The election ultimately hinged on both New York and neighboring Pennsylvania,[1] and while Clinton was able to take his home state, he failed to take Pennsylvania and thus lost the election to traditional Democratic Republican candidate and incumbent President James Madison won by a narrow margin. This would be the first time New York would vote for a losing presidential candidate. It would also be the only time that happened until 1856.
1812 was the first US presidential election where New York State was the most populous state in the nation, after overtaking Virginia in population total. New York would remain the most populous state in the nation until 1962, when overtaken by California, with California having more people cast votes than in New York State for the first time in 1968.
^While commonly labeled as the Federalist candidate, Clinton technically ran as a Democratic-Republican and was not nominated by the Federalist party itself, the latter simply deciding not to field a candidate. This did not prevent endorsements from state Federalist parties (such as in Pennsylvania), but he received the endorsement from the New York state Democratic-Republicans as well.
