With the 2024 presidential election moving a step closer following the New Hampshire primary last Tuesday, here are some some general election match-ups from years past that you may find interesting:
Martin Van Buren and William Henry Harrison, 1840:
Incumbent Democratic president Van Buren had the misfortune of having to run for re-election during the economic depression that accompanied the Panic of 1837. Harrison, his Whig opponent, though raised on an estate and as the nominee was living in a stately 22-room manor, was portrayed by Whigs as the candidate of the frontier while painting Van Buren as the candidate of the silk-stocking set. The extent of Van Buren’s unpopularity was clearly demonstrated by Harrison’s victory in Van Buren’s home state of New York and in Tennessee, where that state’s aging hero Andrew Jackson came out of retirement to stump for Van Buren, his former vice president. In the end, Harrison scored a decisive win in the Electoral College, 234-60.
Ulysses Grant and Horace Greeley, 1872:
“Never in American history have two more unfit men been offered to the country for the highest office,” said author Eugene Roseboom of this contest that pitted the scandal-plagued Grant against the inexperienced Greeley. In the end, Grant’s prestige as a war hero in both the Mexican-American War and the Civil War and the belief among voters that he personally had not been involved in the scandals won him a second term, 56% to 44% over Greeley.
Grover Cleveland and James Blaine, 1884:
This campaign turned less on issues than on the personal morality of the two candidates. Democrats assailed Blaine for long-standing charges that he had profited from association with railroad interests while in Congress, whereas Republicans played up a newspaper expose that charged Cleveland with fathering an illegitimate child. Cleveland actually wasn’t sure about the situation but accepted responsibility, agreed to pay child support and was forthright about this during the campaign, which helped to defuse the issue. Despite Republican attacks on his character (“Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa? Gone to the White House, Ha, Ha, Ha!”) Cleveland retained the support of the Democratic base and even some anti-Blaine Republicans known as Mugwumps. Their chant was “Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine! The continental liar from the state of Maine!” Although the race could have gone either way, a couple of fatal tactical errors by Blaine at the end of the campaign ended up costing him New York’s crucial Irish Catholic vote, along with labor resulting in a narrow victory for Cleveland, 49% to 48%.
Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, 1932:
Hobbled by the Great Depression and his administration’s feeble response to it, the incumbent Hoover was drawing small and often hostile crowds. The Republican effort concentrated on attacking Roosevelt’s record as New York governor, criticizing it as experimental and dangerous if extended on a national level in a time of crisis. Beneath the surface were doubts that a polio victim would be able to withstand the rigors of the presidency, which Roosevelt confronted by barnstorming the country. In the end, Roosevelt swept seven out of eight counties nationwide and won every major city except Philadelphia, giving him a landslide of 472 votes in the Electoral College to Hoover’s 59.
Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater, 1964:
Although “Mr. Conservative’s” hard core of right-wing supporters were pleased that Goldwater didn’t substantially temper his conservatism to suit a national campaign, which also did nothing to broaden his base of support. His uncompromising positions on various issues hurt him among blocs of voters in the South, with the elderly and Blacks. Goldwater’s casual references to “conventional nuclear weapons” and the prospect of nuclear war alarmed the entire nation and led to the Democrats’ famous “daisy commercial” – aired only once but the final nail in Goldwater’s coffin. For his part, the incumbent Johnson sensed a big victory and therefore remained aloof of the campaign, refused Goldwater’s challenge to debate, and compared with Goldwater appeared to be the peace candidate by seeming to promise no wider war in Vietnam (although he ended up escalating the war). On Election Day, the incumbent Johnson won by the largest share of the popular vote in U.S. history, 61%, a distinction shared only with FDR in 1936 and Richard Nixon in 1972.
Rich Padova, M.Ed, M.A. teaches American government/politics and presidential history at Northern Essex Community College and U.S. history at Merrimack College.