George Dewey began his campaign with a speech in New York. The speech mostly consisted of vague platitudes about America and unity, but the audience liked it. Meanwhile the Whigs focused their efforts in Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, hoping that the Farmer-Labor Party would take enough votes in the South to hand some of those states to the Lodge/Wilson ticket. Bill Bryan, George Hearst Jr., and their surrogates canvassed the whole nation, and had a powerful grassroots organization in every state except Nicaragua. Newspapers ran articles saying that a Bryan victory was not only possible, but likely. These articles were aimed at those who were worried that, by voting third party, they would be throwing away their vote. A paper in the Whig Stronghold of Vermont published a fabricated survey that showed a dead heat between Dewey, Lodge, and Bryan.
Out of Lodge, Dewey, and Bryan, the latter was far and away the best campaigner. The crowds he gathered dwarfed those of Dewey, who was able to gather larger crowds than Lodge due to his status as a war hero. The Presidential Election of 1904 would test whether or not enthusiasm could overcome the institutional and financial advantages the Democrats and Whigs had built up over the last century. Bryan was not the only third-party candidate running, there was also the Prohibition Party’s Silas Swallow. Swallow would win a very small portion of the vote, as Prohibition candidates had been doing for decades. E. V. Debs’ campaign was more noteworthy as it made the Socialist Party at least somewhat relevant, or at least made the party something that people actually talked about.
Most states in 1904 were contested by at least two of the three candidates. Emphasizing his New England roots, George Dewey made a play for the region. Henry Cabot Lodge, another New Englander, understood that he couldn’t take the region for granted, and Whig party funds that could have been used elsewhere were instead used in places like Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Bryan went to New York City in September, and challenged Lodge and Dewey to a debate. Neither candidate was interested in doing this. Their public appearances were few and far between. After his stop in the Northeast, Bryan went down to the South, where he would spend the rest of the campaign. All along the way, he touted his progressive and populist ideals.
Lodge’s campaigners contrasted Lodge’s image as a statesman to Dewey’s inexperience and Bryan’s demagoguery. They also appealed to anti-immigrant and anti-Communist sentiment, claiming that despite Dewey’s opposition to radicalism, the Democrats would import more foreigners with radical political views. Immigrants would overwhelmingly vote for Dewey in 1904. Dewey’s campaign was almost entirely based on his appeal as an admiral in the Cuban War. He made little mention of specific policies he wanted to enact. He also touted his endorsement from former President Benjamin Pierce, who made a rare public appearance to encourage voters in New Hampshire to vote for Dewey. Dewey was more popular with older voters, and he was an old man himself at the age of 66. Voters in their 20s were children when Dewey led the US navy against Spain in 1887.
Bryan sought to eat into both parties’ support bases. He made an attempt to win over black voters, though this was largely a failure. His outreach to immigrants was mostly unsuccessful as well. He was very popular with farmers. He made some inroads with urban laborers, but farmers were still his base. The leaders of several labor unions publicly endorsed Bryan and encouraged union members to vote for him. However, the union vote would be won by Dewey in this election. The Farmer-Labor Party played up Bryan’s image as a devout Christian, though the Evangelical Protestant voter typically favored Lodge in the North or Dewey in the South (this demographic made up the vast majority of the Silas Swallow's supporters). While Bryan campaigned against wealth, he had plenty of wealthy supporters, even in the Northeast.
In the end, the victory went to George Dewey. There was a five percent margin of victory between Dewey and Lodge. Bryan overperformed expectations, winning nearly twice as many votes as in 1900. After Dewey was declared the winner, Bryan congratulated the new President, but hinted to his supporters that he’d be back in four years. Bryan’s victories in Illinois, Alabama, Florida, and North Carolina were particularly shocking for a party that shortly before had few elected officials outside of the Plains and Mountains out West. E. V. Debs won nearly three percent of the vote nationwide, which was a step up from his negligible performance in 1900. And Eugene Chaffin won two percent of the vote. Since no candidate won a majority in the electoral college, the election went to the House. However, since Democrats controlled the majority of state delegations, Dewey was easily elected president. Likewise, with the Senate firmly in Democratic control, John Sharp Williams was elected vice president.
George Dewey (D-VT)/John Sharp Williams (D-MS): 4,942,020 Votes (35.94%), 206 Electoral Votes
William J. Bryan (FL-IL)/George Hearst Jr. (FL-NY): 3,671,450 Votes (26.96%), 147 Electoral Votes
Henry C. Lodge (W-MA)/Augustus O. Wilson (W-KY): 4,463,493 Votes (32.46%), 87 Electoral Votes
E. V. Debs (S-IN)/Hermon Titus (S-MA): 400,147 Votes (2.91%), 0 Electoral Votes
Silas Swallow (P-PA)/Eugene Chafin (P-WI): 270,890 Votes (1.97%), 0 Electoral Votes
Others [1]: 2,750 Votes (0.02%), 0 Electoral Votes
1: Mostly Write-ins
