(Thread) Interesting factoids about presidential elections.

[Orser67]

Here are the elections where a party won without winning a single state in a particular Census Region (parentheses for winning party):

Northeast: 2004 (R)
South: 1824 (Adams), 1860 (R), 1880 (R), 1888 (R)
Midwest (since 1816): 1824 (Adams), 1848 (W)
West (since 1860): 1884 (D)

If you subtract DE, DC, MD, WV, and KY (the border states) from the South, then you also get:
1796 (F), 1896 (R), 1900 (R), 1904 (R), 1908 (R), 1920 (R), 1924 (R), 1928 (R)

[Orser67]

Following up from my last post, here are the elections where a party won a presidential election and swept a particular Census Region (parentheses for winning party). I didn't count 1789, 1792, or 1820, where the winning candidate was basically unopposed.

Northeast: 1860 (R), 1872 (R), 1896-1908 (R), 1920-1924 (R), 1952-1956 (R), 1964 (D), 1984 (R), 1992-1996 (D), 2008-2012 (D)
South: 1884 (D), 1892 (D), 1912 (D), 1936-1944 (D)
Midwest (since 1816): 1816 (DR), 1828-1832 (D), 1852 (D), 1864-1868 (R), 1904 (R), 1920 (R), 1928 (R), 1952 (R), 1964 (D), 1972 (R)
West (since 1860): 1860-1864 (R), 1872-1876 (R), 1888 (R), 1904 (R), 1920-1928 (R), 1932-1936 (D), 1972 (R), 1984 (R)

[Orser67]

The smallest winning margin by percentage in a state is, unsurprisingly, FL in 2000, where Bush won by less than 1/100th of one percent.

The smallest winning margin by vote total in a state is 4 votes; in 1832 Henry Clay defeated Andrew Jackson in MD by 19,160 votes to 19,156 votes. The runner-up is...also MD, where Theodore Roosevelt defeated Alton Parker by 51 votes (though Parker actually won most of the states electoral votes).

[Orser67]

The smallest winning margin by percentage in a state is, unsurprisingly, FL in 2000, where Bush won by less than 1/100th of one percent.

The smallest winning margin by vote total in a state is 4 votes; in 1832 Henry Clay defeated Andrew Jackson in MD by 19,160 votes to 19,156 votes. The runner-up is...also MD, where Theodore Roosevelt defeated Alton Parker by 51 votes (though Parker actually won most of the states electoral votes).

Any idea how far down each list New Mexico 2000 would rank?

It's actually pretty far down there, in part because of lower populations in the 19th century (e.g. DE had a few elections decided by less than 1000 votes). Here's a non-exhaustive list of states decided by less than 200 votes:

Maryland 1832-4 votes
Maryland 1904-51 votes
New Hampshire 1916-56 votes
Maryland 1824-109 votes
Hawaii 1960-115 votes
California 1892-147 votes
Delaware 1832-166 votes
California 1912-174 votes

[Orser67]

Biden would be the second president born in PA, and the first whose primary state of residence is DE. Rhode Island, Connecticut, North Carolina, and South Carolina would be the last of Thirteen Colonies not to have a president whose primary residence was in the state, although Connecticut was the state of birth of George W. Bush, North Carolina was the state of birth for Polk and Andrew Johnson, and either North or South Carolina was the state of birth for Andrew Jackson. Rhode Island, Connecticut, and North Carolina have also never been the primary state of residence for a major party presidential nominee.

Biden would also be the first president whose residence is in a county in what is now the Greater Philadelphia MSA. Afaik he's the second major party presidential nominee to have spent a large portion of his life in Philadelphia or the surrounding area; the other is George McClellan, who was born and raised in Philadelphia. Afaik, three major party vice presidential nominees (other than Biden) have had a strong connection to Philadelphia, including George Dallas, who served as James K. Polk's VP. The other two are Richard Rush, who served as JQA's running mate in 1828, and Jared Ingersoll, who was DeWitt Clinton's de facto running mate in 1812.

[Orser67]

Biden has a chance to become the fifth individual to win the popular vote by 10 million+ votes. The four who have done so:

Nixon 72: 17.995 million
Reagan 84: 16.9 million
LBJ 64: 15.95 million
FDR 36: 11.1 million
(Eisenhower 56: 9.551 million)
(Obama 08: 9.55 million)

Pretty impressive that Nixon still has the record

[Orser67]

Nevada's historical tiny population is fascinating to me. It cast the fewest total votes of any state in each presidential election from its first presidential election in 1864 through 1956 (if not for AK's admission to the union, NV also would've cast the fewest votes in 1960 and 1964). For much of the period from 1884 to 1944, it cast fewer than half as many votes as the next closest state.

In the 1900 presidential election, William Jennings Bryan won Nevada with 6347 votes out of 10196 votes (62% of the vote; all of the remaining votes went to McKinley). There were about 2100 Bryan votes cast for every Bryan elector in Nevada, compared to 22800 McKinley votes cast for every McKinley elector in New York, and about 41000 Bryan votes cast per Bryan elector nationwide. This probably needs a fact check, but from looking at Wikipedia articles I think Bryan won the fewest votes of any state winner since 1860 (when Lincoln won Oregon with 5344 votes - 36% of the vote), and the total votes cast was the fewest in a state since 1852 (FL cast 7193 votes). This despite the country's population more than doubling between 1860 and 1900.

(Note that, for obvious reasons, I'm excluding states that didn't hold a popular vote for president in the preceding paragraph).

[Orser67]

PA had back-to-back-to-back state AGs who were (at some point) nominated for VP by a major presidential party or significant third party: Jared Ingersoll (Clinton's running mate in 1812), Richard Rush (Adams's running mate in 1828), and Amos Ellmaker (Wirt's running mate in 1832). John Sergeant, Clay's running mate in 1832, was the brother of Thomas Sergeant, who was Ellmaker's successor as PA state AG. George Dallas later became the fourth PA state AG to serve as a running mate, and the first to become vice president.