Some Prohibitionists and other Bryan supporters tried to convince the three-time presidential candidate to enter the 1920 presidential election and a '' Literary Digest '' poll taken in mid-1920 ranked Bryan as the fourth-most popular potential Democratic candidate . Bryan , however , declined to seek public office , writing " if I can help this world to banish alcohol and after that to banish war ... no office , no Presidency , can offer the honors that will be mine . " He attended the 1920 Democratic National Convention as a delegate from Nebraska , but was disappointed by the nomination of Governor James M. Cox , who had not supported ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment . Bryan declined the presidential nomination of the Prohibition Party and refused to campaign for Cox , making the 1920 campaign the first presidential contest in over thirty years in which he did not actively campaign
1920 Democratic National Convention
1920 Democratic National Convention
William Jennings Bryan