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 County Results Ellerbe: 50–60% 70–80% 80–90% >90% | |||||||||||||||||
The1896 South Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1896, to select thegovernor of the state ofSouth Carolina.William Haselden Ellerbe won theDemocratic primary and easily won the general election to become the86th governor of South Carolina.
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A newSouth Carolina Constitution was promulgated in 1895 under the direction ofPitchfork Ben Tillman and itdisenfranchised the remainingblacks who were eligible to vote. With the removal of blacks from the electorate, theSouth Carolina Democratic Party felt safe to have its statewide ticket selected from aprimary election. Thus, the 1896 election in South Carolina was the first that featured the use of a primary election by a party to select its nominees of statewide office for the general election.
GovernorJohn Gary Evans declined to seek a second term and instead sought election to theU.S. Senate. Three candidates entered the Democratic primary andWilliam Haselden Ellerbe from the start was the heavy favorite to win. He had been a candidate in theprevious gubernatorial election, but lost to Evans after Tillman shifted his support from Ellerbe to Evans. This time Tillman fully backed Ellerbe and the other candidates never generated any traction with the voters of the state. The primary was held on August 26 and Ellerbe coasted to victory while the voters were chiefly interested in the battle between Evans andJoseph H. Earle for the open Senate seat.
| Democratic Primary | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | % |
| William Haselden Ellerbe | 55,313 | 77.1 |
| John R. Harrison | 14,278 | 19.9 |
| G. Walton Whitman | 2,186 | 3.0 |
Sampson Pope had been anindependent candidate in theprevious gubernatorial election and gained an impressive 30% of the vote in a state completely run by the Democratic party machine. Upset at the new state constitution promulgated in 1895 and the lack of opposition by thestate Republicans, Pope established a new party called the "Reorganized Republicans". It was composed chiefly of white men and requested recognition as the official South Carolina Republican Party from theRepublican National Committee. Pope was considered to be alily-white Republican.[1]
However, the official state party did not want to lose its official status because of the potentialspoils system to be gained by the election ofWilliam McKinley for president in1896. They called for a state convention on September 17 inColumbia to nominate a statewide ticket. Sampson Pope likewise called for a convention of his Reorganized Republicans at the same time hoping that the two factions would merge orfuse for the general election. The old guard Republicans refused any merger and would only accept complete subordination forcing the Reorganized Republicans to also nominate a slate of statewide candidates.
The general election was held on November 3, 1896, and William Haselden Ellerbe was easily elected asgovernor of South Carolina against the two Republican candidates.Turnout increased for this election over theprevious election because it was a contested election and there also was apresidential election on the ballot.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | William Haselden Ellerbe (incumbent) | 59,424 | 89.1 | +19.5 | |
| Reorganized Republican | Sampson Pope | 4,432 | 6.6 | -23.8 | |
| Republican | R.M. Wallace | 2,780 | 4.2 | +4.2 | |
| No party | Write-Ins | 41 | 0.1 | +0.1 | |
| Majority | 54,992 | 82.5 | +43.3 | ||
| Turnout | 66,677 | ||||
| Democratichold | |||||
| Preceded by 1894 | South Carolina gubernatorial elections | Succeeded by 1898 |
