The US presidential election of 1896 was between William McKinley, the Republican candidate and William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic candidate. McKinley, a former congressman and governor from Ohio, had easily won the nomination on the first ballot, while Bryan, a two-time congressman from Nebraska, won the nomination over then-president Grover Cleveland on the fifth ballot.

The main issue in the campaign was an economic one. The Republicans favored keeping the country on the gold standard whereas Bryan was in favor of a policy known as "free silver" that would inflate the currency and give relief to farmers and other poor people hard hit by an economic depression. Grover Cleveland agreed with the Republicans in supporting the gold standard, which is one of the reasons he lost his party's nomination to Bryan. His stand on free silver brought Bryan's viewpoints into alignment with those of the Populists, also known as the People's Party, which also supported free silver.

With this information, we can answer the multiple choice question. In choosing William Jennings Bryan as their candidate in 1896, the Democrats were not showing that they were going to be like the Republicans, because they were directly opposing the Republicans on one of the key issues of the election. They were also not changing back to leadership of big business, as Bryan's policy of free silver favored farmers and the poor—not big business. The correct answer is that they had changed in the direction of the Populists because, through their selection of Bryan, both the Democrats and the Populists showed their support of free silver as a major election issue.

The People's Party (also known as the Populist Party or Populists) backed William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 presidential election. The Populists were a third party that gained popularity in the late 1800s. The issue that propelled them to national prominence was the question of whether the US should remain on the gold standard, which refers to backing currency with gold reserves. Farmers, particularly those in the West who were in debt, wanted bimetallism, or a silver standard. They believed that this standard would make it easier for them to repay their debts.

In 1896, Bryan gave an electrifying "Cross of Gold" speech at the Democratic National Convention in which he spoke against "crucifying" the western farmer on a cross of gold. He was opposed to the interests of big business. As a result of this speech and his grassroots popularity, he became the Democratic candidate for president in the 1896 election, which he lost to the Republican candidate, William McKinley. Therefore, "B" is the best answer to this question.