The 1860 US presidential election saw the Democratic party split between Northern and Southern factions over the issue of slavery. The Republican party emerged as the dominant party in the North, taking an anti-slavery expansion position. Abraham Lincoln was the Republican nominee, while John Breckinridge represented the Southern Democrats and Stephen Douglas the Northern Democrats. A fourth candidate, John Bell, ran as the candidate of the Constitutional Union party. The election was essentially two separate contests, one in the North and one in the South, with Lincoln and Breckinridge emerging as the sectional favorites but no candidate winning a state from the opposing region.