1888 United States presidential election

Background. Grover Cleveland, the second Democratic president since the Civil War, was unanimously renominated at the 1888 Democratic National Convention. Benjamin Harrison, grandson of former President William Henry Harrison, emerged as the Republican nominee on the eighth ballot. The election focused on swing states, particularly New York and Indiana, where Harrison secured victory through narrow margins.

Controversies. Passage 13721 states Harrison won New York and Indiana by means of notoriously fraudulent balloting. A letter written by a California Republican to the British ambassador was published by Republicans two weeks before the election; it affected Irish-American voters comparably to the "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion" blunder of the previous election, and Cleveland lost New York and Indiana and, as a result, the presidency.

Results. Cleveland won a narrow plurality of the popular vote, aided by disenfranchisement of Black citizens in the South. Harrison won the Electoral College by a 233-168 margin, largely due to his win in Cleveland's home state of New York. This was the last election where the winner did not carry a single former slave state.