The Fifteen Most Important Presidential Elections in American History

The Fifteen Most Important
Presidential Elections in American History

Copyright © 2002 by Richard Warren Field
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Here they are, from #15 to #1. Let the arguments begin!
(Email us with your own opinions.)

Oh, by the way, this list has not been updated for the 2000, 2004 or 2008 elections.
We suspect a couple of them will end up on this list some day!
It's just going to take the perspective of history to determine exactly where.

15th	1936 - Vote of Confidence for the New Deal	Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s landslide victory over Alfred Landon in 1936 acted as a ratification of his New Deal concepts. Roosevelt had introduced an unprecedented expansion of government involvement into the economic aspects of society. His huge victory four years after his initial win told him, and any doubters in Congress, that he had a mandate from the electorate for his leadership.
14th	1960 - The First Television Election	Two candidates from a new generation battled each other for the Presidency, the first two candidates born after 1900 (1952/1956 candidate Adlai Stevenson was born in 1900). The election was decided by a razor thin margin, with allegations of election irregularities. The young, popular President who won the election was killed in a controversial assassination that still provokes debate to this day. But what made this election truly influential was the Kennedy-Nixon debates. Though Eisenhower and Stevenson had used television in 1952 and 1956, this was the first time television had a major impact on the final result. After 1960, television became an undisputed influence on final election results.
13th	1824 - Four’s a Crowd	This was the first and only time the Electoral College had to defer to the House of Representatives to make the final choice for President. (Not including 1800, before the rules were changed to allow electors to specify votes for President and Vice President.) A private deal between Henry Clay and eventual winner in the House, John Quincy Adams, was suspected, but Andrew Jackson waited for the 1828 election to avenge his 1824 defeat.
12th	1840 - An Election Ahead of its Time	Image building? A carefully crafted campaign slogan (“Tippecanoe and Tyler too”)? These ideas might have been normal for 1940. For 1840, at a time when most Presidential candidates felt it was undignified to campaign, to lower themselves by asking for votes, this election was a brief, fleeting glimpse into the future.
11th	1876 - Theft of the Presidency	Samuel Tilden won the election, both with popular and electoral votes, until the Republicans chose to protest electoral vote slates in four states, involving exactly enough votes to give Republican Rutherford B. Hayes an Electoral College victory by one vote. A back-room deal between Republicans and southern Democrats made the theft possible.
10th	1980 - From Malaise Politics to Superpower	For Americans of the 1990's, it would be hard to imagine that in the late 1970's, the United States seemed like a helpless giant, with the nation’s power in apparent decline. Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory over Jimmy Carter set in motion a quick end to the Soviet Union, and the emergence of the United States as the world’s undisputed preeminent superpower for the first time in history.
9th	1828 - The Birth of the Democratic Party	Andrew Jackson bounced back from the crazy 1824 election that featured four Democratic-Republicans splitting the electoral votes. He won the 1828 election in a two-man race with incumbent President John Quincy Adams. Jackson ran as a Democrat, and his party can trace its lineage all the way forward to Bill Clinton. Adams ran as a “National Republican”—his party disappeared from the Presidential stage by 1836.
8th	1856 - The Birth of the Republican Party	John C. Fremont was the first candidate offered from the modern Republican Party. The newly formed Democrats had taken five of seven elections from Whigs and National Republicans. With the formation of the Republican Party, the modern two-party system was born, and these two parties have been going at each other ever since. In 37 elections since then, it’s the Republicans 22, Democrats 15.
7th	1912 - Three’s a Crowd	Three was a crowd as Theodore Roosevelt ran the most successful third party candidacy for the Presidency in American history. But this election was most important because it was the first election where all three candidates actively and adamantly campaigned for office. Also, when the Republican establishment ignored Roosevelt’s success in Republican Presidential primaries and selected incumbent President Taft regardless, the convention system came under scrutiny, leading to the modern primary system for nominating Presidential candidates.
6th	1796 - The First Contested Election	1789 and 1792 were easy. George Washington was unopposed, and could have held office for as long as he wanted. But in September of 1796, Washington publicized his farewell address. Just how would the new Constitution work in a contested election? Would the loser accept the result? John Adams and Thomas Jefferson showed that it could work, and also set the tone for elections for over 100 years when they did not actively solicit votes for the Presidency.
5th	1932 - The Birth of the Modern “Liberal”	Franklin Roosevelt’s victory over Herbert Hoover, and his subsequent New Deal policies, changed the political landscape and the role of government in the United States. Government now took on an activist role in solving economic problems in the United States, and the public’s expectations for government were forever altered. The implementation of this left wing idea ironically diminished the appeal of the Socialist Party, reducing their vote from nearly one million in 1932 to never more than 200,000 after that.
4th	1800 - Peaceful Transfer of Power	When Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams, after a nasty campaign fought by surrogates, Adams had to voluntarily relinquish power to his opponent. Though this was the fourth Presidential election, it was the first time the incumbent President had been voted out. Adams left peacefully, assuring that the American experiment in democracy would succeed. As a footnote, after the 1800 election, the Electoral College rules had to be changed to acknowledge political parties (because of the tie in the 1800 Electoral College between Jefferson and his running mate, Aaron Burr).
3rd	1860 - Divided Democrats/ Divided Country	The Democrats offered two candidates, John Breckinridge from the south and Stephen Douglas from the north, to face Abraham Lincoln. A fourth candidate, John Bell, ran as a “Constitutional Union” candidate. This split the anti-Republican vote three ways, putting Lincoln in office. The growing and inevitable conflict between north and south finally erupted as secession and Civil War followed.
2nd	1864 -The House Divided Remains United	This election, more than any other, demonstrated how strong democratic principles had become ingrained into the American political culture. There is no parallel to this election in all of recorded history. In the middle of a bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln stood for election. Voters could have replaced him with a fired Union general, and some voted to do just that. But a fair election took place, Lincoln prevailed, and the United States remained undivided and loyal to the Constitution.
1st	1789 - The Right Man at the Right Time	The most important election in American history was the first election, not because it was closely contested, or even contested at all, but because of the man chosen to be the first President, and the precedents he chose to set. Yes, he stood for election, even though unanimous, not coronation. To appreciate the difference, we only need to look south at Simon Bolivar, a man who filled a similar role in leading opposition to his colonial rulers, but who took a very different approach to government after liberation. George Washington’s election as our first President made the next 53 (including 2000) possible.

Almost Made the List

1948 - Truman defeats Dewey, establishing that even in the Twentieth Century, voters would choose Presidents, not pollsters, pundits, or media projections.

1920 - Warren Harding wins the first election women are allowed to vote in. If the choice had been more memorable, this election might have made the list.

1972 - Eighteen year olds vote for the first time, but “Establishment” icon Richard Nixon wins in a landslide, demonstrating that the age 18-21 voting group will not be heavily influential.