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1996 was a curious contradiction of an election: following all the drama of the Republican Revolution of 1994, it ended up being a rather damp squib with the lowest turnout of any presidential election since the 1920s (and, by some turnout measures different to the one used here, the first and only one since then where turnout fell below 50%). Early in the campaign season Bill Clinton was considered vulnerable after the aforementioned congressional apocalypse, but despite budget ceiling confrontations with the Republicans, he was able to 'triangulate' to the centre and retain his popularity across much of America (while alienating some left-wing Democrats). Furthermore, Clinton faced an effectively uncontested renomination from the Democratic Party (barring an attention-seeking campaign by conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche), whereas the Republicans were more divided and their candidates attempted to out-conservative one another to appeal to primary voters while alienating moderate Americans. In the end, Senator Bob Dole of Kansas emerged triumphant over rivals such as Steve Forbes and Pat Buchanan to take the GOP nomination. Dole had previously ran as Gerald Ford's vice-presidential candidate twenty years earlier, and much of the tone of Dole's campaign focused on painting Clinton as a selfish baby-boomer while Dole was of the generation that won WW2. However, this also made Dole look old and out-of-touch for younger voters, and even raised concerns about his health. (Another twenty years on, Dole is still around and occasionally still active in politics despite being confined to a wheelchair). Despite this, 1996 has also been called 'the first internet election' (though there are other candidates) and, bizarrely, the Dole-Kemp campaign website remains online to this day. This was also the election for which the Dave Leip US Election Atlas site was created, and it still uses the blue Republicans / red Democrats scheme which was used by much of the US news media for this contest.

Ross Perot also ran again following his breakthrough (in popular vote terms if not the electoral college) in 1992. Rather than running again as an independent, Perot attempted to create a national movement, the Reform Party. But this suffered from the same problems as every other attempt to break the two-party duopoly in the USA--it was all about the presidential candidate, with barely any candidates for Congress (they polled considerably less than 1% of the House popular vote between them). Perot was excluded from debates this time after a rather blatant rules change to increase the polling threshold for debate inclusion, and as a result scored less than half of his 1992 vote and did not carry any counties this time. There were also a handful of other third party candidates. In the end, Clinton managed to win almost half the popular vote but absolutely slaughtered Dole in the electoral college due to his continuing appeal across parts of the South as well as the more reliably Democratic areas of the Midwest, Northeast and Pacific coast.

The Republicans could comfort themselves with the knowledge that they had maintained control of both houses of Congress, though taking small losses overall. Notably a number of House seats which stayed blue against the Republican wave in 1994 NOW went red - usually because their incumbents retired, either fearing a continued shift to the Republicans or else just not willing to fight a hard re-election campaign. A similar effect was observed in 2012 vs 2010, though then redistricting was also involved. Along with Bernie Sanders' re-election in Vermont, a second independent was (briefly) added to Congress when Jo Ann Emerson was barred by state law from running as a Republican to succeed her deceased husband Bill in Missouri; she easily beat the official Republican candidate and rejoined the party almost immediately after her election. She was therefore briefly the first independent elected to Congress from Missouri for 122 years.

In hindsight, though 1996 involved the dawn of things we now take for granted such as campaign websites, it now seems a very different world: deep blue Arkansas with a strong home state effect for its presidential candidate, Democrats competitive across the South and Republicans running close in Massachusetts in Connecticut, etc. The election also saw a relatively small number of unopposed elections (especially compared to the midterms two years later), allowing for a more easily perceptible national political landscape. Before long, that landscape would be rocked by the Lewinsky scandal...

Description
1996 was a curious contradiction of an election: following all the drama of the Republican Revolution of 1994, it ended up being a rather damp squib with the lowest turnout of any presidential election since the 1920s (and, by some turnout measures different to the one used here, the first and only one since then where turnout fell below 50%). Early in the campaign season Bill Clinton was considered vulnerable after the aforementioned congressional apocalypse, but despite budget ceiling confrontations with the Republicans, he was able to 'triangulate' to the centre and retain his popularity across much of America (while alienating some left-wing Democrats). Furthermore, Clinton faced an effectively uncontested renomination from the Democratic Party (barring an attention-seeking campaign by conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche), whereas the Republicans were more divided and their candidates attempted to out-conservative one another to appeal to primary voters while alienating moderate Americans. In the end, Senator Bob Dole of Kansas emerged triumphant over rivals such as Steve Forbes and Pat Buchanan to take the GOP nomination. Dole had previously ran as Gerald Ford's vice-presidential candidate twenty years earlier, and much of the tone of Dole's campaign focused on painting Clinton as a selfish baby-boomer while Dole was of the generation that won WW2. However, this also made Dole look old and out-of-touch for younger voters, and even raised concerns about his health. (Another twenty years on, Dole is still around and occasionally still active in politics despite being confined to a wheelchair). Despite this, 1996 has also been called 'the first internet election' (though there are other candidates) and, bizarrely, the Dole-Kemp campaign website remains online to this day. This was also the election for which the Dave Leip US Election Atlas site was created, and it still uses the blue Republicans / red Democrats scheme which was used by much of the US news media for this contest.

Ross Perot also ran again following his breakthrough (in popular vote terms if not the electoral college) in 1992. Rather than running again as an independent, Perot attempted to create a national movement, the Reform Party. But this suffered from the same problems as every other attempt to break the two-party duopoly in the USA--it was all about the presidential candidate, with barely any candidates for Congress (they polled considerably less than 1% of the House popular vote between them). Perot was excluded from debates this time after a rather blatant rules change to increase the polling threshold for debate inclusion, and as a result scored less than half of his 1992 vote and did not carry any counties this time. There were also a handful of other third party candidates. In the end, Clinton managed to win almost half the popular vote but absolutely slaughtered Dole in the electoral college due to his continuing appeal across parts of the South as well as the more reliably Democratic areas of the Midwest, Northeast and Pacific coast.

The Republicans could comfort themselves with the knowledge that they had maintained control of both houses of Congress, though taking small losses overall. Notably a number of House seats which stayed blue against the Republican wave in 1994 NOW went red - usually because their incumbents retired, either fearing a continued shift to the Republicans or else just not willing to fight a hard re-election campaign. A similar effect was observed in 2012 vs 2010, though then redistricting was also involved. Along with Bernie Sanders' re-election in Vermont, a second independent was (briefly) added to Congress when Jo Ann Emerson was barred by state law from running as a Republican to succeed her deceased husband Bill in Missouri; she easily beat the official Republican candidate and rejoined the party almost immediately after her election. She was therefore briefly the first independent elected to Congress from Missouri for 122 years.

In hindsight, though 1996 involved the dawn of things we now take for granted such as campaign websites, it now seems a very different world: deep blue Arkansas with a strong home state effect for its presidential candidate, Democrats competitive across the South and Republicans running close in Massachusetts in Connecticut, etc. The election also saw a relatively small number of unopposed elections (especially compared to the midterms two years later), allowing for a more easily perceptible national political landscape. Before long, that landscape would be rocked by the Lewinsky scandal...