1896 Election: Who Would You Vote For?

[Make America Grumpy Again]

The year is 1896 and the following candidates are running;

William Jennings Bryan is running on a progressive platform of free silver, as well as for the rights of labor and farmers. Bryan is opposed to immigration as well as a dove. He was the Bernie Sanders of his time and was Wilson's SOS who resigned because of WWI. I'd like to think he would still be a Democrat today (at least until 2016), but a dissatisfied one due to social issues who might've switched over to Trump because of those issues, with Pence helping him. I can see him voting for Bernie in the primaries though if the social issues of today didn't alienate him. While Bryan's evangelic progressivism is unique, the closest president to his policies would've been as FDR.

William McKinley is running a pro-business platform focused on job creation, while supporting tariffs and immigration and is a hawk. He would've been a good fit in the Reagan-Romney era. of GOP politics, even though the tariff was not as popular then. I think McKinley would've opposed Trump but might've voted for him. He definitely would've turned against Trump after 1/6 if he hadn't already. The closest president to his policies probably would've been George W. Bush, while he was closer to Romney as a politician.

[Make America Grumpy Again]

Slightly off topic but this is a hypothetical mashup if the election were to happen in 2016.

Representative William Jennings Bryan/Radio Talk Show Host Thom Hartmann: 363 E.V.
Representative William McKinley/Governor Mike Huckabee: 175 E.V.

[TDAS04]

Bryan was meh, but certainly better than McKinley.

[Schiff for Senate]

Slightly off topic but this is a hypothetical mashup if the election were to happen in 2016.

Representative William Jennings Bryan/Radio Talk Show Host Thom Hartmann: 363 E.V.
Representative William McKinley/Governor Mike Huckabee: 175 E.V.

Bryan dominated in the west. Maybe ID and WY are too red to flip, but MT probably can and NV almost certainly wouldn't flip to the GOP. Conversely, McKinley was an Ohioan himself, and Ohio was a swing state pre-Trump, so he'd have almost certainly carried it. I think that overall Bryan would lose in a landslide, not win in one, though it's hard to try and recreate an election 120 years later after it actually occurred. On the other hand, I'm guessing you're saying that Bryan ran as a #populist, like Trump did in 2016, which makes a little more sense.

[Make America Grumpy Again]

Slightly off topic but this is a hypothetical mashup if the election were to happen in 2016.

Representative William Jennings Bryan/Radio Talk Show Host Thom Hartmann: 363 E.V.
Representative William McKinley/Governor Mike Huckabee: 175 E.V.

Bryan dominated in the west. Maybe ID and WY are too red to flip, but MT probably can and NV almost certainly wouldn't flip to the GOP. Conversely, McKinley was an Ohioan himself, and Ohio was a swing state pre-Trump, so he'd have almost certainly carried it. I think that overall Bryan would lose in a landslide, not win in one, though it's hard to try and recreate an election 120 years later after it actually occurred. On the other hand, I'm guessing you're saying that Bryan ran as a #populist, like Trump did in 2016, which makes a little more sense.

I was going with The West going to McKinley as it was a lot more Dem and economically progressive then than it is now and despite Bryan's evangelicalism, it's not like McKinley wasn't religious in his own right and having Huckabee as a running mate would've helped especially in Utah/Idaho. The area is also more libertarian and I don't think Bryan would do well with libertarians. I also had Bryan win Ohio since there's some currently Trumpy areas, particularly in the Appalachia/Northeast area that I think would turnout strongly for Bryan, while keeping much of the urban vote in his favor of him as well. Obama won twice and as recently as 2006 they gave the Dem candidate 60% of the vote, so I can see Bryan winning by high-single digits and possibly double-digits based on that alone. The area is a lot more #populist and while McKinley isn't a bad fit, I think Bryan would be that much of a better fit today than in 1896.