# 1872 United States presidential election

1872 United States presidential election|

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| **November 5, 1872** |

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352 members of the Electoral College 177 electoral votes needed to win |
| Turnout | 72.1%  8.8 pp |
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| Nominee | **Ulysses S. Grant** | Horace Greeley † *(Died November 29, 1872)* |  |
| Party | Republican | Liberal Republican |
| Alliance |  | Democratic |
| Home state | Illinois | New York |
| Running mate | **Henry Wilson** | Benjamin Gratz Brown |
| Electoral vote | **286** (+14 invalidated) | 0 (+3 rejected) |
| States carried |  **29** (+2 invalidated) | 0 |
| Popular vote | **3,598,235** | 2,834,976 |
| Percentage | **55.6%** | 43.8% |

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Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Grant (Republican). Other colors (except gray) denote states won by Greeley/Brown (Liberal Republican and Democratic). The different colors reflect the posthumous scattering of Greeley's electoral votes: purple denotes Electoral College votes won by Greeley, blue denotes those won by Thomas A. Hendricks, pink denotes those won by Benjamin Gratz Brown, green denotes those won by Charles J. Jenkins, and dark red denotes those won by David Davis. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state. |
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| **Presidentbefore election**
Ulysses S. Grant
Republican | **ElectedPresident**
Ulysses S. Grant
Republican |

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The **1872 United States presidential election** was the 22nd election in the history of the United States. It occurred on November 5, 1872. This election was between incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant of Illinois and former Congressman Horace Greeley of New York.

Grant won the election in a landslide, winning 286 electoral votes out of the available 352 for grab. Greeley had initially won 66 electoral votes, but would die prior to the certification of the electoral votes on February 12, 1873, as Greeley would pass away on November 29, 1872, just three weeks after the election had occurred, making Greeley the first and only major party presidential candidate to pass away prior to the certification of the election.

Greeley's death meant that his electors would meet in December 1872 and would split his electors among candidates of their choosing. Out of the 66 electoral votes that Greeley had recieved, 3 delegates from the state of Georgia had chosen to back Greeley after his death and as such were disqualified as he was now ineligible for the office Greeley's remaining 63 delegates went to different candidates, out of which they went to:

- Former U.S. Senator Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana (1863-1869) *(received 42 electoral votes)*

- Governor Benjamin Gratz Brown of Missouri (1871-1873) *(received 18 electoral votes) (Ran as Greeley's running mate)*

- Governor Charles J. Jenkins of Georgia (1871-1873) *(received 2 electoral votes)*

- Associate Justice David Davis of Illinois (1862-1877) *(received 1 electoral vote)*

This would be the last election in U.S. History in which a major party candidate (Greeley) would not recieve a single electoral vote, while Grant would be the last Republican until Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 to win a state in the South