Daugherty , who became Harding 's campaign manager , was sure none of the other candidates could garner a majority . His strategy was to make Harding an acceptable choice to delegates once the leaders faltered . Daugherty established a Harding for president campaign office in Washington ( run by his confidant , Jess Smith ) , and worked to manage a network of Harding friends and supporters , including Frank Scobey of Texas ( clerk of the Ohio State Senate during Harding 's years there ) . Harding worked to shore up his support through incessant letter-writing . Despite the candidate 's work , according to Russell , " without Daugherty 's Mephistophelean efforts , Harding would never have stumbled forward to the nomination . " There were only 16 presidential primary states in 1920 , of which the most crucial to Harding was Ohio . Harding had to have some loyalists at the convention to have any chance of nomination , and the Wood campaign hoped to knock Harding out of the race by taking Ohio . Wood campaigned in the state , and his supporter , Procter , spent large sums ; Harding spoke in the non-confrontational style he had adopted in 1914 . Harding and Daugherty were so confident of sweeping Ohio 's 48 delegates that the candidate went on to the next state , Indiana , before the April 27 Ohio primary . Harding carried Ohio by only 15,000 votes over Wood , taking less than half the total vote , and won only 39 of 48 delegates . In Indiana , Harding finished fourth , with less than ten percent of the vote , and failed to win a single delegate . He was willing to give up and have Daugherty file his re-election papers for the Senate , but Florence Harding grabbed the phone from his hand , " Warren Harding , what are you doing ? Give up ? Not until the convention is over . Think of your friends in Ohio ! " On learning that Daugherty had left the phone line , the future First Lady retorted , " Well , you tell Harry Daugherty for me that we 're in this fight until Hell freezes over . " After he recovered from the shock of the poor results , Harding traveled to Boston , where he delivered a speech that according to Dean , " would resonate throughout the 1920 campaign and history . " There , he stated that " America 's present need is not heroics , but healing ; not nostrums , but normalcy ; not revolution , but restoration . " Dean notes , " Harding , more than the other aspirants , was reading the nation 's pulse correctly . " The 1920 Republican National Convention opened at the Chicago Coliseum on June 8 , 1920 , assembling delegates who were bitterly divided , most recently over the results of a Senate investigation into campaign spending , which had just been released . That report found that Wood had spent $ 1.8 million ( equivalent to $ million in ) , lending substance to Johnson 's claims that Wood was trying to buy the presidency . Some of the $ 600,000 that Lowden had spent had wound up in the pockets of two convention delegates . Johnson had spent $ 194,000 , and Harding $ 113,000 . Johnson was deemed to be behind the inquiry , and the rage of the Lowden and Wood factions put an end to any possible compromise among the frontrunners . Of the almost 1,000 delegates , 27 were women — the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution , guaranteeing women the vote , was within one state of ratification , and would pass before the end of August . The convention had no boss , most uninstructed delegates voted as they pleased , and with a Democrat in the White House , the party 's leaders could not use patronage to get their way
1920 Republican National Convention
1920 Republican National Convention
Warren G. Harding