1896 United States presidential election

The 1896 United States presidential election was the 28th presidential election in the United States. It happened on Tuesday, November 3, 1896. Former Governor William McKinley, the Republican candidate, defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan. The 1896 campaign happened during an economic depression called the Panic of 1893. The election is considered to mark the change from the "Third Party System" to the "Fourth Party System".

1896 United States presidential election

November 3, 1896
447 members of the Electoral College 224 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	79.3% 4.6 pp
Nominee William McKinley William Jennings Bryan Party Republican Democratic Alliance – Parties Populist Silver Silver Republican Home state Ohio Nebraska Running mate Garret Hobart Arthur Sewall (Democratic, Silver) Thomas E. Watson (Populist) Electoral vote 271 176 States carried 23 22 Popular vote 7,112,138 6,510,807 Percentage 51.0% 46.7%
Presidential election results map. Red denotes those won by McKinley/Hobart, blue denotes states won by Bryan/Sewall and the Democratic/Populist ticket of Bryan/Watson. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
President before election Grover Cleveland Democratic Elected President William McKinley Republican

Although, McKinley's 1896 nomination was his first time securing the nomination, he had received 10+ delegates in every convention since 1888.

Candidates

Republican Party

• William McKinley, former Governor of Ohio (1892-1896) (Nominee)
• Thomas B. Reed, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (1889-1891; 1895-1899)
• Matthew Quay, Senator of Pennsylvania (1887-1899; 1901-1904)
• Levi P. Morton, 22nd Vice President of the United States (1889-1893) and Governor of New York (1895-1896)
• William B. Allison, Senator of Iowa (1873-1908)

Democratic Party

• William Jennings Bryan, former Congressman of Nebraska (1891-1895) (Nominee)
• Richard P. Bland, former Congressman of Missouri (1873-1895; 1897-1899)
• Robert E. Pattison, former Governor of Pennsylvania (1883-1887; 1891-1895)
• Joseph Blackburn, Senator of Kentucky (1885-1897; 1901-1907)
• Horace Boies, former Governor of Iowa (1890-1894)
• John R. McLean, newspaper publisher from Ohio (1877-1914)
• Claude Matthews, Governor of Iowa (1893-1897)
• Sylvester Pennoyer, former Governor of Oregon (1887-1895)

Other websites

• United States presidential election of 1896 at the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Presidential Election of 1896: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• 1896 popular vote by counties
• How close was the 1896 election? — Michael Sheppard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• McKinley & Hobart campaign handkerchief in the Staten Island Historical Society Online Collections Database
• Election of 1896 in Counting the Votes Archived 2019-09-23 at the Wayback Machine