← 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 → Presidential election year | |
Election day | November 4 |
---|---|
Incumbent president | Chester A. Arthur (Republican) |
Next Congress | 49th |
Presidential election | |
Partisan control | Democratic gain |
Popular vote margin | Democratic +0.6% |
Electoral vote | |
Grover Cleveland (D) | 219 |
James G. Blaine (R) | 182 |
1884 presidential election results. Red denotes states won by Blaine, blue denotes states won by Cleveland. Numbers indicate the electoral votes won by each candidate. | |
Senate elections | |
Overall control | Republican hold |
Seats contested | 27 of 76 seats [1] |
Net seat change | Democratic -2 [2] |
House elections | |
Overall control | Democratic hold |
Seats contested | All 325 voting members |
Net seat change | Republican +24 [2] |
1884 House of Representatives election results Democratic seat |
The 1884 United States elections were held on November 4, electing the members of the 49th United States Congress. The election took place during the Third Party System. The Democratic governor Grover Cleveland of New York defeated Republican secretary of state James G. Blaine in the presidential election. In Congress, the Republicans retained control of the Senate while Democrats maintained control of the House of Representatives. This marks the last election in U.S. history in which the Democratic president came to office without unified control of Congress.
In the presidential election, Democratic governor Grover Cleveland of New York defeated Republican former secretary of state James G. Blaine. [3] Though Cleveland won the popular vote by less than 1%, he won by a fairly comfortable margin in the electoral college. Cleveland won the South and the critical state of New York, while Blaine took most of the rest of the country. This was the most recent example of an incumbent president being denied nomination by his party for another term, as Blaine defeated President Chester A. Arthur at the 1884 Republican National Convention. Cleveland took the Democratic nomination on the second ballot of the 1884 Democratic National Convention, defeating Delaware senator Thomas F. Bayard and several other candidates. Cleveland's win made him the first Democratic president to win an election since the 1856 election, although Andrew Johnson served out Lincoln's term from 1865 to 1869.
Republicans picked up several seats in the House, but Democrats continued to command a majority in the chamber. [4] In the Senate, Republicans made moderate gains and established a clear majority. [5]
This marks one of four occasions where a newly elected president entered office with a divided legislature, occurring again in 1860, 1876, and 1980. 1860 is the only other occasion where the president's party held the House, but not the Senate. A divided Congress also occurred after the 1984 and 2012 elections. This is the only time a Democratic president didn't assume office with a government trifecta.
Stephen Grover Cleveland served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first Democrat to win the presidency after the Civil War and was one of two Democratic presidents, followed by Woodrow Wilson, in an era when Republicans dominated the presidency between 1869 and 1933. Cleveland won the popular vote in three presidential elections—1884, 1888, and 1892—and is the only U.S. president to serve non-consecutive presidential terms.
James Gillespie Blaine was an American statesman and Republican politician who represented Maine in the United States House of Representatives from 1863 to 1876, serving as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1869 to 1875, and then in the United States Senate from 1876 to 1881.
The 1876 United States presidential election was the 23rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1876.
The 1884 United States presidential election was the 25th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 1884. In the election, Governor Grover Cleveland of New York defeated Republican James G. Blaine of Maine. It was set apart by mudslinging and personal allegations that eclipsed substantive issues, such as civil administration change. Cleveland was the first Democrat elected president of the United States since James Buchanan in 1856, the first to hold office since Andrew Johnson left the White House in 1869, and the last to hold office until Woodrow Wilson, who began his first term in 1913. For this reason, 1884 is a significant election in U.S. political history, marking an interruption in the era when Republicans largely controlled the presidency between Reconstruction and the Great Depression.
The 1888 United States presidential election was the 26th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1888. Republican nominee Benjamin Harrison, a former U.S. senator from Indiana, defeated incumbent Democratic President Grover Cleveland of New York. It was the third of five U.S. presidential elections in which the winner did not win the national popular vote, which would not occur again until the 2000 US presidential election. Cleveland was the last incumbent Democratic president to lose reelection until Jimmy Carter in 1980.
The 1892 United States presidential election was the 27th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 1892. In the fourth rematch in American history, the Democratic nominee, former president Grover Cleveland, defeated the Republican incumbent, President Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland's victory made him the first and, to date, the only person in American history to be elected to a non-consecutive second presidential term. It was also the first of two occasions that incumbents were defeated in consecutive elections—the second being Gerald Ford's loss to Jimmy Carter in 1976, followed by Carter's loss to Ronald Reagan in 1980. To date, it is the only election in which both major party nominees had served as president.
Thomas Francis Bayard was an American lawyer, politician and diplomat from Wilmington, Delaware. A Democrat, he served three terms as the United States Senator from Delaware and made three unsuccessful bids for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. In 1885, President Grover Cleveland appointed him Secretary of State. After four years in private life, he returned to the diplomatic arena as Ambassador to Great Britain.
Thomas Andrews Hendricks was an American politician and lawyer from Indiana who served as the 16th governor of Indiana from 1873 to 1877 and the 21st vice president of the United States from March until his death in November 1885. Hendricks represented Indiana in the U.S. House of Representatives (1851–1855) and the U.S. Senate (1863–1869). He also represented Shelby County, Indiana, in the Indiana General Assembly (1848–1850) and as a delegate to the 1851 Indiana constitutional convention. In addition, Hendricks served as commissioner of the United States General Land Office (1855–1859). Hendricks, a popular member of the Democratic Party, was a fiscal conservative. He defended the Democratic position in the U.S. Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction era and voted against the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. He also opposed Radical Reconstruction and President Andrew Johnson's removal from office following Johnson's impeachment in the U.S. House.
Samuel Jackson Randall was an American politician from Pennsylvania who represented the Queen Village, Society Hill, and Northern Liberties neighborhoods of Philadelphia from 1863 to 1890 and served as the 29th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1876 to 1881. He was a contender for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States in 1880 and 1884.
The 1888 Republican National Convention was a presidential nominating convention held at the Auditorium Building in Chicago, Illinois, on June 19–25, 1888. It resulted in the nomination of former Senator Benjamin Harrison of Indiana for president and Levi P. Morton of New York, a former Representative and Minister to France, for vice president. During the convention, Frederick Douglass was invited to speak and became the first African-American to have his name put forward for a presidential nomination in a major party's roll call vote; he received one vote from Kentucky on the fourth ballot.
The 1980 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 4. Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter in a landslide. Republicans picked up seats in both chambers of Congress and won control of the Senate, though Democrats retained a majority in the House of Representatives. The election is sometimes referred to as part of the "Reagan Revolution", a conservative realignment in U.S. politics and marked the start of the Reagan Era.
The 1948 United States elections were held on November 2, 1948. The election took place during the beginning stages of the Cold War. Democratic incumbent President Harry S. Truman was elected to a full term in an upset, defeating Republican nominee New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey and two erstwhile Democrats. The Democrats won back control of Congress from the Republicans. Until 2020, Democrats would never again flip a chamber of Congress in a presidential election cycle.
The 1876 United States elections were held on November 7. In one of the most disputed presidential elections in American history, Republican Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio ended up winning despite Democratic Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York earning a majority of the popular vote. The Republicans maintained their Senate majority and cut into the Democratic majority in the House.
The 1976 United States elections were held on November 2, and elected the members of the 95th United States Congress. The Democratic Party won the presidential election and retained control of Congress.
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.
The 1892 United States elections was held on November 8, electing member to the 53rd United States Congress, taking place during the Third Party System. Democrats retained the House and won control of the presidency and the Senate. Following the election, Democrats controlled the presidency and a majority in both chambers of Congress for the first time since the 1858 elections.
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.
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.
Grover Cleveland was president of the United States first from March 4, 1885, to March 4, 1889, and then from March 4, 1893, to March 4, 1897. The first Democrat elected after the Civil War, Cleveland is the only US president to leave office after one term and later return for a second term. His presidencies were the nation's 22nd and 24th. Cleveland defeated James G. Blaine of Maine in 1884, lost to Benjamin Harrison of Indiana in 1888, and then defeated President Harrison in 1892. He was succeeded by Republican William McKinley, who won in 1896.
The 1884 presidential election was the first nationwide campaign in which Grover Cleveland participated and the first of two in which he emerged victorious. This election pitted Democratic Party nominee Cleveland against Republican party nominee James G. Blaine and the campaign centered on corruption, civil service reforms, and political scandals. In this election, Cleveland portrayed himself as the clean and honest candidate in contrast to Blaine, who was portrayed as corrupt.