Calvin Coolidge writing his father: August 29, 1915.

In the race for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor, Coolidge faced Boston attorney Guy Ham. The Boston Daily Globe reported that “not all the liberal Republicans, however, are opposed to Mr. Coolidge.” One of these liberal Republicans, “of whom one may be proud,” was Congressman Augustus Gardner. Coolidge writes of Gardner in his Autobiography, “I shall always remember that Augustus P. Gardner, then in Congress, honored me by becoming one of the committee of five who conducted my campaign.” In the end, Coolidge won the nomination by more than 20,000 votes and only lost Ham’s hometown of Boston by a mere 300 votes.

Coolidge also comments on the Republican gubernatorial nomination contest between former Congressman Samuel McCall and former State Senate President Grafton Cushing. McCall, a moderate progressive who lost the 1914 gubernatorial general election, secured the Republican nomination in 1915.