1898 Nebraska gubernatorial election

The 1898 Nebraska gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 1898. Incumbent Populist Governor Silas A. Holcomb did not stand for re-election. Populist and Democratic fusion nominee William A. Poynter defeated Republican nominee Monroe Hayward with 50.19% of the vote.

A party calling itself the Liberty Party held a convention on August 2, 1898, and had originally nominated candidates for governor and lieutenant governor. The nominees were Richard A. Hawley for governor, who had previously run for governor with the so-called National Party in the election of 1896, and J. Phipps Roe, of Omaha, Nebraska, for lieutenant governor. However, on September 22, both candidates withdrew their names and the Liberty Party decided to endorse the Populist/Democratic fusion candidates, William A. Poynter and Edward A. Gilbert, for governor and lieutenant governor respectively.

Major party candidates

• William A. Poynter, People's Independent, Democratic and Silver Republican fusion candidate, former President Pro Tempore of the Nebraska Senate, Populist candidate for Nebraska's 3rd congressional district in 1892. The Democratic state convention first nominated Constantine Joseph Smyth, who declined the nomination, then Edgar Howard, before nominating Poynter who had already been nominated by the Populist and Silver Republican parties.
• Monroe Hayward, Republican, former district court judge

Other candidates

• Robert Valentine Muir, Prohibition
• Dr. H. S. Aley, Socialist Labor

• 1898 Nebraska lieutenant gubernatorial election