This work will focus on the presidential election of 1920 and the campaign of James M. Cox. In it, I argue that the campaign was not simply a referendum on the League of Nations or Woodrow Wilson's presidency. Instead, Cox's campaign inadvertently changed the way presidential campaigns were conducted and how candidates addressed the issues. The first chapter will examine the political issues that impacted this presidential election, dispelling the notion that the election was simply a single issue referendum on World War I, prohibition, the League of Nations, or the progressive movement. While the final chapter will discuss how Cox responded to the various issues, this chapter will be important in demonstrating the extremely difficult political climate in which Governor Cox campaigned. The second chapter will describe the changing political geography and the decline of partisan politics. Included in this chapter is a discussion of the importance of both candidates emerging from the state of Ohio and how this particular election marked the end of party machines dominating the nomination process. The third chapter will examine the Cox campaign in contrast with that of Harding. This chapter will reveal the myriad ways that Cox attempted to adapt his campaign to fit the issues and changing political landscape. Here, it will be demonstrated how the campaign and election marked the blending of the two eras, the effects of which are still felt today.
While other books provide the reader a greater sense of Warren Harding as a candidate and the way his campaigned negotiated the issues, Harding's perspective is not dominant in my work. Instead, Harding's campaign will serve as the constant and Cox's as the variable. Harding added to the history of presidential campaigns primarily in the hiring of an advertising agent and in his savvy use of celebrity endorsements. But, his campaign largely kept him on his front porch in Marion, Ohio, borrowing heavily from the McKinley model. Cox's campaign would mimic, in many ways, the William Jennings Bryan speaking tours. But Cox's campaign also covered a great many more issues than Harding's, and he reached more states throughout the country to present the first truly national presidential campaign. It was Cox's campaign, and not Harding's, that was more in accordance with what voters came to expect of their candidates. Thus, it was Cox's campaign that would serve as the model for the future, while Harding's front-porch has been relegated to the nostalgia of the 1920s.