The
Liberal Republican Party of the United States was a political party that was organized in
Cincinnati in May 1872, to oppose the reelection of President
Ulysses S. Grant and his
Radical Republican supporters in the
presidential election of 1872. The Liberal Republican party's candidate was
Horace Greeley, longtime publisher of the
New York Tribune. Following his nomination by the Liberal Republicans, Greeley was also nominated by the
Democratic Party. Greeley was seen as an oddball reformer with little government experience and a long record of vehement attacks against the very Democrats he now called on for support. Greeley was defeated, receiving approximately 43% of the popular vote, and winning only in the states of Texas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Maryland. Grant received 286 of the 352
electoral college votes.