William McKinley, the 1896 Election, and the Origins of the Modern Presidential Campaign (2008)

Undergraduate: William Schultz

Faculty Advisor: William Barney
Department: History

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Although William McKinley is often dismissed as a presidential mediocrity, he was in fact a master politician whose 1896 presidential campaign created a blueprint still used today. My research shed light on how he created a winning strategy.

The first key to McKinley’s victory was his creation of an appealing public persona, most of which was done prior to the election. McKinley, during his years in Congress and as Ohio governor, cultivated an image as a working class champion. He won fame by fighting for a tariff, which he argued protected the workingman. Although his 1890 tariff was poorly received, it was eventually seen as critical to American prosperity. This gave McKinley national recognition.

The second key was the way McKinley used advertising to publicize this image. During the 1896 campaign, the McKinley campaign churned out hundreds of thousands of pamphlets, buttons, and badges, all hailing McKinley as “Prosperity’s Advance Agent.” McKinley’s Front Porch campaign did a similar job. He delivered a series of short speeches from his Canton home. These were snapped up by the press and reprinted in major newspapers, bolstering McKinley’s image as a plainspoken man of the people.

This mass advertising campaign won the election for McKinley. He successfully projected his democratic appeal to the people, winning him votes all across the country. The 1896 McKinley campaign demonstrated the importance of image control and the primacy of advertising.