United States presidential election of 1892, American presidential election, held on November 8, 1892, in which Democrat Grover Cleveland defeated Republican incumbent Benjamin Harrison . In winning, Cleveland became the first former president to be restored to the office. Harrison’s first term as president provoked widespread discontent. Despite the narrowness of his victory in 1888, the Republican Congress promptly pushed through a series of partisan measures, and resulting legislation such as the McKinley Tariff Act (1890) which substantially raised duties on most imports was met with frustrated charges that Harrison was too closely aligned with the country’s wealthy elite. Another congressional act,