1888
The 1888 U.S. presidential election was won by Benjamin Harrison (Republican) with 233 of 401 electoral votes, defeating Grover Cleveland (Democratic). Electoral-vote margin: 65 (233 to 168). Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote to Grover Cleveland by 0.8 percentage points. Turnout was 80.5%. The cycle falls in the Gilded Age era of American electoral history.
Open the what-if calculator → — flip states and re-count. A toy, not history.
Benjamin Harrison and the 1888 map
Incumbent Grover Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College to Republican Benjamin Harrison, grandson of President William Henry Harrison. The election centered on the tariff — Harrison championed high protective tariffs while Cleveland sought reduction. Harrison carried the key states of New York and Indiana. Cleveland accepted defeat gracefully and immediately signalled he was not finished; he would return to win back the presidency four years later.
Protective tariff policy; federal surplus management
Cleveland won popular vote but lost Electoral College — one of five such splits in U.S. history
This summary was drafted with AI tools and has not yet been checked sentence by sentence. The vote table and the National Archives note on this page come from named sources; where they differ from the summary, rely on them. Tell us about an error.
States · 38 reporting
State results · 1888
- Connecticut Cleveland by 336 · 0.2 pts
- West Virginia Cleveland by 506 · 0.3 pts
- Indiana Harrison by 2,348 · 0.4 pts
- Virginia Cleveland by 1,539 · 0.5 pts
- New York Harrison by 13,002 · 1.0 pts
New YorkHarrison won it by 1.0 points; its electoral votes took the total to 218, past the 201 needed.
Line up the states the winner carried from widest margin to narrowest and add up their electoral votes: the tipping point is the state that takes the total past a majority.
Scroll the table sideways for every column.
| State | Electoral votes | Grover Cleveland Dem | Benjamin Harrison Rep | Clinton B. Fisk Proh | Also named | Margin | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 10 EV | 117,320 67.4% | 56,197 32.3% | Not named | None | 61,123 35.1 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| Arkansas | 7 EV | 85,962 55.1% | 58,752 37.7% | Not named | Alson J. Streeter 10,613 · 6.8% | 27,210 17.4 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| California1 | 8 EV | 117,7291 46.8% | 124,8161 49.7% | 5,7611 2.3% | None | 7,087 2.8 pts | Harrison Rep |
| Colorado | 3 EV | 37,567 40.9% | 50,774 55.3% | 2,191 2.4% | Alson J. Streeter 1,266 · 1.4% | 13,207 14.4 pts | Harrison Rep |
| Connecticut | 6 EV | 74,920 48.7% | 74,584 48.4% | 4,234 2.7% | None | 336 0.2 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| Delaware | 3 EV | 16,414 55.1% | 12,973 43.6% | 400 1.3% | None | 3,441 11.6 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| Florida | 4 EV | 39,561 59.4% | 26,657 40.0% | Not named | None | 12,904 19.4 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| Georgia | 12 EV | 100,499 70.3% | 40,496 28.3% | 1,808 1.3% | None | 60,003 42.0 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| Illinois2 | 22 EV | 348,2782 46.6% | 370,4732 49.5% | 21,6952 2.9% | None | 22,195 3.0 pts | Harrison Rep |
| Indiana | 15 EV | 261,013 48.6% | 263,361 49.0% | 9,881 1.8% | None | 2,348 0.4 pts | Harrison Rep |
| Iowa | 13 EV | 179,877 44.5% | 211,598 52.4% | Not named | Alson J. Streeter 9,105 · 2.3% | 31,721 7.8 pts | Harrison Rep |
| Kansas3 | 9 EV | 102,7453 30.8% | 182,9043 54.8% | 6,7793 2.0% | Alson J. Streeter 37,788 · 11.3%3 | 80,159 24.0 pts | Harrison Rep |
| Kentucky | 13 EV | 183,800 53.3% | 155,134 45.0% | 5,225 1.5% | None | 28,666 8.3 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| Louisiana4 | 8 EV | 85,0324 73.5% | 30,4844 26.3% | Not named | None | 54,548 47.1 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| Maine | 6 EV | 50,481 39.4% | 73,734 57.5% | 2,691 2.1% | Alson J. Streeter 1,344 · 1.0% | 23,253 18.1 pts | Harrison Rep |
| Maryland | 8 EV | 106,168 50.3% | 99,986 47.4% | 4,767 2.3% | None | 6,182 2.9 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| Massachusetts | 14 EV | 151,855 44.1% | 183,892 53.4% | 8,701 2.5% | None | 32,037 9.3 pts | Harrison Rep |
| Michigan5 | 13 EV | 213,4695 44.8% | 236,3875 49.6% | 20,9425 4.4% | None | 22,918 4.8 pts | Harrison Rep |
| Minnesota6 | 7 EV | 104,3856 39.6% | 142,4926 54.1% | 15,3116 5.8% | None | 38,107 14.5 pts | Harrison Rep |
| Mississippi | 9 EV | 85,471 73.8% | 30,096 26.0% | Not named | None | 55,375 47.8 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| Missouri7 | 16 EV | 261,9747 50.1% | 236,2577 45.2% | Not named | Alson J. Streeter 18,632 · 3.6%7 | 25,717 4.9 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| Nebraska8 | 5 EV | 80,5528 39.7% | 108,4258 53.5% | 9,4298 4.7% | Alson J. Streeter 4,226 · 2.1%8 | 27,873 13.8 pts | Harrison Rep |
| Nevada | 3 EV | 5,326 42.3% | 7,229 57.4% | Not named | None | 1,903 15.1 pts | Harrison Rep |
| New Hampshire9 | 4 EV | 43,3829 47.8% | 45,7249 50.4% | 1,5669 1.7% | None | 2,342 2.6 pts | Harrison Rep |
| New Jersey | 9 EV | 151,493 49.9% | 144,344 47.5% | 7,904 2.6% | None | 7,149 2.4 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| New York10 | 36 EV | 635,75710 48.2% | 648,75910 49.1% | 30,23110 2.3% | None | 13,002 1.0 pts | Harrison Rep |
| North Carolina11 | 11 EV | 147,90211 51.8% | 134,78411 47.2% | Not named | None | 13,118 4.6 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| Ohio12 | 23 EV | 396,45512 47.1% | 416,05412 49.4% | 24,35612 2.9% | None | 19,599 2.3 pts | Harrison Rep |
| Oregon13 | 3 EV | 26,52213 42.8% | 33,29113 53.8% | 1,67713 2.7% | None | 6,769 10.9 pts | Harrison Rep |
| Pennsylvania14 | 30 EV | 446,63314 44.8% | 526,09114 52.7% | 20,94714 2.1% | None | 79,458 8.0 pts | Harrison Rep |
| Rhode Island | 4 EV | 17,530 43.0% | 21,968 53.9% | 1,250 3.1% | None | 4,438 10.9 pts | Harrison Rep |
| South Carolina15 | 9 EV | 65,82515 82.3% | 13,73615 17.2% | Not named | None | 52,089 65.2 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| Tennessee16 | 12 EV | 158,77916 52.3% | 138,98816 45.8% | 5,96916 2.0% | None | 19,791 6.5 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| Texas | 13 EV | 234,883 65.7% | 88,422 24.7% | 4,749 1.3% | Alson J. Streeter 29,459 · 8.2% | 146,461 41.0 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| Vermont | 4 EV | 16,788 26.5% | 45,192 71.2% | 1,460 2.3% | None | 28,404 44.8 pts | Harrison Rep |
| Virginia | 12 EV | 151,977 50.0% | 150,438 49.5% | Not named | None | 1,539 0.5 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| West Virginia | 6 EV | 78,677 49.3% | 78,171 49.0% | Not named | None | 506 0.3 pts | Cleveland Dem |
| Wisconsin | 11 EV | 155,232 43.8% | 176,553 49.8% | 14,277 4.0% | Alson J. Streeter 8,552 · 2.4% | 21,321 6.0 pts | Harrison Rep |
Shares are of each state’s total vote for president. “Not named”: the figures do not give that candidate a line of their own in that state — for example under 1% of the vote, not on the ballot there, or counted on an unnamed line (see the state’s note). Margin is the leader’s lead over the second-placed candidate.
Notes on the figures
- California The official table's state total (251,339) is 1,442 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- Illinois The official table's state total (747,686) is 10 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- Kansas The official table's state total (334,035) is 3,819 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- Louisiana The official table's state total (115,744) is 29 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- Michigan The official table's state total (476,273) is 920 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- Minnesota The official table's state total (263,306) is 24 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- Missouri The official table's state total (523,198) is 1,796 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- Nebraska The official table's state total (202,653) is 21 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- New Hampshire The official table's state total (90,730) is 45 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- New York The official table's state total (1,320,109) is 2,068 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- North Carolina The official table prints a state total of 285,512, which does not agree with its own figures (they add up to 285,522); their sum is used.
- Ohio The official table's state total (841,941) is 1,580 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- Oregon The official table's state total (61,911) is 58 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- Pennsylvania The official table's state total (997,568) is 24 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- South Carolina The official table's state total (79,941) is 380 more than the tickets it lists; the difference is counted under other candidates.
- Tennessee The official table prints a state total of 303,736, which does not agree with its own figures (they add up to 303,784); their sum is used.
SourceThe World Almanac 1891 . How these figures were compiled
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