1892 United States presidential election in North Dakota

Main article: 1892 United States presidential election

1892 United States presidential election in North Dakota

November 8, 1892 1896  →

Nominee James B. Weaver Benjamin Harrison Grover Cleveland Party Populist Republican Democratic Home state Iowa Indiana New York Running mate James G. Field Whitelaw Reid Adlai Stevenson I Electoral vote 1 1 1 Popular vote 17,700 17,519 Not on ballot Percentage 49.01% 48.50% N/A

County Results Weaver   50-60%   60-70%   70-80% Harrison   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80% No Data/Vote

President before election Benjamin Harrison Republican Elected President Grover Cleveland Democratic

The 1892 United States presidential election in North Dakota took place on November 8, 1892. As North Dakota had been admitted to the Union as the 39th state on November 2, 1889, this was the first presidential election in which North Dakota cast electoral votes. All contemporary 44 states were part of the 1892 United States presidential election. Voters chose three electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

In 1892, the Populist nominees, James B. Weaver of Iowa and his running mate James G. Field of Virginia, won a plurality of the votes of North Dakota. However, the state Democratic Party also endorsed the Weaver/Field ticket in exchange for the Populists supporting Democratic candidates for local offices, creating a fusion ticket. ^[1] In North Dakota, Weaver and Field's opponents were the Republican nominees, incumbent President Benjamin Harrison of Indiana and his running mate Whitelaw Reid of New York.

As was often the case in this era, voters in North Dakota had to choose electors individually rather than as a slate. ^[2] While it was a Democratic-Populist elector who earned the most votes with 17,700, the 17,519 recorded by the top Republican elector was enough to edge out the bottom-finishing Fusion elector for third place overall. This created a split delegation of electors. With the overall national result not in doubt, the two Fusion electors ultimately split their votes (one for Weaver and one for Democratic president-elect Grover Cleveland, who was not separately on the ballot) while the Republican elector duly voted for the defeated incumbent Harrison. This is the only time in a US presidential election that a state has equally distributed its electoral votes between three candidates. A state had only cast electoral votes for 3 different candidates twice before, in 1824 (New York cast votes for four) and 1872, the latter due to the death of Horace Greeley. Since 1892, the only time a state has cast electoral votes for more than two candidates was in 2016, when both Washington and Texas did so. However, both of those situations involved faithless electors, meaning this remains (as of 2025) the last time a state's voters duly elected presidential electors who vote more or less as pledged for three different candidates.

Results

1892 United States presidential election in North Dakota [3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	People's	James Weaver	17,700	49.01%	1
	Republican	Benjamin Harrison (incumbent)	17,519	48.50%	1
	Democratic	Grover Cleveland	Not on the ballot	N/A	1
	Prohibition	John Bidwell	899	2.49%	0
Totals			36,118	100.00%	3
Voter turnout					—

Results by county

County [4]	Benjamin Harrison Republican		James Baird Weaver [5] Populist/Democratic Fusion		John Bidwell [6] Prohibition		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Barnes	665	41.02%	918	56.63%	38	2.34%	-253	-15.61%	1,621
Benson	419	68.80%	175	28.74%	15	2.46%	244	40.07%	609
Billings	47	73.44%	17	26.56%	0	0.00%	30	46.88%	64
Bottineau	175	37.15%	290	61.57%	6	1.27%	-115	-24.42%	471
Burleigh	640	68.60%	283	30.33%	10	1.07%	357	38.26%	933
Cass	2,022	53.98%	1,647	43.97%	77	2.06%	375	10.01%	3,746
Cavalier	297	25.34%	855	72.95%	20	1.71%	-558	-47.61%	1,172
Dickey	509	43.39%	647	55.16%	17	1.45%	-138	-11.76%	1,173
Eddy	202	51.40%	184	46.82%	7	1.78%	18	4.58%	393
Emmons	278	67.48%	132	32.04%	2	0.49%	146	35.44%	412
Foster	192	54.08%	157	44.23%	6	1.69%	35	9.86%	355
Grand Forks	1,639	51.27%	1,483	46.39%	75	2.35%	156	4.88%	3,197
Griggs	245	41.88%	332	56.75%	8	1.37%	-87	-14.87%	585
Kidder	224	60.87%	136	36.96%	8	2.17%	88	23.91%	368
LaMoure	338	42.62%	436	54.98%	19	2.40%	-98	-12.36%	793
Logan	87	70.73%	35	28.46%	1	0.81%	52	42.28%	123
McHenry	201	64.22%	110	35.14%	2	0.64%	91	29.07%	313
McIntosh	280	70.00%	120	30.00%	0	0.00%	160	40.00%	400
McLean	115	62.84%	65	35.52%	3	1.64%	50	27.32%	183
Mercer	28	32.94%	48	56.47%	9	10.59%	-20	-23.53%	85
Morton	596	60.75%	380	38.74%	5	0.51%	216	22.02%	981
Nelson	460	46.09%	527	52.81%	11	1.10%	-67	-6.71%	998
Oliver	35	42.17%	48	57.83%	0	0.00%	-13	-15.66%	83
Pembina	954	36.72%	1,511	58.16%	133	5.12%	-557	-21.44%	2,598
Pierce	121	69.14%	53	30.29%	1	0.57%	68	38.86%	175
Ramsey	619	57.58%	421	39.16%	35	3.26%	198	18.42%	1,075
Ransom	566	49.43%	526	45.94%	53	4.63%	40	3.49%	1,145
Richland	866	42.77%	1,134	56.00%	25	1.23%	-268	-13.23%	2,025
Rolette	273	57.84%	194	41.10%	5	1.06%	79	16.74%	472
Sargent	491	47.39%	525	50.68%	20	1.93%	-34	-3.28%	1,036
Stark	339	60.64%	212	37.92%	8	1.43%	127	22.72%	559
Steele	398	52.65%	338	44.71%	20	2.65%	60	7.94%	756
Stutsman	648	53.91%	522	43.43%	32	2.66%	126	10.48%	1,202
Towner	166	43.68%	214	56.32%	0	0.00%	-48	-12.63%	380
Traill	1,026	56.31%	668	36.66%	128	7.03%	358	19.65%	1,822
Walsh	974	31.48%	2,040	65.93%	80	2.59%	-1,066	-34.45%	3,094
Ward	182	58.52%	114	36.66%	15	4.82%	68	21.86%	311
Wells	157	50.81%	147	47.57%	5	1.62%	10	3.24%	309
Williams	45	44.55%	56	55.45%	0	0.00%	-11	-10.89%	101
Totals	17,519	48.50%	17,700	49.01%	899	2.49%	-181	-0.50%	36,118

See also

• United States presidential elections in North Dakota

References

1. Knoles, George Harmon; The Presidential Campaign and Election of 1892 (1942), p. 185
2. Knoles; The Presidential Campaign and Election of 1892
3. Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas; Presidential General Election Results – North Dakota
4. "Popular Vote at the Presidential Election for 1892". Géoelections.
5. "Popular Vote for James B. Weaver at the Presidential Election for 1892". Géoelections.
6. "Popular Vote for John Bidwell at the Presidential Election for 1892". Géoelections.