Four years earlier, McKinley had won Vermont with 80.08% of the popular vote, making it his strongest victory in the 1896 presidential election in terms of percentage in the popular vote as well as the best performance of any presidential candidate in Vermont to date. Vermont would once again be McKinley's strongest state in popular vote percentage, though with a slightly reduced margin of 75.73%.[1]
Bryan had previously lost Vermont to McKinley four years earlier and would later lose the state again in 1908 to William Howard Taft.