Past Presidents of the United States
Currently serving · 47th President
Donald Trump (second term)
312-226
Electoral Vote
+1.5%
Popular-Vote Margin
67%
Election-Eve Odds
Polymarket
Polymarket
The first president since Grover Cleveland to win non-consecutive terms. Trump won the 2024 election with 312 electoral votes and a 1.5-point popular-vote victory, the first Republican popular-vote majority since 2004. Polymarket priced him at roughly 67 percent on election eve, the most accurate major prediction-market call of any modern presidential race. Currently serving the second of his two terms.
Every American president from George Washington to today, with the popular-vote margin, electoral-college total, opponent, and prediction-market odds for each election. Prediction-market data is available only for the most recent six races. Earlier elections show the historical record without market quotes.
Five presidents have taken office despite losing the popular vote: John Quincy Adams (1824), Rutherford B. Hayes (1876), Benjamin Harrison (1888), George W. Bush (2000), and Donald Trump (2016). Two have served non-consecutive terms: Grover Cleveland (1884, 1892) and Donald Trump (2016, 2024).
#46
Joe Biden
2020
Electoral: 306–232
Popular: +4.5% 81,283,501 votes
Defeated: Donald Trump (Republican)
Pre-election odds: 65% (PredictIt / Betfair)
Highest-turnout presidential election in American history.
At 78, Biden became the oldest person ever elected president, defeating Trump by 7.1 million popular votes and 306 electoral votes in 2020. The election was the highest-turnout race in American history. Biden withdrew from his 2024 re-election bid in July of that year after a poor debate performance against Trump, becoming the first incumbent to drop out since Lyndon Johnson in 1968. Kamala Harris replaced him on the ticket and lost to Trump in November.
#45
Donald Trump (first term)
2016
Electoral: 304–234
Popular: -2.1% 62,984,828 votes
Defeated: Hillary Clinton (Democratic)
Pre-election odds: 19% (Betfair)
Trailed in essentially every prediction market and poll on Election Day; lost popular vote, won Electoral College.
Won the 2016 election having trailed in essentially every reputable poll and prediction market through Election Day, with Betfair pricing Hillary Clinton at roughly 81 percent on the morning of the vote. He lost the popular vote by 2.1 points but won 304 electoral votes on the strength of narrow victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. He is the only president impeached twice, in 2019 (Ukraine) and 2021 (January 6).
#44
Barack Obama
2008
Electoral: 365–173
Popular: +7.2% 69,498,516 votes
Defeated: John McCain (Republican)
Pre-election odds: 92% (Intrade)
First African-American president.
2012
Electoral: 332–206
Popular: +3.9% 65,915,795 votes
Defeated: Mitt Romney (Republican)
Pre-election odds: 70% (Intrade)
The first African-American president, Obama won two convincing elections by reassembling the Democratic coalition around a college-educated and minority base that has defined the party ever since. The 2008 race was the first in which prediction markets were a routine reference point in mainstream coverage, with Intrade pricing Obama at roughly 92 percent on election eve.
#43
George W. Bush
2000
Electoral: 271–267
Popular: -0.5% 50,456,002 votes
Defeated: Al Gore (Democratic)
Lost popular vote by 543,895. Florida recount ended by Bush v. Gore.
2004
Electoral: 286–252
Popular: +2.4% 62,040,610 votes
Defeated: John Kerry (Democratic)
Pre-election odds: 55% (Intrade)
First Republican popular-vote majority since 1988.
The fourth president to lose the popular vote and still take office. The 2000 election came down to Florida, where a 537-vote margin was contested for 36 days before the Supreme Court's Bush v. Gore decision ended the recount and handed Bush the presidency. He won re-election in 2004 by 2.4 points, the first Republican popular-vote victory since 1988 and the only one for the next 20 years.
#42
Bill Clinton
1992
Electoral: 370–168
Popular: +5.6% 44,909,806 votes
Defeated: George H.W. Bush (Republican)
Perot (independent) took 18.9%, largest third-party share in modern history.
1996
Electoral: 379–159
Popular: +8.5% 47,401,185 votes
Defeated: Bob Dole (Republican)
Perot took 8.4%.
Won two terms without ever cracking 50 percent of the popular vote, both times benefitting from third-party candidate Ross Perot drawing votes that polls suggested would otherwise have leaned Republican. Clinton was the second president impeached by the House and the first to remain in office after his Senate acquittal in 1999.
#41
George H.W. Bush
1988
Electoral: 426–112
Popular: +7.7% 48,886,597 votes
Defeated: Michael Dukakis (Democratic)
Reagan's two-term vice president won the 1988 election decisively, then lost his 1992 re-election bid after breaking his "read my lips: no new taxes" pledge. Independent candidate Ross Perot took 18.9 percent of the vote in 1992, the largest third-party share in modern history, complicating Bush's loss to Clinton.
#40
Ronald Reagan
1980
Electoral: 489–49
Popular: +9.7% 43,903,230 votes
Defeated: Jimmy Carter (Democratic)
John Anderson (independent) took 6.6%.
1984
Electoral: 525–13
Popular: +18.2% 54,455,472 votes
Defeated: Walter Mondale (Democratic)
Largest electoral-vote total in American history; won 49 of 50 states.
A former actor and California governor who won two landslide elections and presided over the end of the Cold War. His 1984 re-election captured 49 of 50 states and 525 electoral votes, the largest Electoral College victory in absolute terms in American history. He survived an assassination attempt 69 days into his presidency.
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#39
Jimmy Carter
1976
Electoral: 297–241
Popular: +2.1% 40,831,881 votes
Defeated: Gerald Ford (Republican)
First election after Watergate.
A peanut farmer and one-term Georgia governor who won the post-Watergate presidency on outsider credentials. His single term was dominated by stagflation, the 1979 oil crisis, and the 444-day Iran hostage crisis. He lost his re-election bid to Reagan in a 10-point landslide.
#38
Gerald Ford
Was not elected to the presidency. Took office by succession.
The only person ever to serve as both vice president and president without being elected to either office. Ford was appointed vice president in 1973 after Spiro Agnew's resignation, then became president when Nixon resigned. His controversial pardon of Nixon a month later likely cost him his 1976 election against Jimmy Carter.
#37
Richard Nixon
1968
Electoral: 301–237
Popular: +0.7% 31,783,783 votes
Defeated: Hubert Humphrey (Democratic)
Three-way race; Wallace took 13.5%.
1972
Electoral: 520–18
Popular: +23.2% 47,168,710 votes
Defeated: George McGovern (Democratic)
Won 49 of 50 states; resigned 21 months later.
The only president to resign the office. Nixon won 49 of 50 states in his 1972 re-election landslide, then resigned 21 months later under threat of certain impeachment over the Watergate cover-up. His 1968 victory came in a three-way race that included segregationist George Wallace, who carried five Deep South states.
L
#36
Lyndon B. Johnson
1964
Electoral: 486–52
Popular: +22.6% 43,127,041 votes
Defeated: Barry Goldwater (Republican)
Second-largest popular-vote margin since 1820.
Took the oath of office on Air Force One after Kennedy's assassination and won the 1964 election in a 23-point landslide against Barry Goldwater, the second-largest popular-vote margin since 1820. He signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, then watched his presidency collapse over Vietnam. He withdrew from the 1968 race in March, becoming the second president after Truman to decline a second elected term.
#35
John F. Kennedy
1960
Electoral: 303–234
Popular: +0.2% 34,220,984 votes
Defeated: Richard Nixon (Republican)
First televised presidential debates; one of the closest margins in modern history.
Won the 1960 election by 113,000 popular votes nationally, one of the closest margins in modern history. The race featured the first televised presidential debates, widely credited with helping Kennedy overcome the visual impression that Nixon was the more seasoned candidate. He was assassinated in Dallas less than three years into his term, the fourth president murdered in office.
#34
Dwight D. Eisenhower
1952
Electoral: 442–89
Popular: +10.9% 34,075,529 votes
Defeated: Adlai Stevenson (Democratic)
1956
Electoral: 457–74
Popular: +15.4% 35,579,180 votes
Defeated: Adlai Stevenson (Democratic)
Rematch.
The supreme Allied commander in Europe during World War II won two presidential elections by double-digit margins. Both parties tried to recruit him as a nominee in 1948; he chose the Republicans in 1952 and won 39 states. His farewell address warned the country about the "military-industrial complex," a phrase that has shaped political discourse ever since.
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#33
Harry S. Truman
1948
Electoral: 303–228
Popular: +4.5% 24,179,347 votes
Defeated: Thomas E. Dewey (Republican)
"Dewey Defeats Truman" — most famous polling miss in American history.
Became president on FDR's death and authorized the use of atomic weapons against Japan less than four months later. His 1948 re-election produced the most famous polling miss in American history: every major newspaper, every major pollster, and the Chicago Tribune's premature "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline got the race wrong. Truman won by 4.5 points.
F
#32
Franklin D. Roosevelt
1932
Electoral: 472–59
Popular: +17.8% 22,821,857 votes
Defeated: Herbert Hoover (Republican)
1936
Electoral: 523–8
Popular: +24.3% 27,752,648 votes
Defeated: Alf Landon (Republican)
Largest electoral-college landslide in modern history.
1940
Electoral: 449–82
Popular: +9.9% 27,313,945 votes
Defeated: Wendell Willkie (Republican)
Broke the two-term tradition.
1944
Electoral: 432–99
Popular: +7.5% 25,612,916 votes
Defeated: Thomas E. Dewey (Republican)
Died three months into his fourth term.
The only person elected president four times. FDR won 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944, leading the country through the Great Depression and most of World War II. His 1936 re-election victory of 523 electoral votes to 8 remains the largest electoral landslide in modern history. He died less than three months into his fourth term, prompting the 22nd Amendment, which limited future presidents to two terms.
#31
Herbert Hoover
1928
Electoral: 444–87
Popular: +17.4% 21,427,123 votes
Defeated: Al Smith (Democratic)
Took office seven months before the October 1929 stock market crash and was unable to stop the slide into the Great Depression. His name became synonymous with the era's suffering: "Hoovervilles" for shantytowns, "Hoover blankets" for newspapers used as covering. Lost his 1932 re-election bid to Franklin Roosevelt by nearly 18 points.
#30
Calvin Coolidge
1924
Electoral: 382–149
Popular: +25.2% 15,723,789 votes
Defeated: John W. Davis (Democratic)
La Follette (Progressive) took 16.6% of the vote.
Became president on Harding's death and won his own term in 1924 in a three-way race that included the Progressive Party's Robert La Follette. Presided over the late-1920s economic boom but chose not to seek re-election in 1928, leaving the looming crash to Herbert Hoover.
#29
Warren G. Harding
1920
Electoral: 404–127
Popular: +26.2% 16,144,093 votes
Defeated: James M. Cox (Democratic)
First election after women's suffrage; largest landslide to that point.
Won the largest popular-vote landslide of any candidate to that point on a "return to normalcy" promise after eight years of Wilson and World War I. His administration was rocked by the Teapot Dome bribery scandal, the worst presidential scandal of the era. He died of a heart attack midway through his term, sparing him the full unraveling of his administration's corruption.
#28
Woodrow Wilson
1912
Electoral: 435–96
Popular: +14.4% 6,296,284 votes
Defeated: Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive)
Roosevelt third-party run split GOP vote; Taft finished third.
1916
Electoral: 277–254
Popular: +3.1% 9,126,868 votes
Defeated: Charles Evans Hughes (Republican)
Won California by 3,773 votes for the decisive electoral majority.
Won the presidency in 1912 with only 41.8 percent of the popular vote after Roosevelt's third-party run split the Republican electorate. Re-elected in 1916 by a margin of just 0.6 percentage points on the slogan "He kept us out of war," then asked Congress to declare war on Germany five months into his second term. A massive stroke 18 months before the end of his second term left him largely incapacitated.
#27
William Howard Taft
1908
Electoral: 321–162
Popular: +8.5% 7,678,335 votes
Defeated: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
Theodore Roosevelt's hand-picked successor finished a distant third behind both Wilson and Roosevelt in his 1912 re-election bid, the worst major-party performance in modern history. He later became the only person ever to serve as both president and Chief Justice of the United States.
#26
Theodore Roosevelt
1904
Electoral: 336–140
Popular: +18.8% 7,630,457 votes
Defeated: Alton B. Parker (Democratic)
Largest popular-vote margin to that point.
The youngest person ever to become president, ascending at 42 on McKinley's assassination. Won an outright term in his own right in 1904 by what was then the largest popular-vote margin in American history. Declined to seek a third term in 1908, then mounted a third-party "Bull Moose" challenge against his successor William Howard Taft in 1912, splitting the Republican vote and handing the election to Wilson.
#25
William McKinley
1896
Electoral: 271–176
Popular: +4.3% 7,108,480 votes
Defeated: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
1900
Electoral: 292–155
Popular: +6.1% 7,228,864 votes
Defeated: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
Assassinated September 1901.
Twice defeated William Jennings Bryan in elections defined by the gold-versus-silver currency debate. McKinley's 1896 victory ushered in a 36-year period of Republican electoral dominance broken only by Wilson's wartime victories. He was assassinated by an anarchist six months into his second term.
#24
Grover Cleveland (second term)
1892
Electoral: 277–167
Popular: +3% 5,556,918 votes
Defeated: Benjamin Harrison (Republican)
Rematch; non-consecutive second term.
Cleveland's 1892 rematch against Benjamin Harrison made him the first and (until Trump in 2024) only president to win non-consecutive terms. His second term was dominated by the Panic of 1893, a severe four-year depression that split the Democratic Party and ended his political career.
#23
Benjamin Harrison
1888
Electoral: 233–168
Popular: -0.8% 5,443,892 votes
Defeated: Grover Cleveland (Democratic)
Lost popular vote, won Electoral College.
The grandson of William Henry Harrison won the Electoral College while losing the popular vote by 0.8 points to incumbent Grover Cleveland in 1888. He is the third of five presidents to take office having lost the popular vote. Cleveland avenged the loss four years later in their 1892 rematch.
#22
Grover Cleveland (first term)
1884
Electoral: 219–182
Popular: +0.6% 4,914,482 votes
Defeated: James G. Blaine (Republican)
The first Democrat elected president after the Civil War and the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms. Cleveland won the popular vote in three consecutive elections (1884, 1888, 1892) but lost the Electoral College in 1888 to Benjamin Harrison, then defeated Harrison in their 1892 rematch. Donald Trump joined Cleveland in this distinction with his 2024 victory.
#21
Chester A. Arthur
Was not elected to the presidency. Took office by succession.
A New York machine politician widely viewed as unqualified, Arthur became president on Garfield's assassination and surprised contemporaries by championing civil service reform. He signed the Pendleton Act of 1883, which ended the spoils system for most federal jobs. Knowing he was dying of kidney disease, he made only a token effort for renomination in 1884.
#20
James A. Garfield
1880
Electoral: 214–155
Popular: +0.1% 4,453,337 votes
Defeated: Winfield Scott Hancock (Democratic)
Closest popular-vote margin in American history (under 10,000 votes).
Won the 1880 election by under 10,000 popular votes nationally, the closest popular-vote margin of any presidential election in American history. He was shot four months into his term by a disappointed office-seeker and died after 80 days, the second of four assassinated presidents.
#19
Rutherford B. Hayes
1876
Electoral: 185–184
Popular: -3% 4,034,142 votes
Defeated: Samuel J. Tilden (Democratic)
Lost popular vote; won via 15-member electoral commission ruling.
Lost the popular vote and trailed in initial electoral counts, but won the presidency through the Compromise of 1877 after a 15-member electoral commission awarded him every disputed elector. The deal ended Reconstruction, withdrew federal troops from the South, and made Hayes the second of five presidents to take office despite losing the popular vote.
#18
Ulysses S. Grant
1868
Electoral: 214–80
Popular: +5.4% 3,013,421 votes
Defeated: Horatio Seymour (Democratic)
1872
Electoral: 286–66
Popular: +11.8% 3,598,235 votes
Defeated: Horace Greeley (Liberal Republican)
Greeley died before electors voted.
The Union's most successful general won the presidency twice on the strength of his military reputation and Reconstruction-era Black voter mobilization in the South. His administration was marred by financial scandals but is reassessed favorably in modern historiography for its civil rights enforcement.
#17
Andrew Johnson
Was not elected to the presidency. Took office by succession.
A Southern Democrat placed on Lincoln's 1864 unity ticket who became president on Lincoln's assassination. Johnson clashed bitterly with Congressional Republicans over Reconstruction policy and in 1868 became the first president impeached by the House, surviving Senate conviction by a single vote. He sought but did not receive any party's nomination in 1868.
#16
Abraham Lincoln
1860
Electoral: 180–123
Popular: +10.1% 1,865,908 votes
Defeated: Stephen A. Douglas (Democratic)
Four-way race; won with under 40 percent.
1864
Electoral: 212–21
Popular: +10.1% 2,218,388 votes
Defeated: George B. McClellan (Democratic)
First wartime re-election. Confederate states did not participate.
Won the 1860 election with under 40 percent of the popular vote in a four-way race, triggering the secession of Southern states and the Civil War. His 1864 re-election was the first wartime presidential election in American history, and his decisive victory effectively ended any prospect of a negotiated peace with the Confederacy. He was assassinated five days after Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
#15
James Buchanan
1856
Electoral: 174–122
Popular: +12.1% 1,836,072 votes
Defeated: John C. Frémont (Republican)
First Republican nominee in the field.
Routinely ranked as the worst president in American history. Buchanan watched seven Southern states secede from the Union between Lincoln's November 1860 election and his own departure from office in March 1861, taking no meaningful action to prevent the rupture. The Civil War began six weeks after he left the White House.
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#14
Franklin Pierce
1852
Electoral: 254–42
Popular: +6.9% 1,607,510 votes
Defeated: Winfield Scott (Whig)
A dark-horse compromise nominee who won a sweeping electoral victory but presided over the disintegration of the political order. His signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 effectively destroyed the Whig Party, accelerated the founding of the Republican Party, and pushed the country toward civil war. His own party denied him renomination in 1856.
#13
Millard Fillmore
Was not elected to the presidency. Took office by succession.
Inherited the presidency on Taylor's death and signed the Compromise of 1850, including the Fugitive Slave Act. He was denied his party's nomination in 1852 and later ran as the Know-Nothing Party nominee in 1856, finishing third. He is the last Whig to serve as president.
#12
Zachary Taylor
1848
Electoral: 163–127
Popular: +4.8% 1,361,393 votes
Defeated: Lewis Cass (Democratic)
Died 16 months into term.
A Mexican-American War hero who had never voted in a presidential election before his own. Taylor died 16 months into his term after a Fourth of July ceremony, becoming the second president to die in office. His sudden death altered the calculus of the Compromise of 1850 and the slavery debates that followed.
#11
James K. Polk
1844
Electoral: 170–105
Popular: +1.4% 1,339,494 votes
Defeated: Henry Clay (Whig)
The first "dark horse" to win the presidency, Polk took office having pledged to serve only one term and accomplished all four of his stated policy goals (acquiring Oregon and California, lowering tariffs, and establishing an independent treasury) before stepping down. He died of cholera three months after leaving office, having presided over the Mexican-American War and the greatest single-term expansion of American territory.
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#10
John Tyler
Was not elected to the presidency. Took office by succession.
Became the first vice president to inherit the presidency upon a president's death. His Whig Party promptly expelled him over policy disputes, leaving Tyler the only president ever effectively without a party. He was never elected president in his own right and did not seek the office in 1844.
#9
William Henry Harrison
1840
Electoral: 234–60
Popular: +6.1% 1,275,390 votes
Defeated: Martin Van Buren (Democratic)
Died 31 days into his term.
Won the largest electoral landslide of any candidate to that point on the strength of the "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" campaign, then died of pneumonia 31 days into office, the shortest presidency in American history. His death triggered the first succession crisis under the Constitution, ultimately establishing the precedent that the vice president becomes president (not merely acting president).
#8
Martin Van Buren
1836
Electoral: 170–124
Popular: +14.2% 764,198 votes
Defeated: William Henry Harrison (Whig)
Whigs ran multiple regional candidates.
Jackson's vice president inherited a financial system on the brink of collapse. The Panic of 1837, triggered weeks into his term by speculative excess and the collapse of state banks, defined his presidency. He lost his 1840 re-election bid in a landslide to William Henry Harrison.
#7
Andrew Jackson
1828
Electoral: 178–83
Popular: +12.3% 642,553 votes
Defeated: John Quincy Adams (National Republican)
1832
Electoral: 219–67
Popular: +17.8% 701,780 votes
Defeated: Henry Clay (National Republican)
Jackson's 1828 rematch against John Quincy Adams produced the first true popular-vote landslide in American history, with the populist general winning by 12 points after running on grievance over the 1824 "Corrupt Bargain." His re-election in 1832 was nearly as decisive. Jackson founded the Democratic Party and reshaped the presidency into a populist office in ways still felt today.
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#6
John Quincy Adams
1824
Electoral: 84–177
Popular: -10.4% 113,122 votes
Defeated: Andrew Jackson (Democratic-Republican)
Lost popular and electoral vote; elected by House after no candidate reached a majority.
The first president to lose the popular vote and still take office. Andrew Jackson won both more popular votes and more electoral votes in 1824, but failed to reach a majority of the Electoral College. The House chose Adams, who promptly named Henry Clay (the third-place finisher) Secretary of State, an arrangement Jackson supporters spent the next four years calling the "Corrupt Bargain."
#5
James Monroe
1816
Electoral: 183–34
Defeated: Rufus King (Federalist)
1820
Electoral: 231–1
Defeated: John Quincy Adams (Democratic-Republican)
Essentially uncontested; one elector dissented.
Monroe presided over the "Era of Good Feelings," a period of single-party dominance after the Federalists collapsed. His 1820 re-election was effectively uncontested, and he received every electoral vote but one. The dissenter, William Plumer of New Hampshire, reportedly cast his vote for John Quincy Adams to preserve Washington's distinction as the only unanimous winner.
#4
James Madison
1808
Electoral: 122–54
Defeated: Charles C. Pinckney (Federalist)
1812
Electoral: 128–89
Defeated: DeWitt Clinton (Federalist)
Held during the War of 1812.
The principal architect of the Constitution led the country through the War of 1812, during which the British burned Washington, D.C. Despite the unpopularity of the war in some regions, Madison won re-election in 1812 in what remains the only presidential election held during an active foreign war on American soil.
#3
Thomas Jefferson
1800
Electoral: 73–65
Defeated: John Adams (Federalist)
Tied 73-73 with running mate Aaron Burr; House decided after 36 ballots.
1804
Electoral: 162–14
Defeated: Charles C. Pinckney (Federalist)
First election under the 12th Amendment.
The 1800 election tied Jefferson with his own running mate Aaron Burr at 73 electoral votes each, throwing the decision to the House of Representatives. It took 36 ballots over six days before Jefferson prevailed. The episode prompted the 12th Amendment, which separated presidential and vice-presidential balloting from 1804 onward.
#2
John Adams
1796
Electoral: 71–67
Defeated: Thomas Jefferson (Democratic-Republican)
Margin of three electoral votes; popular vote not nationally recorded.
Won the first contested presidential election by just three electoral votes over Thomas Jefferson, who under the rules of the time became his vice president despite being from the opposing party. Adams lost his re-election bid to Jefferson in 1800 in a rematch that produced an Electoral College tie among Jefferson and Aaron Burr, ultimately resolved by the House.
#1
George Washington
1788
Electoral: 69–0
Defeated: John Adams (Unaffiliated)
Unanimous; popular vote not yet recorded.
1792
Electoral: 132–0
Defeated: John Adams (Federalist)
Unanimous re-election.
The only president ever elected without organized party opposition. Washington was chosen unanimously by the Electoral College in both 1788 and 1792, the only person ever to receive every elector's vote. He set the two-term precedent that held for 144 years until Franklin Roosevelt broke it in 1940.
Methodology & Sources
Election results from the standard reference works on American presidential elections, supplemented by FEC and Associated Press final tallies for races since 2000. Popular-vote margins are reported in percentage points and may differ slightly across sources depending on certification cutoffs. Pre-1824 elections did not record a national popular vote and are noted as such. Prediction-market odds reflect the implied probability of the winner on election eve, sourced from Intrade for 2004 through 2012, Betfair and PredictIt for 2016 and 2020, and Polymarket for 2024. Earlier elections predate the existence of organized prediction markets. Portraits are official presidential portraits in the public domain as works of the U.S. federal government, sourced from Wikimedia Commons.