Landslide victory for Harding in US presidential election

Washington, 4 November 1920 - Senator Warren G. Harding is set to become the new President of the United States after achieving a landslide victory over his Democrat opponent, Governor James M. Cox.

All the electoral college returns have yet to be confirmed, but Senator Harding’s majority looks like it will exceed anything previously witnessed in American history. In 1916 Woodrow Wilson’s victory over his opponent was 600,000 votes; Senator Harding’s is expected to be 10 times that number.

A majority of six million votes is a strong mandate with one close observer of American politics telling reporters that the result represented a ‘mighty whirlwind of popular disapproval’ for President Wilson’s policy on the League of Nations.

Left: Warren G Harding's campaign card for the 1920 presidential election. (Image: New York Public Library). Right: The newly elected president Warren G Harding. (Image: Irish Life, 12 November 1920)

Addressing a celebratory gathering in his hometown of Marion, Ohio, Senator Harding declared the League of Nations to be ‘deceased’. He added that the new administration would play its part in securing a lasting world peace, but in a way that would not surrender ‘American freedom’.

Senator Harding will take office in March next year.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]