1900 United States presidential election in Utah

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1900 United States presidential election in Utah
US flag 45 stars.svg
  1896 November 6, 1900 1904  
  Mckinley (cropped).jpg WilliamJBryan1902 3x4.jpg
Nominee William McKinley William Jennings Bryan
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Ohio Nebraska
Running mate Theodore Roosevelt Adlai E. Stevenson
Electoral vote30
Popular vote47,13945,006
Percentage50.65%48.36%

Utah Presidential Election Results 1900.svg
County Results

President before election

William McKinley
Republican

Elected President

William McKinley
Republican

The 1900 United States presidential election in Utah took place on November 6, 1900, as part of the 1900 United States presidential election held in each of the forty-five contemporary states. State voters chose three representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Contents

During its years as a territory the Republican Party's ancestral hostility to the polygamy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), [1] whose members settled Utah and have dominated the region ever since, meant that Utah territorial politics until 1891 was dominated by the Mormon-hierarchy-controlled "People's Party" and the anti-Mormon "Liberal Party". [2] Those Mormons who did affiliate with national parties generally were Democrats, who lacked moral qualms associated with polygamy and slavery – although the Liberal Party did have allies within the GOP. [3]

In order to achieve statehood, however, the LDS Church disbanded the "People's Party" in 1891 and most LDS members moved towards the Democratic Party. In Utah's statehood year – 1896 – Democrat/Populist William Jennings Bryan, whose "free silver" platform was immensely attractive to a state with large silver reserves, won the Mormon State by a five-to-one margin. However, by Bryan's 1900 rematch with incumbent Republican President McKinley, the Republican Party's ancestral hostility to Mormonism was beginning to dissipate, [4] and Republican National Committee Chairman Mark Hanna was able to persuade the Mormon hierarchy that Bryan's policies – financial and otherwise – were unsound. [5]

Consequently, although the LDS Church had not established the links to the GOP that they were after the Utah legislature elected Reed Smoot, those Utah voters who had supported Bryan overwhelmingly in 1896 deserted him to a degree that narrowly proved sufficient to give the state's three electoral votes to McKinley. Apart from Washington County in the Dixie region, McKinley was competitive everywhere and in Kane County – later a famous Republican bastion – he received over seventy percent. McKinley would win Utah by a narrow margin of 2.29% and this remains easily the closest presidential election in Utah history, and with the state voting essentially as the nation did, it was decisive in placing the Mormon State in the mainstream of US politics, [6] where Utah remained until becoming a Republican bastion in the 1950s and 1960s.

Bryan would later lose Utah again, this time to William Howard Taft in 1908.

Results

1900 United States presidential election in Utah [7]
PartyCandidateRunning matePopular voteElectoral vote
Count%Count%
Republican William McKinley of Ohio (incumbent) Theodore Roosevelt of New York 47,13950.59%3100.00%
Democratic William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska Adlai Ewing Stevenson I of Illinois 45,00648.30%00.00%
Socialist Eugene Victor Debs of Indiana Job Harriman of California 7200.77%00.00%
Prohibition John Granville Woolley of Illinois Henry Brewer Metcalf of Rhode Island 2090.22%00.00%
Socialist Labor Joseph Francis Malloney of Massachusetts Valentine Remmel of Pennsylvania 106 [lower-alpha 1] 0.11%00.00%
N/AOthersOthers9 [lower-alpha 1] 0.01%00.00%
Total93,189100.00%3100.00%

Results by county

CountyWilliam McKinley
Republican
William Jennings Bryan
Democratic
Various candidates
Other parties
MarginTotal votes cast [8]
# %# %# %# %
Beaver 68251.90%62947.87%30.23%534.03%1,314
Box Elder 1,63552.72%1,46047.08%60.19%1755.64%3,101
Cache 2,82047.59%3,08252.02%230.39%-262-4.43%5,925
Carbon 74854.16%62144.97%120.87%1279.19%1,381
Davis 1,23847.05%1,38052.45%130.49%-142-5.40%2,631
Emery 66645.40%79854.40%30.20%-132-9.00%1,467
Garfield 64962.16%39537.84%00.00%25424.32%1,044
Grand 17846.11%20452.85%41.04%-26-6.74%386
Iron 62846.94%70852.91%20.15%-80-5.97%1,338
Juab 1,53242.52%1,98655.12%852.36%-454-12.60%3,603
Kane 39270.89%16129.11%00.00%23141.78%553
Millard 93852.55%84447.28%30.17%945.27%1,785
Morgan 39151.72%36348.02%20.26%283.70%756
Piute 33053.92%28045.75%20.33%508.17%612
Rich 38757.76%28242.09%10.15%10515.67%670
Salt Lake 13,49650.30%12,84047.86%4931.84%6562.44%26,829
San Juan 8151.92%7246.15%31.92%95.77%156
Sanpete 3,57559.15%2,44140.39%280.46%1,13418.76%6,044
Sevier 1,58154.88%1,26143.77%391.35%32011.11%2,881
Summit 1,55546.67%1,76352.91%140.42%-208-6.24%3,332
Tooele 1,25952.70%1,11446.63%160.67%1456.07%2,389
Uintah 63945.13%77354.59%40.28%-134-9.46%1,416
Utah 5,69850.98%5,39148.24%870.78%3072.74%11,176
Wasatch 72347.94%78151.79%40.27%-58-3.85%1,508
Washington 40928.93%1,00370.93%20.14%-594-42.00%1,414
Wayne 32453.38%28246.46%10.16%426.92%607
Weber 4,58552.36%4,09246.73%790.90%4935.63%8,756
Totals47,13950.59%45,00648.30%9290.99%2,1332.29%93,189 [lower-alpha 1]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Neither the 106 votes for Malloney nor the nine write-in votes were tabulated by county, but only for Utah as a whole

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References

  1. Talbot, Christine; A Foreign Kingdom: Mormons and Polygamy in American Political Culture, 1852-1890, p. 113 ISBN   0252095359
  2. May, Dean L. ; Utah: A People's History, pp. 120-121 ISBN   0874802849
  3. Handy, Robert T.; Undermined Establishment: Church-State Relations in America, 1880-1920, p. 55 ISBN   1400862361
  4. Perry, Luke and Cronin, Christopher; Mormons in American Politics: From Persecution to Power, p. 52 ISBN   1440804087
  5. Rutland, Robert Allan (editor); The Republicans: From Lincoln to Bush, p. 128 ISBN   0826210902
  6. Balmer, Randall and Riess, Janet (editors); Mormonism and American Politics (Religion, Culture, and Public Life), pp. 135-137 ISBN   0231540892
  7. "1900 Presidential General Election Results – Utah". U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  8. Robinson, Edgar Eugene; The Presidential Vote, 1896-1932 (second edition); pp. 223-224 Published 1947 by Stanford University Press