A fierce debate ensued that saw a compromise candidate, former Congressman John W. Davis of West Virginia, nominated after one hundred and three ballots in hot summer weather at Madison Square Garden.

He supported poll taxes, opposed women's suffrage, and believed in strictly limited government with no expansion in nonmilitary fields.

[6] Although in September Davis underwent an extensive tour of the region and of the Great Plains,[7] and campaigned to eliminate the income tax burden of the poorer classes,[8] he received a mere 6.80 percent of the vote in Minnesota.

This constitutes the second-smallest proportion of any state's popular vote received by an official on-ballot[a] Democratic presidential nominee since the election of 1860, when the party was divided.

Given Davis' shocking statewide performance – not polling twenty percent in any of Minnesota's eighty-seven counties – this election would prove the last as of 2024 when Ramsey County has not voted Democratic,[18] for La Follette's vote would turn to beaten Democratic nominee Smith in the following election and remain with the party for many decades.