The Confederate States presidential election of 1921 was the eleventh sextennial presidential election, taking place on November 8, 1921. It was the first presidential election in the CSA contested by the Freedom Party; the campaign that autumn was held with unprecedented ferocity as the Freedom Party, using the issues of hyper-inflation and a dictated peace from the USA, attempted to gain the presidency for its leader Jake Featherston.
Hyperinflation and the peace with the USA dominated the issues of the campaign. The Whigs campaigned on what they had been doing all along, which was to maintain the status quo until better times came. The Radical Liberals sought to loosen barriers and tensions and ease relations with the United States, so that prosperity could come that way. The Freedom Party, on the other hand, stood for rearmament, gaining its lost states back, and restoring the Confederacy to its pre-Great War status.
The fall campaign was marked by violence. Freedom Party Stalwarts brawled with Whigs and Radical Liberals on the streets and at rallies and meeting halls. In October, at a Radical Liberal rally in Charleston, South Carolina, a Freedom Party assault squad led by local party leader Roger Kimball attacked Layne's audience and almost killed Layne himself.
Results[]
Election Day was Tuesday, November 8, 1921. Layne was knocked out not long after results started coming in, only capturing Cuba, Sonora and Chihuahua; the real battle was between the Whigs and the Freedomites. Hampton ultimately won the election with South Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas but Freedom did exceptionally well for its first presidential election; Featherston won Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina and Texas. The fact that he did so well for his first try frightened many moderate Confederates used to seeing the Whigs safely defeating the Radical Liberals every six years. To some, 1927 threatened to be an even tighter match, though the assassination of Hampton the following June, the ending of reparations and better relations with the USA, all hurt the Freedom Party's chances for most of the remaining decade.