United States 1920 Presidential Election: Democratic Convention


Figure 1.--The Democrats on the 44th ballot finally selected an Ohio candidate, another newspaper publisher. Cox represented Ohio in the United States House of Representatives (1909–1913). He left Washinton after winning election as Governor (1913–15 and 1917–21). He was a competent, popular reformer. While popular in Ohio, he was a little-known politican outside of Ohio. Cox was a divorced man. Divorce was still controversial. We believe he was the first divorced man to run for president. He remarried to Margaretta Parker Blair (1917). Cox had four children, two sons by Mayme Harding and two daughters by Margaretta Blair.

Several Democrats worked for the nomination, but there was no one dominany candidate. One leading candidate was Attorney General A. Mitchell who had staged the Palmer Raids on suspected subversives. His stature was damaged with an actual Revoltiion after such drastic action did not materialize. New York Governor Al Smith also had his suporters, but as a Catholic the important southern bloc opposed him. The Democrats were thus like the Republicans were also undecided about a nominee. No one candidate could amass the needed number of delegates. The Democrats on the 44th ballot finally selected an Ohio candidate, another newspaper publisher. Cox represented Ohio in the United States House of Representatives (1909–1913)Hev resigned after winning election as Governor (1913–15 and 1917–21). He was a competent, popular reformer. While popular in Ohio, he was a little-known politican outside of Ohio. The choice of Ohioans was no accident. Ohio was and has continued to be a key state in the election of the presidency. Its mix of agriculture and industry made it a good reflection of the cuntry as a whole. The Convention chose a young Franklin Roosevelt who had served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the Wilson administration as their vice presidential candidate. He was also not well known, but of course the name Roosevelt was and that was a factor in his selection. Interestingly the two would play similar routes to the White House. Theodore Roosevelt moved from Assistant Secretary of the Navy to Govenor of New York to Vice President. Franklin would later also be elected govenor.







CIH






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Created: 9:21 AM 12/21/2012
Last updated: 9:21 AM 12/21/2012