1919 election In the Democratic primary, his opponent was James R. Nugent, chair of the
Essex County party and former state party boss. The campaign became a proxy for
Frank Hague's struggle with Nugent for state power, and Edwards emerged victorious with 53.6 percent of the vote. He carried fifteen counties and a huge majority in
Hudson County; Hague emerged as the undisputed leader of the
New Jersey Democratic Party, which he would dominate through the late 1940s. In the general election, Edwards faced
Newton A.K. Bugbee. Despite Republican victories throughout the northeast in reaction to Wilson's unpopularity,
nationwide labor and racial unrest, and
anarchist terrorism, Edwards prevailed narrowly. With the exception of a Camden trolly strike, the New Jersey campaign focused on the single issue of the
prohibition of alcohol, following the ratification of the
Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in January 1919 and the passage of the
Volstead Act over President
Woodrow Wilson's veto on October 28. An
Elizabeth daily newspaper dubbed Edwards's campaign the "
Applejack Campaign," because although Edwards personally did not drink alcohol, he ran as an avowed "wet" opponent of prohibition. His victory was attributed to an urban political revolt by Catholic and ethnic immigrants, overcoming those groups' dissatisfaction with Wilson's proposal for the
League of Nations. Historian Warren E. Stickle has referred to the election as the "Edwards Revolution," as it significantly reshaped New Jersey politics for the twentieth century and served a prelude to the
New Deal coalition.
Term in office . Edwards is listed as "New Jersey
Hops," a reference to his opposition to
prohibition. Edwards's time in office was defined by Republican domination of the state legislature; the
State Senate, which then apportioned
one vote per county, was dominated by rural and small-town interests which increasingly aligned with Republicans and against Edwards's urban base. Following the
1920 Republican landslide, the General Assembly was also dominated by Republicans—only one Democratic member was elected to serve in the legislature of 1921–22. Thus, Edwards played only a minor role in legislation as Governor; the Republican majorities frustrated much of his own program and repeatedly passed their own legislation over his
veto, including the establishment of the
Port Authority (which Edwards later supported) and the
New Jersey State Police. On prohibition, Edwards did briefly succeed in passing a bill which permitted the sale and manufacture of beverages with less than 3.5 percent alcohol content, which he signed on March 2, 1920; it was repealed in January 1921 and laws for the enforcement of prohibition were passed over Edwards's veto. With his legislative power cut off, Edwards instead exercised executive power by joining the state as a plaintiff in
Rhode Island v. Palma, a challenge to the constitutionality of prohibition policies. He also called on Congress to modify the Volstead Act to permit the sale of light wines and beer. Because of his aggressive public stance against Prohibition, his name was entered in the Illinois and New Jersey
presidential preference primaries in 1920; he won both. Edwards also used his appointments power to fire the members of the
Public Utility Commission as part of a fight for reduced rates, but the Republican legislature established a new commission over his veto. He also opposed
blue laws which restricted activity on Sundays and supported the arrangement of boxing matches in the state against moral objections. == United States Senator (1923–29) ==