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United States presidential election, 1868

United States presidential election, 1868
United States
1864 ←
November 3, 1868 → 1872

All 294 electoral votes of the Electoral College
148 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout 78.1%Increase 4.3 pp
  UlyssesGrant.png Horatio Seymour - Brady-Handysmall.png
Nominee Ulysses S. Grant Horatio Seymour
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Illinois New York
Running mate Schuyler Colfax Francis P. Blair, Jr.
Electoral vote 214 80
States carried 26 8
Popular vote 3,013,421 2,706,829
Percentage 52.7% 47.3%

ElectoralCollege1868.svg

Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Grant/Colfax, blue denotes those won by Seymour/Blair, green denotes those states that had not yet been restored to the Union and which were therefore ineligible to vote. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

President before election

Andrew Johnson
Democratic

Elected President

Ulysses S. Grant
Republican


ElectoralCollege1868.svg

Andrew Johnson
Democratic

Ulysses S. Grant
Republican

The United States presidential election of 1868 was the 21st quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1868. It was the first presidential election to take place after the American Civil War, during the period referred to as Reconstruction. As three of the former Confederate states (Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia) were not yet restored to the Union, their electors could not vote in the election.

The incumbent President, Andrew Johnson, who succeeded to the presidency in 1865 following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, was unpopular and failed to receive the Democratic presidential nomination. By 1868, Johnson had alienated many of his constituents and had been impeached by Congress. Although Johnson kept his office, his presidency was crippled. After numerous ballots, the Democrats nominated former New York Governor Horatio Seymour to take on the Republican candidate, Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was one of the most popular men in the North due to his efforts in concluding the Civil War successfully for the Union.


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