U.S. presidential election, 1884

United States presidential election, 1884

← 1880 November 4, 1884 1888 →
All 401 electoral votes of the Electoral College 201 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	77.5% 0.5 pp
Nominee Grover Cleveland James G. Blaine Party Democratic Republican Home state New York Maine Running mate Thomas A. Hendricks John A. Logan Electoral vote 219 182 States carried 20 18 Popular vote 4,914,482 4,856,905 Percentage 48.9% 48.3%
Presidential election results map. Blue denotes those won by Cleveland/Hendricks, red denotes states won by Blaine/Logan. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
President before election Chester A. Arthur Republican Elected President Grover Cleveland Democratic

Chester A. Arthur
Republican

Grover Cleveland
Democratic

The United States presidential election of 1884 was the 25th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 1884. It saw the first election of a Democrat as President of the United States since the election of 1856. The campaign was marred by exceptional political acrimony and personal invective.

New York Governor Grover Cleveland narrowly defeated Republican former United States Senator James G. Blaine of Maine to break the longest losing streak for any major party in American political history: six consecutive presidential elections.

New York decided the election, awarding Governor Cleveland the state's 36 electors by a margin of just 1,047 votes out of 1,171,312 cast. It was the narrowest U.S. Presidential election until 2000.

The 1884 Republican National Convention was held in Chicago, Illinois, on June 3–6, with former Speaker of the House James G. Blaine from Maine, President Arthur, and Senator George F. Edmunds from Vermont as the frontrunners. Though he was still popular, Arthur did not make a serious bid for a full-term nomination, knowing that his increasing health problems meant he would probably not survive a second term (he ultimately died in November 1886). Blaine led on the first ballot, with Arthur second, and Edmunds third. This order did not change on successive ballots as Blaine increased his lead, and he won a majority on the fourth ballot. After nominating Blaine, the convention chose Senator John A. Logan from Illinois as the vice-presidential nominee. Blaine remains the only Presidential nominee ever to come from Maine.