# 1856 Presidential Election [[James Buchanan]] (Democrat) defeated the **first Republican Party presidential nominee** [[John C. Frémont]], with former president [[Millard Fillmore]] running third as the candidate of the nativist American (Know-Nothing) Party. Buchanan took 174 electoral votes to Frémont's 114 and Fillmore's 8 (Maryland only). The Republican Party — founded in 1854 in opposition to the [[Kansas-Nebraska Act]]'s repeal of the Missouri Compromise — was running its first presidential ticket only two years after its formation and finished second in EV and second in popular vote (33.1% to Buchanan's 45.3%). ## Result - **[[James Buchanan]]** (Democrat) — 174 electoral votes, 45.3% popular - **John C. Frémont** (Republican) — 114 electoral votes, 33.1% popular - **[[Millard Fillmore]]** (American / Know-Nothing) — 8 electoral votes, 21.5% popular - Total: 296 electoral votes ## Right-wing relevance The 1856 election is significant in two ways for right-wing analysis. First, it was the **operational birth election of the modern Republican Party** — the party that contemporary American conservatism inhabits, however transformed by 1968's [[Southern Strategy]] and 2016's MAGA realignment. The 1854–1856 Republican fusion (anti-slavery Whigs, Free Soilers, anti-Kansas-Nebraska Democrats, Know-Nothings willing to subordinate nativism) is the *only* successful third-party-to-major-party transition in American history. Second, **Fillmore's Know-Nothing candidacy** is the most successful nativist presidential campaign in American history — 21.5% of the popular vote on an anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant platform — and is the operational ancestor of every subsequent American nativist political movement, including the 1920s immigration-restriction regime, [[Pat Buchanan]]'s 1992 campaign, and contemporary MAGA-era anti-immigration politics. ## Connections - [[James Buchanan]] — Winner; consistent worst-president contender. - [[Millard Fillmore]] — Know-Nothing third-place finisher; former Whig president. ---