The 1896 United States presidential election in Wisconsin was held on November 3, 1896, as part of the 1896 United States presidential election. State voters chose 12 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
Wisconsin during the Third Party System was a Republican-leaning but competitive state whereby historically anti-Civil War German Catholic counties stood opposed to highly pro-war and firmly Republican Yankee areas.Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 381-382, 414 The German Catholics’ Democratic loyalties were related to their opposition to Republican pietism and to the fact that during the Civil War, they had been extremely hostile to Abraham Lincoln’s wartime draft policies which often singled them out.
Four years prior had seen, aided by favorable demographic shifts,Kleppner, Paul; The Third Electoral System, 1853-1892: Parties, Votes and Political Cultures, pp. 198-207 opposition to the notorious “Bennett Law” requiring attendance at public schools,Hill, Perry C.; ‘Wisconsin Votes for President’, The Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Autumn, 1952), pp. 11-16 and a shift of some GOP voters to Prohibition Party nominee John Bidwell, Democratic nominee Grover Cleveland carry the state for the first time since before the Republican Party was formed. However, expectations that demographic shifts would favor the Democrats were rudely crushed in 1894, when the Republicans took every Congressional seat in the state. President Cleveland became extremely unpopular and the Democratic Party turned towards the Populist movement active in the West in order to revive its fortunes. While the Populist movement would gain almost universal acceptance in the silver mining West, its inflationary monetary policies were opposed by almost all urban classes and viewed as dangerously radical by rural German Catholics,Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 384 with free silver being condemned by the Church hierarchy.Harpine, William D.; From the Front Porch to the Front Page: McKinley and Bryan in the 1896 Presidential Campaign, pp. 166-167
Early polls always had Wisconsin strong for Republican nominee William McKinley, with his supporters saying it would be one of the most Republican states despite voting Democratic in 1892.‘ Good News for McKinley Leaders: Strong in the Great West – Wisconsin Solid for the Ohio Man’; San Francisco Chronicle, August 13, 1896, p. 5 During his fall tour of the Midwest, Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan made fifteen speeches, but was disturbed by a member of McKinley's club,‘Bryan in Wisconsin: Fifteen Short Speeches to the Badger State Voters’; The Washington Post, October 31, 1896, p. 3 who attempted to mob Bryan in Janesville.‘Men Almost Mobbed: Bryan in Wisconsin, Palmer and Buckner in Missouri’; Boston Daily Globe, October 31, 1896, p. 3
As it turned out, McKinley would carry Wisconsin handsomely by over one hundred thousand votes and by a margin of 22.97%. Wisconsin would be McKinley's strongest state outside the Northeast. McKinley's 59.95% popular vote share was the highest received by any candidate in Wisconsin to that point, though McKinley would break his own record four years later.
Bryan would lose Wisconsin to McKinley again four years later and would later lose the state again in 1908 to William Howard Taft.
McKinley's landslide victory made him the first Republican to ever carry Kewaunee County, Langlade County, Oneida County, Outagamie County, and Washington County. Additionally, McKinley was the first Republican since John C. Frémont in 1856 to win Dodge County and Marathon County and the first Republican since Abraham Lincoln in 1860 to win Jefferson County and Manitowoc County. Waukesha County's well-known Republican tilt began with this election; in prior elections it had been a swing county in Wisconsin but starting with this election, became solidly Republican and has only voted for a Democrat five times since 1892.
Results + General Election ResultsWisconsin Historical Society, Tabular Statement of the votes given for President and Vice President of the United States at the general election held in the several towns, wards, villages, and election districts in the several counties of the State of Wisconsin on the Tuesday next succeeding the first Monday being the Third day of November A.D. 1896Party Pledged to Elector Votes Republican Party William McKinley John D. Nelsenius268,051 Republican Party William McKinley William J. Mallmann268,042 Republican Party William McKinley Ossian M. Pettit268,033 Republican Party William McKinley Paul Lachmund268,030 Republican Party William McKinley Mark Curtis268,027 Republican Party William McKinley Ellicott R. Stillman267,994 Republican Party William McKinley George D. Breed267,993 Republican Party William McKinley Frederick A. Hollmann267,969 Republican Party William McKinley Iver Pederson267,963 Republican Party William McKinley Oakman A. Ellis267,960 Republican Party William McKinley Samuel J. Bradford267,948 Republican Party William McKinley Lewis C. Boyle267,767 Democratic Party William Jennings Bryan George W. Cate165,349 Democratic Party William Jennings Bryan John Winans165,340 Democratic Party William Jennings Bryan Michael J. Warner165,299 Democratic Party William Jennings Bryan Ernst Merton165,292 Democratic Party William Jennings Bryan Henry Steinman165,292 Democratic Party William Jennings Bryan Owen King165,277 Democratic Party William Jennings Bryan Albinos A. Worsley165,271 Democratic Party William Jennings Bryan John L. Beau165,258 Democratic Party William Jennings Bryan Charles L. Brekken165,251 Democratic Party William Jennings Bryan Herman Naber165,243 Democratic Party William Jennings Bryan Lester Woodward165,229 Democratic Party William Jennings Bryan Christian Roemer164,824 Prohibition Party Joshua Levering Charles Alexander7,463 Prohibition Party Joshua Levering John C. Martin7,461 Prohibition Party Joshua Levering Henry A. Miner7,457 Prohibition Party Joshua Levering Charles F. Cronk7,456 Prohibition Party Joshua Levering Charles Edward Reed7,453 Prohibition Party Joshua Levering Newcomb E. Tully7,452 Prohibition Party Joshua Levering Henry Happell7,451 Prohibition Party Joshua Levering Solomon Vandewalker7,448 Prohibition Party Joshua Levering John Faville7,446 Prohibition Party Joshua Levering Almon Francis Collins7,445 Prohibition Party Joshua Levering John R. Ogden7,445 Prohibition Party Joshua Levering Elisha G. Partidge7,438 National Democratic Party John M. Palmer John B. Kupfer4,553 National Democratic Party John M. Palmer Charles Franz4,552 National Democratic Party John M. Palmer George Krouskop4,552 National Democratic Party John M. Palmer John C. Ludwig4,552 National Democratic Party John M. Palmer Casper H. M. Petersen4,550 National Democratic Party John M. Palmer William Dichmann4,549 National Democratic Party John M. Palmer C. Hugo Jacobi4,549 National Democratic Party John M. Palmer Bedford B. Hopkins4,547 National Democratic Party John M. Palmer August Ledyard Smith4,545 National Democratic Party John M. Palmer Samuel N. Dickinson4,544 National Democratic Party John M. Palmer Lyman Nash4,544 National Democratic Party John M. Palmer William F. Shea4,543 Socialist Labor Party Charles H. Matchett Ruchus Babnik1,311 Socialist Labor Party Charles H. Matchett Fred Farchmin1,311 Socialist Labor Party Charles H. Matchett Fred Bugelman1,310 Socialist Labor Party Charles H. Matchett Carl Groeschel1,310 Socialist Labor Party Charles H. Matchett Gustav Lauenstein1,310 Socialist Labor Party Charles H. Matchett Charles Weiss1,310 Socialist Labor Party Charles H. Matchett Albert Pippenburg1,309 Socialist Labor Party Charles H. Matchett John Kettemann1,308 Socialist Labor Party Charles H. Matchett Charles Lachmund1,308 Socialist Labor Party Charles H. Matchett Emil Reesch1,308 Socialist Labor Party Charles H. Matchett Paul Reuther1,308 Socialist Labor Party Charles H. Matchett Otto Schultz1,306 National Party Charles E. Bentley Annette J. Shaw366 National Party Charles E. Bentley Martha W. Law326 National Party Charles E. Bentley Orvie E. Thompson326 National Party Charles E. Bentley Oliver H. Crowl324 National Party Charles E. Bentley Newell Demeritt324 National Party Charles E. Bentley Lily Runals324 National Party Charles E. Bentley John E. Bartlett322 National Party Charles E. Bentley Henry E. Ward322 National Party Charles E. Bentley George W. Sherwood321 National Party Charles E. Bentley Luther W. Wood321 National Party Charles E. Bentley Gideon Young321 National Party Charles E. Bentley Washington I. Carpenter320Votes cast 447,093
Results by county