1904 United States presidential election in Washington (state)

1904 United States presidential election in Washington (state)

← 1900 November 8, 1904 1908 →
 
Nominee Theodore Roosevelt Alton B. Parker Eugene V. Debs
Party Republican Democratic Socialist
Home state New York New York Indiana
Running mate Charles W. Fairbanks Henry G. Davis Ben Hanford
Electoral vote 5 0 0
Popular vote 101,540 28,098 10,023
Percentage 69.95% 19.36% 6.91%

County Results
Roosevelt
  50-60%
  60-70%
  70-80%


President before election

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican

Elected President

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican

The 1904 United States presidential election in Washington took place on November 8, 1904. All contemporary 45 states were part of the 1904 United States presidential election. Voters chose five electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

This election would solidify the State of Washington as a one-party Republican bastion, which it would remain at a Presidential level apart from the 1910s GOP split until Franklin D. Roosevelt rose to power in 1932, and more or less continuously at state level during this era.[1] Democratic representation in the Washington legislature would during this period at times be countable on one hand,[2] and no Democrat other than Woodrow Wilson in 1916 would henceforth carry even one county in the state before Catholic Al Smith carried German-settled Ferry County in 1928. Republican primaries would take over as the chief mode of political competition when introduced later in the decade.[3]

President Roosevelt was extremely popular in Washington State because of his policies of reforming the railroads, creating a Department of Commerce and Labor and conserving the forest resources that were at the time heavily exploited by big business.[3] Parker's re-emphasis on the Gold Standard, which harked back to Grover Cleveland, aroused no enthusiasm in Washington State.[4] Nor did Parker's opposition to Roosevelt's policy of imperialism in the Pacific,[5] with the result that Roosevelt's performance remains the best ever by any Presidential candidate since Washington's statehood in 1889. Parker did not win one third of the vote in a single county, and overall took just a little over nineteen percent of Washington State's ballots. Roosevelt would win Washington by a landslide margin of 50.59%. In fact, with 69.95% of the popular vote, Washington would be Roosevelt's fifth strongest victory in terms of percentage in the popular vote after Vermont, North Dakota, Minnesota and South Dakota.[6]

Socialist nominee Eugene V. Debs, whose campaign focused on trust-busting and the evils of monopoly,[7] travelled all around the nation in a charismatic campaign that netted him over four hundred thousand votes nationwide and almost nine percent in radical Washington State. In two counties Debs indeed outpolled Parker – a fate that would befall several other Democratic nominees in the state during the next two decades.

  1. ^ Burnham, Walter Dean; ‘The System of 1896’, in Kleppner, Paul (editor), The Evolution of American Electoral Systems, pp. 176-179 ISBN 0313213798
  2. ^ Schattschneider, Elmer Eric; The Semisovereign People: A Realist's View of Democracy in America, pp. 76-84 ISBN 0030133661
  3. ^ a b Murray, Keith; ‘Issues and Personalities of Pacific Northwest Politics, 1889-1950’, The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 3 (July 1950), pp. 213-233
  4. ^ Archer, Clark; Martis, Kenneth C. and Shelley, Fred M.; Historical Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections 1788-2004, p. 99 ISBN 1568029551
  5. ^ Warren, Kenneth F.; Encyclopedia of U.S. campaigns, elections, and electoral behavior: A-M, p. 609 ISBN 1412954894
  6. ^ "1904 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  7. ^ Egbert, Donald Drew and Bassett, Thomas D.; Socialism and American Life; p. 278 ISBN 1400875080

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