The most spectacular victories in the history of US presidential elections
VTC News•06/09/2024
(VTC News) - In these US presidential elections, the candidates won the White House seat with an overwhelming majority of votes.
Jefferson vs. Pinckney (1804) Thomas Jefferson had reason to be confident as he headed into his 1804 reelection campaign. The young nation was prosperous and at peace, and Jefferson's political opponents, the Federalists, were in disarray. Jefferson was bold enough to predict that his Democratic-Republican Party would lose only four states in 1804. In the end, they lost only two. Jefferson ran on his record and won by a landslide, winning 162 electoral votes to Pinckney's 14, for a margin of victory of 84 percent. The 1804 election was the first held after the ratification of the 12th Amendment, which changed the electoral process so that each elector cast two separate votes: one for president and one for vice president. Lincoln vs. McClellan (1864) The election of 1864 was held in a climate of conflict, with only 25 states voting. The presidential race became a national referendum on the war, with incumbent Abraham Lincoln promising to continue fighting, and Democratic candidate George McClellan saying it was time to make peace with the Confederacy. In the end, Lincoln won 212 electoral votes to McClellan's 12, for a margin of victory of 81.6 percentage points.
Abraham Lincoln.
Franklin D. Roosevelt vs. Alf Landon (1936) Franklin D. Roosevelt.Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) was elected president four times, a record before the 22nd Amendment established term limits—and none of the races were very competitive. Even his smallest margin of victory in the Electoral College was 62.8 percentage points in 1944. His largest margin of victory—the largest in presidential history—came in 1936, when he won by 97 percentage points. Roosevelt's success was attributed to his political savvy. FDR was good at reading the changing political winds. He quickly switched sides on an issue when it began to become unpopular. As America was still trying to climb out of the Great Depression, voters overwhelmingly supported FDR. Roosevelt won every state except Vermont and Maine, winning 523 electoral votes to Landon's eight. Reagan vs. Carter (1980) The economic and political situation in 1980 was a stark contrast to 1964. In 1964, the economy was booming. In 1980, the nation was mired in a deep recession and 100 Americans were being held hostage in Iran. Voters were ready for change in the White House. Ronald Reagan was no stranger to American voters in 1980. He had first been elected governor of California in 1966 and had run the Republican primary against Gerald Ford in 1976. By 1980, Reagan had become the "dominant figure of the American right." Reagan ultimately defeated Jimmy Carter by 81.8 percentage points, 489 electoral votes to 49. Reagan vs. Mondale (1984) In 1984, President Ronald Reagan's re-election campaign ran a campaign ad called "Morning in America." The Democrats nominated Walter Mondale, who had served as Carter's vice president. Mondale chose Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, the first woman to be nominated by a major party for president in the United States. At the time, Reagan was 73 years old, the oldest person ever nominated for president. Mondale briefly put Reagan on the back foot after a poor debate performance. But ultimately Mondale's campaign failed to present a compelling alternative to Reagan's conservative vision. Reagan improved on his impressive performance in 1980, crushing Mondale by 525 electoral votes to 13. In 1984, Reagan won every state except Minnesota and the District of Columbia by a margin of 95.2 percentage points.
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