1924 Presidential election

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The Klan had pretty significant growth in the northeast and midwest as well though where it tended to be tied closer to the Republican Party. I don't think either political party in the 1920s or any region of the country was anything but backwards when it came to racism and anti-immigrant nativism.

Indeed; the Republican party in Indiana was essentially the Klan party in the 20s, for example. Not terribly surprising when we consider that the Democratic party in the Northeast was the party of Catholics, Jews, and immigrants during this period.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

A very interesting essay that discuses the Indiana Klan's involvement in the 1924 election. Excerpts:

When [Republican state chairman Lawrence] Lyons confessed to being a member of the Klan, he “ripped off the mask,” and drew attention to the Klan’s influence in the Republican Party. This subsequently made “the Klan an issue in the next campaign.” The Huntington Press published an article that acknowledged the Klan had become a pillar of the Republican Party in this election. It was widely known that to be Republican was to cast a vote with the Klan. Both political parties were expected to take a blow in voter support; The Democrats would lose Klan votes and the Republicans would lose African American votes. The divide between parties regarding the Ku Klux Klan was prominent in the campaign platforms of the candidates. Both John Davis and Robert La Follette had condemned the Klan in speeches during the presidential race. Klansmen supported Calvin Coolidge because of his silence on the subject of the Klan. The Fiery Cross claimed that Davis and La Follette were part of the Roman Catholic political machine’s plot to take over America, despite neither of them being connected to the Catholic Church. These false accusations exhibit the Klan’s paranoia towards anyone who opposed them.

Assorted newspapers reported that polls expected Coolidge to win and for a heavily GOP weighted Congress. When the results came in, the Fiery Cross rejoiced with anti-Catholic headlines reading, “Roman Dictators Overthrown,” and the “Protestant Ticket Sweeps State.” The motivation for the emphasis on religion in the headlines was reflective of the Klan’s belief that the Pope secretly controlled the government and sought to corrupt the United States.