The 1916 United States presidential election in Michigan took place on November 7, 1916, as part of the 1916 United States presidential election. Voters chose 15 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
Following the Panic of 1893 and the Populist movement, Michigan would turn from a competitive Republican-leaning state into a rigidly one-party polity dominated by the Republican Party. The dominance of the culture of the Lower Peninsula by anti-slavery YankeesEnglish, Gustavus P.; Proceedings of the Ninth Republican National Convention (1888), p. 234 would be augmented by the turn of formerly Democratic-leaning German Catholics away from that party as a result of the remodelled party's agrarian and free silver sympathies, which became rigidly opposed by both the upper class and workers who followed them. The state Democratic Party was further crippled via the Populist movement severing its critical financial ties with business and commerce in Michigan as in other Northern states. A brief turn of the strongly evangelical Cabinet Counties toward the Populist movement in the 1896 presidential election would reverse itself following the return to prosperity under President William McKinley, so that these joined in Republican hegemony until the Great Depression.
In the 1894 elections, the Democratic Party lost all but one seat in the Michigan legislature, and over the four ensuing decades the party would never make major gains there. Unlike the other states of the Upper Midwest, the Yankee influence on the culture of the Lower Peninsula was so strong that left-wing third parties did not provide significant opposition to the Republicans, nor was there more than a moderate degree of coordinated factionalism within the hegemonic Michigan Republican Party.
Aided by the support of incumbent Governor Chase Osborn and state party leader Frank Knox, “Bull Moose” nominee Theodore Roosevelt would carry Michigan by a double-digit margin over conservative incumbent Taft in 1912. However, Roosevelt's personal interests took over from developing his party after the election, and after voting on the first ballot for favorite son Henry Ford due to his strong desire to keep America out of World War I, Michigan's Republicans would soon shift their support in the national convention to eventual nominee Charles Evans Hughes.Lovell; The Presidential Election of 1916
At the beginning of the campaign, Michigan, where Republicans had regained their customary near-monopoly of House and state legislative seats in 1914, was seen by the Hughes campaign as a safe state.Gould; The First Modern Clash over Federal Power, p. 78 However, early polls, taken only from rural areas of Central Michigan, indicated Wilson was receiving a substantial proportion of the 1912 “Bull Moose” vote. No further polls would be taken in the state, and in the end Hughes won slightly more than 52 percent of the popular vote. Wilson is one of three presidents (along with George W. Bush and Grover Cleveland) to win two terms without ever carrying the state, and the only Democrat to do so in two consecutive elections (Cleveland won two non-consecutive elections in 1884 and 1892).
Results + General Election ResultsMichigan State Archives, Canvass of the votes given at the General Election, held in the State of Michigan on Tuesday the Seventh day of November A.D. 1916Party Pledged to Elector Votes Republican Charles Evans Hughes Charles C. Simons339,097 Republican Charles Evans Hughes James Couzens338,725 Republican Charles Evans Hughes William J. Livingstone338,065 Republican Charles Evans Hughes Bernard J. Onen337,937 Republican Charles Evans Hughes Edmund O. Dewey337,901 Republican Charles Evans Hughes John E. Wallace337,887 Republican Charles Evans Hughes Guy E. Smith337,803 Republican Charles Evans Hughes J. Russel Fisk337,800 Republican Charles Evans Hughes Edwey C. Reid337,737 Republican Charles Evans Hughes Dallas Boudeman337,726 Republican Charles Evans Hughes Holden A. Putnam337,711 Republican Charles Evans Hughes Benjamin Gero337,678 Republican Charles Evans Hughes Homer A. Guck337,664 Republican Charles Evans Hughes Hugh A. McPherson337,389 Republican Charles Evans Hughes Miner S. Keeler337,181 Democratic Woodrow Wilson Charles M. Wilson286,775 Democratic Woodrow Wilson John W. Adams285,151 Democratic Woodrow Wilson Norman Morrish283,922 Democratic Woodrow Wilson Edward Frensdorf283,897 Democratic Woodrow Wilson Arthur F. Jacques283,808 Democratic Woodrow Wilson Frank A. Kelble283,796 Democratic Woodrow Wilson Joseph B. Hendee283,782 Democratic Woodrow Wilson William J. McAneeny283,736 Democratic Woodrow Wilson Daniel W. Goodenough283,684 Democratic Woodrow Wilson Robert Hyslop283,662 Democratic Woodrow Wilson Elmer J. Ottaway283,638 Democratic Woodrow Wilson Henry Heisman283,631 Democratic Woodrow Wilson Clyde W. Hecox283,614 Democratic Woodrow Wilson Knute S. Markstrum283,520 Democratic Woodrow Wilson Joseph Merrell283,253 Socialist Allan L. Benson S. H. Slagle16,120 Socialist Allan L. Benson Anna Karlin16,028 Socialist Allan L. Benson William C. Blackburn16,015 Socialist Allan L. Benson Louis Middleton16,013 Socialist Allan L. Benson John Miller16,013 Socialist Allan L. Benson Daniel Rawley16,008 Socialist Allan L. Benson Robert Calhoun16,006 Socialist Allan L. Benson Guy L. North16,004 Socialist Allan L. Benson Arthur Parent16,004 Socialist Allan L. Benson John Kuskila16,003 Socialist Allan L. Benson Otis M. Southworth16,003 Socialist Allan L. Benson William Blanchard16,002 Socialist Allan L. Benson William Aukerman15,999 Socialist Allan L. Benson Albert Suppus15,978 Socialist Allan L. Benson W. C. Roxburgh15,814 Prohibition Frank Hanly Marshall H. Pettit8,139 Prohibition Frank Hanly Judge Barnum8,110 Prohibition Frank Hanly Robert King8,108 Prohibition Frank Hanly Samuel Dickie8,101 Prohibition Frank Hanly Lemuel B. Bissell8,096 Prohibition Frank Hanly Guy W. Hawley8,096 Prohibition Frank Hanly Thomas R. Davis8,089 Prohibition Frank Hanly Charles R. Evans8,089 Prohibition Frank Hanly Wirt McLean8,088 Prohibition Frank Hanly Charles W. Obee8,088 Prohibition Frank Hanly Edwin W. Orson8,087 Prohibition Frank Hanly Otto E. Cutler8,084 Prohibition Frank Hanly Charles T. Parris8,082 Prohibition Frank Hanly Burton L. Rochwood8,076 Prohibition Frank Hanly George Roelofs8,059 Socialist Labor Arthur E. Reimer Wendall A. Schwan842 Socialist Labor Arthur E. Reimer George W. Foshag834Votes cast 650,973
Results by county The results below are those for the highest elector on each ticket. The results listed in the 1917-1918 Michigan Manual are a "general average" for each ticket and thus not the "true" results.