0 0 48.26% 40.45% Start date November 5, 1996 Popular vote 582,315 Party Republican | 488,105 130,788 40.45% 10.84% Electoral vote 8 Home state Kansas | |
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The 1996 United States presidential election in Oklahoma took place on November 5, 1996. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1996 United States presidential election. Oklahoma voters chose 8 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the President and Vice President.
Oklahoma was won by Kansas Senator Bob Dole, who was running against incumbent United States President Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Clinton ran a second time with former Tennessee Senator Al Gore as Vice President, and Dole ran with former New York Congressman Jack Kemp.
Oklahoma weighed in for this election as 4% more third-party than the national average.
Partisan background
The presidential election of 1996 was a very multi-partisan election for Oklahoma, with more than 11% of the electorate voting for third-party candidates. This is one of the last presidential elections in Oklahoma in which the Southeastern portion of the state turned out in large numbers for the Democratic Party. This may be somewhat attributed to the influence of the bordering, and politically volatile, state of Texas, which can also be seen changing political orientation throughout the 1980s and 1990s from a Democratic area to a largely Republican one, and the bordering state of Arkansas, Clinton's home state.
In his second bid for the Presidency, Ross Perot led the newly reformed Reform Party to gain over 10% of the votes in Oklahoma, and to pull in support nationally as the most popular third-party candidate to run for United States Presidency in recent times.