Jackson won the electoral college votes. But having failed to win the presidency, the House of Representatives had to choose between the top two candidates, as neither of them received a majority of votes in the electoral college. After losing the "corrupt bargain" of the 1824 presidential election, Jackson expanded his political base in the South and the South, bringing together many strands of disaffection across the country. (Jacksonian Democracy) Jackson successfully challenged President John Quincy Adams in 1828. Jackson's supporters played primarily on his image as a virile warrior, framing the contest as one between Adams who could write and Jackson who could fight. Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828. Jackson began refining democratic policy and ideology..