1904 United States presidential election in Utah

The 1904 United States presidential election in Utah was held on November 8, 1904, throughout all forty-five contemporary states as part of the 1904 United States presidential election. State voters chose three representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1904 United States presidential election in Utah

November 8, 1904

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 Benjamin Hanford Electoral vote 3 0 0 Popular vote 62,452[lower-alpha 1] 33,413 5,767 Percentage 61.41% 32.86% 5.67%

County Results Roosevelt   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80% Parker   50-60%

President before election Theodore Roosevelt Republican Elected President Theodore Roosevelt Republican

Background

In its first presidential election during its statehood year, Utah – with its large reserves of silver – had voted five-to-one for Democrat/Populist William Jennings Bryan, who ran on a platform of monetizing silver. However, with a revived economy, Utah moved much closer to the national mainstream in the ensuring 1900 election, as pre-statehood Republican Party hostility to the dominant LDS church gradually disappeared after the outlawing of polygyny in 1890.[1]

In between Utah’s second and third presidential elections, newly elected but unseated senator and Mormon apostle Reed Smoot went much further towards reversing the nineteenth-century hostility of the Republican Party to the Latter Day Saints. At a time when most traditional Protestant congressmen were opposed to Smoot being seated because religious influence was feared,[2] Mormon prophet and LDS Church President Joseph F. Smith said explicitly that members of the LDS Church should in political matters obey their consciences. Smoot – although a Republican – had been targeted by both major parties in the two years between his election by the Utah Legislature in 1902 and the 1904 presidential campaign, but he corresponded consistently with incumbent president Roosevelt.[3]

Smoot’s work was one factor allowing Roosevelt to sweep twenty-six of Utah’s twenty-seven contemporary counties and carry the state by 28.55 percentage points, which even in the largest landslide since the beginning of widespread popular voting for presidential electors made Utah 9.73 percentage points more Republican than the nation at-large. Another was that Parker himself was hostile to Mormon polygyny,[4] still another was the popularity in the West of Roosevelt’s conservation and trust-busting policies.[5]

Roosevelt’s percentage of the popular vote and margin would be bettered by no Republican in Utah until Dwight D. Eisenhower’s re-election in 1956.[6]

Results

1904 United States presidential election in Utah[7]
Party		Candidate	Running mate	Popular vote		Electoral vote
				Count	%	Count	%
	Republican	Theodore Roosevelt of New York	Charles Warren Fairbanks of Indiana	62,452	61.41%	3	100.00%
	Democratic	Alton Brooks Parker of New York	Henry Gassaway Davis of West Virginia	33,413	32.86%	0	0.00%
	Socialist	Eugene Victor Debs of Indiana	Benjamin Hanford of New York	5,767	5.67%	0	0.00%
	Write-ins[lower-alpha 2]	—	—	57	0.06%	0	0.00%
Total				101,632	100.00%	3	100.00%

Results by county

County	Theodore Roosevelt Republican		Alton Brooks Parker Democratic		Eugene Victor Debs Socialist		Margin		Total votes cast[8]
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Beaver	869	58.17%	593	39.69%	32	2.14%	276	18.48%	1,494
Box Elder	2,400	66.76%	1,151	32.02%	44	1.22%	1,249	34.74%	3,595
Cache	4,008	56.89%	2,948	41.85%	89	1.26%	1,060	15.04%	7,045
Carbon	1,224	65.38%	508	27.14%	140	7.48%	716	38.24%	1,872
Davis	1,657	56.42%	1,255	42.73%	25	0.85%	402	13.69%	2,937
Emery	905	56.67%	583	36.51%	109	6.83%	322	20.16%	1,597
Garfield	679	70.14%	252	26.03%	37	3.82%	427	44.11%	968
Grand	262	57.21%	165	36.03%	31	6.77%	97	21.18%	458
Iron	741	58.72%	442	35.02%	79	6.26%	299	23.70%	1,262
Juab	1,493	48.32%	1,206	39.03%	391	12.65%	287	9.29%	3,090
Kane	399	79.64%	102	20.36%	0	0.00%	297	59.28%	501
Millard	1,001	59.23%	683	40.41%	6	0.36%	318	18.82%	1,690
Morgan	492	57.28%	315	36.67%	52	6.05%	177	20.61%	859
Piute	358	48.12%	228	30.65%	158	21.24%	130	17.47%	744
Rich	439	64.65%	240	35.35%	0	0.00%	199	29.30%	679
Salt Lake	20,665	65.10%	8,389	26.43%	2,691	8.48%	12,276	38.67%	31,745
San Juan	135	78.49%	36	20.93%	1	0.58%	99	57.56%	172
Sanpete	3,829	66.65%	1,741	30.30%	175	3.05%	2,088	36.35%	5,745
Sevier	1,725	59.10%	930	31.86%	264	9.04%	795	27.24%	2,919
Summit	2,232	57.87%	1,358	35.21%	267	6.92%	874	22.66%	3,857
Tooele	1,289	63.44%	639	31.45%	104	5.12%	650	31.99%	2,032
Uintah	753	50.40%	630	42.17%	111	7.43%	123	8.23%	1,494
Utah	6,490	59.15%	4,243	38.67%	239	2.18%	2,247	20.48%	10,972
Wasatch	1,042	60.79%	656	38.27%	16	0.93%	386	22.52%	1,714
Washington	718	48.38%	761	51.28%	5	0.34%	-43	-2.90%	1,484
Wayne	310	53.26%	251	43.13%	21	3.61%	59	10.13%	582
Weber	6,337	62.59%	3,108	30.70%	680	6.72%	3,229	31.89%	10,125
Totals	62,452	61.41%	33,413	32.86%	5,767	5.67%	29,039	28.55%	101,632

Notes

1. Robinson‘s The Presidential Vote has a figure of 62,446 votes, but the county votes sum to 62,452
2. These write-in votes not tabulated by counties but given as a state-wide totals.

References

1. Balmer, Randall and Riess, Janet (editors); Mormonism and American Politics (Religion, Culture, and Public Life), pp. 135-137 ISBN 0231540892
2. Perry, Luke and Cronin, Christopher; Mormons in American Politics: From Persecution to Power, p. 52 ISBN 1440804087
3. Perry and Cronin; Mormons in American Politics, p. 54
4. Murdock, Dr. Everett E.; From Washington and Adams to Hillary and Trump: The Stories behind the Story of Every U.S. Presidential Election, p. 120 ISBN 0923178317
5. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 36 ISBN 0786422173
6. Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas; Presidential General Election Results Comparison – Utah
7. "1904 Presidential General Election Results – Utah". U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
8. Robinson, Edgar Eugene; The Presidential Vote; 1896-1932 (second edition); pp. 223-224 Published 1947 by Stanford University Press