98 Fun Facts About US Presidential Elections

Which president won every elector's vote in both of his elections?

George Washington twice won every elector's vote, yet in his Farewell Address he warned that party rivalry could harden into despotism.

If no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes, which body chooses the US president?

The House of Representatives votes state by state, one vote per delegation, so the smallest state counts as much as the biggest.

Which president served two non-consecutive terms, making him both the 22nd and 24th president?

Grover Cleveland had a tumor secretly removed from his mouth aboard a yacht in 1893, fearing news of his illness would deepen a financial panic.

Who was the first Catholic to win a major party's presidential nomination?

Smith, the Democratic governor of New York, lost the 1928 election to Herbert Hoover in a landslide, with anti-Catholic sentiment a major factor in his defeat.

Which slogan did the Republican campaign use in the 1952 presidential election?

I Like Ike backed Dwight Eisenhower, who had earlier turned down a private offer to run for president as a Democrat.

What day of the week are US presidential elections always held on?

US presidential elections are held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, a tradition established by Congress in 1845 to accommodate the agrarian schedule of the time.

Which state is traditionally the first to hold its presidential primary?

New Hampshire's state law requires it to hold the first primary, so it went ahead in January 2024 even after Democrats moved South Carolina first.

Who was the Northern Democrats' nominee against Abraham Lincoln in 1860?

Stephen A. Douglas broke with custom by campaigning in person, and with defeat looming he toured the South to speak against secession.

Which broken 1988 campaign pledge dogged George H. W. Bush in his 1992 re-election loss?

Read my lips: no new taxes came from Bush's 1988 convention speech, and after he agreed to raise taxes, many Republicans never forgave him.

Which change to the US Constitution guaranteed women the right to vote nationwide?

The 19th Amendment won Tennessee's deciding vote in August 1920 when legislator Harry T. Burn voted 'aye' after a letter from his mother urged him to.

The 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore was decided by a controversial recount in which state?

George W. Bush led in Florida by only a few hundred votes when the Supreme Court's Bush v. Gore ruling stopped the recount.

What is the 538-member body that formally chooses the US president called?

The Electoral College never meets in one place: each state's electors gather in their own state capital to cast their votes.

Which 1984 Democratic presidential nominee carried only his home state, Minnesota, and the District of Columbia?

Walter Mondale told the 1984 convention he would raise taxes, adding that his rival would too but wouldn't say so.

Who is the youngest person ever elected US president, winning office at the age of 43?

John F. Kennedy won at 43; Theodore Roosevelt became president at 42, but through succession after McKinley's assassination, not by election.

"Yes We Can" was the campaign slogan of which presidential candidate?

Barack Obama's 'Yes We Can' echoes 'Sí, se puede', the United Farm Workers' rallying cry that many credit to Dolores Huerta.

Which candidate's 18.9% in 1992 was the best non-major-party showing since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912?

Ross Perot quit the race in July 1992, then jumped back in that October and still won about 19% of the vote.

What are competitive states that either party could win in a presidential election called?

Swing states draw most campaign visits and ads, because winner-take-all rules hand the narrow winner every one of their electors.

Which president was photographed holding a newspaper wrongly declaring Dewey had beaten him?

The Chicago Daily Tribune, short of composing staff during a strike, printed 'DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN' early, and Harry S. Truman proudly held it up at St. Louis Union Station.

Who was the first woman to be nominated for vice president by a major party?

Geraldine Ferraro was a go-for-broke pick by a Democratic ticket trailing far behind in the polls, and her selection injected excitement into the race.

Which Republican won the presidency in 1888 despite losing the popular vote to the Democratic incumbent?

Benjamin Harrison lost the popular vote by about 90,000 but won the presidency by carrying New York and Indiana.

Which candidate's 'Daisy' ad showed a girl counting petals before a nuclear blast?

Lyndon B. Johnson's campaign aired 'Daisy' once, on September 7, 1964, implying that Barry Goldwater might start a nuclear war; the ad never named him.

Which Connecticut senator became Al Gore's running mate in 2000?

Joe Lieberman lost the 2006 Democratic primary for his Senate seat but kept it anyway, winning re-election as an independent.

Which segregationist governor carried five Southern states as a third-party presidential candidate in 1968?

George Wallace had stood in a University of Alabama doorway in 1963 to try to stop two Black students from enrolling.

Which 1980 presidential candidate used the slogan 'Let's Make America Great Again', decades before Donald Trump?

In his 1980 acceptance speech Ronald Reagan called for a crusade to make America great again, and in the campaign's last debate he asked voters if they were better off than four years before.

Which constitutional requirement bars Arnold Schwarzenegger from running for president?

Being a natural-born citizen is required, and a 2003 amendment proposal to let long-naturalized citizens run was widely seen as aimed at Schwarzenegger.

Which vice president set a new record for Senate tie-breaking votes, reaching 33 by 2024?

Kamala Harris cast 33 tie-breaking votes, passing John C. Calhoun's 31 in December 2023, mostly while presiding over a 50-50 Senate; they included the votes that passed the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act.

Which Kansas senator won the 1996 Republican presidential nomination but lost to the incumbent?

Bob Dole gave up his Senate seat and his post as majority leader in June 1996 to campaign full time.

Which Democrat was his party's presidential nominee in both 1952 and 1956, losing each time?

Adlai Stevenson was photographed in 1952 with a hole in the sole of his shoe, and the picture won a Pulitzer Prize.

Who was the first sitting president to lose a re-election bid in the 20th century?

William Howard Taft carried only Utah and Vermont in 1912, after Theodore Roosevelt ran against him and split the Republican vote.

Before George H. W. Bush in 1988, who was the last sitting vice president to be elected president?

Martin Van Buren won in 1836 as Andrew Jackson's chosen successor, then lost re-election in 1840 amid the depression that followed the Panic of 1837.

The Compromise of 1877 resolved the disputed presidential election of 1876 between which two candidates?

Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden's deadlock went to a 15-member commission that gave Hayes every disputed vote, and his troop withdrawals are widely seen as ending Reconstruction.

Which 2004 Democratic nominee's Vietnam War service was attacked by the 'Swift Boat' ad campaign?

John Kerry's attackers were later discredited, but 'swiftboating' stuck as slang for a dishonest political smear.

The 1840 campaign song "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" was written for the ticket of which party?

The Whig campaign turned a Democratic newspaper's sneer about its candidate's log cabin and hard cider into its winning brand.

What is a 'faithless elector' in a US presidential election?

A pledged voter who backs someone else, or abstains, counts as faithless, and in 2020 the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that states may punish them.

Who is the only US president never elected president or vice president?

Gerald Ford was appointed vice president under the 25th Amendment after Spiro Agnew resigned, took over when the president resigned in 1974, and lost his own bid in 1976.

Which president ran effectively unopposed in 1820, losing just one electoral vote?

James Monroe faced no real opponent because the Federalist Party had collapsed after the War of 1812, in what was dubbed the Era of Good Feelings.

The 1980 'October Surprise' theory alleged a secret deal to delay freeing American hostages held in which country?

Iran released the hostages minutes after the new president was sworn in, but congressional inquiries found no credible evidence of a deal.

Who was the first woman to win a major US party's nomination for president?

Hillary Clinton, formally nominated at the 2016 Democratic convention in Philadelphia; she went on to win the popular vote but lose the election.

Which state has the most electoral votes in presidential elections?

California has 54 electors, but after the 2020 Census it lost a House seat, and with it an elector, for the first time in its history.

Which president ran on the campaign promise of a "New Deal" during the Great Depression?

Franklin D. Roosevelt broke with tradition by accepting the 1932 nomination in person at the Chicago convention, pledging 'a new deal for the American people'.

What is the practice of redrawing electoral district boundaries to favour one party called?

Gerrymandering, a portmanteau of salamander and Elbridge Gerry, who as governor in 1812 signed a bill creating a Massachusetts district compared to the creature's shape.

Which two states award electoral votes by congressional district rather than winner-take-all?

Maine and Nebraska split their votes by district, and after Omaha's district first broke away in 2008, Nebraska Republicans tried several times to return to winner-take-all.

What did Andrew Jackson's supporters call the 1825 deal that made Henry Clay Secretary of State?

The Corrupt Bargain charge said Clay's backers swung the election to John Quincy Adams in return, and Jackson rode the outrage to a landslide in 1828.

Which president delivered the longest inaugural address in history, then died about a month into office?

William Henry Harrison's 8,445-word speech ran nearly two hours in the cold without a coat or hat, and he died a month later, the shortest presidency in US history.

Which winner of the 1800 election took office in the first transfer of power between rival parties?

Thomas Jefferson tied with his own running mate, Aaron Burr, and the deadlock led to the 12th Amendment's separate electoral votes for president and vice president.

Which two states' narrow 1960 results drew Republican charges of voter fraud?

Illinois and Texas went narrowly Democratic, but the Republican nominee kept his distance from his party's challenges to the results.

Which change to the Constitution moved Inauguration Day from March 4 to January 20?

The 20th Amendment shortened the 'lame duck' stretch in which a defeated president and Congress stayed in office for months after an election.

Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party of 1912 was popularly known by what nickname?

The Bull Moose Party's Theodore Roosevelt was shot in Milwaukee in 1912 and still gave his scheduled speech before accepting medical care.

What name is given to the punched-out scrap of a ballot card that made headlines in the disputed 2000 recount?

Chad left hanging by a corner, or merely dimpled, forced counters to guess what each voter had meant on thousands of punch-card ballots.

Which 1988 Democratic nominee saw a photo opportunity in an M1 Abrams tank turned into a Republican attack ad?

Michael Dukakis rode the tank at a General Dynamics plant in Michigan, hoping the pictures would make him look like a credible commander-in-chief.

Which president conceded defeat at 9:50 pm Eastern, though advisers urged him to await West Coast results?

Jimmy Carter conceded early so that he would not seem to be sulking, having lost 44 states to his Republican challenger.

Which rapper ran for US president in 2020 as the candidate of his own self-styled Birthday Party?

Kanye West made the ballot in only 12 states and drew fewer than 70,000 votes, his biggest total coming in Tennessee.

Which Socialist won more than 900,000 votes for president in 1920 while locked in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary?

Eugene V. Debs campaigned as Convict No. 9653, jailed for a 1918 speech that urged young men to resist the wartime draft.

Which newspaper editor, the Democrats' 1872 presidential nominee, died after the vote but before the electors met?

Horace Greeley died 24 days after losing to Ulysses S. Grant, so the 66 electors pledged to him scattered their votes among other men.

Which Wall Street broker did the Equal Rights Party nominate in 1872 as the first woman candidate for US president?

Victoria Woodhull was arrested on obscenity charges days before the vote and spent election day in jail, over a scandal her own newspaper had printed.

Which cocker spaniel gave its name to the 1952 TV speech that saved a Republican running mate's place on the ticket?

Checkers was a gift from a travelling salesman, and the senator's vow that his daughters would keep the dog drew a flood of public support.

Which Harper's Weekly cartoonist is credited with first drawing the Republican Party as an elephant, in 1874?

Thomas Nast drew the elephant in a cartoon about fears of a third presidential term, and he also popularised the Democratic donkey.

What label is given to a president serving out the weeks after an election has already chosen a successor?

Lame duck began as 18th-century London Stock Exchange slang for a broker who could not pay his debts.

Which president carried only six states in 1932, four years after his own landslide win of 444 electoral votes?

Herbert Hoover saw his share of the popular vote plunge by more than 18 points as the Great Depression deepened year after year.

Which Alaska governor became the first woman on a Republican presidential ticket, as the running mate in 2008?

Sarah Palin had been governor for under two years when she joined the ticket, and at 42 she had been the youngest person ever elected to the job.

Which 2012 Republican nominee's father, a Michigan governor, had sought the same party's nomination in 1968?

Mitt Romney's father George was an early front-runner until he said he had been given a 'brainwashing' on Vietnam, and he quit the race in early 1968.

Which consumer advocate ran for US president on the Green Party ticket in both 1996 and 2000?

Ralph Nader made four bids in all, the last two as an independent, decades after his book Unsafe at Any Speed took on the car industry.

Which change to the Constitution, ratified in 1951, bars anyone from being elected US president more than twice?

The 22nd Amendment cleared Congress in 1947, two years after the death of the only president ever elected four times.

Who won the first contested US presidential election, in 1796, and got his defeated rival as vice president?

John Adams scraped in with 71 electoral votes, just one more than the majority he needed, under rules that handed second place the vice presidency.

Which vice-presidential hopeful tied the head of his own ticket with 73 electoral votes apiece in 1800?

Aaron Burr stayed deadlocked through 35 House ballots while Alexander Hamilton lobbied Federalists against him, and on the 36th enough of them cast blank ballots to break the tie.

Which general, removed from command by Abraham Lincoln, ran against him as the Democratic nominee in 1864?

George McClellan personally rejected his party's platform, which called for peace with the Confederacy, and he won just three states.

Which barrier to voting, once common across the South, did the 24th Amendment ban from federal elections in 1964?

Poll tax laws were meant to keep African Americans and poor whites from voting, and five states still had one when the amendment was ratified.

Which 1972 Democratic nominee lost 49 states, including his own home state of South Dakota?

George McGovern won only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, after a campaign in which he had to replace his running mate within weeks of the convention.

Which Arizona senator, the 1964 Republican nominee, carried only his home state and five states of the Deep South?

Barry Goldwater had reluctantly voted against the Civil Rights Act earlier that year, which helps explain where his few victories came from.

Which senator quit the 1988 Democratic race for president after lifting passages from Britain's Neil Kinnock?

Joe Biden withdrew in September 1987 and waited two decades to run again, finally winning the presidency at his third attempt in 2020.

Which phrase for secret political deal-making grew out of reports on the 1920 Republican convention in Chicago?

Smoke-filled room entered the language after a wire reporter described rumours of party bosses settling on a compromise nominee in a Blackstone Hotel suite.

What sheep-farming term describes Missouri, which backed all but one presidential winner from 1904 to 2004?

Bellwether first meant the belled sheep that leads a flock; Missouri's one miss in that century came in 1956, during a national landslide for the sitting president.

Which Brooklyn congresswoman became, in 1972, the first Black candidate for a major party's presidential nomination?

Shirley Chisholm was already the first Black woman elected to Congress, and her run also made her the first woman to seek the Democratic nomination.

Which 'Great Commoner' lost three presidential elections as the Democratic nominee, in 1896, 1900 and 1908?

William Jennings Bryan was just 36 when a speech attacking the gold standard won him his first nomination, making him the youngest major-party nominee in history.

Which 1896 Republican nominee campaigned from his front porch in Canton while his rival toured the country by train?

William McKinley spoke to delegations brought to his door by his manager Mark Hanna, while his opponent gave more than 600 speeches on the road.

Which Tennessean, picked on the ninth ballot in 1844, is often called the first 'dark horse' presidential nominee?

James K. Polk had only 44 votes on the eighth ballot, then swept the ninth once the deadlocked front-runner's name was withdrawn.

Which Mexican–American War general, elected US president in 1848, had never voted in an election before that year?

Zachary Taylor was a career soldier who had kept his politics private, and even as support for him grew he kept his distance from both parties.

Which Democrat won the 1968 presidential nomination without entering a single primary, amid protests in Chicago?

Hubert Humphrey joined the race too late for the primaries, and no major-party nominee skipped them again for more than half a century.

Which Missouri senator left the 1972 Democratic ticket once his past electroshock therapy became public?

Thomas Eagleton withdrew at the nominee's request within three weeks and was replaced by Sargent Shriver, the founding director of the Peace Corps.

Which magazine folded soon after its 1936 survey wrongly forecast a decisive win for Republican Alf Landon?

The Literary Digest had called every winner before then, but its 1936 forecast missed the margin by some 39 points and the magazine closed within 18 months.

Which early computer went on CBS in 1952 and predicted a presidential landslide from a small sample of the vote?

UNIVAC was so far from the close race everyone expected that its first forecast was not believed, and its settings were changed to put a tamer one on air.

The secret ballot that spread across American states from the late 1880s is also named after which country?

Australia pioneered the system in the 1850s, and Massachusetts became the first US state to adopt it statewide, in 1888.

Which 2010 Supreme Court ruling let corporations and unions spend unlimited sums on independent political advertising?

Citizens United v. FEC was decided 5–4 and opened the way for super PACs, which may raise unlimited money so long as they stay independent of campaigns.

Which civic group sponsored the televised presidential debates of 1976, 1980 and 1984 before withdrawing in protest?

The League of Women Voters pulled out in 1988, saying the conditions demanded by the two campaigns would deceive the voting public.

Who beat James M. Cox in a 1920 landslide to become the first sitting senator elected US president?

Warren G. Harding won on his 55th birthday by 26.2 points in the popular vote, the widest margin since such voting became widespread in the 1820s.

Which dark-horse winner of 1880 is the only sitting congressman ever elected US president?

James A. Garfield had not even sought the presidency: deadlocked convention delegates turned to him as a compromise on the 36th ballot.

Which Supreme Court justice resigned from the bench in 1916 to run for president, narrowly losing to Woodrow Wilson?

Charles Evans Hughes went on to serve as Secretary of State and returned to the court in 1930 as Chief Justice of the United States.

Which explorer, nicknamed The Pathfinder, became the Republican Party's first presidential nominee in 1856?

John C. Frémont lost to James Buchanan yet won most of the electoral votes cast by free states, a strong debut for a party two years old.

What nickname was given to the reform Republicans who refused to back their party's nominee, James G. Blaine, in 1884?

Mugwumps took their mocking name from an Algonquian word for an important person, and their defection may have tipped a close race to the Democrats.

Which short-lived third party held the first presidential nominating convention, in Baltimore in 1831?

The Anti-Masonic Party grew out of hostility to Freemasonry, yet the candidate its convention chose, William Wirt, was himself a former Mason.

Which city's pioneering radio station KDKA began broadcasting with the presidential election returns of November 1920?

Pittsburgh's KDKA grew out of Westinghouse's push into radio, and it went on air that night under the temporary call sign 8ZZ.

Which farmers' party carried four Western states in 1892 with James B. Weaver heading its presidential ticket?

The Populist Party became the first third party since the Civil War to win electoral votes, and in 1896 it backed the Democrats' nominee as well.

What name is given to the party leaders and officials who are seated automatically at Democratic national conventions?

Superdelegates were free until 2018 to back any candidate on every ballot, whatever their own state's primary voters had decided.

Which garment names the effect of a popular presidential candidate pulling in votes for others on the party ticket?

Coattails explain why a winning president's party so often gains seats in Congress at the same election, a pattern also called the down-ballot effect.

In US convention jargon, what are the individual policy positions that make up a party's platform called?

Planks extend the image of a platform as a stage built from wooden boards, each one standing for the party's view on a single issue.

Which Midwestern state has been carried by every Republican ever elected US president, from 1860 through 2024?

Ohio backed every Republican winner in that span, while Democrats took the White House without it only eight times through 2024.

Which corporate executive, a Democrat until late 1939, became the Republican presidential nominee in 1940?

Wendell Willkie overtook better-known rivals on the sixth ballot as packed galleries chanted his name, then lost to a president seeking a third term.

Under which party name, chosen to attract War Democrats, did Abraham Lincoln win re-election in 1864?

National Union was the banner under which Republicans joined with pro-war Democrats, and the ticket's running mate was a Democrat from Tennessee.