1900 United States presidential election in Utah

The 1900 United States presidential election in Utah took place on November 6, 1900, as part of the 1900 United States presidential election held in each of the forty-five contemporary states. State voters chose three representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1900 United States presidential election in Utah

November 6, 1900
 
Nominee William McKinley William Jennings Bryan
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Ohio Nebraska
Running mate Theodore Roosevelt Adlai E. Stevenson
Electoral vote 3 0
Popular vote 47,139 45,006
Percentage 50.65% 48.36%

County Results

President before election

William McKinley
Republican

Elected President

William McKinley
Republican

Background

During its years as a territory the Republican Party's ancestral hostility to the polygyny of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church),[1] whose members settled Utah and have dominated the region ever since, meant that Utah territorial politics until 1891 was dominated by the Mormon-hierarchy-controlled "People's Party" and the anti-Mormon "Liberal Party".[2] Those Mormons who did affiliate with national parties generally were Democrats, who lacked moral qualms associated with polygyny and slavery – although the Liberal Party did have allies within the GOP.[3]

In order to achieve statehood, however, the LDS Church disbanded the "People's Party" in 1891 and most LDS members moved towards the Democratic Party. In Utah's statehood year – 1896 – Democrat/Populist William Jennings Bryan, whose "free silver" platform was immensely attractive to a state with large silver reserves, won the Mormon State by a five-to-one margin. However, by Bryan's 1900 rematch with incumbent Republican President McKinley, the Republican Party's ancestral hostility to Mormonism was beginning to dissipate,[4] and Republican National Committee Chairman "Dollar Mark" Hanna was able to persuade the Mormon hierarchy that Bryan's policies – financial and otherwise – were unsound.[5]

Consequently, although the LDS Church had not established the links to the GOP that they were after the Utah legislature elected Reed Smoot, those Utah voters who had supported Bryan overwhelmingly in 1896 deserted him to a degree that narrowly proved sufficient to give the state's three electoral votes to McKinley. Apart from Washington County in the Dixie region, McKinley was competitive everywhere and in Kane County – later a famous Republican bastion – he received over seventy percent. This remains easily the closest presidential election in Utah history, and with the state voting essentially as the nation did, it was decisive in placing the Mormon State in the mainstream of US politics,[6] where Utah remained until becoming a Republican bastion in the 1950s and 1960s.

Results

1900 United States presidential election in Utah[7]
Party Candidate Running mate Popular vote Electoral vote
Count % Count %
Republican William McKinley of Ohio Theodore Roosevelt of New York 47,139 50.59% 3 100.00%
Democratic William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska Adlai Ewing Stevenson I of Illinois 45,006 48.30% 0 0.00%
Socialist Eugene Victor Debs of Indiana Job Harriman of California 720 0.77% 0 0.00%
Prohibition John Granville Woolley of Illinois Henry Brewer Metcalf of Rhode Island 209 0.22% 0 0.00%
Socialist Labor Joseph Francis Malloney of Massachusetts Valentine Remmel of Pennsylvania 106[lower-alpha 1] 0.11% 0 0.00%
N/A Others Others 9[lower-alpha 1] 0.01% 0 0.00%
Total 93,189 100.00% 3 100.00%

Results by county

County William McKinley
Republican
William Jennings Bryan
Democratic
Various candidates
Other parties
Margin Total votes cast[8]
# % # % # % # %
Beaver 682 51.90% 629 47.87% 3 0.23% 53 4.03% 1,314
Box Elder 1,635 52.72% 1,460 47.08% 6 0.19% 175 5.64% 3,101
Cache 2,820 47.59% 3,082 52.02% 23 0.39% -262 -4.43% 5,925
Carbon 748 54.16% 621 44.97% 12 0.87% 127 9.19% 1,381
Davis 1,238 47.05% 1,380 52.45% 13 0.49% -142 -5.40% 2,631
Emery 666 45.40% 798 54.40% 3 0.20% -132 -9.00% 1,467
Garfield 649 62.16% 395 37.84% 0 0.00% 254 24.32% 1,044
Grand 178 46.11% 204 52.85% 4 1.04% -26 -6.74% 386
Iron 628 46.94% 708 52.91% 2 0.15% -80 -5.97% 1,338
Juab 1,532 42.52% 1,986 55.12% 85 2.36% -454 -12.60% 3,603
Kane 392 70.89% 161 29.11% 0 0.00% 231 41.78% 553
Millard 938 52.55% 844 47.28% 3 0.17% 94 5.27% 1,785
Morgan 391 51.72% 363 48.02% 2 0.26% 28 3.70% 756
Piute 330 53.92% 280 45.75% 2 0.33% 50 8.17% 612
Rich 387 57.76% 282 42.09% 1 0.15% 105 15.67% 670
Salt Lake 13,496 50.30% 12,840 47.86% 493 1.84% 656 2.44% 26,829
San Juan 81 51.92% 72 46.15% 3 1.92% 9 5.77% 156
Sanpete 3,575 59.15% 2,441 40.39% 28 0.46% 1,134 18.76% 6,044
Sevier 1,581 54.88% 1,261 43.77% 39 1.35% 320 11.11% 2,881
Summit 1,555 46.67% 1,763 52.91% 14 0.42% -208 -6.24% 3,332
Tooele 1,259 52.70% 1,114 46.63% 16 0.67% 145 6.07% 2,389
Uintah 639 45.13% 773 54.59% 4 0.28% -134 -9.46% 1,416
Utah 5,698 50.98% 5,391 48.24% 87 0.78% 307 2.74% 11,176
Wasatch 723 47.94% 781 51.79% 4 0.27% -58 -3.85% 1,508
Washington 409 28.93% 1,003 70.93% 2 0.14% -594 -42.00% 1,414
Wayne 324 53.38% 282 46.46% 1 0.16% 42 6.92% 607
Weber 4,585 52.36% 4,092 46.73% 79 0.90% 493 5.63% 8,756
Totals47,13950.59%45,00648.30%9290.99%2,1332.29%93,189[lower-alpha 1]

Notes

  1. Neither the 106 votes for Malloney nor the nine write-in votes were tabulated by county, but only for Utah as a whole

References

  1. Talbot, Christine; A Foreign Kingdom: Mormons and Polygamy in American Political Culture, 1852-1890, p. 113 ISBN 0252095359
  2. May, Dean L. ; Utah: A People's History, pp. 120-121 ISBN 0874802849
  3. Handy, Robert T.; Undermined Establishment: Church-State Relations in America, 1880-1920, p. 55 ISBN 1400862361
  4. Perry, Luke and Cronin, Christopher; Mormons in American Politics: From Persecution to Power, p. 52 ISBN 1440804087
  5. Rutland, Robert Allan (editor); The Republicans: From Lincoln to Bush, p. 128 ISBN 0826210902
  6. Balmer, Randall and Riess, Janet (editors); Mormonism and American Politics (Religion, Culture, and Public Life), pp. 135-137 ISBN 0231540892
  7. "1900 Presidential General Election Results – Utah". U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  8. Robinson, Edgar Eugene; The Presidential Vote, 1896-1932 (second edition); pp. 223-224 Published 1947 by Stanford University Press
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