The United States presidential election of 1920 was the 34th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 1920. The Republicans nominated newspaper publisher and Senator Warren G. Harding, while the Democrats chose newspaper publisher and Governor James M. Cox. Incumbent President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, chose not to run for a third term. Former president Theodore Roosevelt had been the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, but his health collapsed in 1918. He died in January 1919, leaving no obvious heir to his progressive legacy. As a result, both major parties ultimately turned to little-known dark horse candidates from the electoral-vote-rich state of Ohio. To help his campaign, Cox chose future president Franklin D. Roosevelt (a fifth cousin of Theodore) as his running mate. Harding virtually ignored Cox and essentially campaigned against Wilson, calling for a return to "normalcy." With an almost 4-to-1 spending advantage, Harding won a landslide victory by winning 37 states, including the first Republican victories in Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma (then the three most recently ratified U.S states).