follette’s opposition to the League of Nations was severely unpopular,[2] and consequently Rhode Island was La Follette’s sixth-weakest state and weakest outside the former Confederacy where the lower classes were almost entirely disfranchised.
Coolidge won Rhode Island by a margin of 23.17%. His victory was also enjoyed a unique personal popularity which helped him in the state and the rest of New England. He was the epitome of a traditional New England Yankee, having been born in the small-town of Plymouth Notch, Vermont, and establishing his political career nearby as Governor of Massachusetts. Thus Coolidge remained especially popular with voters across the New England region.
The 1920s were a fiercely Republican decade in American politics, and Rhode Island in that era was a fiercely Republican state in presidential elections. The economic boom and social good feelings of the Roaring Twenties under popular Republican leadership virtually guaranteed Calvin Coolidge an easy win in the state against the conservative Southern Democrat Davis. Although Davis’ reticence on the Ku Klux Klan was opposed by large Catholic populations in Rhode Island, his status as the solitary pro-League of Nations candidate helped him in the Ocean State with its large immigrant population. Consequently Davis gained almost 4% on Cox’s 1920 vote and in fact Rhode Island was his third strongest state in the North and West (behind New Mexico and Indiana), giving Davis a vote percentage 7.64% above his national figure.
In effect, Davis’ gain would begin Rhode Island's transition from a strongly Yankee Republican state into a Democratic-leaning state, made definitive via Catholic Al Smith’s win 4 years later. Rhode Island would not vote for another Republican presidential candidate until Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952, and since 1924, Republicans have only carried the state four times.
Results
| 1924 United States presidential election in Rhode Island[3] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Popular vote | Electoral vote | ||||
| Count | % | Count | % | |||||
| Republican | Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts | Charles Gates Dawes of Illinois | 125,286 | 59.63% | 5 | 100.00% | ||
| Democratic | John William Davis of West Virginia | Charles Wayland Bryan of Nebraska | 76,606 | 36.46% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Progressive | Robert Marion La Follette of Wisconsin | Burton Kendall Wheeler of Montana | 7,628 | 3.63% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Communist | William Z. Foster of Massachusetts | Benjamin Gitlow of New York | 289 | 0.14% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Socialist Labor | Frank Tetes Johns of Oregon | Verne L. Reynolds of New York | 268 | 0.13% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| N/A | Others | Others | 38 | 0.02% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Total | 210,115 | 100.00% | 5 | 100.00% | ||||
Results by town
| Town | John Calvin Coolidge Republican |
John William Davis Democratic |
Robert M. La Follette, Sr. Progressive |
William Z. Foster Workers |
Frank Tetes Johns Socialist Labor |
William Wallace Commonwealth Land |
Margin | Total votes cast[4] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Barrington | 1,239 | 82.71% | 239 | 15.95% | 20 | 1.34% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,000 | 66.76% | 1,498 |
| Bristol | 1,602 | 53.52% | 1,313 | 43.87% | 74 | 2.47% | 2 | 0.07% | 1 | 0.03% | 1 | 0.03% | 289 | 9.66% | 2,993 |
| Burrillville | 1,590 | 51.47% | 1,363 | 44.12% | 131 | 4.24% | 3 | 0.10% | 2 | 0.06% | 0 | 0.00% | 227 | 7.35% | 3,089 |
| Central Falls | 2,906 | 42.88% | 3,683 | 54.35% | 173 | 2.55% | 10 | 0.15% | 5 | 0.07% | 0 | 0.00% | -777 | -11.47% | 6,777 |
| Charlestown | 367 | 83.79% | 59 | 13.47% | 12 | 2.74% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 308 | 70.32% | 438 |
| Coventry | 1,735 | 70.16% | 692 | 27.98% | 42 | 1.70% | 2 | 0.08% | 2 | 0.08% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,043 | 42.18% | 2,473 |
| Cranston | 8,832 | 76.52% | 2,344 | 20.31% | 331 | 2.87% | 11 | 0.10% | 22 | 0.19% | 2 | 0.02% | 6,488 | 56.21% | 11,542 |
| Cumberland | 1,766 | 46.11% | 1,902 | 49.66% | 148 | 3.86% | 10 | 0.26% | 4 | 0.10% | 0 | 0.00% | -136 | -3.55% | 3,830 |
| East Greenwich | 1,344 | 78.50% | 339 | 19.80% | 28 | 1.64% | 1 | 0.06% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,005 | 58.70% | 1,712 |
| East Providence | 5,962 | 70.12% | 2,249 | 26.45% | 277 | 3.26% | 6 | 0.07% | 5 | 0.06% | 4 | 0.05% | 3,713 | 43.67% | 8,503 |
| Exeter | 317 | 87.09% | 41 | 11.26% | 6 | 1.65% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 276 | 75.82% | 364 |
| Foster | 415 | 83.50% | 77 | 15.49% | 3 | 0.60% | 0 | 0.00% | 1 | 0.20% | 1 | 0.20% | 338 | 68.01% | 497 |
| Glocester | 517 | 69.21% | 219 | 29.32% | 10 | 1.34% | 0 | 0.00% | 1 | 0.13% | 0 | 0.00% | 298 | 39.89% | 747 |
| Hopkinton | 959 | 87.98% | 106 | 9.72% | 24 | 2.20% | 1 | 0.09% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 853 | 78.26% | 1,090 |
| Jamestown | 465 | 77.50% | 109 | 18.17% | 25 | 4.17% | 0 | 0.00% | 1 | 0.17% | 0 | 0.00% | 356 | 59.33% | 600 |
| Johnston | 1,595 | 65.10% | 780 | 31.84% | 68 | 2.78% | 1 | 0.04% | 6 | 0.24% | 0 | 0.00% | 815 | 33.27% | 2,450 |
| Lincoln | 2,203 | 57.47% | 1,567 | 40.88% | 50 | 1.30% | 3 | 0.08% | 10 | 0.26% | 0 | 0.00% | 636 | 16.59% | 3,833 |
| Little Compton | 415 | 94.97% | 20 | 4.58% | 1 | 0.23% | 1 | 0.23% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 395 | 90.39% | 437 |
| Middletown | 495 | 87.30% | 63 | 11.11% | 9 | 1.59% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 432 | 76.19% | 567 |
| Narragansett | 495 | 75.57% | 154 | 23.51% | 5 | 0.76% | 1 | 0.15% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 341 | 52.06% | 655 |
| New Shoreham | 430 | 92.87% | 32 | 6.91% | 1 | 0.22% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 398 | 85.96% | 463 |
| Newport | 6,115 | 59.43% | 3,545 | 34.45% | 607 | 5.90% | 10 | 0.10% | 13 | 0.13% | 0 | 0.00% | 2,570 | 24.98% | 10,290 |
| North Kingstown | 1,463 | 77.82% | 373 | 19.84% | 41 | 2.18% | 1 | 0.05% | 2 | 0.11% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,090 | 57.98% | 1,880 |
| North Providence | 1,861 | 60.05% | 1,138 | 36.72% | 86 | 2.78% | 6 | 0.19% | 5 | 0.16% | 3 | 0.10% | 723 | 23.33% | 3,099 |
| North Smithfield | 680 | 60.88% | 391 | 35.00% | 44 | 3.94% | 1 | 0.09% | 1 | 0.09% | 0 | 0.00% | 289 | 25.87% | 1,117 |
| Pawtucket | 13,807 | 56.76% | 9,622 | 39.56% | 814 | 3.35% | 36 | 0.15% | 43 | 0.18% | 3 | 0.01% | 4,185 | 17.20% | 24,325 |
| Portsmouth | 558 | 88.85% | 60 | 9.55% | 9 | 1.43% | 1 | 0.16% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 498 | 79.30% | 628 |
| Providence | 42,063 | 54.33% | 31,667 | 40.90% | 3,431 | 4.43% | 123 | 0.16% | 119 | 0.15% | 23 | 0.03% | 10,396 | 13.43% | 77,426 |
| Richmond | 437 | 76.53% | 109 | 19.09% | 24 | 4.20% | 0 | 0.00% | 1 | 0.18% | 0 | 0.00% | 328 | 57.44% | 571 |
| Scituate | 1,043 | 82.13% | 205 | 16.14% | 18 | 1.42% | 4 | 0.31% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 838 | 65.98% | 1,270 |
| Smithfield | 881 | 64.26% | 473 | 34.50% | 16 | 1.17% | 0 | 0.00% | 1 | 0.07% | 0 | 0.00% | 408 | 29.76% | 1,371 |
| South Kingstown | 1,712 | 71.81% | 631 | 26.47% | 36 | 1.51% | 4 | 0.17% | 1 | 0.04% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,081 | 45.34% | 2,384 |
| Tiverton | 1,130 | 86.66% | 146 | 11.20% | 23 | 1.76% | 1 | 0.08% | 4 | 0.31% | 0 | 0.00% | 984 | 75.46% | 1,304 |
| Warren | 1,235 | 55.18% | 948 | 42.36% | 52 | 2.32% | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 0.04% | 1 | 0.04% | 287 | 12.82% | 2,238 |
| Warwick | 5,494 | 78.17% | 1,355 | 19.28% | 163 | 2.32% | 9 | 0.13% | 7 | 0.10% | 0 | 0.00% | 4,139 | 58.89% | 7,028 |
| West Greenwich | 146 | 83.43% | 29 | 16.57% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 0 | 0.00% | 117 | 66.86% | 175 |
| West Warwick | 2,381 | 43.51% | 3,014 | 55.08% | 73 | 1.33% | 2 | 0.04% | 2 | 0.04% | 0 | 0.00% | -633 | -11.57% | 5,472 |
| Westerly | 2,288 | 69.23% | 893 | 27.02% | 110 | 3.33% | 5 | 0.15% | 9 | 0.27% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,395 | 42.21% | 3,305 |
| Woonsocket | 6,343 | 54.33% | 4,656 | 39.88% | 643 | 5.51% | 12 | 0.10% | 20 | 0.17% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,687 | 14.45% | 11,674 |
| Totals | 125,286 | 59.63% | 76,606 | 36.46% | 7,628 | 3.63% | 268 | 0.13% | 289 | 0.14% | 38 | 0.02% | 48,680 | 23.17% | 210,115 |
References
- Stark, Rodney and Christiano, Kevin J.; ‘Support for the American Left, 1920-1924: The Opiate Thesis Reconsidered’; Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 31, No. 1 (March, 1992), pp. 62-75
- Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 55 ISBN 0786422173
- "1924 Presidential General Election Results – Rhode Island". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
- Rhode Island Secretary of State; ‘Presidential Election, November 4, 1924 Vote of Rhode Island by Cities and Towns’; Rhode Island Manual, 1925-1926
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