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 County Results
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The1896 United States presidential election in New Jersey took place on November 3, 1896. Voters chose 10 representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.
New Jersey voted for theRepublican nominee, formergovernor of OhioWilliam McKinley, over theDemocratic nominee, formerU.S. Representative from NebraskaWilliam Jennings Bryan. McKinley won the state by a margin of 23.66%, making him the first Republican presidential candidate sinceUlysses S. Grant in1872 to carry the state. Bryan, running on a platform offree silver, appealed strongly toWestern miners and farmers in the 1896 election, but had little appeal inNortheastern states like New Jersey.
This was a realigning election for New Jersey, as it was for the nation. From1852 to1892, the Democrats had carried the state all but once – inUlysses S. Grant's1872 landslide – and only in1860 had any other candidates won any electoral votes at all.[1] New Jersey, as an industrialMid-Atlantic state, was strongly in favor of thegold standard. Up until 1896, the Democrats had nominated candidates favorable to that notion, and to the state at large. In the ten elections between 1852 and 1892, the Democrats nominated aNew Yorker in six (Horatio Seymour in1868,Horace Greeley in1872,Samuel J. Tilden in1876, andGrover Cleveland in1884,1888, and1892). In another three, a candidate from another Mid-Atlantic state was nominated by the Democrats:James Buchanan andWinfield Hancock ofPennsylvania in1856 and1880, and New Jersey's ownGeorge McClellan in1864. The only exception occurred in 1860 when the Democrats were completely split betweenBreckinridge andDouglas.[2]
Beginning in 1896, the Democratic party dramatically shifted away from supporting business interests to supporting the interests of farmers and miners of the south and west.[3] As the issue ofbimetallism – whether to allow silver to be used as currency in addition to gold[4] – split the country along regional boundaries, New Jersey went with the pro-gold standard and pro-business Republicans. In the ensuing"System of 1896" that lasted until theGreat Depressionrealignment of1932, Republicans won the state in all but one election: when New Jersey's own governor,Woodrow Wilson, was the Democratic nominee in1912. Even then, Wilson was barely able to overcome New Jersey's Republican lean, winning with a tiny plurality of 41.20 percent of the vote due to the Republican split betweenProgressiveTeddy Roosevelt and conservativeWilliam Howard Taft.[5]
Beyond even the 4th party system, New Jersey retained the Republican bent it acquired in 1896 for the next century: in the twentieth century, Democrats only won New Jersey nine times, while Republicans won sixteen times. On all but three of these occasions (the Democratic landslides of1936,1964, and1996) the margin of victory was less than 10 points. EvenFranklin Roosevelt only barely won the state in 1932,1940, and1944. Beginning withBill Clinton's massive victory in 1996, the state would return to the Democratic fold with the rest of the Northeast during the twenty-first century. Bryan would lose New Jersey to McKinley againfour years later and would later lose the state again in1908 to William Howard Taft.
| 1896 United States presidential election in New Jersey[6] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Popular vote | Electoral vote | ||||
| Count | % | Count | % | |||||
| Republican | William McKinley ofOhio | Garret Hobart ofNew Jersey | 221,535 | 59.68% | 10 | 100.00% | ||
| Democratic | William Jennings Bryan ofNebraska | Arthur Sewall ofMaine | 133,695 | 36.02% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| National Democratic | John M. Palmer ofIllinois | Simon Bolivar Buckner ofKentucky | 6,378 | 1.72% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Prohibition | Charles Eugene Bentley ofNebraska | James H. Southgate ofNorth Carolina | 5,617 | 1.51% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Socialist Labor | Charles H. Matchett ofNew York | Matthew Maguire ofNew Jersey | 3,986 | 1.07% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Total | 371,211 | 100.00% | 10 | 100.00% | ||||
| County | William McKinley Republican | William Jennings Bryan Democratic | John McAuley Palmer National Democratic | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast[7] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Atlantic | 5,005 | 66.06% | 2,233 | 29.47% | 119 | 1.57% | 219 | 2.89% | 2,772 | 36.59% | 7,576 |
| Bergen | 8,545 | 62.07% | 4,531 | 32.91% | 451 | 3.28% | 239 | 1.74% | 4,014 | 29.16% | 13,766 |
| Burlington | 9,371 | 63.70% | 4,610 | 31.33% | 406 | 2.76% | 325 | 2.21% | 4,761 | 32.36% | 14,712 |
| Camden | 16,395 | 69.64% | 6,380 | 27.10% | 280 | 1.19% | 487 | 2.07% | 10,015 | 42.54% | 23,542 |
| Cape May | 2,136 | 65.48% | 929 | 28.48% | 50 | 1.53% | 147 | 4.51% | 1,207 | 37.00% | 3,262 |
| Cumberland | 7,018 | 61.09% | 3,877 | 33.75% | 78 | 0.68% | 515 | 4.48% | 3,141 | 27.34% | 11,488 |
| Essex | 42,587 | 64.99% | 20,509 | 31.30% | 1,004 | 1.53% | 1,425 | 2.17% | 22,078 | 33.69% | 65,525 |
| Gloucester | 4,727 | 59.02% | 2,981 | 37.22% | 77 | 0.96% | 224 | 2.80% | 1,746 | 21.80% | 8,009 |
| Hudson | 33,626 | 52.51% | 28,133 | 43.94% | 927 | 1.45% | 1,347 | 2.10% | 5,493 | 8.58% | 64,033 |
| Hunterdon | 4,264 | 44.20% | 4,992 | 51.75% | 93 | 0.96% | 297 | 3.08% | -728 | -7.55% | 9,646 |
| Mercer | 13,847 | 66.84% | 5,970 | 28.82% | 430 | 2.08% | 471 | 2.27% | 7,877 | 38.02% | 20,718 |
| Middlesex | 9,304 | 58.73% | 5,976 | 37.72% | 350 | 2.21% | 213 | 1.34% | 3,328 | 21.01% | 15,843 |
| Monmouth | 10,611 | 55.27% | 7,799 | 40.63% | 474 | 2.47% | 313 | 1.63% | 2,812 | 14.65% | 19,197 |
| Morris | 8,190 | 58.71% | 4,936 | 35.38% | 331 | 2.37% | 494 | 3.54% | 3,254 | 23.32% | 13,951 |
| Ocean | 3,384 | 72.59% | 1,068 | 22.91% | 80 | 1.72% | 130 | 2.79% | 2,316 | 49.68% | 4,662 |
| Passaic | 15,437 | 58.81% | 9,280 | 35.36% | 357 | 1.36% | 1,173 | 4.47% | 6,157 | 23.46% | 26,247 |
| Salem | 3,717 | 54.37% | 2,802 | 40.99% | 67 | 0.98% | 250 | 3.66% | 915 | 13.39% | 6,836 |
| Somerset | 4,388 | 60.18% | 2,608 | 35.77% | 159 | 2.18% | 136 | 1.87% | 1,780 | 24.41% | 7,291 |
| Sussex | 3,045 | 49.09% | 2,975 | 47.96% | 49 | 0.79% | 134 | 2.16% | 70 | 1.13% | 6,203 |
| Union | 11,707 | 61.58% | 6,073 | 31.95% | 529 | 2.78% | 701 | 3.69% | 5,634 | 29.64% | 19,010 |
| Warren | 4,063 | 42.78% | 5,013 | 52.79% | 62 | 0.65% | 359 | 3.78% | -950 | -10.00% | 9,497 |
| Totals | 221,367 | 59.67% | 133,675 | 36.03% | 6,373 | 1.72% | 9,599 | 2.59% | 87,692 | 23.64% | 371,014 |
State and district results of the1896 United States presidential election | ||
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