The 1832 presidential election was the twelfth presidential election in the United States. The incumbent president and Democratic Party representative, Andrew Jackson was up for reelection in 1832.
Henry Clay, who had previously run for president and lost, was the National Republican Party’s nominee for president, and William Wirt of Maryland ran as a third party representative for the short-lived Anti-Masonic Party. In another landslide victory, Jackson won the election for his second term as President of the United States.
The election of 1832 was unique in the sense that for the first time the candidates were selected during national nominating conventions rather than a congressional caucus or state legislatures. National conventions, which are still used today to officially select party nominees, were started by the Anti-Masonic Party in 1831, and the National Republican and Democratic Parties soon followed suit. The first party conventions were held in Baltimore, Maryland.
After much deliberation, the Anti-Masonic Party chose William Wirt as their presidential nominee, and Richard Rush to be his running mate. The National Republican Party nominated Henry Clay for his second presidential bid, with John Sergeant as the vice presidential nominee for the party. The first Democratic National Convention voted on other matters, such as whether to allow the District of Columbia to cast votes, but the convention did not have an official vote to nominate Andrew Jackson, but simply acknowledged his renomination. Instead, they they cast their votes for the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nominee. The votes were divided among Martin Van Buren, Philip Barbour, and Richard Johnson, resulting in Van Buren winning the nomination.
In the nationwide election of 1832, Andrew Jackson won the election by a wide margin of 170 electoral votes, and was reelected as President of the United States. Though Van Buren won the vice presidential nomination at the National Convention, Democratic electors from Pennsylvania cast their votes instead for William Wilkins. Despite this, Van Buren won the vice presidential seat.
John Floyd, who did not campaign for the office, received South Carolina’s eleven electoral votes as an independent candidate. Though Wirt, the Anti-Masonic Party candidate, did not receive a high number of electoral votes, he did succeed in impacting the election of 1832 by gaining a number of electoral votes that could have gone to Clay. Still, Jackson won the election by such a wide margin that Clay could not have caught up to him.
The breakdown of candidates and electoral votes was as follows:
| Presidential Candidate | Home State | Party | Electoral Votes | Running Mate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Jackson | Tennessee | Democratic | 219 | Martin Van Buren |
| Henry Clay | Kentucky | National Republican | 49 | John Sergeant |
| John Floyd | Virginia | Independent | 11 | Henry Lee |
| William Wirt | Maryland | Anti-Masonic | 7 | Amos Ellmaker |
| Total | 286 |