Rubuta ci gaba ga wannan sakin layi - An ba da sunan Hancock sau da yawa don dan takarar Democrat don shugaban kasa, amma bai taba kama mafi yawan wakilai ba. A shekara ta 1880, duk da haka, Hancock ya inganta. Shugaba Hayes ya yi alkawarin ba zai sake tsayawa takara ba a karo na biyu, kuma dan takarar Democrat na baya, Tilden, ya ki sake tsayawa takara saboda rashin lafiya. Hancock ya fuskanci masu fafatawa da dama don zaben, ciki har da Thomas A. Hendricks, Allen G. Thurman, Stephen Johnson Field, da Thomas F. Bayard. Hancock ta tsaka tsaki a kan batun kudi, da kuma goyon bayansa a Kudancin (saboda Janar Order Number 40) yana nufin cewa Hancock, fiye da kowane dan takara, yana da goyon baya a fadin kasar. Lokacin da taron jam'iyyar Democrat
An taru a Cincinnati a watan Yunin 1880, Hancock ya jagoranci a kuri'un farko, amma ba shi da rinjaye. Ta hanyar jefa kuri'a na biyu, Hancock ya karbi kashi biyu bisa uku, kuma William Hayden English na Indiana ya zaba a matsayin abokin takararsa.