(Thread) Interesting factoids about presidential elections.

[Schiff for Senate]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this but...

   Vermont did not vote Democratic ever, from the party's founding (I'm not counting the Democratic-Republican Party as the Democratic Party, even though it was the basis of the Democratic Party the same way the Whig Party was kind of a Federalist resurrection) until 1964 (when it voted for LBJ over Barry Goldwater, perceived as a racist). It would also not vote Democratic again until 1992, when it supported Bill Clinton: since when it has only voted Democratic, in 2020 giving Biden his best performance.
   Georgia did not vote Republican from the party's founding until 1964 (when it voted for Barry Goldwater). So really, 2020 was just full circle for GA (although technically Democrats did win GA in 1976, 1980 and 1992 as well).

  (Other fun facts about Vermont and Georgia: Vermont's the only state to back an anti-Masonic candidate, William Wirt, and Vermont has also elected just one Democrat to the Senate in its history, Patrick Leahy - although Bernie Sanders caucuses with the Democrats and Jim Jeffords is a Republican-turned-Independent; while Georgia saw all 159 of its counties flip Democratic from 1972, when all voted for Republican Richard Nixon, to 1976, when all voted for native son Jimmy Carter, including some ancestrally Republican counties in Northern Georgia that had eluded the Democrats even in landslides.)

 Other fun facts about statistics in presidential elections relating to more recent elections: Nine of the fifteen Clinton/Trump counties are in Texas; Roberts County, TX, gave just 3.1% of its vote (17 votes) to Joe Biden, to the 96.8% (and 529 votes) that Trump received. In Hawaii, Kalawao County (population 86) is a Democratic stronghold, to say the least - in 2020, all 24 voters voted for either Trump or Biden, with just one (4.17%) going to Trump. In 2016, Trump performed equally abysmally, with Kalawao becoming the only county where he finished third: of the 20 votes cast, just one vote for Trump (5%) to 14 for Biden (a solid 70%, though significantly less than his 2020 percentage) and 5 for Jill Stein (25%, making Kalawao Stein's best county nationally in terms of percentage of the vote).

[Schiff for Senate]

1988 was the last time one of WI, MI and PA voted differently than the others.

1996 and 2004 were the only elections since 1964 that both major parties picked up states.

That second one's quite interesting...

[Schiff for Senate]

In 2008, the four closest states (MO, NC, IN and MT) all simultaneously held gubernatorial elections. And while this isn't directly related to the presidential contest, 3 of those 4 states (the exception being the consistenly Democratic NC) elected a governor of the party opposite the party they voted for for president (i.e., MT and MO elected Democratic governors and IN elected a Republican governor, despite the three states having complete opposite presidential voting).

[Schiff for Senate]

Interesting observation I made a while back but I don't think I ever added to this thread.

In both 1848 and 1856, there was a third-party ticket where the presidential nominee was an ex-president and the vice-presidential nominee was a previous president's son.

In 1848, the Free Soil Party's nominee was Martin van Buren (president from 1837 to 1841) and the running mate was Charles Francis Adams, son of John Quincy Adams (president from 1825 to 1829).

In 1856, the Nativist Party's nominee was Millard Fillmore (president from 1850 to 1853) and the running mate was Andrew Jackson Donelson, adoptive son of Andrew Jackson (president from 1829 to 1837).

[Schiff for Senate]

The only time a Republican performed worse in a state than he did in the District of Columbia?  1968. Nixon received only 14% of the vote in Alabama and Mississippi, while obtaining 18% in DC.

If you're looking at in terms of margin, which I think is always a more accurate way of doing so, then this is not true: MS was Humphrey+9.5 and AL was Humphrey+4.7 (over Nixon - both men lost by a lot to Wallace). In contrast, DC was Humphrey+63.6.

[Schiff for Senate]

(NOTE: I believe GA06 is the seat that swung most to the left from 2012-2020 and OH06 is the seat that swung hardest rightward in that time, but I may be wrong, and if so, the below fact is incorrect.)

The seat that swung farthest leftward from 2012-2020 (GA06) is the 6th district of a Romney-Biden state, and the hometown of its representative is Marietta.

The seat that swung farthest rightward from 2012-2020 (OH06) is the 6th district of an Obama-Trump stae, and the hometown of its representative is Marietta.