(Q4560828)

San Francisco hosted the 1920 convention on June 28 - July 6, the first time a convention of one of the major parties was held west of the Rockies. The November 1920 election would also be notable as the first election allowing women to vote for president. For the first time in a generation the party had no recognized leader such as Grover Cleveland, William Jennings Bryan or Woodrow Wilson. Retiring President Wilson’s refusal to endorse a candidate prevented the emergence of any one candidate as the front-runner. Twenty-four candidates received votes on the first presidential roll call, with no candidate reaching the 729 votes needed for the nomination. After several ballots, four candidates emerged as the leaders: William Gibbs McAdoo, Wilson’s son-in-law and former treasury secretary; Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer; Gov. Alfred E. Smith of New York; and Gov. James M. Cox of Ohio. On the 44th ballot Governor Cox received 699 ½ votes, and with victory assured a motion was adopted to declare the Ohio governor the unanimous nominee. Cox’s choice for the vice presidential nomination, Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York, the 38-year old assistant secretary of the Navy, was nominated by acclamation. The 1920 Democratic platform’s major plank expressed the party’s endorsement of the League of Nations as the “surest, if not the only, practicable means of maintaining the permanent peace of the world.” (English)

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reference URL

https://www.loc.gov/rr/main/polcon/democraticindex.html

has part(s)

1920 Democratic Party Platform

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Commons category

1920 Democratic National Convention

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