<Li> Lame duck reforms . The Twentieth Amendment was a positive reform which ended the power of lame - duck congresspersons who were defeated or retiring members who remained in office for a while despite their lack of accountability to the public . </Li> <P> The break between the conservative and progressive Republicans in the 1912 US Presidential Election also greatly helped the Democrats regain the Presidency and complete control over Congress; even after the Republican Party reunited in the 1914 Congressional elections, the Republican Party could not regain control of Congress, thanks to the strong popularity Wilson had obtained with his New Freedom policy . However, President Wilson's failure to protect the neutral rights of the American people helped the Republicans obtain more seats in the US House of Representatives than the Democrats in the 1916 election; however, Wilson was able to maintain his Presidency after he won in the state of California for his opposition to the US entering the Great War . Despite this, Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives Champ Clark maintained his position, after the some of Progressive Party members of the US House of Representatives agreed to caucus with the Democrats; Clark would maintain his position as United States Speaker of the House until 1919 . By the 1918 Congressional elections, many American men were overseas fighting in the Great War (later known as World War I), and with the American voting public wanting the war - which the US entered under Democratic US President Woodrow Wilson - to end, the Republicans, whom former US President Theodore Roosevelt had now strongly backed, easily managed to regain control of the US Senate in this election, as well as control of the US Congress, as the Democratic Party's popularity decreased because of President Wilson's war efforts . </P> <P> Following the end of the war, the Wilson administration was plagued with numerous problems such as: 1) the large support against President Wilson's support for US membership into the League of Nations (which was regarded by the American public as an organization that could have introduced a German - American relationship) -; 2) the massive Steel Strike of 1919 3) race riots, and 4) the growing support among the American public, who now feared Communists would infiltrate the country, to reduce immigration . As a result, the Republican party would obtain a firmer majority control of both Congressional houses, in the 1920 congressional election, and score a heavy win the 1920 US Presidential Election as well; Republican Presidential candidate Warren Harding, a pro-laissez faire conservative, would also receive a record - breaking percent of the popular vote as well . However, the Harding administration could not bring the economy back to normal . Although the Republicans were able to retain control of both houses of Congress, the conservative Republicans (whom Harding backed) would suffer major losses . </P> <P> In 1923, Harding, now tainted further by scandals, died and his vice-president, Calvin Coolidge, became president . Under Coolidge, the economy revived and the conservatives regained control of US Congress in 1924 In general, the Republicans retained control of Congress until 1931, after 19 Republicans in the US House of Representatives died and Democrats took their places in the special elections - after Republican President Herbert Hoover had continuously failed to get the US out of the Great Depression . </P>

During the 1920s the presidency and congress were dominated by what political party