presidency of the United States of America

Table of Contents

Introduction
Duties of the office
Historical development
- Postrevolutionary period
- The presidency in the 19th century
- Changes in the 20th century
Selecting a president
- The evolution of the nomination process
  - “King Caucus”
  - The convention system
  - Post-1968 reforms
- The modern nomination process
  - Deciding to run
  - The money game
  - The primary and caucus season
  - Presidential nominating conventions
- The general election campaign
Presidents of the United States
United States presidential election results

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images, Videos & Interactives

Washington delivering his inaugural address

Listen to Hubert Humphrey examine the power wielded by U.S. presidents Washington, Lincoln, and Kennedy

Rembrandt Peale: portrait of Thomas Jefferson

Listen to former vice president Hubert Humphrey examine the personalities of memorable U.S. presidents

Hear former vice president Hubert Humphrey discuss checks and balances on the president of the United States

Uncover Secret Service codenames for U.S. presidents from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama

United States: 2000 presidential election

George W. Bush at the World Trade Center

Presidents of the United States

The table provides a list of U.S. presidents.

Presidents of the United States
	no.	president	birthplace	political party	term
*Died in office.
**Resigned from office.
	1	George Washington	Va.	Federalist	1789–97
	2	John Adams	Mass.	Federalist	1797–1801
	3	Thomas Jefferson	Va.	Democratic-Republican	1801–09
	4	James Madison	Va.	Democratic-Republican	1809–17
	5	James Monroe	Va.	Democratic-Republican	1817–25
	6	John Quincy Adams	Mass.	National Republican	1825–29
	7	Andrew Jackson	S.C.	Democratic	1829–37
	8	Martin Van Buren	N.Y.	Democratic	1837–41
	9	William Henry Harrison	Va.	Whig	1841*
	10	John Tyler	Va.	Whig	1841–45
	11	James K. Polk	N.C.	Democratic	1845–49
	12	Zachary Taylor	Va.	Whig	1849–50*
	13	Millard Fillmore	N.Y.	Whig	1850–53
	14	Franklin Pierce	N.H.	Democratic	1853–57
	15	James Buchanan	Pa.	Democratic	1857–61
	16	Abraham Lincoln	Ky.	Republican	1861–65*
	17	Andrew Johnson	N.C.	Democratic (Union)	1865–69
	18	Ulysses S. Grant	Ohio	Republican	1869–77
	19	Rutherford B. Hayes	Ohio	Republican	1877–81
	20	James A. Garfield	Ohio	Republican	1881*
	21	Chester A. Arthur	Vt.	Republican	1881–85
	22	Grover Cleveland	N.J.	Democratic	1885–89
	23	Benjamin Harrison	Ohio	Republican	1889–93
	24	Grover Cleveland	N.J.	Democratic	1893–97
	25	William McKinley	Ohio	Republican	1897–1901*
	26	Theodore Roosevelt	N.Y.	Republican	1901–09
	27	William Howard Taft	Ohio	Republican	1909–13
	28	Woodrow Wilson	Va.	Democratic	1913–21
	29	Warren G. Harding	Ohio	Republican	1921–23*
	30	Calvin Coolidge	Vt.	Republican	1923–29
	31	Herbert Hoover	Iowa	Republican	1929–33
	32	Franklin D. Roosevelt	N.Y.	Democratic	1933–45*
	33	Harry S. Truman	Mo.	Democratic	1945–53
	34	Dwight D. Eisenhower	Texas	Republican	1953–61
	35	John F. Kennedy	Mass.	Democratic	1961–63*
	36	Lyndon B. Johnson	Texas	Democratic	1963–69
	37	Richard M. Nixon	Calif.	Republican	1969–74**
	38	Gerald R. Ford	Neb.	Republican	1974–77
	39	Jimmy Carter	Ga.	Democratic	1977–81
	40	Ronald Reagan	Ill.	Republican	1981–89
	41	George Bush	Mass.	Republican	1989–93
	42	Bill Clinton	Ark.	Democratic	1993–2001
	43	George W. Bush	Conn.	Republican	2001–09
	44	Barack Obama	Hawaii	Democratic	2009–17
	45	Donald Trump	N.Y.	Republican	2017–21
	46	Joe Biden	Pa.	Democratic	2021–

United States presidential election results

The table provides a list of U.S. electoral college results.

U.S. presidential election results
year	candidate	political party	electoral votes¹	popular votes²	popular percentage³
¹In elections from 1789 to 1804, each elector voted for two individuals without indicating which was to be president and which was to be vice president.
²In early elections, electors were chosen by legislatures, not by popular vote, in many states.
³Candidates winning no electoral votes and less than 2 percent of the popular vote are excluded; percentages may not add up to 100 percent because of rounding.
⁴Washington was unopposed for president in 1789 and 1792.
⁵Because the two houses of the New York legislature could not agree on electors, the state did not cast its electoral votes. North Carolina and Rhode Island had not yet ratified the Constitution.
⁶As both Jefferson and Burr received the same number of electoral votes, the decision was referred to the House of Representatives. The Twelfth Amendment (1804) provided that electors cast separate ballots for president and vice president.
⁷As no candidate received a majority of the electoral votes, the decision was made by the House of Representatives.
⁸Greeley died shortly after the election in November. Three electors pledged to Greeley cast their votes for him, but they were not counted; the others cast their votes for the other candidates listed.
⁹Includes a variety of joint tickets with People's Party electors committed to Bryan.
¹⁰One Gore elector from Washington, D.C., abstained from casting an electoral vote.
Sources: Electoral and popular vote totals based on data from the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives; the United States Office of the Federal Register; the Federal Election Commission; Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections, 4th ed. (2001); and the official certified state vote totals.
1789	George Washington ⁴	no formally organized parties	69⁵
	John Adams		34
	John Jay		9
	R.H. Harrison		6
	John Rutledge		6
	John Hancock		4
	George Clinton		3
	Samuel Huntington		2
	John Milton		2
	James Armstrong		1
	Benjamin Lincoln		1
	Edward Telfair		1
	not voted		44
1792	George Washington ⁴	Federalist	132
	John Adams	Federalist	77
	George Clinton	Democratic-Republican	50
	Thomas Jefferson		4
	Aaron Burr		1
1796	John Adams	Federalist	71
	Thomas Jefferson	Democratic-Republican	68
	Thomas Pinckney	Federalist	59
	Aaron Burr	Antifederalist	30
	Samuel Adams	Democratic-Republican	15
	Oliver Ellsworth	Federalist	11
	George Clinton	Democratic-Republican	7
	John Jay	Independent-Federalist	5
	James Iredell	Federalist	3
	George Washington	Federalist	2
	John Henry	Independent	2
	S. Johnston	Independent-Federalist	2
	Charles Cotesworth Pinckney	Independent-Federalist	1
1800	Thomas Jefferson	Democratic-Republican	73⁶
	Aaron Burr	Democratic-Republican	73⁶
	John Adams	Federalist	65
	Charles Cotesworth Pinckney	Federalist	64
	John Jay	Federalist	1
1804	Thomas Jefferson	Democratic-Republican	162
1804	Charles Cotesworth Pinckney	Federalist	14
1808	James Madison	Democratic-Republican	122
	Charles Cotesworth Pinckney	Federalist	47
	George Clinton	Independent-Republican	6
	not voted		1
1812	James Madison	Democratic-Republican	128
	DeWitt Clinton	Fusion	89
	not voted		1
1816	James Monroe	Democratic-Republican	183
	Rufus King	Federalist	34
	not voted		4
1820	James Monroe	Democratic-Republican	231
	John Quincy Adams	Independent-Republican	1
	not voted		3
1824	John Quincy Adams	no distinct party designations	84⁷	108,740	30.9
	Andrew Jackson		99	153,544	41.3
	Henry Clay		37	47,531	13.0
	William H. Crawford		41	40,856	11.2
1828	Andrew Jackson	Democratic	178	647,286	56.0
1828	John Quincy Adams	National Republican	83	508,064	43.6
1832	Andrew Jackson	Democratic	219	687,502	54.2
	Henry Clay	National Republican	49	530,189	37.4
	William Wirt	Anti-Masonic	7	100,715	7.8
	John Floyd	Nullifiers	11
	not voted		2
1836	Martin Van Buren	Democratic	170	762,678	50.8
	William Henry Harrison	Whig	73	550,816	36.6
	Hugh L. White	Whig	26	146,107	9.7
	Daniel Webster	Whig	14	41,201	2.7
	W.P. Mangum	Anti-Jackson	11
1840	William Henry Harrison	Whig	234	1,275,016	52.9
1840	Martin Van Buren	Democratic	60	1,129,102	46.8
1844	James K. Polk	Democratic	170	1,337,243	49.5
	Henry Clay	Whig	105	1,299,062	48.1
	James Gillespie Birney	Liberty		62,103	2.3
1848	Zachary Taylor	Whig	163	1,360,099	47.3
	Lewis Cass	Democratic	127	1,220,544	42.5
	Martin Van Buren	Free Soil		291,501	10.1
1852	Franklin Pierce	Democratic	254	1,601,274	50.8
	Winfield Scott	Whig	42	1,386,580	43.9
	John Parker Hale	Free Soil		155,210	4.9
1856	James Buchanan	Democratic	174	1,838,169	45.3
	John C. Frémont	Republican	114	1,341,264	33.1
	Millard Fillmore	American (Know-Nothing)	8	873,053	21.5
1860	Abraham Lincoln	Republican	180	1,866,452	39.9
	John C. Breckinridge	Southern Democratic	72	847,953	18.1
	Stephen A. Douglas	Democratic	12	1,380,202	29.5
	John Bell	Constitutional Union	39	590,901	12.6
1864	Abraham Lincoln	Republican	212	2,213,665	55.0
	George B. McClellan	Democratic	21	1,805,237	45.0
	not voted		81
1868	Ulysses S. Grant	Republican	214	3,012,833	52.7
	Horatio Seymour	Democratic	80	2,703,249	47.3
	not voted		23
1872	Ulysses S. Grant	Republican	286	3,597,132	55.6
	Horace Greeley ⁸	Democratic/Liberal Republican		2,834,125	43.8
	Thomas A. Hendricks	Independent-Democratic	42
	B. Gratz Brown	Democratic	18
	Charles J. Jenkins	Democratic	2
	David Davis	Democratic	1
	not voted		17
1876	Rutherford B. Hayes	Republican	185	4,036,298	48.0
1876	Samuel J. Tilden	Democratic	184	4,300,590	51.0
1880	James A. Garfield	Republican	214	4,454,416	48.3
	Winfield Scott Hancock	Democratic	155	4,444,952	48.2
	James B. Weaver	Greenback		305,997	3.3
1884	Grover Cleveland	Democratic	219	4,874,986	48.5
1884	James G. Blaine	Republican	182	4,851,981	48.3
1888	Benjamin Harrison	Republican	233	5,439,853	47.8
	Grover Cleveland	Democratic	168	5,540,309	48.6
	Clinton B. Fisk	Prohibition		249,819	2.2
1892	Grover Cleveland	Democratic	277	5,556,918	46.1
	Benjamin Harrison	Republican	145	5,176,108	43.0
	James B. Weaver	People's (Populist)	22	1,027,329	8.5
	John Bidwell	Prohibition		270,770	2.2
1896	William McKinley	Republican	271	7,104,779	51.0
1896	William Jennings Bryan	Democratic ⁹	176	6,502,925	46.7
1900	William McKinley	Republican	292	7,207,923	51.7
1900	William Jennings Bryan	Democratic ⁹	155	6,358,133	45.5
1904	Theodore Roosevelt	Republican	336	7,623,486	56.4
	Alton B. Parker	Democratic	140	5,077,911	37.6
	Eugene V. Debs	Socialist		402,489	3.0
1908	William Howard Taft	Republican	321	7,678,908	51.6
	William Jennings Bryan	Democratic	162	6,409,104	43.0
	Eugene V. Debs	Socialist		420,380	2.8
1912	Woodrow Wilson	Democratic	435	6,293,454	41.8
	Theodore Roosevelt	Progressive (Bull Moose)	88	4,119,207	27.4
	William Howard Taft	Republican	8	3,483,922	23.2
	Eugene V. Debs	Socialist		900,369	6.0
1916	Woodrow Wilson	Democratic	277	9,129,606	49.2
	Charles Evans Hughes	Republican	254	8,538,221	46.1
	Allan L. Benson	Socialist		589,924	3.2
1920	Warren G. Harding	Republican	404	16,147,249	60.3
	James M. Cox	Democratic	127	9,140,864	34.1
	Eugene V. Debs	Socialist		897,704	3.4
1924	Calvin Coolidge	Republican	382	15,725,016	54.1
	John W. Davis	Democratic	136	8,386,503	28.8
	Robert M. La Follette	Progressive	13	4,822,856	16.6
1928	Herbert Hoover	Republican	444	21,392,190	58.0
1928	Alfred E. Smith	Democratic	87	15,016,443	40.7
1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Democratic	472	22,821,857	57.3
	Herbert Hoover	Republican	59	15,761,841	39.6
	Norman Thomas	Socialist		884,781	2.2
1936	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Democratic	523	27,476,673	60.2
1936	Alfred M. Landon	Republican	8	16,679,583	36.5
1940	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Democratic	449	27,243,466	54.7
1940	Wendell L. Willkie	Republican	82	22,304,755	44.8
1944	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Democratic	432	25,602,505	53.3
1944	Thomas E. Dewey	Republican	99	22,006,278	45.8
1948	Harry S. Truman	Democratic	303	24,105,695	49.4
	Thomas E. Dewey	Republican	189	21,969,170	45.0
	Strom Thurmond	States' Rights Democratic (Dixiecrat)	39	1,169,021	2.4
	Henry A. Wallace	Progressive		1,156,103	2.4
1952	Dwight D. Eisenhower	Republican	442	33,778,963	54.9
1952	Adlai E. Stevenson	Democratic	89	27,314,992	44.4
1956	Dwight D. Eisenhower	Republican	457	35,581,003	57.4
	Adlai E. Stevenson	Democratic	73	25,738,765	42.0
	Walter Jones	not a candidate	1
1960	John F. Kennedy	Democratic	303	34,227,096	49.7
	Richard M. Nixon	Republican	219	34,107,646	49.5
	Harry F. Byrd	not a candidate	15
1964	Lyndon B. Johnson	Democratic	486	42,825,463	61.1
1964	Barry M. Goldwater	Republican	52	27,146,969	38.5
1968	Richard M. Nixon	Republican	301	31,710,470	43.4
	Hubert H. Humphrey	Democratic	191	30,898,055	42.7
	George C. Wallace	American Independent	46	9,906,473	13.5
1972	Richard M. Nixon	Republican	520	46,740,323	60.7
	George S. McGovern	Democratic	17	28,901,598	37.5
	John Hospers	Libertarian	1	3,673	<0.1
1976	Jimmy Carter	Democratic	297	40,825,839	50.0
	Gerald R. Ford	Republican	240	39,147,770	48.0
	Ronald W. Reagan	not a candidate	1
1980	Ronald W. Reagan	Republican	489	43,642,639	50.4
	Jimmy Carter	Democratic	49	35,480,948	41.0
	John B. Anderson	Independent		5,719,437	6.6
1984	Ronald W. Reagan	Republican	525	54,455,075	58.8
1984	Walter F. Mondale	Democratic	13	37,577,185	40.6
1988	George H.W. Bush	Republican	426	48,886,097	53.4
	Michael S. Dukakis	Democratic	111	41,809,074	45.7
	Lloyd Bentsen	not a candidate	1
1992	Bill Clinton	Democratic	370	44,909,889	43.0
	George Bush	Republican	168	39,104,545	37.4
	Ross Perot	Independent		19,742,267	18.9
1996	Bill Clinton	Democratic	379	47,402,357	49.2
	Bob Dole	Republican	159	39,198,755	40.7
	Ross Perot	Reform		8,085,402	8.4
2000	George W. Bush	Republican	271	50,456,002	47.9
	Al Gore	Democratic	266¹⁰	50,999,897	48.4
	Ralph Nader	Green		2,882,955	2.7
2004	George W. Bush	Republican	286	62,028,285	50.7
	John Kerry	Democratic	251	59,028,109	48.3
	John Edwards	not a candidate	1
2008	Barack Obama	Democratic	365	69,456,000	52.9
2008	John McCain	Republican	173	59,934,000	45.7
2012	Barack Obama	Democratic	332	65,446,032	50.9
2012	Mitt Romney	Republican	206	60,589,084	47.1
2016	Donald Trump	Republican	304	62,979,636	46.0
	Hillary Clinton	Democratic	227	65,844,610	48.1
	Colin Powell	not a candidate	3
	Bernie Sanders	not a candidate	1
	John Kasich	not a candidate	1
	Ron Paul	not a candidate	1
	Faith Spotted Eagle	not a candidate	1
2020	Joe Biden	Democratic	306	81,268,924	51.3
2020	Donald Trump	Republican	232	74,216,154	46.9