Presidential ElectionsPresidential Elections& Partisan Politics& Partisan Politics

First Party SystemFirst Party SystemDemocratic-Republicans vs. FederalistsDemocratic-Republicans vs. Federalists

Year

Candidates Winner Significance

1800

Thomas Jefferson (Democratic Republican)

John Adams (Federalist)

Thomas Jefferson (DR)

In the 1790s George Washington’s cabinet was divided by two political factions. The Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, favored a powerful central government, while the Democratic Republicans, led by Thomas Jefferson, wanted to reserve most powers for the states.

Nearing the completion of two terms as president, Washington stepped aside as a highly partisan election unfolded in 1796. Federalist John Adams won the election, but due to the nature of the electoral college before the passage of the 12th Amendment, runner-up Thomas Jefferson became vice president. Adams and Jefferson remained at odds throughout Adams’ time in the White House.

Four years later, in the “Revolution of 1800,” Jefferson defeated Adams, resulting in the first transfer of power from one political party to another. Nevertheless, Adams attempted to maintain Federalist control over the judiciary by appointing “midnight judges” in the last days of his presidency, leading to the case of Marbury v. Madison.

As president, Jefferson actually continued many Federalist economic policies, though he ended the whisky tax which harmed farmers.

1816

James Monroe (National Republican)

James Monroe (NR)

After the end of the War of 1812, the Federalist Party was rapidly fading.

The old Democratic Republican Party changed its name to the National Republican Party because of its national – rather than sectional –appeal and the fact that it had adopted many “nationalist” – or Federalist – economic policies.

Monroe’s time in office was called the “Era of Good Feelings.” He easily won the election of 1816 and ran unopposed in 1820.

1824

John Q. Adams (National Republican)

Andrew Jackson (National Republican)

Henry Clay (National Republican)

John Q. Adams (NR)

In the non-partisan election of 1824, Jackson won a plurality of the popular vote, but with the vote split between three major candidates, no single candidate won an electoral majority.

The results of the election were ultimately decided by Congress. Adams and Clay – who both despised Jackson – cut a deal: Adams became president and appointed Clay as Secretary of State.

Jackson called the outcome of the election a “corrupt bargain.” Anger over the election ended of the Era of Good Feelings and signaled the beginning of the second party system.

Second Party SystemSecond Party SystemJacksonian Democrats vs. WhigsJacksonian Democrats vs. Whigs

Year

Candidates Winner Significance

1828

Andrew Jackson (Democrat)

John Quincy Adams (National Republican)

Andrew Jackson (D)

After the “corrupt bargain” of 1824 Andrew Jackson and his supporters formed a new political party, the Democrats.

In the 1820s voter turnout increased as property requirements for voting were lowered or eliminated, candidates engaged in vigorous public campaigns and politicians rewarded their supporters with government jobs (the “spoils system”). These changes swept Jackson to an easy victory in the election of 1828.

The Jacksonian Era became known as the era of the “common man.” Subsequent presidential campaigns tried to appeal to poor white voters and the frontier spirit (“Log Cabin & Hard Cider”).

1844

James K. Polk (Democrat)

Henry Clay (Whig)

James K. Polk (D)

Polk won a narrow victory over Clay by appealing to proponents of “Manifest Destiny” and supporters of the annexation of Texas. As president, Polk supported the expansion of slavery into western territories, led the U.S. into the Mexican War and threatened to go to war over the U.S.-Canadian border dispute (“Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!”)

Third Party SystemThird Party SystemDemocrats & RepublicansDemocrats & Republicans

Year

Candidates Winner Significance

1860

Abraham Lincoln (Republican)

Stephen Douglas (Northern Democrat)

John Breckinridge (Southern Democrat)

John Bell (Constitutional Union)

Abraham Lincoln (R)

In the late1850s, the Democratic Party split into northern and southern wings over the issue of slavery. Meanwhile, former Whigs, Know-Nothings and various opponents of slavery had coalesced to form the new Republican Party. In the extremely sectional 1860 election, Lincoln emerged victorious by winning the support of the populous northern states.

Although Lincoln promised not to interfere with slavery where it existed and pledged only to stop slavery from spreading further, his election alarmed many southerners who perceived him as a radical. Before Lincoln was even inaugurated, South Carolina and the “deep south” seceded, forming the Confederate States of America.

Lincoln believed the Union to be indissoluble and denied that southern states had a right to secede. He vowed to resupply federal military installations in the south and defend them if attacked. After South Carolina fired on Fort Sumter, the “upper south” seceded and the Civil War began.

1876

Rutherford Hayes (Republican)

Samuel Tilden (Democrat)

Rutherford Hayes (R)

With close vote counts in several states, the outcome of this election was decided by Congress in the Compromise of 1877.

Republicans won the White House, as Rutherford Hayes became president. Democrats received a promise from Hayes that he would remove federal troops from the south, appoint Democrats to his cabinet and provide funding for the Southern Pacific Railroad.

The Compromise of 1877 signaled the effective disfranchisement of black voters, the victory of white

supremacist Democrats in the “Solid South” and the end of Reconstruction.

Fourth Party SystemFourth Party SystemPopulism, Progressivism & the Roaring TwentiesPopulism, Progressivism & the Roaring Twenties

Year

Candidates Winner Significance

1896

William McKinley (Republican)

William J. Bryan (Democrat & Populist)

William McKinley (R)

In 1892, the Populist Party drafted the Omaha Platform which proposed a broad program of reforms to free western farmers from debt. But William Jennings Bryan, the candidate for both the Populist and Democratic parties in 1896, narrowly focused his campaign on the coinage of silver, attacking the “Cross of Gold” in his speeches.

McKinley’s campaign manager, Mark Hanna, raised contributions from bankers and industrialists who feared that Bryan was a dangerous radical. The McKinley campaign was able to outspend the Bryan campaign by a large margin.

On election day, Bryan failed to win the votes of urban industrial workers who feared that bimetallism would cause inflation. Populism faded after Bryan’s defeat and the 1896 election is seen as the milestone when urban, industrial power surpassed the influence of rural, agricultural America.

1912

Woodrow Wilson (Democrat)

Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive “Bull Moose” Republican)

William Taft (Republican)

Woodrow Wilson (D)

Three candidates with similar progressive views challenged each other in 1912.

Dissatisfied with the policies of incumbent President William Taft, Theodore Roosevelt came out of retirement to become first president to run for a third term. After losing the Republican nomination to Taft, Roosevelt was endorsed by the Progressive “Bull Moose” Party.

Facing a fractured Republican Party, Democrat Woodrow Wilson easily won the election, running on a platform of “New Freedom” which promised tariff reductions, reorganization of the banking system, and regulation of trusts.

1916

Woodrow Wilson (Democrat)

Charles Evans Hughes (Republican)

Woodrow Wilson (D)

Running under the campaign slogan “he kept us out of war,” Wilson appealed to the isolationist views of many Americans who hoped to avoid entering the bloodbath of World War I.

Less than a year after the election, however, the U.S. learned through the Zimmerman Note that Germany intended to resume unrestricted submarine warfare and was seeking the aid of Mexico in attacking the United States.

The U.S. promptly entered the war, in the words of Wilson, “to make the world safe for democracy.”

1920

Warren Harding (Republican)

James Cox (Democrat)

Warren G. Harding (R)

Harding promised a “Return to Normalcy” after the end of World War I, which meant isolationism, deregulation of business, enacting protective tariffs and ending the excesses of Red Scare prosecutions.

Harding’s victory is seen as the end of progressivism and a shift of the Republican party toward the laissez-faire, pro-business policies of the 1920s.

192 Herbert Hoover Herbert Smith alienated many Democrats – especially in the south –

8 (Republican)

Al Smith (Democrat)

Hoover (R) because he was a Catholic, a “wet” (advocate of repealing prohibition) and a northern politician who had formerly been associated with Tammany Hall corruption.

Republican Herbert Hoover won the election handily and continued to carry out the laissez-faire policies of the 1920s.

Fifth Party SystemFifth Party SystemNew Deal LiberalismNew Deal Liberalism

Year

Candidates Winner Significance

1932

Franklin Roosevelt (Democrat)

Herbert Hoover (Republican)

Franklin Roosevelt (D)

Hoover’s failure to respond decisively to the crisis posed by the Great Depression angered many voters. The unemployed homeless named their shantytowns “Hoovervilles” after the president and Hoover’s popularity dropped further when he used federal troops to disperse the Bonus March.

Roosevelt, with an optimistic message and a pledge to care for the “forgotten man,” won the election in a landslide. FDR ended Republican laissez-faire policies & “rugged individualism” in favor of New Deal policies of government regulation, support for labor unions, emergency deficit spending and the creation of the “welfare state.”

1940

Franklin Roosevelt (Democrat)

Wendell Willkie (Republican)

Franklin Roosevelt (D)

As World War II entered its second year, Willkie tapped isolationist sentiment by accusing Roosevelt of leading the closer to direct involvement in the conflict. Willkie supporters also protested FDR’s break from the two term tradition established by George Washington.

Regardless, FDR won an unprecedented third term as president with support from the New Deal Democratic coalition of the “Solid South,” organized labor and urban political machines. FDR won a fourth term in the 1944 election.

Following FDR’s death, the 22nd amendment limited presidents to two complete terms in office.

1948

Harry Truman (Democrat)

Thomas Dewey (Republican)

Strom Thurmond (Southern Democrat/ “Dixiecrat”)

Harry Truman (D)

After serving less than three months as vice president, Truman ascended to the presidency upon FDR’s death in 1945. Facing Cold War crises including the impending “loss” of China to communism, many doubted Truman would be reelected in 1948.

Additionally, southern States Rights Democrats, or “Dixiecrats,” abandoned Truman because of his support for African American civil rights. Truman had ordered the integration of the armed forces and proposed measures to protect black voting rights and fair employment.

Since the Democratic Party appeared fatally split, some newspapers prematurely printed headlines like the infamous “Dewey Defeats Truman” banner, but the plucky Truman won the electoral college with strong support from the west.

1960

John F. Kennedy (Democrat)

Richard Nixon (Republican)

John F. Kennedy (D)

The election of 1960 showcased the growing influence of the mass media on elections as a young, confident, and tanned Kennedy faced a pale, thin, sweaty Nixon in the first televised presidential debates. Though Kennedy entered first debate trailing Nixon in public opinion polls, polling immediately after the debate showed a significant boost to Kennedy’s popularity.

In a speech to Protestant ministers in Texas, Kennedy calmed

fears that his Catholic faith would affect his political decisions, saying, “I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters – and the Church does not speak for me.”

Defeating Nixon by the narrowest of margins (an advantage of only .17% in the popular vote), Kennedy became the first Catholic – and, at age 43, the youngest man – to be elected president.

1964

Lyndon Johnson (Democrat)

Barry Goldwater (Republican)

Lyndon Johnson (D)

Serving out the remainder of Kennedy’s term, Johnson campaigned as a civil rights crusader and peace candidate. Barry Goldwater opposed Johnson, running as an anti-communist and critic of New Deal “big government.”

Goldwater supporters used the slogan “In your heart, you know he’s right.” The Johnson campaign responded with “In your guts, you know he’s nuts” and portrayed Goldwater as a dangerously confrontational Cold Warrior willing to risk nuclear war in the infamous “Daisy” ad.

Although Johnson won the election by a wide margin, Goldwater had shattered the “Solid South” by winning over white southern Democrats to the Republican Party. And despite presenting himself as a peace candidate in the summer of 1964, Johnson soon escalated U.S. involvement in Vietnam, a decision which ultimately weakened support for his Great Society programs and led him to step aside in the 1968 election.

Sixth Party SystemSixth Party SystemRepublican ConservatismRepublican Conservatism

Year

Candidates Winner Significance

1968

Richard Nixon (Republican)

Hubert Humphrey (Democrat)

George Wallace (American Independent)

Richard Nixon (R)

In 1968, the Democratic Party was in disarray. Incumbent president Lyndon Johnson declined to seek reelection, antiwar candidate Robert Kennedy was assassinated after winning the key California primary and riots over the Vietnam War erupted outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

By way of contrast, Republican candidate Richard Nixon vowed to restore “Law and Order.” That message appealed to what Nixon called the “Silent Majority” of Americans tired of disorder and social upheaval. Nixon even hinted at a “secret plan” to end the Vietnam War while bringing “Peace with Honor.”

Segregationist candidate George Wallace won the deep south as the exodus of southern whites away from the Democrats continued. Though less overtly racial in its rhetoric, the Nixon campaign also drew whites away from Democratic Party as part of the Republican “Southern Strategy.”

1980

Ronald Reagan (Republican)

Jimmy Carter (Democrat)

John Anderson (Independent)

Ronald Reagan (R)

Incumbent Jimmy Carter was unpopular due to a sluggish economy and perceptions that he had mismanaged foreign affairs. Carter was also weakened, but not defeated, by a Democratic primary challenge from liberal senator Ted Kennedy.

The conservative New Right Coalition that had begun to take shape in the 1964 Goldwater campaign – an alliance of big businesses, anticommunists and “family values” Christians – came to the forefront in the 1980 “Reagan Revolution.” Contrasted against Carter’s gritty realism, Reagan’s sunny optimism (“It’s morning again in America”) and skill as a “great communicator” led him to an electoral victory of 489 to 49.

At the age of 69, Reagan was the oldest man elected president.1992

Bill Clinton (Democrat)

Bill Clinton (D)

Clinton characterized himself as a centrist “New Democrat” friendly to big business, supporting free trade and willing to

George H.W. Bush (Republican)

Ross Perot (Reform)

negotiate balanced budgets. The slogan of the Clinton campaign staff was “It’s the economy, stupid!” meaning that good jobs, not social policies, were what voters really cared about.

Incumbent president George H.W. Bush lost support within the Republican Party because he had broken an earlier promise not to raise taxes (“read my lips: no new taxes”) during an economic recession. Bush lost even more supporters to Reform Party candidate Ross Perot who played a “spoiler” role in the election. In the end, Clinton won with a majority of the electoral vote but only 43% of the popular vote.

2000

George W Bush (Republican)

Al Gore (Democrat)

Ralph Nader (Green)

George W. Bush (R)

Losing by a razor-thin margin in the swing state of Florida, and with apparent voting irregularities in several counties, Al Gore filed a lawsuit for seeking a manual recount of votes in the state.

The Bush campaign opposed Gore’s suit and in the case of Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court halted the recount. As a result, Bush was declared the winner of the electoral vote and became president, though Gore had won the national popular election by half a million votes.

The Gore campaign claimed that Green Party candidate Ralph Nader played a “spoiler” role, siphoning off Democratic voters who would otherwise have cast their ballots for Gore. Other political analysts said that Nader’s effect of the election was neutral, mostly energizing voters who would not have voted at all.

2008

Barack Obama (Democrat)

John McCain (Republican)

Barack Obama (D)

Under vague but inspirational slogans of “Hope” and “Change,” Obama successfully used the internet and social media to organize grassroots supporters and raise campaign funds.

His victory in 2008 marked the election of the nation’s first African American president.

The election also highlighted the growing racial and ethnic diversity of the American populace itself as whites became a smaller portion of the electorate. With ironclad support from African American voters (95%), and decisive majorities among Hispanic (67%) and Asian (62%) voters, Obama became the first candidate to win the presidency despite getting less than half (43%) of the white vote.

In 2012, Republican Mitt Romney unsuccessfully challenged Obama’s reelection bid. Despite losing, Romney’s campaign was in itself a milestone, as Romney became the first Mormon presidential nominee.

Presidential Election Turnout by % of Voting AgePresidential Election Turnout by % of Voting Age Population)Population)

1824-1836: Rapidly increasing voter turnout due to elimination of property requirements and the vigorous public campaigns of “Jacksonian Democracy.”

1840-1896: Sustained high voter turnout due in part to intense sectional controversies and party loyalty stemming from the spoils system and urban political machines.

1964-1988: Declining voter turnout due in part to voter apathy resulting from the Vietnam War, social unrest, political scandals and a struggling economy.