Garret Hobart, president of the New Jersey Senate (winner)
Henry Clay Evans, former Representative of Tennessee
Morgan Bulkeley, former governor of Connecticut (he was also the first very president of the National League of baseball!)
James Walker, Representative from Virginia
Charles Lippitt, governor of Rhode Island
Thomas Bracket Reed (the same person)
Chauncey Depew, former Secretary of State of New York
John Mellen Thurston, senator from Nebraska
Frederick Dent Grant, former minister to Austria-Hungary (also the son of Ulysses Grant)
Levi Morton (the same person)
Democratic party
President
William Jennings Bryan, Representative of Nebraska (winner)
Richard Bland, Representative of Missouri
Robert Emory Pattison, governor of Pennsylvania
Joseph Blackburn, Senator from Kentucky
Horace Boies, former governor of Iowa
John McLean, owner of The Washington Post
Claude Matthews, governor of Indiana
Benjamin Tillman, senator from South Carolina
Adlai Stevenson, vice president of the United States
Vice President
Arthur Sewall, member of the Democratic National Committee (winner)
John McLean (same person)
Richard Bland (same person)
Joseph Sibley, Representative from Pennsylvania
George Williams, former Representative from Massachusetts
John Daniel, Representative from Virginia
Walter Clark, Associate Justice to the Supreme Court of North Carolina
James Williams, Representative from Illinois
William Harrity, chairperson of the Democratic National Committee
Joseph C. S. Blackburn, Senator from Kentucky
Final tickets
Republican party
William McKinley (P) & Garret Hobart (VP)
Democratic party
William Jennings Bryan (P) & Arthur Sewall (VP)
Campaining & major issues
The past three elections (1884, 1888 and 1892) were pretty insignificant today. However, the election of 1896 was a bit different. Grover Cleveland's second
term had not gone as well as his first. The economy had slipped into the Panic of 1893, and though historians still debate whether it was caused by Cleveland or Benjamin Harrison, it is a pattern in history that whoever
is in office when something happens is who gets blamed for it. Therefore, Cleveland and the Democrats became unpopular as the Governor of Ohio and former Civil War veteran William McKinley became more of a star. The Democrats knew
they needed a good, charismatic candidate to rival McKinley, so they chose the US Representative from Nebraska, William Jennings Bryan. Bryan was able to get the Democrats hopeful that they would win, as he traveled across the United States, giving multiple speeches every day.
In fact, he was once gave over thirty speeches in one day. His voice would (understandably) become hoarse, and when it happened, he would say that he left his voice in the last place he was at in order to fire up the people. While Bryan was
able to travel across the country giving all these speeches, what was McKinley doing? Well, he mostly just stayed at his house. McKinley had a huge advantage which was his campaign manager. Mark Hanna, McKinley's campaign manager, had actually
tried to get McKinley to run in the previous 1892 election. But now that McKinley was running, Hanna was able to organize McKinley's speeches to be at his house and even invented a form of campain finance still used today as the standard. The populist party,
which gained momentum the previous election, nominated William Jennings Bryan, as well as the small but known Silver party. It was a tight race, and a lot of people thought Bryan would win. Would they be right?!
Electoral college & turn-out
The electoral college increased to 447 electors; 224 needed to win. 13,936,957 people voted in this election.
Results
First place (winner): William McKinley & Garret Hobart
271/447 electoral votes
51.03% of the popular vote
Second place: William Jennings Bryan & Arthur Sewall
176/447 electoral votes
46.70% of the popular vote
Note: 27 of the electoral votes were for Thomas Watson as vice presidential candidate.
2.02% of the population voted for other candidates.
TheUSAPresidents.com 
We have pages on every election!
