A critical election that initiated the second Republican era. The Democratic nomination William Jennings Bryan supported the populist idea of "free silver" ~ the linking of money with silver, which would devalue money to debtors. The Republican Party and William McKinley favored the gold standard, industrialization, the banks, high tariffs, and the industrial working class. An 80 percent voter turnout put Republican William McKinley in the White House, bringing the new working class and moneyed interests, like large corporations, into the Republican coalitions. The election shifted party coalitions, and entrenched the Republican Party for another generation