United States presidential elections in Mississippi

Presidential elections in Mississippi

Number of elections	50
Voted Democratic	29
Voted Republican	16
Voted Whig	1
Voted Democratic-Republican	1
Voted other	3 [a]
Voted for winning candidate	29
Voted for losing candidate	21

Following is a table of the United States presidential elections in Mississippi, in chronological order by year. Since its admission to statehood in 1817, Mississippi has participated in every U.S. presidential election except the election of 1864, during the American Civil War, when the state had seceded to join the Confederacy, and the election of 1868, when the state was undergoing Reconstruction.

A socially conservative Deep South state, Mississippi was dominated by the Democratic Party for most of its history, voting almost exclusively Democratic from the founding of the party in the 1820s until the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Since the 1980s, the state has become heavily Republican, like most of the south.

Notably, Mississippi has also almost always voted for the same presidential candidate as neighboring Alabama. In more than two hundred years of presidential elections, they have supported the same candidate in all but one; the election of 1840, when Mississippi voted for William Henry Harrison and Alabama for Martin Van Buren (in 1868, only Alabama participated, as Mississippi had not yet been readmitted to the Union).

Winners of the state are in bold. The shading refers to the state winner, and not the national winner.

Elections from 1864 to present

Year	Winner (nationally)	Votes	Percent	Runner-up (nationally)	Votes	Percent	Other national candidates [b]	Votes	Percent	Electoral Votes	Notes
2020 [1]	Joe Biden	539,508	41.06	Donald Trump	756,789	57.60	—			6
2016 [2]	Donald Trump [c]	700,714	57.86	Hillary Clinton	485,131	40.06	—			6
2012 [3]	Barack Obama	562,949	43.79	Mitt Romney	710,746	55.29	—			6
2008 [4]	Barack Obama	554,662	43.00	John McCain	724,597	56.18	—			6
2004 [5]	George W. Bush	684,981	59.45	John Kerry	458,094	39.76	—			6
2000 [6]	George W. Bush [c]	572,844	57.62	Al Gore	404,614	40.7	—			7
1996 [7]	Bill Clinton	394,022	44.08	Bob Dole	439,838	49.21	Ross Perot	52,222	5.84	7
1992	Bill Clinton	400,258	40.77	George H. W. Bush	487,793	49.68	Ross Perot	85,626	8.72	7
1988	George H. W. Bush	557,890	59.89	Michael Dukakis	363,921	39.07	—			7
1984	Ronald Reagan	581,477	61.85	Walter Mondale	352,192	37.46	—			7
1980	Ronald Reagan	441,089	49.42	Jimmy Carter	429,281	48.09	John B. Anderson	12,036	1.35	7
1976	Jimmy Carter	381,309	49.56	Gerald Ford	366,846	47.68	—			7
1972	Richard Nixon	505,125	78.20	George McGovern	126,782	19.63	—			7
1968	Richard Nixon	88,516	13.52	Hubert Humphrey	150,644	23.02	George Wallace	415,349	63.46	7
1964	Lyndon B. Johnson	52,618	12.86	Barry Goldwater	356,528	87.14	—			7
1960	John F. Kennedy	108,362	36.34	Richard Nixon	73,561	24.67	Harry F. Byrd	116,248	38.99	8	Unpledged electors won, voting for Byrd. [8]
1956	Dwight D. Eisenhower	60,685	24.46	Adlai Stevenson II	144,498	58.23	T. Coleman Andrews/ Unpledged Electors [d]	42,966	17.31	8
1952	Dwight D. Eisenhower	112,966	39.56	Adlai Stevenson II	172,566	60.44	—			8
1948	Harry S. Truman	19,384	10.09	Thomas E. Dewey	5,043	2.62	Strom Thurmond	167,538	87.17	9
1944	Franklin D. Roosevelt	168,479	93.56	Thomas E. Dewey	11,601	6.44	—			9
1940	Franklin D. Roosevelt	168,267	95.70	Wendell Willkie	7,364	4.19	—			9
1936	Franklin D. Roosevelt	157,318	97.06	Alf Landon	4,443	2.74	—			9
1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt	140,168	95.98	Herbert Hoover	5,180	3.55	—			9
1928	Herbert Hoover	27,153	17.90	Al Smith	124,539	82.10	—			10
1924	Calvin Coolidge	8,494	7.55	John W. Davis	100,474	89.34	Robert M. La Follette	3,494	3.11	10
1920	Warren G. Harding	11,576	14.03	James M. Cox	69,277	83.98	Parley P. Christensen	—	—	10
1916	Woodrow Wilson	80,422	92.78	Charles E. Hughes	4,253	4.91	—			10
1912	Woodrow Wilson	57,324	88.90	Theodore Roosevelt	3,549	5.50	William H. Taft	1,560	2.42	10
1908	William H. Taft	4,363	6.52	William Jennings Bryan	60,287	90.11	—			10
1904	Theodore Roosevelt	3,280	5.59	Alton B. Parker	53,480	91.07	—			10
1900	William McKinley	5,707	9.66	William Jennings Bryan	51,706	87.56	—			9
1896	William McKinley	4,819	6.92	William Jennings Bryan	63,355	91.04	—			9
1892	Grover Cleveland	40,030	76.22	Benjamin Harrison	1,398	2.66	James B. Weaver	10,118	19.27	9
1888	Benjamin Harrison [c]	30,095	25.99	Grover Cleveland	85,451	73.8	—			9
1884	Grover Cleveland	77,653	64.34	James G. Blaine	43,035	35.66	—			9
1880	James A. Garfield	34,844	29.76	Winfield S. Hancock	75,750	64.71	James B. Weaver	5,797	4.95	8
1876	Rutherford B. Hayes	52,603	31.92	Samuel J. Tilden	112,173	68.08	—			8
1872	Ulysses S. Grant	82,175	63.48	Horace Greeley	47,282	36.52	—			8
1868	Ulysses S. Grant	No vote due to status of Reconstruction.		Horatio Seymour			—
1864	Abraham Lincoln	No vote due to secession.		George B. McClellan			—

Election of 1860

The election of 1860 was a complex realigning election in which the breakdown of the previous two-party alignment culminated in four parties each competing for influence in different parts of the country. The result of the election, with the victory of an ardent opponent of slavery, spurred the secession of eleven states and brought about the American Civil War.

Year	Winner (nationally)	Votes	Percent	Runner-up (nationally)	Votes	Percent	Runner-up (nationally)	Votes	Percent	Runner-up (nationally)	Votes	Percent	Electoral Votes
1860	Abraham Lincoln	no ballots		Stephen A. Douglas	3,282	4.7	John C. Breckinridge	40,768	59.0	John Bell	25,045	36.2	7

Elections from 1828 to 1856

Year	Winner (nationally)	Votes	Percent	Runner-up (nationally)	Votes	Percent	Other national candidates [b]	Votes	Percent	Electoral Votes	Notes
1856	James Buchanan	35,456	59.44	John C. Frémont	no ballots	—	Millard Fillmore	24,191	40.56	7
1852	Franklin Pierce	26,896	60.5	Winfield Scott	17,558	39.5	John P. Hale	no ballots		7
1848	Zachary Taylor	25,911	49.4	Lewis Cass	26,545	50.6	Martin Van Buren	no ballots		6
1844	James K. Polk	25,846	57.43	Henry Clay	19,158	42.57	—			6
1840	William Henry Harrison	19,515	53.43	Martin Van Buren	17,010	46.57	—			4
1836	Martin Van Buren	10,297	51.28	Hugh Lawson White	9,782	48.72	various [e]			4
1832	Andrew Jackson	5,750	100	Henry Clay	no ballots		William Wirt	no ballots		4
1828	Andrew Jackson	6,763	81.05	John Quincy Adams	1,581	18.95	—			3

Election of 1824

The election of 1824 was a complex realigning election following the collapse of the prevailing Democratic-Republican Party, resulting in four different candidates each claiming to carry the banner of the party, and competing for influence in different parts of the country. The election was the only one in history to be decided by the House of Representatives under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution after no candidate secured a majority of the electoral vote. It was also the only presidential election in which the candidate who received a plurality of electoral votes (Andrew Jackson) did not become president, a source of great bitterness for Jackson and his supporters, who proclaimed the election of Adams a corrupt bargain.

Year	Winner (nationally)	Votes	Percent	Runner-up (nationally)	Votes	Percent	Runner-up (nationally)	Votes	Percent	Runner-up (nationally)	Votes	Percent	Electoral Votes
1824	Andrew Jackson	3,121	63.77	John Quincy Adams	1,654	33.80	Henry Clay	no ballots	—	William H. Crawford	119	2.43	3

Election of 1820

In the election of 1820, incumbent President James Monroe ran effectively unopposed, winning all electoral votes (including Mississippi’s two electoral votes) except one vote in New Hampshire. The popular vote was primarily directed to filling the office of vice president.

See also

• Elections in Mississippi

Notes

1. George Wallace, 1968; Harry F. Byrd, 1960; Strom Thurmond, 1948.
2. For purposes of these lists, other national candidates are defined as those who won at least one electoral vote, or won at least ten percent of the vote in multiple states.
3. Won the electoral college while losing the popular vote
4. Was allied with a slate of unpledged electors in Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina
5. Three other candidates ran and received electoral votes nationally as part of the unsuccessful Whig strategy to defeat Martin Van Buren by running four candidates with local appeal in different regions of the country. The others were William Henry Harrison, Daniel Webster, and Willie Person Mangum. None of these candidates appeared on the ballot in Mississippi.

References

1. "Presidential Election Results: Biden Wins". The New York Times . Retrieved November 15, 2020.
2. 2016 official Federal Election Commission report.
3. 2012 official Federal Election Commission report.
4. 2008 official Federal Election Commission report.
5. "Federal Elections 2004: Election Results for the U.S. President, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives" (PDF). Federal Elections Commission. May 2005.
6. "2000 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
7. "1996 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
8. Trende, Sean. "Did JFK Lose the Popular Vote?". RealClearPolitics . Retrieved 20 September 2016.