How other Cincinnati candidates fared in past presidential elections

Ohio Senator JD Vanceresiding in East Walnut Hillsisn’t the first vice presidential candidate to come from the Buckeye State, but it’s been a while since an Ohioan has been in the running for the job.

However, Vance is the first candidate from Greater Cincinnati on the ballot since James M. Cox ran for president in 1920.

Ohio was once a political powerhouse. The state claims eight US presidents, five with strong ties to Cincinnati. Three vice presidents were also born in Ohiobut none lived there as candidates.

The last Ohioan on a major party presidential ticket was John W. Bricker, who ran for VP with Republican Thomas E. Dewey in 1944. They lost to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected to his fourth term.

Here are four memorable elections that featured candidates from Greater Cincinnati.

William Henry Harrison revolutionized political campaigning

William Henry Harrisonthe first presidential candidate from Ohio, was actually born in Virginia in 1773, the son of a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Harrison served in the army in the Northwest Territory and was celebrated for Battle of Tippecanoe against Tecumseh’s Shawnee warriors. He settled down North Bendwest of Cincinnati, and represented Ohio in the Senate and House of Representatives.

In 1836, Harrison ran for president as one of four regional Whig candidates. He carried seven states but lost to Martin Van Buren.

He ran again in 1840, this time relying on his exaggerated war hero reputation as “Old Tippecanoe.” The Whig campaign used a log cabin to represent Harrison’s “frontier virtues”, when in reality he lived in a 16-room mansion.

In her biography of HarrisonGail Collins wrote: “Politically, Harrison’s greatest achievement was starring in what is still hailed as one of the most ridiculous presidential campaigns in history.”

Harrison won the presidency but died after 31 days in service. His death was reported in first edition of The Cincinnati Enquirer on April 10, 1841. He was buried on his family’s estate in North Bend.

McClellan-Pendleton vs. Abraham Lincoln

Two candidates with Cincinnati ties challenged Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 election, which was held during the Civil War with serious consequences for the outcome of the war.

While President Lincoln sought to hold the Union together, Peace Democrats (or Copperheads) tried to appease the Confederate States to end the war, which meant maintaining slavery in the South.

For Vice President, the Democrats chose George Hunt Pendleton, a Cincinnati lawyer and prominent peace Democrat. (As a senator he wrote Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883drawn in his home on Prospect Hill— which still stands.)

For president they nominated General George B. McClellan, who had commanded the Union Army until Lincoln removed him after the disastrous Battle of Antietam.

But the general refused to adopt the party platform of calling the war a failure, and Lincoln was reelectedno doubt helped by the Southern states that left the Union without voting.

What was McClellan’s connection to the Queen City? He had been working in Cincinnati as president of the Eastern Division of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, with headquarters at Third and Race streets, when the war broke out in April, 1861.

William Howard Taft spent Election Day in Cincinnati

William Howard Taft was the only president born in Cincinnati, rather than the region. His birthplace and childhood home at 2038 Auburn Ave. in Mount Auburn is a museum.

He spent Election Day, November 3, 1908, in his hometown, hosted by his half-brother, Charles Phelps Taft, in the stately mansion on Pike Street that today is Taft Museum of Art.

The Taft residence was full of four telegraph operators receiving reports on the election. Taft was “the coolest person among the half a hundred men and women who were at the Taft residence on Pike street last night to receive the election results,” The Enquirer reported.

As word of his victory over William Jennings Bryan came in, Taft said simply: “I am satisfied—perfectly satisfied.”

The next day, the president-elect led the groundbreaking ceremony for the new building of his alma mater, Woodward High School, at 1310 Sycamore St. in Over-the-Rhine.

Cox and Harding both made headlines

Two newspaper men from Ohio went head to head in the 1920 election. It is rare to have both candidates from the same state, let alone the same profession.

The late Warren G. Harding, the Republican candidate, was editor and publisher of Marion Starr newspaper in Marion, Ohio. Democrat James M. Cox, the three-term governor of Ohio, also published Dayton Daily News.

Born and raised in Butler County, Cox began his newspaper career as a railroad reporter for The Enquirer in 1892. After a stint as a political aide to U.S. Representative Paul R. Sorg of Middletown, he founded and built the Dayton Daily News. as “the people’s newspaper”.

In 1920, Cox teamed up with young Franklin D. Roosevelt as his vice presidential running mate. While Harding campaigned from his front porch in Marion, Cox toured 36 states by rail to meet with voters.

The victor was Hardingthe last president from Ohio.