The 1896 United States presidential election in Utah was held on November 3, 1896, as part of the 1896 United States presidential election. Voters chose three representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. This was the first time Utah participated in a presidential election, having been admitted as the 45th state on January 4 of that year.

Democrat William Jennings Bryan carried Utah by a margin of 65.43% over Republican William McKinley—the strongest ever performance by any presidential nominee in the state—despite narrowly losing the national election. As such, this is the only time a Republican has won the presidency without winning Utah, starkly contrasting with the state's subsequent status as one of the most staunchly Republican states in the nation.

Utah had been established as a territory within five years of the earliest settlement by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but opposition by the Republican Party – dominant from 1860 – to Mormon polygamy meant that Utah was consistently refused statehood.Talbot, Christine; A Foreign Kingdom: Mormons and Polygamy in American Political Culture, 1852-1890, p. 113 Consequently, Utah territorial politics until 1891 was dominated by the Mormon-hierarchy-controlled "People's Party" and the anti-Mormon "Liberal Party".May, Dean L.; Utah: A People's History, pp. 120-121 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.Handy, Robert T.; Undermined Establishment: Church-State Relations in America, 1880-1920, p. 55 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.

The 1896 election in Utah was dominated by the influence of silver mine owners, who overwhelmingly supported Democrat/Populist William Jennings Bryan because he advocated coinage of free silver at a ratio of 16-to-1 with gold.Rove, Karl; The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters, p. 148 As a consequence, Utah voted overwhelmingly for Bryan, who won the state by 65.43 percentage points, in what remains by far the strongest-ever performance by any presidential nominee in the state. Even with Republicans overwhelmingly dominating Utah politics since the 1960s, this margin has not been approached by any party or candidate since. Bryan carried every county except Kane in the far south – where his margin of defeat remains the second-best ever by a Democrat, behind Woodrow Wilson's narrow 1916 victory – with greater than sixty-five percent of the vote, and exceeded seventy percent in all but one.

With 82.7% of the popular vote, Utah would prove to be Bryan's fourth strongest state in the 1896 presidential election after Mississippi, South Carolina and Colorado.

Bryan would later lose Utah to William McKinley four years later and would lose the state again to Republican William Howard Taft in 1908. Bryan's support for many Populist goals resulted in him being nominated by both the Democratic Party and the People's Party (Populists), though with different running mates. One electoral vote from Utah was cast for the Populist Bryan-Watson ticket with Thomas E. Watson as vice-president and two votes were cast for the Bryan-Sewall ticket.

Results + General Election ResultsUtah State Archives, Returns of an Election Held in the State of Utah, Tuesday, November 3rd, A.D. 1896 for Electors of President and Vice-President of the United States and for Representative in the Fifty-Fifth Congress of the United States.Party Pledged to Elector Votes Fusion William Jennings Bryan Henry W. Lawrence64,607 Fusion William Jennings Bryan Robert C. Lund64,522 Fusion William Jennings Bryan John J. Daly64,173 Republican Party William McKinley Charles W. Bennett13,491 Republican Party William McKinley Joseph A. Smith13,369 Republican Party William McKinley J. D. Page13,484 Write-in Scattering21Votes cast 78,119

Results by county County William Jennings BryanFusion William McKinleyRepublicanMarginTotal votescast # % # % # %Beaver1,05783.76%20516.24%85267.51%1,262Box Elder1,87971.88%73528.12%1,14443.76%2,614Cache4,39583.97%83916.03%3,55667.94%5,234Carbon66388.64%8511.36%57877.27%748Davis1,75379.57%45020.43%1,30359.15%2,203Emery98581.00% 23119.00%75462.01%1,216Garfield61571.18%24928.82%36642.36%864Grand26490.41%289.59%23680.82%292Iron80679.72%20520.28%60159.45%1,011Juab2,36084.32%43915.67%1,92168.63%2,799Kane23044.40%28855.60%-58-11.20%518Millard1,38489.29%16610.71%1,21878.58%1,550Morgan58280.83%13819.17%44461.67%720Piute55594.23%345.77%52188.46%589Rich40871.58%16228.42%24643.16%570Salt Lake18,61787.75%2,57712.15%16,04075.61%21,215San Juan16795.43%84.57%15990.86%175Sanpete3,38765.13%1,81334.87%1,57430.27%5,200Sevier1,85878.90%49721.10%1,36157.79%2,355Summit3,40293.28%2456.72%3,15786.56%3,647Tooele1,68486.01%27413.99%1,41072.01%1,958Uintah89088.82%11211.18%77877.64%1,002Utah7,37578.34%2,03921.66%5,33656.68%9,414Wasatch1,33396.32%513.68%1,28292.63%1,384Washington1,21087.68%17012.32%1,04075.36%1,380Wayne40583.85%7816.15%32767.70%483Weber6,34382.21%1,37317.79%4,97064.41%7,716Totals64,60782.70%13,49117.27%51,11665.43%78,119

See also United States presidential elections in Utah

Notes

References