1924 United States presidential election in Wisconsin

The 1924 United States presidential election in Wisconsin was held on November 4, 1924, as part of the 1924 United States presidential election. State voters chose 13 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Wisconsin had since the decline of the Populist movement been substantially a one-party state dominated by the Republican Party.Burnham, Walter Dean; 'The System of 1896: An Analysis'; in The Evolution of American Electoral Systems, pp. 178-179 The Democratic Party became entirely uncompetitive outside certain German Catholic counties adjoining Lake Michigan as the upper classes, along with the majority of workers who followed them, completely fled from William Jennings Bryan's agrarian and free silver sympathies.Sundquist, James; Politics and Policy: The Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson Years, p. 526 As Democratic strength weakened severely after 1894 – although the state did develop a strong Socialist Party to provide opposition to the GOP – Wisconsin developed the direct Republican primary in 1903 and this ultimately created competition between the "League" under Robert M. La Follette, and the conservative "Regular" faction.Hansen, John Mark; Shigeo Hirano, and Snyder, James M. Jr.; 'Parties within Parties: Parties, Factions, and Coordinated Politics, 1900-1980'; in Gerber, Alan S. and Schickler, Eric; Governing in a Polarized Age: Elections, Parties, and Political Representation in America, pp. 165-168

The beginning of the 1910s would see a minor Democratic revival as many La Follette progressives endorsed Woodrow Wilson,Crews, Kenneth D.; 'Woodrow Wilson, Wisconsin, and the Election of 1912'; Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 3: 'Presidents, Vice Presidents and Political Parties: Performance and Prospects' (Summer, 1982), pp. 369-376 but this flirtation would not be long-lasting as Wilson's "Anglophile" foreign policies were severely opposed by Wisconsin's largely German- and Scandinavian-American populace.Leary, William M. (jr.); 'Woodrow Wilson, Irish Americans, and the Election of 1916'; The Journal of American History, Vol. 54, No. 1 (June 1967), pp. 57-72 The 1918 mid-term elections saw the Midwestern farming community largely desert the Democratic Party due to supposed preferential treatment of Southern farmers:Morello, John A.; Albert D. Lasker, Advertising, and the Election of Warren G. Harding, p. 64 Democratic seats in the Midwest fell from thirty-four to seventeen,Hough, Jerry F.; Changing Party Coalitions: The Mystery of the Red State-Blue State Alignment, pp. 86-87 and in 1920 Wisconsin's status as a one-party Republican state was solidified as James M. Cox won less than a sixth of the state's presidential vote and Democrats claimed only four state legislative seats, all but one of which would be lost in 1922.

At the same time, the Republican Party both at the state and national levels was severely divided between an ascendant conservative faction and a progressive faction, whose leader was Wisconsin's own veteran senator Robert M. La Follette.Moore, John A.; 'The Original Supply Siders: Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge'; The Independent Review, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Spring 2014), pp. 597-618 After a fierce debate the Democratic Party nominated former Congressman John W. Davis of West Virginia,Paulson, Arthur C.; Realignment and Party Revival: Understanding American Electoral Politics at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century, p. 51 who although West Virginia was a border state whose limited African-American population had not been disenfranchised as happened in all former Confederate States,Ranney, Joseph A.; In the Wake of Slavery: Civil War, Civil Rights, and the Reconstruction of Southern Law; p. 141 shared the extreme social conservatism of Southern Democrats of the time. Davis supported poll taxes, opposed women's suffrage, and believed in strictly limited government with no expansion in nonmilitary fields.Newman, Roger K.; The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law, p. 153

The conservatism of the major-party nominees made La Follette mount a third-party challenge, which he had planned even beforehand.Richardson, Darcy G.; Others: "Fighting Bob" La Follette and the Progressive Movement: Third-Party Politics in the 1920s, p. 180 Wisconsin's Senator was formally nominated on July 4 by the "Conference for Progressive Political Action" and developed a platform dedicated to eliminating child labor and American interference in Latin American political affairs, along with a formal denunciation of the Ku Klux Klan.Richardson; Others, pp. 182-183 La Follette also proposed major judicial reforms including amendments allowing congress to override judicial review and to re-enact laws declared unconstitutional.Moreno, Paul D.; The American State from the Civil War to the New Deal: The Twilight of Constitutionalism and the Triumph of Progressivism, p. 205 La Follette also called for election of federal judges for ten-year terms.Parrish, Michael E.; Anxious Decades: America in Prosperity and Depression, 1920-1941, pp. 70-71

At the beginning of the campaign in July, La Follette listed nine states as "in" for him, including Wisconsin.'La Follette's Managers Claiming Nine States'; The Ridgway News (Ridgway, Illinois), July 24, 1924, p. 1 Although early opinion polls showed La Follette attracting large numbers of those German and Scandinavian-Americans who completely deserted Cox in 1920,Tucker, Garland; High Tide of American Conservatism: Davis, Coolidge, and the 1924 Election, p. 191 newer polls later in the fall showed Wisconsin as the only state La Follette was certain to carry.Tucker; High Tide of American Conservatism, p. 231 These later polls proved correct, with La Follette carrying Wisconsin with 53.96 percent of the popular vote, but winning no other state.

Results + General Election ResultsWisconsin Historical Society, Certificate of Board of State Canvassers - Presidential Electors - 1924Party Pledged to Elector Votes Independent Progressive Robert M. La Follette Zona Gale453,678 Independent Progressive Robert M. La Follette Otto P. Seifriz446,289 Independent Progressive Robert M. La Follette Julia Anderson Schnetz444,915 Independent Progressive Robert M. La Follette Charles J. Schoenfeld444,848 Independent Progressive Robert M. La Follette William T. Evjue444,514 Independent Progressive Robert M. La Follette John J. Handley444,062 Independent Progressive Robert M. La Follette Ira S. Lorenz444,004 Independent Progressive Robert M. La Follette John C. Schmidtmann443,862 Independent Progressive Robert M. La Follette William V. Kidder443,784 Independent Progressive Robert M. La Follette Ernest L. Schroeder443,726 Independent Progressive Robert M. La Follette John T. Reynolds443,459 Independent Progressive Robert M. La Follette Mary Francis Taylor443,224 Independent Progressive Robert M. La Follette Clough Gates443,073 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Emanuel L. Phillipp311,614 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Magnus Swenson310,550 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge F. Lee Norton310,538 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Lyman G. Wheeler310,455 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Theodora W. Youmans310,388 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Wheeler P. Bloodgood310,330 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Theodore Benfey310,306 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Timothy Burke310,085 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge J. L. Sturtevant310,019 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge George S. Gordon Sr.309,930 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Sophie I. Strathern309,923 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Laura Olson309,824 Republican Party Calvin Coolidge Mary Scott Johnson309,654 Democratic Party John W. Davis Anthony Szczerbinski68,115 Democratic Party John W. Davis Katherine L. Conway68,096 Democratic Party John W. Davis John F. Doherty68,040 Democratic Party John W. Davis John Moran68,028 Democratic Party John W. Davis Charles E. Wilson68,025 Democratic Party John W. Davis William H. Graebner68,011 Democratic Party John W. Davis Carl J. Mueller67,958 Democratic Party John W. Davis John Mulva67,840 Democratic Party John W. Davis H. B. Crane67,837 Democratic Party John W. Davis Francis J. Rooney67,815 Democratic Party John W. Davis Henry L. Nunn67,775 Democratic Party John W. Davis George F. Dietrich67,772 Democratic Party John W. Davis Ludwig P. Moen67,751 Independent William Z. Foster Henry Hill3,773 Independent William Z. Foster Martin Udjbinac3,759 Independent William Z. Foster Arvid Nelson3,739 Independent William Z. Foster A. J. Haynes3,728 Independent William Z. Foster Aaron Kivisto3,724 Independent William Z. Foster Louis Majtan3,715 Independent William Z. Foster Martin Markovich3,710 Independent William Z. Foster Carl Gerlach3,708 Independent William Z. Foster Marko Ebenhe3,687 Independent William Z. Foster Clara Knappe3,681 Independent William Z. Foster Carl Schradl3,666 Independent William Z. Foster Fred Podello3,659 Independent William Z. Foster Fredinand Pilacek3,628 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris Helen M. Tubbs2,918 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris William E. Mack2,845 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris M. L. Welles2,839 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris Alba A. Glovier2,831 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris Ella Tenney Sanford2,824 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris Charles H. Mott2,818 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris Herbert S. Siggelko2,811 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris August F. Fehlandt2,809 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris Lucius A. Willis2,809 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris Peter H. Rasmussen2,802 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris Frank Elisha Cummings2,795 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris D. Belle Ady2,790 Prohibition Party Herman P. Faris David Walden Emerson2,768 Independent Frank T. Johns Jeff Davies458 Independent Frank T. Johns G. Driebel411 Independent Frank T. Johns E. Kathke Jr.379 Independent Frank T. Johns M. Farchmin Jr.376 Independent William J. Wallace Carl Aken270 Independent William J. Wallace Cornelius Leenhouts215 Write-in Scattering10Votes cast 840,836

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