1896 United States presidential election

William McKinley beat William Jennings Bryan 271 electoral votes to 176 in a campaign fought over money itself. Bryan, running for both the Democrats and the Populists, wanted free silver; McKinley stood for the gold standard and the tariff. McKinley's coalition of businessmen, professionals, skilled factory workers and prosperous farmers swept the Northeast, Upper Midwest and Pacific Coast, while Bryan held the South, the rural Midwest and the Rocky Mountain states. Mark Hanna's Republican campaign spent about $3.5 million, roughly five times Bryan's total. Republicans then held the White House for sixteen years, and Bryan's outsider wing shaped the Democrats well into the next century.