1996 United States presidential election

The 1996 United States presidential election was held on a day in early November and was won by the incumbent Democrat, Bill Clinton, who defeated the Republican nominee, former Senate majority leader Bob Dole. The independent candidate Ross Perot, who had won a large share of the vote in 1992, ran again for the Reform Party and received much less. Clinton, running with Vice President Al Gore, benefited from a growing economy, falling unemployment and a recovery in his popularity after the Republican shutdown of the government in 1995 and 1996. He won more than 370 electoral votes and became the first Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt to be elected to a second full term. The Republicans retained control of Congress.

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