US Presidential Elections
Every United States presidential election from 1788 to 2024: the candidates, the popular and electoral votes, the turnout, the Congresses each contest produced, and the story of each, from Washington's unanimous elections to the polarized present.
Presidential elections
60
1788–89–2024
Latest
2024
Donald Trump · Republican
Electoral votes today
538
270 to win
Turnout in 2024
64.3%
155m ballots
The chronology
Every presidential election and, between them, every midterm, newest first, grouped into eras. Click a presidential election for the full ticket table, the electoral count and the story; a midterm row carries the House and Senate it produced.
The Polarized Era · 2016–now
Two coalitions of nearly equal size meet in a handful of swing states, and control changes hands almost every cycle: 2016 produced the fifth popular-vote/electoral-college split, 2018 the Democratic House, 2020 the highest turnout since 1900, 2022 a midterm the president's party survived, and 2024 the first Republican popular-vote win in twenty years.
Donald Trump 312Kamala Harris 226
Joe Biden 306Donald Trump 232
Donald Trump 304Hillary Clinton 227not cast / scattered 7
The Obama Era · 2008–2014
The first African-American president, elected in the financial crisis with the largest Democratic majorities since the 1970s, then two midterms that took them away: the Tea Party wave of 2010 (the largest House swing since 1938) and the 2014 Senate loss that left him facing a Republican Congress.
Barack Obama 332Mitt Romney 206
Barack Obama 365John McCain 173
The War on Terror Era · 2000–2006
The 2000 photo finish, decided by 537 votes in Florida and the Supreme Court, then an election cycle defined by September 11 and Iraq: the 2002 midterm went to the president's party, 2004 was Bush's only popular majority, and 2006 handed both chambers to the Democrats as the war soured.
George W. Bush 286John Kerry 251John Edwards 1
George W. Bush 271Al Gore 266not cast / scattered 1
The Post-Cold-War Era · 1992–1998
Perot's 19% in 1992 was the strongest third-party vote since 1912, and neither of Clinton's wins reached a popular majority. The 1994 midterm ended forty years of Democratic control of the House; 1998 was the rare midterm in which the president's party gained seats, in the middle of his impeachment.
Bill Clinton 379Bob Dole 159
Bill Clinton 370George H. W. Bush 168
The Long Realignment · 1968–1988
Wallace's 46 electoral votes in 1968 signalled the New Deal coalition's fracture. Nixon and then Reagan converted the South and the white working class, producing three 49-state-scale landslides in five elections, while turnout drifted steadily downward.
George H. W. Bush 426Michael Dukakis 111Lloyd Bentsen 1
Ronald Reagan 525Walter Mondale 13
Ronald Reagan 489Jimmy Carter 49
Jimmy Carter 297Gerald Ford 240Ronald Reagan 1
Richard Nixon 520George McGovern 17John Hospers 1
Richard Nixon 301Hubert Humphrey 191George Wallace 46
Cold War Consensus · 1952–1964
Eisenhower's landslides bracketed the closest election of the century in 1960, the first fought on television. The era closed with Johnson's record 61% and the Civil Rights Act, which began prying the South loose from the Democratic coalition.
Lyndon B. Johnson 486Barry Goldwater 52
John F. Kennedy 303Richard Nixon 219Harry F. Byrd 14not cast / scattered 1
Dwight D. Eisenhower 457Adlai Stevenson II 73Walter Burgwyn Jones 1
Dwight D. Eisenhower 442Adlai Stevenson II 89
The New Deal Order · 1932–1948
The Depression destroyed Republican hegemony in a single election. Roosevelt's coalition of the South, cities, labor and immigrants won four consecutive terms, redefined the federal government, and survived his death when Truman's 1948 upset confounded every poll.
Harry S. Truman 303Thomas E. Dewey 189Strom Thurmond 39
Franklin D. Roosevelt 432Thomas E. Dewey 99
Franklin D. Roosevelt 449Wendell Willkie 82
Franklin D. Roosevelt 523Alf Landon 8
Franklin D. Roosevelt 472Herbert Hoover 59
Progressive Era to Normalcy · 1900–1928
Republican dominance was interrupted only when Roosevelt's 1912 third-party run split the party and let Wilson in. Women won the vote nationwide in 1920, doubling the electorate at a stroke, and the twenties produced three Republican landslides on prosperity.
Herbert Hoover 444Al Smith 87
Calvin Coolidge 382John W. Davis 136Robert M. La Follette 13
Warren G. Harding 404James M. Cox 127
Woodrow Wilson 277Charles Evans Hughes 254
Woodrow Wilson 435Theodore Roosevelt 88William Howard Taft 8
William Howard Taft 321William Jennings Bryan 162
Theodore Roosevelt 336Alton B. Parker 140
William McKinley 292William Jennings Bryan 155
The Gilded Age · 1880–1896
Two evenly matched machines fought razor-thin national elections: three of five winners in this era lost or tied the popular vote margin within a point. The Populist revolt and the realigning 1896 contest between McKinley and Bryan broke the deadlock in the Republicans' favor.
William McKinley 271William Jennings Bryan 176
Grover Cleveland 277Benjamin Harrison 145James B. Weaver 22
Benjamin Harrison 233Grover Cleveland 168
Grover Cleveland 219James G. Blaine 182
James A. Garfield 214Winfield Scott Hancock 155
Civil War & Reconstruction · 1856–1876
The Whigs collapsed, the anti-slavery Republicans rose in a single decade, and Lincoln's 1860 victory on 39.8% of the vote triggered secession. Reconstruction elections brought Black male suffrage and ended with 1876, the most disputed election in American history.
Rutherford B. Hayes 185Samuel J. Tilden 184
Ulysses S. Grant 286Thomas A. Hendricks 42Benjamin Gratz Brown 18not cast / scattered 3
Ulysses S. Grant 214Horatio Seymour 80
Abraham Lincoln 212George B. McClellan 21
Abraham Lincoln 180John C. Breckinridge 72John Bell 39
James Buchanan 174Millard Fillmore 8not cast / scattered 114
Jacksonian Democracy · 1824–1852
Property qualifications fell, turnout among white men soared toward 80%, and the modern mass party was invented. Jackson's Democrats faced the Whigs in a stable two-party contest fought over banks, tariffs and executive power, while slavery pressed ever harder against the system's seams.
Franklin Pierce 254Winfield Scott 42
Zachary Taylor 163Lewis Cass 127
James K. Polk 170Henry Clay 105
William Henry Harrison 234Martin Van Buren 60
Martin Van Buren 170William Henry Harrison 73Daniel Webster 14not cast / scattered 26
Andrew Jackson 219Henry Clay 49John Floyd 11
Andrew Jackson 178John Quincy Adams 83
Andrew Jackson 99John Quincy Adams 84William H. Crawford 41
The Founding Era · 1788–1820
Washington was elected unanimously twice, then the first party system emerged: Federalists against Democratic-Republicans, a contest the Virginia dynasty won so completely that by 1820 opposition had dissolved into the Era of Good Feelings. Electors, chosen mostly by state legislatures at first, each cast two votes until the 12th Amendment separated president from vice president.
James Monroe 231John Quincy Adams 1
James Monroe 183Rufus King 34
James Madison 128DeWitt Clinton 89
James Madison 122Charles Cotesworth Pinckney 47George Clinton 6not cast / scattered 1
Thomas Jefferson 162Charles Cotesworth Pinckney 14
Thomas Jefferson 73John Adams 64not cast / scattered 139
John Adams 71Thomas Jefferson 68Aaron Burr 30not cast / scattered 59
George Washington 132John Adams 77George Clinton 50
George Washington 69John Adams 34John Jay 9
The long arcs
Two hundred and thirty-six years in four charts. Hover any point for the exact figure.
Turnout, 1789–2024
Share of eligible voters. The tiny elite franchise of the founding era, the 80%+ peaks of mass party politics after 1828, the post-1900 slide, and the modern recovery to 66% in 2020.
The two-party grip since 1856
Democratic + Republican share of the popular vote, against the best single third-party or independent run. The duopoly bends, 1912, 1968, 1992, but never breaks.
The Electoral College amplifier
The winner's share of electoral votes against their share of the popular vote since 1824. The gap between the lines is the College's exaggeration of victory, and when the lower line dips under 50% with the upper line still high, a president is being elected without a popular majority.
The House of Representatives since 1857
Seats by party at the start of each Congress. The New Deal supermajorities, the 40-year Democratic House of 1955–1995, and the narrow majorities of the polarized era.
Records & superlatives
Biggest Electoral College sweep
98.5%
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936: 523 of 531 electoral votes
Highest popular-vote share
61.0%
Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964
Highest turnout
82.6%
1876 election
Lowest turnout since 1824
26.9%
1824 election
Closest popular vote
1,898 votes
James A. Garfield over Winfield Scott Hancock, 1880
Popular-vote winner denied
5
1876, 1888, 2000, 2016 — plus 1824, settled in the House
Most votes ever won
81,283,501
Joe Biden, 2020
Congress
Presidents govern with or against Capitol Hill. Party divisions of every Congress since 1789, on the ELECTION-RESULT convention (Ashwin, 2026-10-01): a seat whose election was decided counts for its winner even where he was seated late or never (Franken in 2009, NC-9 in 2019, VA-4 in 2023, FL-1 in 2025), so a modern Senate always adds to 100; intra-term deaths and party switches are not tracked. `control` is the party that organised the chamber and `caucus` the working count per side with independents and third-party members in the caucus they sat with (a 50-50 Senate to the vice-president's party: Republican in 2001, Democratic in 2021). Audited 2026-10-01.
Current: 119th Congress
Unified
2025–2027 · President Donald Trump
Senate
53–47
Republican control, independents with their caucus
House
220–215
Republican control
Latest twenty Congresses shown; each election page links the Congress it seated. Dem–Rep columns read Democratic first.
The midterm penalty
Since 1858 the president's party has lost House seats in 38 of 42 midterms. Changes compare seats held at the start of each Congress with two years earlier, so they can differ by a seat or two from election-night nets.
How presidential elections work
The Electoral College
Voters choose 538 electors, allocated to states by population; 270 elect the president. Every state but Maine and Nebraska awards its electors winner-take-all, which is why campaigns live in a handful of swing states.
Popular vote ≠ president
Five men have reached the White House while losing the popular count: Adams in 1824, Hayes, Harrison, Bush in 2000, and Trump in 2016. The College amplifies wins and occasionally reverses them.
If nobody gets 270
The House elects the president, one vote per state delegation. It has happened twice, in 1800 and 1824, and shaped constitutional politics both times.
The rhythm
Presidential elections every four years since 1788, the whole House and a third of the Senate every two. Midterms almost always punish the president's party, which is why trifectas rarely survive them.