William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) is an American orator and politician from Nebraska.

Beginning in 1896, he emerges as a dominant force in the Democratic Party, standing three times as the party's nominee for President of the United States.

He also serves in the United States House of Representatives and as the United States Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson.

Just before his death, he gains national attention for attacking the teaching of evolution in the Scopes Trial.

Because of his faith in the wisdom of the common people, he is often called "The Great Commoner".

Born and raised in Illinois, Bryan moves to Nebraska in the 1880s.

He wins election to the House of Representatives in the 1890 elections, serving two terms before making an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 1894.

At the 1896 Democratic National Convention, Bryan delivers his "Cross of Gold speech, which attacks the gold standard and the eastern moneyed interests and crusades for inflationary policies built around the expanded coinage of silver coins

In a repudiation of incumbent President Grover Cleveland and his conservative Bourbon Democrats, the Democratic convention nominates Bryan for president, making Bryan the youngest major party presidential nominee in U.S. history.

Subsequently, Bryan is also nominated for president by the left-wing Populist Party, and many Populists will eventually follow Bryan into the Democratic Party.

In the intensely fought 1896 presidential election, Republican nominee William McKinley emerges triumphant.

Bryan gains fame as an orator, as he invents the national stumping tour when he reaches an audience of five million people in twenty-seven states in 1896.

Bryan retains control of the Democratic Party and wins the presidential nomination again in 1900

In the aftermath of the Spanish–American War, Bryan becomes a fierce opponent of American imperialism and much of his campaign centers on that issue.

In the election, McKinley again defeats Bryan, winning several Western states that Bryan had won in 1896.

Bryan's influence in the party weaken after the 1900 election and the Democrats nominate the conservative Alton B. Parker in the 1904 presidential election.

Bryan regains his stature in the party after Parker's resounding defeat by Theodore Roosevelt and voters from both parties increasingly embrace the progressive reforms that had long been championed by Bryan.

Bryan wins his party's nomination in the 1908 presidential election, but he is defeated by Roosevelt's chosen successor, William Howard Taft.

Along with Henry Clay, Bryan is one of the two individuals who never win a presidential election despite receiving electoral votes in three separate presidential elections held after the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment.

After the Democrats win the presidency in the 1912 election, Woodrow Wilson rewards Bryan's support with the important cabinet position of Secretary of State.

Bryan helps Wilson pass several progressive reforms through Congress, but he and Wilson clash over U.S. neutrality in the Great War.

Bryan resigns from his post in 1915 after Wilson sends Germany a note of protest in response to the sinking of Lusitania by a German U-boat.

After leaving office, Bryan retains some of his influence within the Democratic Party, but he increasingly devotes himself to religious matters and anti-evolution activism.

He opposes Darwinism on religious and humanitarian grounds, most famously in the 1925 Scopes Trial.

Since his death in 1925, Bryan has elicited mixed reactions from various commentators, but he is widely considered to have been one of the most influential figures of the Progressive Era.