1856 United States presidential election

1856 United States presidential election

November 4, 1856
296 members of the Electoral College 149 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	79.4%[1] 9.9 pp
Nominee James Buchanan John C. Frémont Millard Fillmore Party Democratic Republican Know Nothing Alliance North American Whig Home state Pennsylvania California New York Running mate John C. Breckinridge William L. Dayton Andrew J. Donelson Electoral vote 178 114 8 States carried 19 11 1 Popular vote 1,836,072 1,342,345 873,053 Percentage 45.3% 33.1% 21.5%
Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Buchanan/Breckinridge, Red by Frémont/Dayton, and Lavender by Fillmore/Donelson. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes cast by each state.

The 1856 United States presidential election was the 18th election in the history of the United States. It occurred on November 4, 1856.

This election was a three-way race between the Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, the Republican nominee, former Senator John C. Frémont of California, and the Know-Nothing (American) nominee, former President Millard Fillmore of New York. Buchanan won the election with 174 electoral votes, while Frémont got 114 electoral votes and Fillmore got 8 electoral votes.

This was the last election to be held before the Republican hold on the presidency, which lasted from the election of Abraham Lincoln as the 16th president in 1860 until the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt to his first term as the 32nd president in 1932. During that 68 year time period (1861-1933), only two Democrats were elected as the President of the United States, those being Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson^[a]

Slavery was a major issue in the election, with the Democrats being largely for it, the Republicans being largely against it, and the Know Nothings were divided on the issue.

This election would also decide which of the two parties would replace the now-abolished Whig Party as the main opponent of the Democratic Party, with the Republicans being successful as in the next election, the 1860 presidential election, the Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln would win the election in a four race.