Why did McKinley...

[A18]

Get so close in Virginia?  (1896)

[memphis]

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

[PBrunsel]

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.

[minionofmidas - supplemental forum account]

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.

[A18]

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.

[minionofmidas - supplemental forum account]

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.

[MasterJedi]

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.

^^^^

[Gustaf]

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

[Rob]

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.

[WalterMitty]

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.