1864 United States elections

Last updated

1864 United States elections
1862          1863         1864         1865          1866
Presidential election year
Election dayNovember 8
Incumbent president Abraham Lincoln (Republican)
Next Congress 39th
Presidential election
Partisan controlRepublican hold
Popular vote marginRepublican +10.0%
Electoral vote
Abraham Lincoln (R) [1] 212 [2]
George B. McClellan (D)21
ElectoralCollege1864.svg
1864 presidential election results. Red denotes states won by Lincoln, blue denotes states won by McClellan, and brown denotes Confederate states that did not participate in the election. Numbers indicate the electoral votes won by each candidate.
Senate elections
Overall controlRepublican hold
Seats contested14 of 50 seats [3]
Net seat changeRepublican +2 [4]
House elections
Overall controlRepublican hold
Seats contestedAll 243 voting members
Net seat changeRepublican +40 [4]
House039ElectionMap.png
1864 House of Representatives election results

  Democratic seat
  Republican seat

  Independent seat

The 1864 United States elections were held on November 8, 1864. National Union President Abraham Lincoln was elected to a second term, while the Republicans added to their majorities in Congress. The elections were held during the American Civil War. Lincoln would be assassinated shortly into his second term.

In the presidential election, National Union Party nominee President Abraham Lincoln defeated Democratic nominee former General George B. McClellan. [5] Despite factionalism in the Republican Party and earlier concern about the progress of the war, Lincoln easily carried the popular vote and won the greatest share of the electoral vote since James Monroe won re-election unopposed in 1820. Lincoln's win made him the first president to win re-election since Andrew Jackson, and the first two-term President unaffiliated with the Democratic-Republican Party or the Democratic Party since John Adams. Lincoln formed a bipartisan electoral alliance with War Democrats by selecting Democrat Andrew Johnson as his running mate and campaigning on the National Union ticket, making this the first and to date only election in which a winning ticket was composed of members of two separate parties.

Republicans gained seats in the House of Representatives, making their plurality into a majority. [6]

In the Senate, Republicans gained several seats, and continued to hold a majority. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1860 United States presidential election</span> 19th quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 1860 United States presidential election was the 19th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1860. In a four-way contest, the Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, absent from the ballot in ten slave states, won a national popular plurality, a popular majority in the North where states already had abolished slavery, and a national electoral majority comprising only Northern electoral votes. Lincoln's election thus served as the main catalyst of the states that would become the Confederacy seceding from the Union. This marked the first time that a Republican was elected president. It was also the first presidential election in which both major party candidates were registered in the same home state; the others have been in 1904, 1920, 1940, 1944, and 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1864 United States presidential election</span> 20th quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 1864 United States presidential election was the 20th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 8, 1864. Near the end of the American Civil War, incumbent President Abraham Lincoln of the National Union Party easily defeated the Democratic nominee, former General George B. McClellan, by a wide margin of 212–21 in the electoral college, with 55% of the popular vote. For the election, the Republican Party and some Democrats created the National Union Party, especially to attract War Democrats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitutional Union Party (United States)</span> United States third party (1860–1861)

The Constitutional Union Party was a United States third party active during the 1860 elections. It consisted of conservative former Whigs, largely from the Southern United States, who wanted to avoid secession over the slavery issue and refused to join either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. The Constitutional Union Party campaigned on a simple platform "to recognize no political principle other than the Constitution of the country, the Union of the states, and the Enforcement of the Laws".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">B. Gratz Brown</span> American politician (1826–1885)

Benjamin Gratz Brown was an American politician. He was a U.S. Senator, the 20th Governor of Missouri, and the Liberal Republican and Democratic Party vice presidential candidate in the presidential election of 1872.

Southern Democrats are affiliates of the U.S. Democratic Party who reside in the Southern United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Union Party (United States)</span> 1864–1868 Republican and Unionist political alliance

The National Union Party was the name used by the Republican Party and elements of other parties for the national ticket in the 1864 presidential election during the Civil War. Most state Republican parties did not change their name. The name was used to attract War Democrats, border state voters, and Unconditional Unionist, and Unionist Party members who might otherwise have not voted for Republicans. The National Union Party nominated incumbent Republican President Abraham Lincoln of Illinois and Democrat Andrew Johnson of Tennessee for Vice President. They won the Electoral College 212–21.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008 United States elections</span>

The 2008 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, during the war on terror and the onset of the Great Recession. It was a considered a Democratic wave election, with Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois defeating Senator John McCain of Arizona by a wide margin, and the Democrats bolstering their majorities in both chambers of Congress.

The following table indicates the party of elected officials in the U.S. state of Maine:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2000 United States elections</span>

The 2000 United States elections were held on November 7, 2000. Republican Governor George W. Bush of Texas defeated Democratic Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee in the presidential election. Republicans retained control of both houses of Congress, giving the party unified control of Congress and the presidency for the first time since the 1954 elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1996 United States elections</span>

The 1996 United States elections were held on November 5. Democratic President Bill Clinton won re-election, while the Republicans maintained their majorities in both houses of the United States Congress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1858–59 United States Senate elections</span>

The 1858–59 United States Senate elections were held on various dates in various states. As these U.S. Senate elections were prior to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were chosen by state legislatures. Senators were elected over a wide range of time throughout 1858 and 1859, and a seat may have been filled months late or remained vacant due to legislative deadlock. In these elections, terms were up for the senators in Class 2.

War Democrats in American politics of the 1860s were members of the Democratic Party who supported the Union and rejected the policies of the Copperheads. The War Democrats demanded a more aggressive policy toward the Confederacy and supported the policies of Republican President Abraham Lincoln when the American Civil War broke out a few months after his victory in the 1860 presidential election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1912 United States elections</span>

The 1912 United States elections elected the members of the 63rd United States Congress, occurring during the Fourth Party System. Amidst a division between incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft and former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, the Democratic Party won the presidency and both chambers of Congress, the first time they accomplished that feat since the 1892 elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1880 United States elections</span>

The 1880 United States elections occurred during the Third Party System, and elected the members of the 47th United States Congress. Republicans retained the presidency and took control of the House. An unclear partisan situation prevailed in the Senate. As the first presidential election after the end of Reconstruction, this election saw the first occurrence of the Democratic Party sweeping the Southern United States; the party would carry an overwhelming majority of Southern states well into the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1868 United States elections</span>

The 1868 United States elections was held on November 3, electing the members of the 41st United States Congress. The election took place during the Reconstruction Era, and many Southerners were barred from voting. However, Congress's various Reconstruction Acts required southern states to allow Black men to vote, and their voting power was significant to the elections results.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1860 United States elections</span>

The 1860 United States elections elected the members of the 37th United States Congress. The election marked the start of the Third Party System and precipitated the Civil War. The Republican Party won control of the presidency and both houses of Congress, making it the fifth party to accomplish such a feat. The election is widely considered to be a realigning election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1848 United States elections</span>

The 1848 United States elections elected the members of the 31st United States Congress and the 12th president of the United States. The election took place during the Second Party System, nine months after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican–American War. With the issue of slavery dividing the nation, the Free Soil Party established itself as the third most powerful party in Congress. California joined the union before the next election, and elected its first Congressional delegation to the 31st Congress. Whigs won the presidency, but Democrats won a plurality in the House and retained control of the Senate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1844 United States elections</span>

The 1844 United States elections elected the members of the 29th United States Congress, and took place during the Second Party System in the midst of the debate over whether to annex Texas. Texas and Iowa joined the union during the 29th Congress. Democrats retained control of the House and took back control of the presidency and the Senate, re-establishing the dominant position the party had lost in the 1840 election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1832 United States elections</span>

The 1832 United States elections elected the members of the 23rd United States Congress. Taking place during the Second Party System and a political conflict over the re-authorization of the Second Bank of the United States, the elections were contested between Andrew Jackson's Democratic Party and opponents of Jackson, including the National Republicans. Though the Democrats retained the presidency and the House, they lost their Senate majority. The Anti-Masonic Party also fielded the first notable presidential candidacy from a third party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1866 United States elections</span>

The 1866 United States elections occurred in the middle of National Union/Democratic President Andrew Johnson's term, during the Third Party System and Reconstruction. Johnson had become president on April 15, 1865, upon the death of his predecessor, Abraham Lincoln. Members of the 40th United States Congress were chosen in this election. As this was the first election after the Civil War, many ex-Confederates were barred from voting, and several Southern states did not take part in the election. Delegations from Arkansas, Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, Louisiana, and South Carolina were re-admitted during the 40th Congress.

References

  1. For the 1864 election, the Republican presidential ticket was labeled as the National Union Party ticket.
  2. Lincoln won elections held in Louisiana and Tennessee, which collectively had an additional 17 electoral votes, but these electoral votes were not counted by Congress.
  3. Not counting special elections.
  4. 1 2 Congressional seat gain figures only reflect the results of the regularly-scheduled elections, and do not take special elections into account.
  5. "1864 Presidential Election". The American Presidency Project. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
  6. "Party Divisions of the House of Representatives". United States House of Representatives. Retrieved 25 June 2014.
  7. "Party Division in the Senate, 1789-Present". United States Senate. Retrieved 25 June 2014.