1900 United States presidential election

Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 6, 1900. Incumbent Republican President William McKinley defeated his Democratic challenger, William Jennings Bryan. McKinley and Bryan each faced little opposition within their own parties. Although some Gold Democrats explored the possibility of a campaign by Admiral George Dewey, Bryan was easily re-nominated at the 1900 Democratic National Convention after Dewey withdrew from the race. McKinley was unanimously re-nominated at the 1900 Republican National Convention. As Vice President Garret Hobart had died in 1899, the Republican convention chose New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt as McKinley's running mate. The return of economic prosperity and recent victory in the Spanish–American War helped McKinley score a decisive victory, while Bryan's anti-imperialist stance and continued support for bimetallism attracted only limited support. McKinley carried most states outside of the Solid South and won 51.6% of the popular vote. The election results were similar to those of 1896, though McKinley picked up several Western states and Bryan picked up Kentucky. This was the fifth of six presidential elections to be a rematch, and the first in which the incumbent was re-elected; neither would occur again until 1956. McKinley's victory made him the first president since Ulysses S. Grant in 1872 to win re-election to a consecutive second term. Had Bryan instead won, then Adlai Stevenson I—Bryan's running mate—would been the only Vice President to been elected twice non-consecutively. Until 1956, this would be the last time in which an incumbent Republican president would win re-election after serving a full term in office. Six months into his second term, McKinley was assassinated, and his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt, succeeded him.