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Later, when Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna discovered, through an intercepted letter from Scott, that Taylor had been forced to send all but 6,000 of his men to help Scott, Santa Anna tried to take advantage of the situation and attacked Taylor with 20,000 men at the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847. Taylor's forces still managed to win the day, inflicting around 1800 Mexican casualties compared to 600 of their own and they forced the Mexicans to retreat. Taylor received a hero's welcome and his popular legacy set the stage for the 1848 presidential election.
Because of his successes on the battlefield, Taylor, who had never voted in an election himself, was courted by both the Democratic and Whig parties. Taylor ultimately declared himself a Whig, and easily won their nomination, defeating Henry Clay, Winfield Scott, Daniel Webster and others for the Whig nomination.
Former President Martin Van Buren sought the Democratic nomination, but Lewis Cass was nominated to run for the party on the fourth ballot. Cass was a former Governor and Senator for Michigan, as well as Secretary of War under Andrew Jackson, and from 1836 to 1842 as ambassador to France.
The Democrats chose a platform that remained silent on slavery, and with Cass suspected of pro-slavery leanings, many anti-slavery Democrats walked out of the Baltimore convention to begin the Free Soil party. One month later, the Free Soil party nominated Van Buren as their candidate. He accepted despite knowing that the Free Soilers had no chance of winning and that his candidacy would split the Democratic vote and throw the election to the Whigs.
Whig campaigners such as Abraham Lincoln promoted Taylor's opposition to the spoils system, while in the South they stressed that he was a slaveholder. Democrats ran on their opposition to a national bank, high tariffs, and federal subsidies for local improvements. The Free Soilers called both major parties lackeys of the Slave Power. The Whigs had the advantage of Taylor's military glories.
Taylor captured 47.3% of the popular vote and 163 electoral votes, compared to 42.5% and 127 electoral votes for Cass. Van Buren received 10.1% of the popular votes, but no electoral votes.
Henry Clay and other Whigs had counted on Taylor being a president in name only, someone who would follow their dictates. This would prove to be a false assumption. However Taylor would die in office two years into his term, which was unfortunate, as there were many indications that he would have been a strong president, given the opportunity to complete his term. Instead, the country would end up with Millard Fillmore and the Compromise of 1850.