1836 United States presidential election

1836 United States presidential election

November 4 – December 6, 1836
294 members of the Electoral College 148 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	56.5% 0.5 pp
Nominee Martin Van Buren William Henry Harrison Hugh L. White Party Democratic Whig Whig Alliance Anti-Masonic Home state New York Ohio Tennessee Running mate Richard M. Johnson Francis Granger John Tyler Electoral vote 170 73 26 States carried 15 7 2 Popular vote 764,176 550,816 146,109 Percentage 50.8% 36.6% 9.7%   Nominee Daniel Webster Willie P. Mangum Party Whig Whig Alliance Nullifier Home state Massachusetts North Carolina Running mate Francis Granger John Tyler Electoral vote 14 11 States carried 1 1 Popular vote 41,201 N/A Percentage 2.7% N/A
Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Van Buren/Johnson, Yellow denotes those won by Harrison/Granger, Maroon denotes those won by White/Tyler, Pink denotes those won by Webster/Granger, and Teal denotes those won by Mangum/Tyler. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
President before election Andrew Jackson Democratic Elected President Martin Van Buren Democratic
1837 contingent U.S. vice presidential election
February 8, 1837
52 United States senators 27 votes needed to win
Candidate Richard Mentor Johnson Francis Granger Party Democratic Whig Senate vote 33 16 Percentage 63.46% 30.77%
Senate by state. Blue denotes states that voted for Johnson, Yellow denotes those that voted for Granger, Green denotes those that did not vote. State with multiple colors had Senators that voted differently from each other.

The 1836 United States presidential election was the 13th election in the history of the United States. It occurred on November 4 to December 6, 1836.

This election was a five-way race between the Democratic nominee, Vice President Martin Van Buren of New York and the four Whig nominees, those being General and former Minister to Gran Colombia William Henry Harrison of Ohio, Senator Hugh L. White of Tennessee, Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and Senator Willie P. Mangum of North Carolina. Van Buren won the election with 170 electoral votes, while Harrison got 73 electoral votes, White got 26 electoral votes, Webster got 14 electoral votes, and Mangum got 11 electoral votes.

While Van Buren won 170 electoral votes (22 more then needed to win), no vice presidential nominee won the required 148 electoral votes needed to become Vice President, as there were three nominees for VP, those being Congressman Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky, Congressman Francis Granger of New York, and former Senator John Tyler of Virginia.

However, the final results would show that the 23 members of the electoral college from Virginia would not vote for Johnson, instead voting for former Senator William Smith of South Carolina due to dissent from the electors related to Johnson's interracial relationship with a slave.

Due to this, the final results for the vice-presidential candidates would be that Johnson would get 147 electoral votes, while Granger would get 77 electoral votes, Tyler would get 47 electoral votes, and Smith would get 23 electoral votes. Thus, under the 12th amendment, the U.S. senate would meet on February 8, 1837 and would elect Johnson as VP in a 33-16 vote.

Van Buren would be the third incumbent vice president in U.S. history to win the presidency (after John Adams in 1796 and Thomas Jefferson in 1800) and would be the last VP to achieve this until the election of George H. W. Bush in 1988. Van Buren and Harrison would both run against each other again in 1840, and Harrison would be elected as the 9th President.

Van Buren is also the most recent Democrat in U.S. history to replace a two-term Democratic president, and the only incumbent Democratic vice president to win the presidency. This also marks the last time that a sitting vice president was elected president after only serving for one term.

Nominations

Democratic Party

1836 Democratic Party ticket
Martin Van Buren	Richard M. Johnson
for President	for Vice President
8th Vice President of the United States (1833–1837)	U.S. Representative from Kentucky (1807–1819, 1829–1837)

Presidential

• Martin Van Buren, 8th Vice President of the United States (1833–1837) (Nominee)

Vice Presidential

• Richard Mentor Johnson, U.S. Representative from Kentucky (1807–1819, 1829–1837) (Vice presidential nominee)
• William C. Rives, U.S. senator from Virginia (1832-1834, 1836-1839)

Whig Party

1836 Whig Party ticket
William Henry Harrison	Francis Granger
for President	for Vice President
U.S. Minister for Gran Columbia (1829)	U.S. Representative from New York (1835-1837, 1839-1841, 1841-1843)

1836 Whig Party ticket
Hugh Lawson White	John Tyler
for President	for Vice President
U.S. Senator from Tennessee (1825-1840)	U.S. Senator from Virginia (1827-1836)

1836 Whig Party ticket
Daniel Webster	Francis Granger
for President	for Vice President
U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (1827-1841)	U.S. Representative from New York (1835-1837, 1839-1841, 1841-1843)

1836 Whig Party ticket
Willie P. Mangum	John Tyler
for President	for Vice President
U.S. Senator from North Carolina (1831-1840, 1840-1853)	U.S. Senator from Virginia (1827-1836)