1868 U.S. presidential election

United States presidential election, 1868

← 1864 November 3, 1868 1872 →
All 294 electoral votes of the Electoral College 148 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	78.1% 4.3 pp
Nominee Ulysses S. Grant Horatio Seymour Party Republican Democratic Home state Illinois New York Running mate Schuyler Colfax Francis P. Blair, Jr. Electoral vote 214 80 States carried 26 8 Popular vote 3,013,421 2,706,829 Percentage 52.7% 47.3%
Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Grant/Colfax, blue denotes those won by Seymour/Blair, green denotes those states that had not yet been restored to the Union and which were therefore ineligible to vote. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
President before election Andrew Johnson Democratic Elected President Ulysses S. Grant Republican

Andrew Johnson
Democratic

Ulysses S. Grant
Republican

The United States presidential election of 1868 was the 21st quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1868. In the first election of the Reconstruction Era, Republican nominee Ulysses S. Grant defeated Democrat Horatio Seymour. It was the first presidential election to take place after the conclusion of the American Civil War and the nationwide abolition of slavery.

Incumbent President Andrew Johnson had succeeded to the presidency in 1865 following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, a Republican. Johnson, a War Democrat from Tennessee, had served as Lincoln's running mate in 1864 on the National Union ticket, which was designed to attract Republicans and War Democrats. Upon accession to office, Johnson clashed with the Republican Congress over Reconstruction policies and was nearly removed from office. Johnson received some support for another term at the 1868 Democratic National Convention, but, after several ballots, the Democratic convention nominated Governor Seymour of New York. The 1868 Republican National Convention unanimously nominated General Grant, who had been the highest-ranking Union general at the end of the Civil War. The Democrats criticized the Republican Reconstruction policies, and "campaigned explicitly on an anti-black, pro-white platform," while Republicans campaigned on Grant's popularity and the Union victory in the Civil War.