What is the most a candidate can get without any electoral votes

[morgankingsley]

I feel like Perot's 19 percent is pretty close to the tip a person can get with no electoral votes. After all, he almost won one from Maine.

Don't worry about moving this if you think it should be in a different section of the forum

[President Johnson]

Well, a few more points on top of his 60.8% and FDR may have clinched all 531 electoral votes available in 1936. He justed needed to win Vermont and Maine in addition. He lost both by a fair but not landslide margin. Reagan just fell short of Minnesota by a few thousand votes in 1984, but there is no way he could have won DC.

In a head-to-head match, it's politically impossible today because there won't be 538-0 sweep. America is far too polarized. Even 400 is a really tough call in our time. With a third-party candidate, it depends on whether his/her voter base in concentrated in a region or more broadly across the nation. Strom Thurmond only got 2.5% of the vote nationwide in 1948, but 39 electoral votes. All of them were from the South, and in other parts of the country, he was in low single digits or not even on the ballot. Progressive Henry Wallace got about the same number of raw votes, but was far from winning any state and ended up with no electoral votes. That means the question can't be answered with a number or percentage.

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

Well Perot's 19% is the most anyone has gotten without winning any electoral votes, right? So I guess that answers your question. Taft '12 got 23% of the vote and won two states (though neither by very much).

[pops]

I mean, theoretically, 49.9%.

Realistically, I would put that number at about 21-27%.

[morgankingsley]

Well Perot's 19% is the most anyone has gotten without winning any electoral votes, right? So I guess that answers your question. Taft '12 got 23% of the vote and won two states (though neither by very much).

It may answer the question to most, but in reality there is a chance that you can get a little bit higher without winning one, like low 20's

[Cold War Liberal]

I've run simulations in President Elect '88 where a candidate loses every state while winning ~37%-38% of the popular vote. IDK how realistic it is but judging by FDR '36, McGovern '72, and Mondale '84 went, it's theoretically possible, though it'd have to be a Democratic landslide because of DC.

[morgankingsley]

I've run simulations in President Elect '88 where a candidate loses every state while winning ~37%-38% of the popular vote. IDK how realistic it is but judging by FDR '36, McGovern '72, and Mondale '84 went, it's theoretically possible, though it'd have to be a Democratic landslide because of DC.

I guess that is decently realistic. Especially Nixon 1972 and FDR 1936, Reagan 1984 not so much as that would require Reagan to probably get nearly 70 percent of the vote