60 Facts for 60 US Elections

60 Facts for 60 US Elections

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the wildest fact about each presidential election in American history.

#1788:

George Washington was the only president to win unanimously; he ran unopposed.

#1792:

Washington was reelected with fewer votes than the current population of Lansing, Kansas: 11,000.

#1796:

The election of 1796 was the first to use political parties and the runner-up became vice president.

#1800:

John Adams lost reelection, in part, because the Three-Fifths Compromise gave slave states extra power in the Electoral College.

#1804:

Jefferson won reelection easily because his primary rival - Alexander Hamilton - was killed in a duel by sitting V.P. Aaron Burr.

#1808:

Despite Jefferson's deeply unpopular Embargo Act of 1807, his party’s nominee James Madison won with ease.

#1812:

The election of 1812 saw Madison win by the narrowest margin in the popular vote until 2004.

#1816:

James Monroe - the fourth president from Virginia - would also be the last for almost 30 years.

#1820:

James Monroe won reelection without having an opponent; he still lost one electoral vote.

#1824:

The election of 1824 was the first decided by the House of Representatives since nobody secured a clear majority in the Electoral College.

#1828:

Andrew Jackson's wife died before becoming First Lady; a vicious campaign had smeared her as a bigamist and her heart gave out from the stress.

#1832:

Andrew Jackson was the last Democratic president to win reelection until Woodrow Wilson.

#1836:

Martin Van Buren would be the last incumbent vice president to win a presidential election until George H.W. Bush.

#1840:

The 1840 election was unique in that it saw four future or former presidents receive at least one Electoral College vote.

#1844:

James Polk barely won the election by promising to balance out a new slave state - Texas - with a new free state - Oregon - to maintain the status quo.

#1848:

Zachary Taylor would be the both the second Whig elected president and the second Whig president to die in office without serving a full term.

#1852:

The election of 1852 took place in the shadow of the Compromise of 1850; divisions over slavery would lead to the demise of the Whig Party.

#1856:

Former President Millard Fillmore ran as the virulently anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant Know Nothing Party candidate; he placed third out of three.

#1860:

Lincoln won a national plurality - against three opponents - by winning only northern states; this was a major catalyst of the Civil War.

#1864:

Lincoln won Tennessee and Louisiana as they had been recaptured before the election; unfortunately, their votes were ultimately rejected.

#1868:

Texas, Virginia, and Mississippi did not participate in the election of 1868 because they had not yet finished the process of Reconstruction.

#1872:

Grant's opponent, Horace Greeley, died in a sanitarium before the Electoral College vote and his ballots were reapportioned to other candidates.

#1876:

Nobody won a majority of votes; Rutherford B. Hayes made a deal to become president in return for ending Reconstruction in the South.

#1880:

When Hayes chose not to run for reelection, the Republicans had the longest convention in party history - 6 days; their candidate, James Garfield, was assassinated a year into his term.

#1884:

Leaflets were distributed in New York using phrenology and shoe size as 'scientific' proof that Grover Cleveland was smarter than his opponent.

#1888:

Grover Cleveland lost reelection - despite winning the popular vote - because his anti-tariff views alienated rich industrialists.

#1892:

Grover Cleveland became the first president to win a second nonconsecutive term, ushering in the first Democratic trifecta since the Civil War.

#1896:

The election of 1896 was decided over monetary policy: William McKinley pledged to keep the gold standard and won the first popular majority since 1872.

#1900:

McKinley won reelection thanks to victory in the Spanish-American War and the end of a nasty economic depression.

#1904:

McKinley was assassinated six months into his second term; his successor, Teddy Roosevelt, won every single state north of the Mason-Dixon from coast to coast.

#1908:

After pledging not to seek a third term, Roosevelt supported good friend William Howard Taft: the only person to be both president and Chief Justice on the Supreme Court.

#1912:

Now a third-party candidate, Teddy Roosevelt gave a 90-minute stump speech with a bullet lodged in his chest after a failed assassination.

#1916:

Charles Evans Hughes likely lost the election by accidentally snubbing California’s progressive governor, whose support was crucial for uniting his divided party.

#1920:

Socialist Eugene Debs ran for president from prison after being convicted under the Espionage Act for giving an anti-war speech criticizing U.S. involvement in World War I; he’d urged draft resistance.

#1924:

The election of 1924 had the lowest per capita turnout since records were kept; it also was the last election where a third-party candidate won a northern state.

#1928:

Herbert Hoover won in a massive landslide - securing 40 of 48 states - in no small part because his opponent Al Smith was a Catholic.

#1932:

FDR was the first Democrat since Franklin Pierce in 1852 to win a majority in both the popular vote and the Electoral College.

#1936:

In no small part due to support for the New Deal, African-Americans shifted their majority for the first time ever from the party of Lincoln to the party of FDR.

#1940:

The Republican Party chose Wendell Willkie - a New York businessman and former FDR delegate - to run against Roosevelt; he was walloped.

#1944:

Pitching steady leadership in the face of War, Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term, though he died just three months into it.

#1948:

Early polls and coverage predicted a win for Republican Thomas Dewey; instead, incumbent President Harry Truman secured a surprising and decisive victory.

#1952:

Dwight Eisenhower's famous "Ike for President" ad - aka "I Like Ike" - was produced by the Walt Disney Company.

#1956:

The presidential election of 1956 was the last one without the participation of Alaska and Hawaii.

#1960:

Robert F. Kennedy managed to win despite persistent accusations that he was under the domination of the Pope because he was a Catholic.

#1964:

In one of the first-ever viral moments, LBJ's infamous "Daisy" ad - which only aired once - heavily implied that a Goldwater presidency would end in nuclear fire.

#1968:

The Democrats had the most turbulent primary in American history: the incumbent president dropped out, their frontrunner for the nomination was assassinated, and riots took place during their nominating convention.

#1972:

Even with disarray among Democrats, supporters of President Nixon broke into the headquarters of the DNC as part of an unnecessary spying and sabotage operation.

#1976:

Despite pardoning his criminal predecessor and the loss in Vietnam, it was a gaffe during a presidential debate that ultimately sank Gerald Ford's campaign.

#1980:

The Iran hostage crisis, which began on November 4th, 1979, was a significant factor in Carter’s massive loss to Reagan– and the hostages were freed minutes after he was sworn in, on January 20th, 1981.

#1984:

Reagan's optimistic vision - encompassed by his "Morning in America" ad - led to the largest electoral college landslide in American history: 49 of 50 states.

#1988:

Vice President George H.W. Bush's campaign used a racist smear - the infamous "Willie Horton ad" - to scare voters into voting for him.

#1992:

Ross Perot was the most successful third-party candidate since Roosevelt in 1912, securing 19% of the vote and all but guaranteeing the defeat of President Bush.

#1996:

President Clinton, challenger Bob Dole, and legacy news agencies used the internet for the first time ever to campaign, raise money, and disseminate breaking election news.

#2000:

Though Al Gore won the popular vote by more than 500,000 votes, George W. Bush won the election thanks to a Supreme Court case that ended a recount in Florida.

#2004:

Conservative '527' political organizations savaged Democrat John Kerry with a campaign of false allegations and negative ads that undermined his credibility and military service.

#2008:

Barack Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, campaigned on hope and change in the midst of the Great Recession to become America's first Black president.

#2012:

Republican challenger Mitt Romney was caught on tape saying that 47% of Americans were essentially irresponsible freeloaders; the comment was the last nail in the coffin for his run.

#2016:

In addition to hacking and releasing Hillary Clinton's emails, Russia embarked on a sophisticated social media campaign to divide the American electorate and support Donald Trump.

#2020:

After a divisive campaign and a year of COVID mismanagement, President Trump incited an insurrection in an attempt to stop the counting of Electoral votes… ahem, “allegedly.”

#2024:

Amidst concerns about his age after a disastrous debate performance, President Biden dropped out; his Vice President, Kamala Harris, mounted an impressive 107-day presidential campaign.


The United States has had some wild and crazy elections. Do you have any insane election facts? Let us know in the comments below.