U.S. presidential election, 1892

Summary

Held on November 8, 1892, New York's Grover Cleveland returned to defeat incumbent President Benjamin Harrison to become the first person to be elected to non-consecutive Presidential terms. Cleveland, who had won the popular vote against Harrison in 1888, won both the popular and electoral vote in the rematch.

Cleveland also became the first Democrat to be nominated by his party three consecutive times, a distinction that would be equaled only by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.

Republican convention

Indiana's Benjamin Harrison was easily renominated for President, but his choice was not unanimous. Harrison received 536 delegate votes to secure the nomination, but former nominee James Gillespie Blaine of Maine received 183 delegates, and future nominee and Ohioan William McKinley finished third with 182 delegates. New York World editor Whitelaw Reid was unanimously chosen to replace Vice President Levi Morton on the ticket.

Democratic convention

For the third consecutive time, Grover Cleveland was chosen as the Democratic Party's Presidential nominee, receiving 618 delegate votes to defeat David B. Hill (who received 114 delegates) and Horace Boies (103). Adlai E. Stevenson (whose grandson, Adlai III, would twice be the party's Presidential nominee in the 1950's), was chosen as the party's Vice Presidential nominee by 652 delegates, defeating Isaac P. Gray (who received 343 delegate votes), John L. Mitchell (45) and Henry Watterson (26).

Other parties

Three other parties fielded candidates for the election. The Prohibition Party nominated John Bidwell for President and James Cranfill for Vice President. Two other parties made their first attempts at the White House: the Populist Party, who placed James Weaver and James Field on their ticket, and the Socialist Labor Party, who chose Simon Wing and Charles Matchett as their standard bearers.

Election results

See also: President of the United States, U.S. presidential election, 1892, History of the United States (1865-1918)

Other elections