Election 1879 Results
Each election opens in its own mode: the forecast before the votes are counted, the live count while races are still too close to call, and the results once every race is decided.
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1879 governor election results by state and county
Republicans won eight of 12 governor races in 1879, taking New York, Ohio and California as prosperity returned and Democrats split in New York.
12 governor races were held in 1879. Democrats won 3 and Republicans 9.
The closest were Ohio (R+2.6), New York (R+4.8) and Massachusetts (R+5.6). 4 governorships changed party: California to the Republicans, Maine to the Republicans, New York to the Republicans and Ohio to the Republicans.
Early projection, based on early and incomplete polling: the likely matchups, each weighted by the betting markets' odds of both nominations, not a result. Each county is its 2024 presidential margin moved by its state's projected swing; set a national vote and every state, district and county moves by the same amount from our projection. Colours run in 100 steps from a safe Republican to a safe Democratic margin. Boundaries: US Census Bureau.
About the 1879 governor elections
The economy recovered in 1879 as the country returned to the gold standard, and Republicans benefited. They won eight of the 12 governor races and took back New York, Ohio and California. In New York, Alonzo B. Cornell beat the Democratic governor Lucius Robinson by about 5 points after Tammany Hall's John Kelly ran his own campaign and split the Democratic vote. Charles Foster won Ohio by about 3 points over Thomas Ewing, a leading soft-money Democrat. California, voting under its new constitution, elected George C. Perkins by about 13 points. In Maine, Republican Daniel F. Davis won comfortably, but the result led to a winter crisis in which the outgoing Democratic and Greenback officials tried to count out Republican legislators, a dispute settled by the state supreme court in early 1880. Democrats held Maryland, Kentucky, where Luke P. Blackburn won by about 19 points, and Louisiana. Republicans won easily in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, where John H. Gear won a second term.
Every race
| State | Democrat | Votes | Republican | Votes | Others | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California flip | Hugh J. Glenn | 47,647 (29.7%) | George C. Perkins | 67,965 (42.4%) | William F. White (Workingmen's) 44,482 (27.8%) |
R+12.7 |
| Iowa | Henry H. Trimble | 85,364 (29.3%) | John Henry Gear | 157,408 (54.0%) | Daniel Campbell (Greenback) 45,674 (15.7%) |
R+24.7 |
| Kentucky | Luke P. Blackburn | 125,399 (55.4%) | Walter Evans | 81,881 (36.2%) | Charles W. Cook (Greenback) 18,954 (8.4%) |
D+19.2 |
| Louisiana | Louis A. Wiltz | 74,769 (64.7%) | Taylor Beattie | 40,764 (35.3%) | D+29.4 | |
| Maine flip | Alonzo Garcelon | 21,525 (15.6%) | Daniel F. Davis | 68,527 (49.6%) | Joseph L. Smith (Greenback) 47,987 (34.8%) |
R+34.1 |
| Maryland | William T. Hamilton | 90,771 (56.9%) | James Albert Gary | 68,609 (43.0%) | 265 | D+13.9 |
| Massachusetts | Benjamin Butler | 109,149 (44.8%) | John Davis Long | 122,751 (50.4%) | 11,742 | R+5.6 |
| Minnesota | Edmund Rice | 41,844 (39.3%) | John S. Pillsbury | 57,522 (54.0%) | 7,126 | R+14.7 |
| New York flip | Lucius Robinson | 375,790 (41.9%) | Alonzo B. Cornell | 418,567 (46.7%) | John Kelly (Tammany Democratic) 77,566 (8.7%) |
R+4.8 |
| Ohio flip | Thomas Ewing | 319,132 (47.7%) | Charles Foster | 336,321 (50.3%) | 13,751 | R+2.6 |
| Rhode Island | Thomas W. Segar | 5,506 (35.4%) | Charles C. Van Zandt | 9,717 (62.5%) | 318 | R+27.1 |
| Wisconsin | James G. Jenkins | 75,030 (39.7%) | William E. Smith | 100,535 (53.2%) | Reuben May (Greenback) 12,996 (6.9%) |
R+13.5 |
Margin: the Democrat's share of all votes minus the Republican's. Margins are Democrat minus Republican, of all votes. Certified results, from the states' own archives, the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, Heideman (2026) and Algara & Amlani (2021). By county: "As they were" draws each county as it stood on election day; "Today's" shares the old votes among today's counties by area, so its county detail is an estimate. County boundaries: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5). How these results were checked.