# 1872 Presidential Election [[Ulysses S. Grant]]'s reelection landslide — 286 electoral votes to a Liberal Republican/Democratic fusion candidate Horace Greeley's projected 66. Greeley, the *New York Tribune* editor and lifelong Republican, had broken with Grant over Reconstruction corruption and reform issues; the Democrats endorsed him in an awkward fusion. Greeley **died on November 29, 1872 — between the popular vote and the [[Electoral College]] vote** — making the question of how to count his electoral votes unprecedented. Congress eventually disallowed three of his 66 EV and split the remaining 63 among four other candidates. The only instance in American history of a candidate dying between the popular and electoral votes. ## Result - **[[Ulysses S. Grant]]** (Republican) — 286 electoral votes, 55.6% popular - **Horace Greeley** (Liberal Republican / Democrat) — died Nov 29, 1872; 0 official EV; received 43.8% popular pre-death - Total: 352 electoral votes (63 EV scattered to other candidates post-Greeley death) ## Right-wing relevance The 1872 election's right-wing relevance is mostly procedural — the candidate-death scenario produced the operational precedent for what happens if a presidential candidate dies between popular and EC voting. The Liberal Republican movement, by attacking Reconstruction enforcement from a putatively "good-government" angle, also served as the early template for white Northern fatigue with Reconstruction — the political condition that produced the [[Compromise of 1877]] four years later. ## Connections - [[Ulysses S. Grant]] — Reelected. ---