The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 61, July 1957 - April, 1958 Page: 474

rhe Democratic PresideMtial Primar
Election o /1924 ii areas
LEE N. ALLEN
THE YEAR 1924 was one of spectacular politics in Texas.
As the year opened, eager attention was focused on the
widely publicized Earl B. Mayfield-George E. B. Peddy
contested election in the United States Senate. Later Mrs. Miriam
A. Ferguson was elected governor following the disqualification
of her impeached husband. These two noteworthy events were
climaxed by the surprising resignation of the Democratic national
committeeman because of his refusal to support in the general
election the party nominee for governor. Less spectacular, but
certainly no less significant, was the election of delegates to the
Democratic National Convention of 1924.
In essence, this spring campaign was a three-way race involving
followers of Governor Pat M. Neff, Alabama's Senator Oscar W.
Underwood, and William Gibbs McAdoo of California. Although
the spirited campaign began in April, terminating at the pre-
cinct, county, and state conventions held successively throughout
May, the important foundation work dated back many months.
Senator Underwood, at the time of the Texas campaign, had
been in the presidential race longest. In August, 1923, he for-
mally accepted the request of the Alabama Legislature that he
become an active candidate, and in so doing he became the first
person openly to seek the support of convention delegates. Behind
this decision lay many agonizing months of study and evaluation
by friends of the senator in an attempt to determine Underwood's
prospects of winning the nomination. Friends in Washington, con-
stituents in Alabama, and admirers elsewhere assured him of their
support and their certainty of ultimate victory at the Democratic
Convention. Armed with pledges of financial support and sus-
tained by the show of popular confidence given by his home state,
Underwood made his second bid for the Democratic party's