1856 United States presidential election in Ohio

The 1856 United States presidential election in Ohio took place on November 4, 1856, as part of the 1856 United States presidential election. Voters chose 23 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Ohio was won by California Senator John C. Frémont, running with New Jersey Senator William L. Dayton, with 48.51% of the popular vote, against Senator James Buchanan (D–Pennsylvania), running with Representative and future presidential candidate in the 1860 presidential election John C. Breckinridge, with 44.21% of the popular vote and the 13th president of the United States Millard Fillmore (A–New York), running with the 2nd United States Ambassador to Germany Andrew Jackson Donelson, with 7.28% of the popular vote.

This election began a streak of 14 consecutive victories for the Republican party; Indeed, due to the creation of the party only two years prior in 1854, no Republican Presidential nominee would lose the state until William Howard Taft in 1912. However, this streak was tenuous, and only twice (in 1864 and 1904) did the Republican margin of victory exceed 10%. Indeed, in 1892 the margin was so tight that one Cleveland elector received more votes than the lowest Harrison elector. The nomination of Ohio politicians Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, and William Howard Taft certainly helped maintain the light but steady grip their party held on the state. Indeed, even when the nominee was not an Ohio politician, they were often a resident of nearby state like Indiana (Harrison) or Illinois (Lincoln), or, in the case of Grant, a resident of Illinois who had been born and raised in Ohio. Thus, during the 60-year hegemony of the Republican party in Ohio, only two nominees--James G. Blaine in 1884 and Theodore Roosevelt in 1904-- had no connection whatsoever to the lower Midwest.