Talk Elections

Get so close in Virginia?  (1896)

People were pissed that Grover Cleveland hadn't lifted a finger to help them in the Panic of 1893.

Bryan did wel in ever other Southern state.

I beleive the reason is populism never played well in traditionalist Virginia. Look at Weaver in 1892, his running-mate was a Confederate general and he did not even do well in Virginia.

Virginia may have been more urban and northeastern than the rest of the Confederacy in its political culture. McKinley won Maryland, another previously solid Dem state.

I wonder why he actually did worse in 1900, not only in Virginia, but I believe also North Carolina and Tennessee, where he also got close in 1896.

See your "realignment of 1896" thread ... a partial return to normalcy. Sorta like the Dems in Northeastern Suburbia, 1990s to 2004.

^^^^

I always thought Virginia (together with maybe Tennessee) was the least Southern of the old Confederacy, and therefore least Democratic.

A large (and enfranchised) black population, combined with strong white Unionist sentiment in the west, made Virginia relatively competitive in the closing years of the nineteenth century. 1896 wasn't an aberration- look at how close Blaine in 1884 and Harrison in 1888 came to winning.

another oddity: a relatively pro-business, pro-gold grover cleveland did better in the south in 1892 than the populist, pro-silver bryan did in ths south in 1896.