United States Presidential Election, 1836

The U.S. presidential election of 1836 is predominantly remembered for three reasons:
# It was the last election until 1988 to result in the elevation of an incumbent Vice President to the nation's highest office.
# It was the only race in which a major political party intentionally ran several presidential candidates. The .
# This election is the first (and to date only) time in which a Vice Presidential election was thrown into the Senate .

NOMINATIONS

Democratic Party nomination

Incumbent president Andrew Jackson decided to retire after two terms and supported his Vice President, Martin Van Buren. Although Southerners disliked the New Yorker Van Buren as well as his intended running mate, Colonel Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky , Jackson secured the nomination at a meeting in Baltimore .

Whig nomination

The National Republicans joined together with dissident Democrats, including those angered by Jackson's opposition to states' rights, to form the Whig Party. Unable to agree on a single candidate, they ran different candidates in each section of the country to deny Van Buren a majority. Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster ran in New England, popular former general William Henry Harrison in the West, and Tennessee Senator Hugh Lawson White , a states' rights supporter, in the South.

GENERAL ELECTION

Campaign

The Whigs attacked Van Buren on all sides, even disrupting the Senate where he presided. Harrison was the most effective of his opponents, but Van Buren's effective party organization carried the day, earning him a majority.

Results

Virginia 's electors refused to vote for Van Buren's running mate, Richard Mentor Johnson , leaving him one vote short of the 148-vote majority required to elect. Under the Twelfth Amendment , the Senate would decide between the top two vote-getters, Johnson and Francis Granger .

Source (Popular Vote):

Source (Electoral Vote):

^(a) ''The popular vote figures exclude South Carolina where the Electors were chosen by the state legislature rather than by popular vote.''

^(b) ''Mangum received his electoral votes from South Carolina where the Electors were chosen by the state legislatures rather than by popular vote.''

Source:

Breakdown by ticket

CONTINGENT ELECTION

The Senate was required to choose which of Richard Johnson and Francis Granger would be the next Vice President. Johnson was elected easily in a single ballot.

ELECTORAL COLLEGE SELECTION

	Method	each Elector appointed by state legislature
	States	South Carolina

	Method	each Elector chosen by voters statewide
	States	''(all other states)''

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United States Presidential Election, 1836