Campaign Trail Results: Game #880773
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This Game:
- Year: 1896
- Player Candidate: William McKinley
- Running Mate: Lyman Gage
- Difficulty Level: Normal
- Winner Take All Mode?: Yes
- Game Played:
View overall results, or a specific state:
| Candidate | Electoral Votes | Popular Votes | Pop. Vote % |
|---|---|---|---|
| ---- William McKinley | 245 | 6,930,428 | 50.04 |
| ---- William Jennings Bryan | 202 | 6,773,213 | 48.90 |
| ---- John Palmer | 0 | 146,981 | 1.06 |
Answers:
- What is your opinion on measures that would aim to restrict the sale or production of alcohol?I am a proud "wet" in the alcohol debate. What a man drinks is no one's business but his own.
- Which of the following will be your primary campaign message?My campaign will reach out to workers across the American spectrum, while Bryan's policies will leave them defenseless against foreign competition and will debase their wages.
- What points do you wish to touch upon as you accept the Republican nomination? A written transcript will be transmitted to voters across the country.I appreciate the faith of the American people and consult always with the Lord before I make my decisions. I will run a moderate, sensible agenda that appeals to the broad majority.
- Bryan's nomination has electrified the western voter, and he is now planning to campaign on the rails, six days a week. Will you break precedent as well and make a speaking tour of the nation?There's no way I can compete with Bryan's oratorical talents. Instead, I will receive groups of visitors at my home in Canton, Ohio. We have the financing to pay for these visits, and anyone who shows up will receive a free sandwich while I deliver a speech.
- You have received checks for $250,000 from J.P. Morgan and from Standard Oil, not to mention innumerable contributions from other concerned businessmen. How will you exploit this immense advantage in funding that you have?We will print and mail campaign material in massive quantities. We will hire speakers to blanket the four corners of the nation. We will print ads every day in every major paper. Bryan cannot compete with us on money.
- What do you have to say about William Jennings Bryan's campaign, at a high level?Bryan combines vague, non-sensical appeals to emotion with a near-blasphemous use of religious symbolism. I'm confident that the voters will reject this demagogue.
- You have the support of the important newspapers, and they are willing to accept your guidance on the proper campaign message. What do you want them to print?I can't attack Bryan like the papers can without losing some of my luster. Let them publish the defamatory cartoons and opinion pieces.
- Your surrogates have taken to reminding some workers that factories and railroads will certainly be forced to close if a radical like Bryan takes office. Do you encourage such tactics?Maybe in isolated cases a factory owner or a manger has proposed such an idea. This is not a coordinated campaign strategy, however.
- As a Congressman, you voted for the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1890. Can you reassure your supporters that you are now 100% in favor of the gold standard.Since 1890 the folly of a silver purchase program has become clear. Our Treasury was nearly bankrupted in 1894 and I won't allow this to happen a second time.
- The West Coast is a very competitive region. Can you make the case for Republican policies there, particularly in those places such as San Francisco which rely on foreign trade?Much of California's livelihood comes from gold mining. I reject any call to undermine gold through the free coinage of silver.
- Some of the border states (Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky) are very close this year. Do you have a strategy to make these states jump to the Republican side?There is a burgeoning textile industry in the Upper South. Their success depends on cheap cotton, protection, and an absence of destabilizing labor issues.
- Will you send campaigners to Nebraska, in an attempt to deliver an embarrassing defeat to Bryan, or should those resources be focused on South Dakota, Wyoming, and Iowa?That's not a good idea. Let's be realistic and devote our efforts to the states that matter.
- There is talk of Bryan and John Altgeld appearing together in Chicago today. Does this place Bryan on the political fringe?Altgeld is the same man who pardoned the Haymarket Square anarchists. I can't believe a presidential candidate would appear with that man.
- Word has it that at one of Bryan's nighttime revivals, the torches were arranged to cast a halo around his head. Do you think this kind of religious imagery is appropriate for a presidential candidate?If this story is true, I would consider it to be a blasphemous appropriation of religious symbolism.
- There is one week left until election day. Every state is important, but where will you give an extra push with what is left of your financial resources to educate the American voters?Let's continue to focus on the Midwest. Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, etc.
- Can you state your definitive position on the American monetary system?I support a strict adherence to the gold standard, which is fundamental to American prosperity.
- What is your definitive position on the tariff issue?Where we have mature, stable industries, tariffs can be lower. They should be high on most products.
- The United States is in the midst of a financial calamity, with masses of unemployed men on the streets. What will you do to revive business in this country?We need to reaffirm our commitment to non-intervention in business affairs. Companies need stability before they will have the confidence to expand.
- Grover Cleveland sent federal troops to Illinois to end the Pullman Strike without the request of Governor Altgeld. Was this an overreach on his part?Bargaining for wages is the business of a man and his employer. Collective bargaining has no place in American society, and I commend Grover Cleveland for having the courage to act decisively.
- Would you support an Amendment to the Constitution allowing the people to vote for their Senators directly?I neither support, nor do I oppose this idea for an Amendment. My job as President will be to enforce the law as it stands.
- In Pollock v. Farmers' Loan and Trust Co. the Supreme Court ruled that a 2% income tax contained in the Wilson-Gorman Tariff was unconstitutional. Would you support a Constitutional Amendment allowing the federal government to collect an income tax? I would like to see an income tax, but since that idea has been ruled unconstitutional, we will have to explore other solutions (besides increased tariffs) for our revenue problem.
- Are you prepared to reaffirm our commitment to the Monroe Doctrine, should any new territories in Latin America gain independence from Spain?We will vigorously enforce the Monroe Doctrine, the same way that we have since 1823. This includes support for the struggles of the people in Cuba, should they gain independence. We also appreciate Grover Cleveland's vigorous action in Venezuela last year.
- Should corporations be permitted to hire private detectives for security, and to infiltrate into labor movements?The practice of hiring detectives from agencies like the Pinkertons is justified by the militancy and danger of the American labor movement.
- Are you pleased with the recent defeat in Congress of the Pacific Railroad Funding Bill, which would have provided federal support to the Southern and Central Pacific railroads.For all of their talk about small government, the Republicans are quite adept at funneling public money to the railroads. I only support that practice when there is a clear rationale, and in this case the rationale was corruption.
- Should the federal government make an effort to build a canal through Nicaragua to more efficiently link trade in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans?I envision an American canal, built by American workers, property of the American government, supporting the actions of a robust American Navy. I fully support these plans.