Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States in the 1860 election.

He ran as the Republican candidate in a four-way race that highlighted the deepening divide over slavery and sectional tensions before the Civil War. Lincoln won with a clear majority in the Electoral College—180 electoral votes—despite receiving less than 40 percent of the popular vote. His main opponents were Stephen A. Douglas (Northern Democrat), John C. Breckinridge (Southern Democrat), and John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party. Lincoln’s victory triggered the secession of several Southern states, setting the stage for the American Civil War soon after his inauguration in 1861.