Wikipedia:Today's featured article/November 4, 2007

The 1880 Republican National Convention convened from June 2 to June 8, 1880 at the Interstate Exposition Building in Chicago, Illinois and nominated James Garfield and Chester A. Arthur as the official candidates of the Republican Party of the United States for President and Vice President, respectively, in the 1880 presidential election. Of the fourteen people nominated for the Republican nomination, the three strongest candidates leading up to the convention were Ulysses S. Grant, James G. Blaine, and John Sherman. Grant had twice served as the president of the United States, and was seeking an unprecedented third term in office. He was backed by the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party, which supported political machines and patronage. Blaine was a senator and former representative from Maine who was backed by the Half-Breed faction, while Sherman was the then Secretary of the Treasury under president Rutherford B. Hayes. On the first ballot, Sherman received 93 votes, while Grant and Blaine had 304 and 285, respectively. Many more ballots were taken, but no candidate prevailed. After the thirty-fifth ballot, Blaine and Sherman switched their support to the new "dark horse" candidate, James Garfield. On the next ballot, Garfield won the nomination by receiving 399 votes, 93 higher than Grant's total. The Garfield-Arthur Republican ticket later defeated Democrats Winfield Scott Hancock and William Hayden English in the close 1880 presidential election. (more...)

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