1904 United States presidential election in Idaho

1904 United States presidential election in Idaho

← 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 3 0 0
Popular vote 47,783 18,480 4,949
Percentage 65.84% 25.46% 6.82%

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 Idaho took place on November 8, 1904. All contemporary 45 states were part of the 1904 United States presidential election. State voters chose three electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

Although the Republican Party had not carried Idaho in any of the state's three previous presidential elections, at state level, Idaho had begun in 1902 to be very much a one-party Republican state,[1] which it has largely remained since apart from the New Deal era of the 1930s and 1940s. Moreover, Democratic nominee Alton Brooks Parker’s defense of the Gold Standard, which harked back to Grover Cleveland, aroused no enthusiasm in Idaho.[2] Nor did his opposition to Roosevelt’s policy of imperialism in the Pacific,[3] whilst Roosevelt’s strong efforts to regulate big businesses were extremely popular in the remote Northwest.[4] Parker was also affected by the perception that the Bryan Democrats had failed severely as a party of reform.[5]

As a result, Roosevelt was able to achieve the first-ever Republican victory in Idaho by an overwhelming margin – 40.38 percentage points – in the process emulating William Jennings Bryan’s 1896 sweep of all Idaho’s counties.

  1. ^ Burnham, Walter Dean; ‘The System of 1896’, in Kleppner, Paul (editor), The Evolution of American Electoral Systems, pp. 176-179 ISBN 0313213798
  2. ^ Archer, Clark; Martis, Kenneth C. and Shelley, Fred M.; Historical Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections 1788-2004, p. 99 ISBN 1568029551
  3. ^ Warren, Kenneth F.; Encyclopedia of U.S. campaigns, elections, and electoral behavior: A-M, p. 609 ISBN 1412954894
  4. ^ Murray, Keith; ‘Issues and Personalities of Pacific Northwest Politics, 1889-1950’; The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, vol. 41, No. 3 (July 1950), pp. 213-233
  5. ^ Robinson, Edgar Eugene; ‘The Decline of the Democratic Party’; American Journal of Sociology, vol. 20, no. 3 (November 1914), pp. 313-334