# 1836 Presidential Election [[Martin Van Buren]] (Democrat), Jackson's chosen successor, defeated a fractured **[[Whig Party]]** ticket strategy — the Whigs ran three regional candidates simultaneously ([[William Henry Harrison]], Hugh White, [[Daniel Webster]]) hoping to force a House contingent election, but Van Buren won an outright [[Electoral College]] majority. Van Buren got 170 of 294 electoral votes; Harrison led the Whig pack with 73. This was the **first presidential election fought by the Whig Party** as a named organization (founded 1833–1834 in opposition to "King Andrew" Jackson). ## Result - **[[Martin Van Buren]]** (Democrat) — 170 electoral votes, 50.8% popular - **[[William Henry Harrison]]** (Whig) — 73 electoral votes, 36.6% popular - **Hugh White** (Whig) — 26 electoral votes - **Daniel Webster** (Whig) — 14 electoral votes - **Willie Mangum** (Whig, South Carolina protest) — 11 electoral votes - Total: 294 electoral votes ## Right-wing relevance The 1836 election's right-wing relevance is principally as the Whig Party's electoral debut. The Whig coalition — [[Henry Clay]]'s American System nationalists, anti-Jackson conservatives, Southern planters wary of Jacksonian executive overreach, evangelical Protestant reformers — is the second-most-important antecedent (after Federalism) of what became the Republican Party in 1854 and therefore an indirect ancestor of contemporary movement conservatism. The 1836 four-candidate Whig strategy is also an early case study in **third-party-and-fractured-coalition electoral mechanics** that contemporary political-science treats as canonical. ## Connections - [[Martin Van Buren]] — Jackson's chosen successor; winner. - [[Andrew Jackson]] — Outgoing president; political patron. - [[William Henry Harrison]] — Leading Whig finisher; would defeat Van Buren in 1840. ---