, the Republicans decisively lost the presidency to Woodrow WILSON.In 1916 the Republicans nominated Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes, but Wilson's domestic record, his personal popularity, and his pledge to keep the United States out of the war in Europe were obstacles too great for Hughes to overcome. Despite Wilson's promises, the United States was drawn into World War I, and party politics gave way to bipartisan prosecution of the war. Republicans won control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 1918 elections and, at the end of the war, prevented the United States from joining the League of Nations by rejecting ratification of the Versailles Treaty.The Republican ticket of Warren G. HARDING and Calvin COOLIDGE won the 1920 election by a landslide. Harding's administration was plagued by scandals, which were inherited by Coolidge after Harding's death in 1923. In a politically astute move, Coolidge appointed two special prosecutors to deal with the scandals, one from each party. Nominated in his own right in 1924, Coolidge was reelected by a large margin. In 1928, Coolidge declined to run again, and the Republicans turned to Herbert HOOVER of California. Hoover won by an unprecedented landslide against Alfred E. SMITH. Republicans also won control of both houses of Congress. Many believed that another era of Republican hegemony was dawning, but a rapidly escalating worldwide economic depression brought Hoover and his party to their knees. Although the Hoover administration took steps to stop the decline of the economy, its remedies were generally thought to be ineffectual and too late. Hoover was renominated in 1932 in the depths of the Depression of the 1930s, but Franklin D. ROOSEVELT defeated him in one of the great landslide victories in U.S. history. The 70-year era of Republicanism was at an end. One of Roosevelt's major accomplishments was wooing the black vote away from the Republicans.The Republic...
