Rutherford B. Hayes had pledged to serve only one term, the run-up to the 1880 election saw both major parties eagerly seeking to designate a standard-bearer. In 2000, Vice President Al … The Stalwarts—a conservative faction of the Republican Party that included powerful party leaders such as New York Sen. Roscoe Conkling—favoured former president Ulysses S. Grant. Because Pres. 1888 Presidential Election: In the 1888 election, Benjamin Harrison was elected president by defeating incumbent President Grover Cleveland. Harrison fought against tariff reductions. Frederick Douglass was a supporter of the Republican Party (see the Frederick Douglass' Papers), beginning in 1856. Benjamin Harrison (1888) Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901) served as President of the United States from 1889 to 1893. The 1888 race between incumbent Democratic President Grover Cleveland and Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison was riddled with corruption. The candidates. In fact, on four occasions in American history (1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000), the winner of the presidential election actually received fewer votes than their opponent. In the 1888 presidential election, Cleveland ran against former Republican Senator Benjamin Harrison of Indiana. At the 1888 Republican Convention, former Indiana Senator Benjamin Harris won the presidential nomination and went on to win the presidential election, he defeated President Grover Cleveland. Born to a Presbyterian minister, Cleveland grew up in … On this day in 1888, President Grover Cleveland, a New York Democrat, running against the Republican nominee, Benjamin Harrison, a former U.S. senator from Indiana, failed to secure a second term. He won the popular vote for three presidential elections—in 1884, 1888, and 1892—and was one of two Democrats (with Woodrow Wilson) to be elected president during the era of Republican presidential domination dating from 1861 to 1933. Senator Benjamin Harrison. United States presidential election of 1876, disputed American presidential election held on November 7, 1876, in which Republican Rutherford B. Hayes defeated Democrat Samuel J. Tilden.Tilden led Hayes by more than 260,000 popular votes, and preliminary returns showed Tilden with 184 electoral votes (one shy of the majority needed to win the election) to Hayes’s 165, with the 19 … In 1888, Democratic President Grover Cleveland of New York ran for reelection against former Indiana U.S. In 1888, Democratic President Grover Cleveland of New York ran for reelection against former Indiana U.S. Sen. Benjamin Harrison.