A Woman For President

On May 21, 1919 a bill introducing the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was passed by the United States House of Representatives. The vote count was 42 votes more than necessary for passage.

It was a hard won victory. A similar bill introduced in 1915 was defeated 204 to 174. An effort in 1918 passed by one vote in the House but failed in the Senate by 2. An earlier try in 919 was defeated by one vote.

But the May 21st effort succeeded and was sent to the Senate. There, on June 4, 1919, the measure was passed by a vote of 56 to 25 after much debate.

Tennessee was the 36th State to ratify the amendment in the summer of 1920. The 19th Amendment became law at that time and gave women the right to vote for the first time in a general election of the United States of America.

That was just in time for many of them to cast their votes in the Presidential race of 1920. That race was also the first that results were reported by radio. Warren G. Harding won by a landslide securing 60.3% of the popular vote. His opponent, James M. Cox, a Democrat, had 34.1%. It remains the largest margin in the popular vote in history.

That is only 88 years ago. That's not so long. My dad was 3. My mother was 5.

I have recently observed that many of the women I know are very interested in Hillary Clinton's candidacy for the office of President of the United States. Mostly these women are not on the same side politically with Mrs. Clinton. They would never vote for her in the general election, or so they say now at least. But they do rally around her in a way when it appears she is nearing defeat. Even those who are more ardent in their criticism express some degree of admiration and respect for Mrs. Clinton's tenacity and determination and ability.

I find this interesting and I suspect it is repeated many millions of times across the country and likely is the reason she remains in the race as of this date.

Also interesting to me was the fact that President Wilson's Democrat party was largely defeated in 1920 because of dissatisfaction with United States' involvement in World War I. President Wilson supported the 19th Ammendment although he came around kind of late apparently. I could not find estimates of how many women voted and how and so on.

Just musings.