How did Harding win Tennessee in 1920?

[Asenath Waite]

In the era of the solid south that must have been as surprising as Obama winning Indiana in 2008.

[TheReckoning]

Republicans at that time always had a relatively high floor in that state (>40%) because of how pro-Union sentiment in the eastern, more mountainous parts of the state made significant proportions of the population staunch Republican. In 1920, with the extreme unpopularity of Wilson, the margins elsewhere were shifted enough to tip Harding the victory.

[Podgy the Bear]

In Tennessee, the Republican share of the vote went from 43 percent in 1916 to 51 percent in 1920..
Not a massive shift, given the huge national Republican victory, but it was enough to swing the state.  Overall, the South shifted significantly to the Repuclicans as well.

Harding did target Tennessee, and he did so on the ratification of the 19th Amendment.  He worked with leaders of the Tennessee legislature to get Tennessee to ratify the amendment.  And thanks to the Tennessee legislature, women were exempted from paying the poll tax, and they came out in big numbers that year, especially in Republican leaning eastern Tennessee.

Also, the black vote was especially Republican that year, and in Tennessee, there was relatively less suppression than other parts of the South.  This magnified the Republican total.

[Schiff for Senate]

Republicans at that time always had a relatively high floor in that state (>40%) because of how pro-Union sentiment in the eastern, more mountainous parts of the state made significant proportions of the population staunch Republican. In 1920, with the extreme unpopularity of Wilson, the margins elsewhere were shifted enough to tip Harding the victory.

This completely.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Dewey expected to be able to pull off a win in TN in 1948 based on the strong support of the mountain vote he got in 1944, but this turnout fell substantially because the War was over and Truman was a better fit for the state then FDR.