In the presidential election , Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Democratic former Governor Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois in a re-match of the 1952 election . Eisenhower won the popular vote by fifteen points and once again won every state outside the South . At the Democratic convention , Stevenson easily defeated New York Governor W. Averell Harriman , taking the nomination on the first ballot
Democratic convention
1956 Democratic National Convention
1956 United States elections