Remarkable records from US presidential elections
Which US President won the most votes? Who won by the narrowest margin? What about independent candidates? Read on to find out all these answers and more.
Image: The White House | stock.adobe.com
On 5th November 2024, people across the USA will taking to the polling booths to cast their votes for the country’s next President. The Republican candidate Donald Trump will be looking to secure enough electoral college votes to beat Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and return to the White House for his second term.
With election fever beginning to grip the country, it’s a good time to look back through the history books and revisit some of the most interesting records in the race to become POTUS.
Largest landslides
The two-party nature of the US electoral system often makes for a close-run thing, but it hasn’t always turned out that way. Indeed, the biggest electoral landslide in US history was claimed by Franklin D Roosevelt, who claimed an astonishing 97% of the vote in 1936. It was the second of FDR’s four successful presidential campaigns.
In terms of the biggest chasm in actual votes, however, we have to turn our attention to Richard Nixon’s trouncing of George McGovern in 1972. Though the slew of scandals associated with Tricky Dicky have since overshadowed all else, it should be remembered he was wildly popular at one time. So popular, in fact, that he won a whopping 18 million more votes than McGovern.
Narrowest margins
In 1876, a country still reeling from the fallout from the Civil War attempted to elect its new leader, only for foul play, intimidation and fraudulent counting practices from both sides to mar the contest. With the Constitution not equipped for a situation such as this, a new Electoral Commission was set up to deal with it – and ruled in favour of the Republican candidate Rutherford B Hayes by a single electoral vote.
However, the narrowest margin on record is far more recent. In 2000, the Supreme Court was called in to rule whether or not Al Gore had amassed enough votes to defeat George W Bush in Florida, the key swing state responsible for a contest-deciding 25 electoral votes. After over a month of intense discussions and debates, the judges voted five to four to give the victory to Bush by just 537 votes, or 0.009% of all votes cast in the state. Incredibly close.
Biggest swings
The increasingly polarised political climate in the USA means that there are vast swathes of the country which will only ever vote one way. That, in turn, has led to the creation of several ‘battleground’ or ‘swing’ states, where the majority of campaigning takes place nowadays. These usually decide who will sit in the White House for the coming four years.
1964 saw a huge swing in the state of Alabama, which had given the Democrat John F Kennedy a 14% margin in 1960, only to back Republican Barry Goldwater with a huge 69% sway four years later. Georgia experienced a similar shift in its political sensibilities in 1976, backing Democrat Jimmy Carter with a 34% majority just four years after the Republican Nixon had enjoyed a 50% victory.
Female firsts
While Kamala Harris is bidding to be the first female President of the USA, she is following in the footsteps of plenty of female trailblazers before her. Geraldine Ferraro was the first female to appear on a major party’s ticket, serving as running-mate to the Democrat Walter Mondale in 1984. Hilary Clinton became the first presidential candidate in 2016, though both women eventually lost their campaigns.
But while the US is still waiting for its first official female president, there is a case to be made that the first acting female took the reins over a century ago. Edith Wilson, wife of Woodrow Wilson, took on something of a caretaker role when her husband was bedridden following a stroke in 1919. Although she has played down her role, it’s somewhat ironic that her stint came before women got the vote the next year.
Best performing independents
America’s two-party system means that it’s all but impossible for an independent candidate to get anywhere. Indeed, the only successful independent individual to date is the country’s first president, George Washington, who won unopposed in 1788 and again in 1792. Washington was indeed an outspoken critic of a partisan approach to politics, foreseeing the trouble this could lead and has led to.
Since then, a handful of independents have performed admirably without actually coming close to victory. George Wallace won 14% of the popular vote in 1968 and Ross Perot claimed 19% in 1992. However, it’s Theodore Roosevelt (overshadowed by his more successful relation FDR) who had the biggest impact as an independent. Roosevelt had won as a Republican in 1904, but in 1920 he ran as a progressive and siphoned off 27% of the vote to split the Republicans and hand the victory to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
