3 0 150,543 139,333 46.49% 43.03% Start date November 5, 1996 | 0 0 139,333 31,250 43.03% 9.65% | |
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The 1996 United States presidential election in South Dakota took place on November 5, 1996. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1996 United States presidential election. South Dakota voters chose 3 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the President and Vice President.
South Dakota 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 and Al Gore as Vice President, and Dole ran with former New York Congressman Jack Kemp.
South Dakota weighed in for this election as 12% more Republican than the national average.
Partisan background
The presidential election of 1996 was a very multi-partisan election for South Dakota, with more than 10% of the electorate voting for third-party candidates. Most counties turned out in this election for Dole, with the notable exception of the highly populated centers of Brown County, and Sioux Falls's Minnehaha County, voted in majority for Clinton.
In his second bid for the Presidency, Ross Perot led the newly reformed Reform Party to gain over 9% of the votes in South Dakota, and to pull in support nationally as the most popular third-party candidate to run for United States Presidency in recent times.