Grover Cleveland Democratic William McKinley Republican The 1896 United States presidential election in Illinois took place on November 3, 1896.

State voters chose 24 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

Illinois was won by the Republican candidates and former Governor of Ohio William McKinley and his running mate Garret Hobart of New Jersey.

They defeated the Democratic candidate and former United States Representative from Nebraska William Jennings Bryan and his running mate Arthur Sewall.

Bryan would lose Illinois to McKinley again four years later and would later lose the state again in 1908 to William Howard Taft.