PC: 1924: Worse Than 1824

Let's say Harding lives, weathering Teapot Dome with significant damage, but, because he wasn't personally involved, a Republican congress won't impeach him. Although it's pretty contentious, he gets re-nominated, although not before pissing off several other prominent Republicans. Then, (let's just assume Harding stopped paying the child support for some reason) the Nan Britton scandal breaks, and Harding and the purported child have the same blood group. An effort to have a second convention fails by just a few votes, and many Republicans splinter off on a separate but non-progressive ticket. Meanwhile, the Democratic Convention goes a bit differently, and McAdoo emerges with the nomination by an agonizingly small margin, still after scores of ballots. Shortly afterwards, a Klan scandal, not D.C Stephenson-level but still pretty big, breaks, and McAdoo signally fails to distance himself from it in a meaningful way. For the eastern Wets, this is the last straw, and Smith runs on his own ticket. As for the Progressive party, all this infighting in both camps benefits them greatly, with Hiram Johnson and Borah endorsing la Follette, and many dry but liberal northern democrats switching to it. On election day, all five parties get electoral votes, and Smith's razor-thin winning of New York state ensures that no one gets a majority. With the election going to the house, Harding is removed from real contention, but the Republican opposition fragments, while the other parties are too numerous to act as deciding factors. Eventually, Coolidge becomes Acting President.

Is this plausible?
 
Last edited:
OK, this is a perfect storm of party-disrupting surprises and accidents, but it's cleverly done.

(Could McAdoo really be tarred with a Klan scandal? AFAIK, he wasn't actually close to the Klan; he didn't reject their support, but that's about all, IIRC. ISTM he would have to get in bad with them. And how does he get the nomination with the drag of the Klan? BTW, McAdoo took $25,000 from Doheny, the man behind Teapot Dome, which he returned when he found out Doheny was also paying off Fall. Suppose he hadn't found out before he was caught with the money in his pocket? But that would take him out early. Maybe he gets dumb and thinks that as he hasn't delivered any quid, he can just keep the quo.)

Smith's razor-thin winning of New York state ensures that no one gets a majority...

Gonna do a little research, and find the best 4th place performance in a state for a Presidential candidate. The problem is finding races contested four ways. 1860, 1912, 1948?

(BTW, the best 4th place finish in electoral history was in the Democrat gubernatorial primary in Wyoming in IIRC 1976 - the fourth place candidate had 24%. Really.)
 
OK, this is a perfect storm of party-disrupting surprises and accidents, but it's cleverly done.

(Could McAdoo really be tarred with a Klan scandal? AFAIK, he wasn't actually close to the Klan; he didn't reject their support, but that's about all, IIRC. ISTM he would have to get in bad with them. And how does he get the nomination with the drag of the Klan? BTW, McAdoo took $25,000 from Doheny, the man behind Teapot Dome, which he returned when he found out Doheny was also paying off Fall. Suppose he hadn't found out before he was caught with the money in his pocket? But that would take him out early. Maybe he gets dumb and thinks that as he hasn't delivered any quid, he can just keep the quo.)



Gonna do a little research, and find the best 4th place performance in a state for a Presidential candidate. The problem is finding races contested four ways. 1860, 1912, 1948?

(BTW, the best 4th place finish in electoral history was in the Democrat gubernatorial primary in Wyoming in IIRC 1976 - the fourth place candidate had 24%. Really.)
I'll go through these line-by-line.
Thanks. I never meant for it to be exactly plausible, since it is a perfect storm, as you said, but I'm relived to hear you don't consider it impossible.
Wasn't Klan support the main reason why he couldn't get the nomination OTL? Keep in mind, I planned the Convention still being a total clusterfuck, McAdoo's still distrusted by the Northerners. I think a Klan scandal that he doesn't handle well would be good enough to split off Smith, but now I'm not so sure. If you really thinks it's implausible, I'll change the scandal to a sudden revelation of the Doheny thing.

In a race with five strong candidates, I believe that we can safely allow for the election of any one of them, particularly one who is the popular governor of the state in question.

If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you two questions. Firstly, who would the Independent Republican nominee be (I haven't found any great contenders)? Secondly, where would the progressives get ahistorical wins?
 
Top