Editing Thomas A. Hendricks (section)

===Vice presidential nominee===
[[File:Tilden and Hendricks campaign poster.jpg|thumb|Campaign poster for the election of 1876.]]

Hendricks ran for [[Vice President of the United States|vice president]] in 1876 and 1884; he won in 1884.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|pp=164–65}} The Democrats also nominated Hendricks for the vice presidency in 1880, but he declined for health reasons.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=161}} In 1880, while on a visit to [[Hot Springs, Arkansas]], Hendricks suffered a bout of paralysis, but returned to public life. No one outside of his family and doctors knew his health was failing. Two years later he was no longer able to stand.{{sfn|Memorial|pages=28, 70}}

In the disputed [[1876 United States presidential election|presidential election of 1876]] Hendricks ran as the Democratic candidate for vice president with [[New York (state)|New York]] governor [[Samuel Tilden]] as the party's presidential nominee.{{sfn|Gugin|St. Clair|2006|p=161}} Hendricks did not attend the Democratic convention in [[St. Louis|Saint Louis]], but the party was pursuing the strategy of carrying the [[Solid South]] along with New York and Indiana. The Indiana delegation urged Hendricks as the vice-presidential nominee, and he was nominated unanimously.{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=137}}

Although they received the majority of the popular vote, Tilden and Hendricks lost the disputed election by one vote in Electoral College balloting to [[Rutherford B. Hayes]], the Republican Party's presidential nominee, and [[William A. Wheeler]], his vice-presidential running mate.{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=137}} A fifteen-member Electoral Commission that included five representatives each from the House, Senate, and [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] determined the outcome of the contested electoral votes. In an 8 to 7 partisan vote, the commission awarded all twenty of the disputed votes from [[South Carolina]], [[Louisiana]], [[Florida]], and [[Oregon]] to the Republican candidates.{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=138}} Tilden and Hendricks accepted the decision, despite deep disappointment at the outcome.{{sfn|Gray|1977|p=138}}

As chairman of the Indiana delegation, Hendricks attended the Democratic Party's national convention in 1884 in [[Chicago]], where he was again nominated as its vice-presidential candidate by a unanimous vote.{{sfn|Gray|1977|pp=119, 120}} [[Grover Cleveland]] was the party's presidential nominee in the [[1884 United States presidential election|1884 presidential election]]; once again the Democrats' strategy was to win New York, Cleveland's home state, and Hendricks's home state of Indiana, plus the electoral votes of the Solid South. Democrats narrowly won New York, Indiana, and two more Northern states plus the Solid South to secure the election.{{sfn|Gray|1977|pp=120, 121}}