1896 United States elections

none February 2026 January 2025 1896 Presidential election year November 3 Democratic Party (US)Grover Cleveland (D) 55th Republican gain William McKinley (R) 271 William Jennings Bryan (D) 176 Republican +4.3% 1896 presidential election results. Red denotes states won by McKinley, blue denotes states won by Bryan. Numbers indicate the electoral votes won by each candidate. 30 of 90 seatsNot counting special elections. Republican hold Republican +2Congressional seat gain figures only reflect the results of the regularly-scheduled elections, and do not take special elections into account. 400px Results of the elections:#0671B0 Democratic gain #92C5DE Democratic hold#CA0120 Republican gain #F48882 Republican hold#6f7c91 Silver hold#288B37 Populist gain #5FD170 Populist hold#e3406f Silver Republican gain#000000 Legislature failed to elect All 357 voting members Republican hold Democratic +31 32 Populist +3 400px 1896 gubernatorial election results #0671B0 Democratic gain #92C5DE Democratic hold #CA0120 Republican gain #F48882 Republican hold #288B37 Populist gain #5FD170 Populist hold Elections were held for the 55th United States Congress. The Republicans won control of the presidency and maintained control of both houses of Congress. The election marked the end of the Third Party System and the start of the Fourth Party System, as the Republicans would generally dominate politics until the 1930 elections. Political scientists such as V.O. Key, Jr. argue that this election was a realigning election, while James Reichley argues against this idea on the basis that the Republican victory in this election merely continued the party's post-Civil War dominance.Reichley A. James The Life of the Parties 2000 Rowman & Littlefield 8–12 Paperback The election took place in the aftermath of the Panic of 1893, and featured a fierce debate between advocates of bimetallism ("free silver") and supporters of the gold standard.Presidential elections http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/presidential-elections History.com History Channel 3 September 2015 In the presidential election, the Republican former Governor William McKinley of Ohio defeated the Democratic former Representative William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska.1896 Presidential Election http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showelection.php?year=1896 The American Presidency Project 25 June 2014 McKinley took the Republican nomination on the first ballot, while Bryan took the Democratic nomination on the fifth ballot (at age 36, he became the youngest presidential nominee of a major party), defeating former Missouri Representative Richard P. Bland and several other candidates. Bryan's Cross of Gold speech, in which he advocated for "free silver," helped deliver him the Democratic nomination, and also attracted the support of the Populist Party and the Silver Republican Party. Though Bryan carried most of the Southern United States and the Western United States, McKinley won a comfortable margin in both the electoral college and the popular vote by carrying the Northeastern United States and the Great Lakes region. Democrats won major gains in the House, but Republicans continued to command a large majority in the chamber. The Populists also won several seats, holding more seats in the House than any third party since the Civil War.Party Divisions of the House of Representatives http://history.house.gov/Institution/Party-Divisions/Party-Divisions/ United States House of Representatives 25 June 2014 In the Senate, the Republicans maintained their plurality, keeping control of the same number of seats. The Democrats lost several seats, while the Silver Republicans established themselves for the first time with five seats.Party Division in the Senate, 1789-Present https://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/history/one_item_and_teasers/partydiv.htm United States Senate 25 June 2014 Republican William P. Frye won election as President pro tempore. See also 1896 United States presidential election 1896 United States House of Representatives elections 1896–97 United States Senate elections 1896 United States gubernatorial elections References Further reading 1896 United States presidential election#Further reading James A. Barnes Myths of the Bryan Campaign Mississippi Valley Historical Review 34 3 1947 367–404 10.2307/1898096 1898096 Beito, David T., and Linda Royster Beito. "Gold Democrats and the decline of classical liberalism, 1896–1900." The Independent Review 4.4 (2000): 555–575. Bensel, Richard Franklin Richard Bensel Passion and Preferences: William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 Democratic National Convention https://books.google.com/books?id=MadNAPP2Jz8C&pg=PA120 2008 Cambridge U.P. 9780521717625 Bernstein, Irving. "Samuel Gompers and Free Silver, 1896." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 29.3 (1942): 394–400. online Budgor, Joel, et al. "The 1896 election and congressional modernization: An appraisal of the evidence." Social Science History 5.1 (1981): 53–90. Bullough, William A. "The steam beer handicap: Chris Buckley and the San Francisco municipal election of 1896." California Historical Quarterly 54.3 (1975): 245–262. online https://web.archive.org/web/20220401070451/https://ch.ucpress.edu/content/ucpch/54/3/245.full.pdf April 1, 2022 Crow, Jeffrey J. "" Fusion, Confusion, and Negroism": Schisms among Negro Republicans in the North Carolina Election of 1896." North Carolina Historical Review 53.4 (1976): 364-384. online Diamond, William, "Urban and Rural Voting in 1896," American Historical Review, (1941) 46#2 pp. 281–305 in JSTOR Edelman, Susan Scheiber. "A Red Hot Suffrage Campaign: The Woman Suffrage Cause in California, 1896." California Supreme Court Historical Society Yearbook 2 (1995): 49+. Eichengreen, Barry, et al. "Populists at the polls: Economic factors in the 1896 presidential election." No. w23932. National Bureau of Economic Research (2017). online Ellis, Elmer. "The Silver Republicans in the Election of 1896." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 18.4 (1932): 519–534. online Ettinger, Brian Gary. "John Fitzpatrick and the limits of working-class politics in New Orleans, 1892-1896." Louisiana History (1985): 341–367. online Gilbert C. Fite Gilbert Fite The Election of 1896 Arthur Schlesinger History of American Presidential Elections https://archive.org/details/historyofamerica05schl registration vol. 2 2001 Gilbert C. Fite Republican Strategy and the Farm Vote in the Presidential Campaign of 1896 American Historical Review 65 4 1960 787–806 10.2307/1849404 1849404 Paul W. Glad McKinley, Bryan, and the People 1964 0-397-47048-7 https://archive.org/details/mckinleybryanpeo0000glad_s9t5 Harpine, William D. From the Front Porch to the Front Page: McKinley and Bryan in the 1896 Presidential Campaign (2006) focus on the speeches and rhetoric online Jeansonne Glen Goldbugs, Silverites, and Satirists: Caricature and Humor in the Presidential Election of 1896 Journal of American Culture 1988 11 2 1–8 10.1111/j.1542-734X.1988.1102_1.x Jeansonne Glen Goldbugs, Silverites, and Satirists: Caricature and Humor in the Presidential Election of 1896 Journal of American Culture 1988 11 2 1–8 10.1111/j.1542-734X.1988.1102_1.x Richard J. Jensen The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict 1888–1896 1971 University of Chicago Press https://books.google.com/books?id=XpCgCNZwpvoC 0-226-39825-0 online Stanley L. Jones The Presidential Election of 1896 https://archive.org/details/presidentialelec0000jone registration 1964 0-299-03094-6 Kazin, Michael. A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan (2006). Patrick J. Kelly The Election of 1896 and the Restructuring of Civil War Memory Civil War History 49 2003 3 10.1353/cwh.2003.0058 254 Patrick J. Kelly The Election of 1896 and the Restructuring of Civil War Memory Civil War History 49 2003 3 10.1353/cwh.2003.0058 254 144576062 Kleppner, Paul. The cross of culture : a social analysis of midwestern politics, 1850-1900 (1970) online Kunze, Joel. "Shameful Venality: The Pierce-Wallace Controversy and the election of 1896." The Palimpsest 71.1 (1990): 2–11. fraud in Iowa online McCormick, Richard L. "Walter Dean Burnham and "The System of 1896"." Social Science History 10.3 (1986): 245-262. Niswonger, Richard L. "Arkansas and the Election of 1896." Arkansas Historical Quarterly 34.1 (1975): 41–78. online Nussbaum, Raymond O. "'The Ring Is Smashed!': The New Orleans Municipal Election of 1896." Louisiana History 17.3 (1976): 283–297. online Rogin, Michael. "California Populism and the" System of 1896"." Western Political Quarterly 22.1 (1969): 179-196. online Stevens, S. K. "The election of 1896 in Pennsylvania." Pennsylvania History 4.2 (1937): 65–87. online Stonecash, Jeffrey M.; Silina, Everita. "The 1896 Realignment," American Politics Research, (Jan 2005) 33#1 pp. 3–32. Uzee, Philip D. "The Republican Party in the Louisiana Election of 1896." Louisiana History 2.3 (1961): 332–344. online Wanat, John and Karen Burke, "Estimating the Degree of Mobilization and Conversion in the 1890s: An Inquiry into the Nature of Electoral Change," American Political Science Review, (1982) 76#2 pp. 360–70 in JSTOR R. Hal Williams Years of Decision: American Politics in the 1890s https://archive.org/details/yearsofdecisiona0000will 1978 Williams, R. Hal. (2010) Realigning America: McKinley, Bryan, and the Remarkable Election of 1896 (UP of Kansas) 250 pp Wish, Harvey. "John Peter Altgeld and the Election of 1896." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1937) 30#3: 353–384. online Primary sources Speeches from 1896 campaign: https://books.google.com/books?id=nw0OZXuOmSsC The First Battle: A Story of the Campaign of 1896 Bryan William Jennings 1897 National Democratic Committee https://archive.org/details/campaigntextboo01goog Democratic campaign text Book. Campaign Text-book of the National Democratic Party 1896 National Democratic committee This is the handbook of the Gold Democrats and strongly opposed Bryan. https://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/sgml/moa-idx?notisid=ABQ7578-0163-22&type=simple&slice=1&&&q1=issues%20and%20prospects&year1=1815&year2=1926&searchSummary=16%20matches%20in%206%20journal%20articles&size=50&layer=third&coll=serial2 William E. Chandler William E. Chandler Issues and Prospects of the Campaign North American Review 163 2 August 1896 171–82 Category:1896 elections in the United States 1896