60 Facts for 60 US Elections

#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.