The 1824 United States presidential election was held from October 26 to December 2, 1824. The election was a contest between Democratic-Republican Party candidates Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and William H. Crawford. Andrew Jackson won the plurality of both the popular vote and the electoral votes, but he failed to secure an outright majority. John Quincy Adams came in second in both categories. Because no candidate received the necessary majority of electoral votes, the decision was sent to the U.S. House of Representatives, as stipulated by the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In a controversial move, Henry Clay, who finished fourth in the electoral count, threw his support behind Adams, leading to Adams being elected by the House as the sixth president of the United States.