1892 United States presidential election in California

Main article: 1892 United States presidential election

1892 United States presidential election in California

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Nominee Grover Cleveland Benjamin Harrison James Weaver Party Democratic Republican Populist Home state New York Indiana Iowa Running mate Adlai E. Stevenson Whitelaw Reid James Field Electoral vote 8 1 0 Popular vote 118,174 118,027 25,311 Percentage 43.83% 43.78% 9.39%

County Results Cleveland   40–50%   50–60% Harrison   30–40%   40–50%   50–60%   70–80%

President before election Benjamin Harrison Republican Elected President Grover Cleveland Democratic

The 1892 United States presidential election in California was held on November 8, 1892 as part of the 1892 United States presidential election. State voters chose nine representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Incumbent President Benjamin Harrison’s administration had been plagued by divisions within his party and by controversy over foreign relations, notably with Italy and Chile. ^[1] In California, Harrison became less popular because it was believed that Senator Leland Stanford was dictating policies in the interest of the Southern Pacific Railroad. ^[1] Opposition to its power had already spawned several unsuccessful reform movements in California since 1873, ^[2] and the growing Populist movement also gained substantial support from small farmers in the state’s Central Valley region. ^[3] The relative weakness of partisan loyalties in California helped give the movement much more influence than in the East, ^[4] however the much greater urban character of the state’s economy, the diversity of its agricultural sector and the access of its wheat growers – the basis for Populist victories in the Plains States – to major ocean ports severely weakened the Populist Party under 1880 Greenback nominee James B. Weaver in California. ^[5] Consequently California would prove Weaver’s weakest state west of the Missouri River, giving him less than ten percent of the vote.

California voted for the Democratic challenger, former president Grover Cleveland, over the Republican incumbent, Benjamin Harrison by an extremely narrow margin of just 147 votes, or a 0.05452% margin, which constitutes the fifth-closest statewide presidential election result on record, behind Florida in 2000, Maryland in 1832 and 1904, and California itself 20 years later in 1912. Because the vote was so close and voters voted for individual electors, the ninth Cleveland elector received fewer votes than one Harrison elector, who was thus elected. ^[6] This was the second occasion in which California's electoral vote was split, rather than being awarded to a single candidate. The first occasion was in 1880. Such a split would only subsequently occur in California two subsequent times (1896, and 1912). ^[7] California is one of just three states that Cleveland won in 1892 but lost in his first two presidential elections, the others being Illinois and Wisconsin.

Results

1892 United States presidential election in California [8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Democratic	Grover Cleveland	118,174	43.83%	8
	Republican	Benjamin Harrison (incumbent)	118,027	43.78%	1
	People's	James Weaver	25,311	9.39%	0
	Prohibition	John Bidwell	8,096	3.00%	0
	No party	Write-ins	1	0.00%	0
Invalid or blank votes					—
Totals			269,609	100.00%	9
Voter turnout					—

Results by county

County	Stephen Grover Cleveland Democratic		Benjamin Harrison Republican		James Baird Weaver Populist		John Bidwell Prohibition		Margin
	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#
Colusa	57.20%	1,187	31.08%	645	9.20%	191	2.51%	52	26.12%	542
Glenn	51.70%	808	33.78%	528	11.71%	183	2.82%	44	17.91%	280
Modoc	52.05%	596	35.46%	406	9.26%	106	3.23%	37	16.59%	190
Del Norte	52.72%	339	36.55%	235	9.18%	59	1.56%	10	16.17%	104
Stanislaus	53.69%	1,369	38.90%	992	2.27%	58	5.14%	131	14.78%	377
Mariposa	51.98%	526	39.92%	404	6.92%	70	1.19%	12	12.06%	122
San Francisco	53.09%	31,022	41.78%	24,416	4.29%	2,508	0.84%	489	11.30%	6,606
Kern	50.38%	1,266	39.47%	992	8.00%	201	2.15%	54	10.90%	274
Merced	50.46%	995	39.66%	782	6.39%	126	3.50%	69	10.80%	213
Tulare	42.09%	2,613	31.96%	1,984	22.71%	1,410	3.24%	201	10.13%	629
Yolo	50.74%	1,707	40.78%	1,372	4.01%	135	4.46%	150	9.96%	335
Tuolumne	50.27%	916	40.56%	739	6.20%	113	2.96%	54	9.71%	177
San Benito	45.56%	759	36.97%	616	15.37%	256	2.10%	35	8.58%	143
Lake	44.97%	644	37.15%	532	14.53%	208	3.35%	48	7.82%	112
Mendocino	49.56%	2,023	41.87%	1,709	3.87%	158	4.70%	192	7.69%	314
Sonoma	49.65%	3,451	43.40%	3,016	4.27%	297	2.68%	186	6.26%	435
Fresno	42.35%	3,453	37.18%	3,031	15.88%	1,295	4.59%	374	5.18%	422
Yuba	50.42%	1,198	45.41%	1,079	2.40%	57	1.77%	42	5.01%	119
Amador	48.01%	1,255	43.04%	1,125	6.27%	164	2.68%	70	4.97%	130
El Dorado	48.00%	1,270	43.80%	1,159	6.58%	174	1.63%	43	4.20%	111
Siskiyou	49.74%	1,605	46.27%	1,493	3.38%	109	0.62%	20	3.47%	112
Tehama	46.80%	1,045	43.39%	969	7.61%	170	2.19%	49	3.40%	76
San Joaquin	44.19%	3,106	42.08%	2,958	8.42%	592	5.31%	373	2.11%	148
Sutter	46.64%	735	47.27%	745	2.86%	45	3.24%	51	-0.63%	-10
Butte	45.89%	2,141	46.73%	2,180	3.92%	183	3.45%	161	-0.84%	-39
Lassen	46.66%	524	48.09%	540	3.56%	40	1.69%	19	-1.42%	-16
Monterey	39.14%	1,606	41.65%	1,709	16.72%	686	2.49%	102	-2.51%	-103
Calaveras	46.79%	1,276	49.69%	1,355	2.75%	75	0.77%	21	-2.90%	-79
Nevada	39.84%	1,634	42.84%	1,757	15.02%	616	2.29%	94	-3.00%	-123
San Mateo	47.40%	1,020	50.56%	1,088	1.49%	32	0.56%	12	-3.16%	-68
Shasta	39.41%	1,137	42.77%	1,234	15.11%	436	2.70%	78	-3.36%	-97
Trinity	46.92%	457	50.82%	495	1.95%	19	0.31%	3	-3.90%	-38
Santa Clara	40.12%	4,167	44.48%	4,620	10.50%	1,091	4.90%	509	-4.36%	-453
Solano	44.52%	2,174	49.21%	2,403	4.36%	213	1.90%	93	-4.69%	-229
Orange	34.49%	1,000	39.74%	1,152	16.56%	480	9.21%	267	-5.24%	-152
Placer	43.08%	1,524	49.27%	1,743	5.23%	185	2.43%	86	-6.19%	-219
San Luis Obispo	31.88%	1,199	38.10%	1,433	26.51%	997	3.51%	132	-6.22%	-234
Santa Barbara	34.88%	1,228	42.12%	1,483	18.15%	639	4.83%	170	-7.24%	-255
Santa Cruz	36.77%	1,512	44.82%	1,843	13.67%	562	4.74%	195	-8.05%	-331
Napa	42.43%	1,478	50.79%	1,769	4.97%	173	1.81%	63	-8.35%	-291
Plumas	43.62%	537	52.15%	642	2.19%	27	2.03%	25	-8.53%	-105
Alameda	38.52%	7,114	47.60%	8,792	11.45%	2,114	2.44%	450	-9.09%	-1,678
Los Angeles	35.64%	8,119	44.89%	10,226	13.55%	3,086	5.92%	1,348	-9.25%	-2,107
Contra Costa	42.30%	1,332	51.79%	1,631	3.84%	121	2.06%	65	-9.50%	-299
Sacramento [lower-alpha 1]	39.23%	3,498	48.92%	4,362	9.97%	889	1.88%	168	-9.69%	-864
Humboldt	33.98%	1,844	44.53%	2,416	19.09%	1,036	2.40%	130	-10.54%	-572
Marin	42.88%	949	53.59%	1,186	2.67%	59	0.86%	19	-10.71%	-237
Ventura	34.80%	958	46.60%	1,283	15.07%	415	3.52%	97	-11.81%	-325
San Bernardino	33.65%	2,546	48.71%	3,686	9.53%	721	8.11%	614	-15.07%	-1,140
San Diego	30.26%	2,334	45.71%	3,525	19.70%	1,519	4.33%	334	-15.44%	-1,191
Inyo	33.25%	266	51.13%	409	10.63%	85	5.00%	40	-17.88%	-143
Sierra	38.61%	529	57.45%	787	3.36%	46	0.58%	8	-18.83%	-258
Mono	30.97%	166	53.36%	286	14.37%	77	1.31%	7	-22.39%	-120
Alpine	19.77%	17	75.58%	65	4.65%	4	0.00%	0	-55.81%	-48

Notes

1. One write-in vote was recorded from this county

References

1. Dozer, Donald Marquand; ‘Benjamin Harrison and the Presidential Campaign of 1892’; The American Historical Review, Vol. 54, No. 1 (October 1948), pp. 49-77
2. Graffiths, David B.; ‘Anti-Monopoly Movement in California 1873-1898’; Southern California Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 2 (June 1970), pp. 93-121
3. Hall, Tom G.; ‘California Populism at the Grass-Roots: The Case of Tulare County, 1892’; Southern California Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 2 (June 1967), pp. 193-204
4. Kleppner, Paul; ‘Voters and Parties in the Western States, 1876-1900’; Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 1 (January 1983), pp. 49-68
5. Magliari, Michael; ‘Populism, Steamboats, and the Octopus: Transportation Rates and Monopoly in California's Wheat Regions, 1890-1896’; Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 58, No. 4 (November 1989), pp. 449-469
6. Knoles, George Harmon; The Presidential Campaign and Election of 1892, Volume 5 (1942), p. 229
7. "DIVIDED ELECTORAL VOTES" . Newspapers.com. The Boston Globe. 11 Nov 1912. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
8. "1892 Presidential General Election Results – California". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved 2008-08-25.