Talk Elections

Presidential Elections - Analysis and Discussion => U.S. Presidential Election Results => Topic started by: tinman64 on September 02, 2005, 02:22:54 AM



Title: 1892: Cleveland wins, but not on 5 state ballots?
Post by: tinman64 on September 02, 2005, 02:22:54 AM
Here's something I've always wondered about...

Grover Cleveland returned to the White House, elected in 1892 after being turned out in 1888.  Despite a comfortable victory, he received no votes in 5 states: Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, North Dakota and Wyoming.

I suspect this could be due to the Democratic state parties supporting the Populist James Weaver, and leaving Cleveland off the ballot.  Weaver did very well in all 5 states.  However, Cleveland received votes in other states where Weaver did well, including Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington.

Does anyone know why Cleveland did not receive votes in these 5 states?


Title: Re: 1892: Cleveland wins, but not on 5 state ballots?
Post by: ○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└ on September 03, 2005, 03:15:58 AM
North Dakota got off to a good start by having 1 elector for the Democrat, 1 for the Republican, and 1 for the Populist.


Title: Re: 1892: Cleveland wins, but not on 5 state ballots?
Post by: jimrtex on September 03, 2005, 03:17:30 AM
In the Colorado gubernatorial race in 1892, the Democrat finished a poor 3rd:

Populist     44,242
Republican 38,620
Democrat     8,944


Title: Re: 1892: Cleveland wins, but not on 5 state ballots?
Post by: Erc on September 04, 2005, 03:51:32 PM
Cleveland was a Gold Democrat.

He thus pissed off the Republicans by being a Democrat.

And he pissed off the Silverites by supporting Gold.

So the populists got the traditional Democratic support in these states...which, of course, got reabsorbed in 1896 with the Populist-Democrat fusion under Bryan (just look at the Nevada '96 results).

Bryan ended up retaking the West from the Populists...but lost the cities in the process.  If I remember correctly, the largest city to vote for him was Troy, NY...