Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, October 29th, 1892, it is the presidential race between Grover, Cleveland, who is former

president and Benjamin Harrison, who is current president.

So we have a presidential rematch, and just nine days before the election,

well, no one is out there campaigning because each campaign had ceased its work a few days earlier

when First Lady Caroline Harrison had died of tuberculosis.

It set a very strange mood for those final couple weeks of the election.

One historian wrote, quote, without the competitive fund that usually keeps Americans

transfixed on their political system, the 1892 election offered a race so

dismal that it could actually generate change. And moreover, when you look back at

this race, especially through the lens of

2024, it kind of makes you wonder, do we need all this campaigning anyway? Everyone kind of knew

the candidate's positions. Voters were generally decided. it felt like people were just

going through the motions which feels very familiar so let's discuss the

1892 election political rematches and the art of stumbling across the finish line here as always

Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello there.

Hello Jody. Hey there. The 1892 election not really at the top at the tip of everyone's

tongue when they think about notable elections but yeah I mean the big question the big

interesting sort of wrinkle for me is this idea of like if you just stop campaigning

the election still kind of happens and it's fine and

maybe there's a lesson there but in terms of the actual matchup and the two candidates.

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