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Thirteenth American presidential election of 1836

AndyHogan14, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Dates

The 1836 election was held from Thursday, November 3 - Wednesday, December 7, 1836.

Candidates

• President
  • Martin Van Buren, incumbent vice president (winner)
• Vice President
• Richard Mentor Johnson, former Senator from Kentucky (winner)
• William Rives, Senator from Virginia

NOTE: There was no national Whig nominating caucus. Therefore, all presidential & vice presidential candidates were contenders in the presidential election.

• President
• William Henry Harrison, former statesman from Ohio
• Daniel Webster, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee
• Hugh Lawson White, Senator from Tennessee
• Willie Person Mangum, Senator from North Carolina
• Vice President
• John Tyler, Senator from Virginia
• Francis Granger, Representative from New York

Final tickets

• Martin Van Buren (P) & Richard Mentor Johnson (VP)

• William Henry Harrison (P) & Francis Granger (VP)
• Hugh Lawson White (P) & John Tyler (VP)
• Daniel Webster (P) & Francis Granger (VP)
• Willie Person Mangum (P) & John Tyler (VP)

Campaining & major issues

Andrew Jackson, like others before him, decided not to seek a third term. However, he endorsed his vice president Martin Van Buren, thinking he could carry on his legacy. However, they faced one problem. By 1836, the Whig Party had gained momentum. They decided not to rally behind one candidate and instead have the multiple state legislatures choose them, meaning there were multiple candidates for different regions. The Whigs believed that the four Whig candidates would all together get more votes than Van Buren. Because of this, it was more about Van Buren losing than the Whigs winning. In fact, the only Whig candidate that could have won a majority in the election would have been William Henry Harrison, but he would have had to win Van Buren's home state of New York. The only important issue was an issue starting to be heard about more & more, which was the rising issue of slavery. In 1831, the Nat Turner Slave Rebellion occurred in Virginia that killed over fifty white people. Van Buren was criticized for possibly engaging with abolitionists.

Electoral college & turn-out

The electoral college increased to 294 electors; 148 needed to win. 1,503,534 people voted in this election

Results

President

• First place (winner): Martin Van Buren

• 170/294 electoral votes
• 50.83% of the popular vote

• Second place: William Henry Harrison

• 73/294 electoral votes
• 36.63% of the popular vote

• Third place: Hugh Lawson White

• 26/294 electoral votes
• 9.72% of the popular vote

• Fourth place: Daniel Webster

• 14/294 electoral votes
• 2.74% of the popular vote

• Fifth place: Willie Person Mangum

• 11/294 electoral votes
• Popular vote unknown

Vice President

• First place (winner): Richard Mentor Johnson

• 147/294 electoral votes

• Second place: Francis Granger

• 77/294 electoral vote

• Third place: John Tyler

• 47/294 electoral votes

• Fourth place: William Smith

• 23/294 electoral votes

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