Mapping Early American Elections


5th Congress: North Carolina 1796

North Carolina elected nine Democratic-Republicans and one Federalist to the Fifth Congress.

North Carolina used the district system for electing members to Congress.

In August 1798, North Carolina held a special election in which Nathan Bryan was elected to replace Richard Spraight, who died while in office.

District Candidate Party Vote Percentage Elected
1 Joseph MacDowell Democratic-Republican
2 Matthew Locke Democratic-Republican 1,864 56.9%
2 Nathaniel Alexander Democratic-Republican 886 27.1%
2 Robert Irwin Federalist 519 15.8%
3 Robert Williams Democratic-Republican
4 Richard Stanford Democratic-Republican
5 Nathaniel Macon Democratic-Republican unopposed
6 James Gillespie Democratic-Republican
7 William B. Grove Federalist 2,950 73.4%
7 Duncan MacFarland Democratic-Republican 1,068 26.6%
8 Dempsey Burgess Democratic-Republican
9 Thomas Blount Democratic-Republican
10 Nathan Bryan Democratic-Republican 2,058 54.1%
10 Richard D. Spaight Federalist 1,748 45.9%

In most cases, only candidates who received more than 5 percent of the vote in a district are reported. Other candidates are reported as a group, but only if they in aggregate received more than 5 percent of the vote. In addition, percentages for each district may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding. The term Dissenting Republican includes various breakaway factions of the Democratic-Republican party.

New Nation Votes Data


Mapping Early American Elections is generously funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and developed by the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

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