The 1896 United States presidential election in North Dakota took place on November 3, 1896. All contemporary 45 states were part of the 1896 United States presidential election. Voters chose three electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.
Although the state had been carried by a Democratic-Populist fusion ticket in 1892, unlike the other Mountain and Plains states, North Dakota was largely Catholic and Lutheran, and opposed Populist and Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan's Evangelical Protestantism.Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 418 In spite of the fact that this predominantly wheat-growing state was severely hit by drought, high interest rates and problems of poor transportation, hostility to Bryan’s fundamentalism amongst the Russian-Germans of the southern part of the state was intense, while the Catholic Church under the influence of John Ireland also condemned Bryan’s free silver policy at the same time as Bryan toured North Dakota in October.Harpine, William D.; From the Front Porch to the Front Page: McKinley and Bryan in the 1896 Presidential Campaign, pp. 166-167 There was also fear that if Bryan were elected, the nation would split as severely as it had in 1861 after the election of Abraham Lincoln. Archbishop Ireland claimed that Bryan’s election might create class war.
For these reasons, Bryan was able to carry only the rural Scandinavian-American counties in the Red River Valley and the north of the state adjacent to Minnesota and Canada. In the predominantly German remainder of the state, Republican nominees, former Ohio Governor William McKinley and his running mate Garret Hobart of New Jersey established a Republican dominance of the state’s presidential politics that would prove permanent except during the Prohibition and New Deal era.
McKinley won North Dakota by a margin of 11.92 percentage points, becoming the first Republican presidential candidate to win the state. He repeated this much more decisively four years later. Bryan would also later lose the state to William Howard Taft in 1908. Bryan would be the only Democrat to carry any of North Dakota's counties until Woodrow Wilson in 1912,Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, pp. 271-273 and the only one to obtain a majority in a North Dakota county until Wilson in 1916. This is the only election in which North Dakota and Kansas did not choose the same candidate.
Results + General election resultsParty Pledged to Elector Votes Republican Party William McKinley Charles Wheeler26,335 Republican Party William McKinley Charles F. Wilbur25,620 Republican Party William McKinley Nels H. Dyste25,513 Democratic Party & People's Party William Jennings Bryan Daniel F. Siegfried20,686 Democratic Party & People's Party William Jennings Bryan Eli C. D. Shortridge20,325 Democratic Party & People's Party William Jennings Bryan Charles A. Digness20,088 Prohibition Party Joshua Levering E. A. Taylor358 Prohibition Party Joshua Levering Torger F. Hov304 Prohibition Party Joshua Levering D. Carlton290 Write-in Scattering12Votes cast 47,391
Results by county CountyWilliam McKinleyRepublicanWilliam Jennings BryanDemocraticJohn Granville WoolleyProhibitionMarginTotal votes cast#%#%#%#% Barnes 986 49.62% 977 49.17% 24 1.21% 9 0.45% 1,987 Benson 549 70.11% 227 28.99% 7 0.89% 322 41.12% 783 Billings 78 73.58% 27 25.47% 1 0.94% 51 48.11% 106 Bottineau 369 48.36% 389 50.98% 5 0.66% -20 -2.62% 763 Burleigh 729 68.13% 338 31.59% 3 0.28% 391 36.54% 1,070 Cass 3,050 58.80% 2,089 40.27% 48 0.93% 961 18.53% 5,187 Cavalier 730 38.42% 1,158 60.95% 12 0.63% -428 -22.53% 1,900 Dickey 619 51.07% 587 48.43% 6 0.50% 32 2.64% 1,212 Eddy 278 53.15% 243 46.46% 2 0.38% 35 6.69% 523 Emmons 300 63.69% 168 35.67% 3 0.64% 132 28.03% 471 Foster 216 59.83% 143 39.61% 2 0.55% 73 20.22% 361 Grand Forks 2,432 55.72% 1,893 43.37% 40 0.92% 539 12.35% 4,365 Griggs 318 46.42% 360 52.55% 7 1.02% -42 -6.13% 685 Kidder 176 62.86% 104 37.14% 0 0.00% 72 25.71% 280 LaMoure 460 53.30% 401 46.47% 2 0.23% 59 6.84% 863 Logan 70 73.68% 25 26.32% 0 0.00% 45 47.37% 95 McHenry 217 56.51% 166 43.23% 1 0.26% 51 13.28% 384 McIntosh 336 83.58% 66 16.42% 0 0.00% 270 67.16% 402 McLean 124 61.08% 79 38.92% 0 0.00% 45 22.17% 203 Mercer 115 80.42% 28 19.58% 0 0.00% 87 60.84% 143 Morton 752 65.51% 393 34.23% 3 0.26% 359 31.27% 1,148 Nelson 616 50.45% 603 49.39% 2 0.16% 13 1.06% 1,221 Oliver 59 50.43% 58 49.57% 0 0.00% 1 0.85% 117 Pembina 1,687 47.57% 1,807 50.96% 52 1.47% -120 -3.38% 3,546 Pierce 222 74.50% 75 25.17% 1 0.34% 147 49.33% 298 Ramsey 869 55.78% 665 42.68% 12 0.77% 204 13.09% 1,558 Ransom 766 56.49% 579 42.70% 11 0.81% 187 13.79% 1,356 Richland 1,843 61.13% 1,160 38.47% 12 0.40% 683 22.65% 3,015 Rolette 306 47.44% 331 51.32% 8 1.24% -25 -3.88% 645 Sargent 587 47.84% 636 51.83% 4 0.33% -49 -3.99% 1,227 Stark 530 70.86% 216 28.88% 2 0.27% 314 41.98% 748 Steele 572 63.49% 322 35.74% 7 0.78% 250 27.75% 901 Stutsman 705 54.44% 578 44.63% 12 0.93% 127 9.81% 1,295 Towner 303 42.74% 394 55.57% 12 1.69% -91 -12.83% 709 Traill 1,673 70.68% 674 28.47% 20 0.84% 999 42.21% 2,367 Walsh 1,707 44.18% 2,134 55.23% 23 0.60% -427 -11.05% 3,864 Ward 299 60.28% 193 38.91% 4 0.81% 106 21.37% 496 Wells 584 64.25% 317 34.87% 8 0.88% 267 29.37% 909 Williams 103 54.79% 83 44.15% 2 1.06% 20 10.64% 188Totals26,33555.57%20,68643.65%3580.76%5,64911.92%47,391
See also United States presidential elections in North Dakota
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