Number of elections | 60 |
---|---|
Voted Democratic | 20 |
Voted Republican | 27 |
Voted other | 14 |
Voted for winning candidate | 49 |
Voted for losing candidate | 11 |
Elections in Pennsylvania |
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Government |
United States presidential elections in Pennsylvania occur when voters in the U.S. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania cast ballots for electors to the Electoral College as part of a national election to elect the President and Vice President of the United States. Regularly scheduled general elections occur on Election Day, coinciding with elections in the other 49 states and the District of Columbia. [1]
As in other states in the U.S., presidential elections are indirect elections. Voters do not cast ballots directly for a presidential candidate, but rather a slate of electors pledged to support that candidate, with the victorious slate of electors casting their ballots directly for President and Vice President of the United States as part of the Electoral College. [2] [3] During the first presidential election in 1789, Pennsylvania was allotted 15 electoral votes. In 2024, the most recent election, the state was allotted 19. This number, proportional to the state's population and decided every 10 years after a census, peaked at 38 from the 1912 election through the 1928 election. [4] The next presidential election in Pennsylvania, coinciding with the national election, is scheduled for November 7, 2028.
The list below contains election returns from all 60 quadrennial presidential elections in Pennsylvania, beginning with the first in 1789 and ending with the most recent in 2024. Incumbent Presidents are listed as well as presidential candidates who carried Pennsylvania and runner(s)-up in the state, including major third-party candidates (garnering 5% or more of the popular vote). Bold indicates the candidate who won the election nationally. Parties are color-coded to the left of a President's or candidate's name according to the key below. The popular vote and percentage margins listed in the "Margin" column are the differences between the total votes received and percentage of the popular vote received by the top two finishers in the corresponding election (i.e. the margin-of-victory of a candidate who carried Pennsylvania over the nearest competitor). The "E.V." section denotes the number of electoral votes cast in favor of the candidate who carried the state, which has been unanimous except for two occasions—1796 and 1800—in which the number in parentheses represents the number of votes cast for the runner-up.
In all, the Republican Party has carried Pennsylvania in 27 presidential elections, the Democratic Party in 20, the Democratic-Republican Party in 8, the Whig Party in 2, and the Progressive Party in 1 (1912). A nonpartisan candidate, George Washington, carried the state twice (in 1789 and 1792). Pennsylvania has voted for the overall victor in 49 of 60 elections (81.7% of the time) and is tied with Michigan and Wisconsin for the longest active streak of voting for the winning candidate.
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
Independent Federalist Democratic-Republican Democratic Whig Republican National Republican Anti-Masonic Know Nothing/American Southern Democratic National Union (1864) Liberal Republican Progressive (1912) Socialist Progressive (1924) American Independent Reform
Election | Incumbent president | Pennsylvania winner | Votes | E.V. | PA runner(s)-up | Votes | Margin | Turnout [note 1] | Notes | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1789 | Office established | George Washington | 7,383 (100.00%) | 15 | None | — | — | |||||
1792 | George Washington | George Washington | 4,576 (100.00%) | 15 | None | — | — | |||||
1796 | George Washington | Thomas Jefferson | 12,516 (50.58%) | 14 (1) | John Adams | 12,229 (49.42%) | 289 (1.16%) | [5] [note 2] | ||||
1800 | John Adams | Thomas Jefferson | 60 (64.52%) | 8 (7) | John Adams | 33 (35.48%) | 27 (29.04%) | — | [6] [note 3] | |||
1804 | Thomas Jefferson | Thomas Jefferson | 22,081 (94.69%) | 20 | Charles Pinckney | 1,239 (5.31%) | 20,842 (89.38%) | [7] | ||||
1808 | Thomas Jefferson | James Madison | 42,508 (78.37%) | 20 | Charles Pinckney | 11,735 (21.63%) | 30,733 (56.74%) | [8] | ||||
1812 | James Madison | James Madison | 48,816 (62.60%) | 25 | DeWitt Clinton | 29,162 (37.40%) | 19,654 (25.20%) | [9] | ||||
1816 | James Madison | James Monroe | 25,653 (59.33%) | 25 | Rufus King | 17,588 (40.67%) | 8,065 (18.66%) | [10] | ||||
1820 | James Monroe | James Monroe | 30,313 (94.12%) | 24 | DeWitt Clinton | 1,893 (5.88%) | 28,420 (88.24%) | [11] | ||||
1824 | James Monroe | Andrew Jackson | 35,929 (76.04%) | 28 | John Q. Adams | 5,436 (11.50%) | 30,493 (64.54%) | [12] | ||||
William H. Crawford | 4,182 (8.85%) | |||||||||||
1828 | John Q. Adams | Andrew Jackson | 101,652 (66.66%) | 28 | John Q. Adams | 50,848 (33.34%) | 50,804 (33.32%) | [13] | ||||
1832 | Andrew Jackson | Andrew Jackson | 91,949 (57.96%) | 30 | William Wirt | 66,689 (42.04%) | 25,260 (15.92%) | [14] | ||||
1836 | Andrew Jackson | Martin Van Buren | 91,457 (51.18%) | 30 | William H. Harrison | 87,235 (48.82%) | 4,222 (2.36%) | [15] | ||||
1840 | Martin Van Buren | William H. Harrison | 144,010 (50.00%) | 30 | Martin Van Buren | 143,676 (49.88%) | 334 (0.12%) | [16] | ||||
1844 | John Tyler | James K. Polk | 167,447 (50.50%) | 26 | Henry Clay | 161,125 (48.59%) | 6,322 (1.91%) | [17] | ||||
1848 | James K. Polk | Zachary Taylor | 185,313 (50.28%) | 26 | Lewis Cass | 171,976 (46.66%) | 13,337 (1.91%) | [18] | ||||
1852 | Millard Fillmore | Franklin Pierce | 198,562 (51.20%) | 27 | Winfield Scott | 179,104 (46.18%) | 19,458 (5.02%) | [19] [note 4] | ||||
1856 | Franklin Pierce | James Buchanan | 230,686 (50.13%) | 27 | John C. Frémont | 147,286 (32.01%) | 83,400 (18.12%) | [20] | ||||
Millard Fillmore | 82,189 (17.86%) | |||||||||||
1860 | James Buchanan | Abraham Lincoln | 268,030 (56.26%) | 27 | John C. Breckinridge | 178,871 (37.54%) | 89,159 (18.72%) | [21] | ||||
1864 | Abraham Lincoln | Abraham Lincoln | 296,391 (51.75%) | 26 | George B. McClellan | 276,316 (48.25%) | 20,075 (3.50%) | [22] [note 5] | ||||
1868 | Andrew Johnson | Ulysses S. Grant | 342,280 (52.20%) | 26 | Horatio Seymour | 313,382 (47.80%) | 28,898 (4.40%) | [23] [note 6] | ||||
1872 | Ulysses S. Grant | Ulysses S. Grant | 349,589 (62.07%) | 29 | Horace Greeley | 212,041 (37.65%) | 137,548 (24.42%) | [24] | ||||
1876 | Ulysses S. Grant | Rutherford B. Hayes | 384,184 (50.62%) | 29 | Samuel J. Tilden | 366,204 (48.25%) | 17,980 (2.37%) | [25] | ||||
1880 | Rutherford B. Hayes | James A. Garfield | 444,704 (50.84%) | 29 | Winfield Scott Hancock | 407,428 (46.57%) | 37,276 (4.27%) | [26] | ||||
1884 | Chester A. Arthur | James G. Blaine | 478,804 (52.97%) | 30 | Grover Cleveland | 392,785 (43.46%) | 86,019 (9.51%) | [27] [note 7] | ||||
1888 | Grover Cleveland | Benjamin Harrison | 526,091 (52.74%) | 30 | Grover Cleveland | 446,633 (44.77%) | 79,458 (7.97%) | [28] | ||||
1892 | Benjamin Harrison | Benjamin Harrison | 516,011 (51.45%) | 32 | Grover Cleveland | 452,264 (45.09%) | 63,747 (6.36%) | [29] | ||||
1896 | Grover Cleveland | William McKinley | 728,300 (60.98%) | 32 | William Jennings Bryan | 433,228 (36.27%) | 295,072 (24.71%) | [30] | ||||
1900 | William McKinley | William McKinley | 712,665 (60.74%) | 32 | William Jennings Bryan | 424,232 (36.16%) | 288,433 (24.58%) | [31] | ||||
1904 | Theodore Roosevelt | Theodore Roosevelt | 840,949 (68.00%) | 34 | Alton B. Parker | 337,998 (27.33%) | 502,951 (40.67%) | [32] [note 8] | ||||
1908 | Theodore Roosevelt | William Howard Taft | 745,779 (58.84%) | 34 | William Jennings Bryan | 448,782 (35.41%) | 296,997 (23.43%) | [33] | ||||
1912 | William Howard Taft | Theodore Roosevelt | 444,894 (36.53%) | 38 | Woodrow Wilson | 395,637 (32.49%) | 49,257 (4.04%) | [34] | ||||
William Howard Taft | 273,360 (22.45%) | |||||||||||
Eugene V. Debs | 83,614 (6.87%) | |||||||||||
1916 | Woodrow Wilson | Charles Evans Hughes | 703,823 (54.26%) | 38 | Woodrow Wilson | 521,784 (40.22%) | 406,826 (14.04%) | [35] | ||||
1920 | Woodrow Wilson | Warren G. Harding | 1,218,216 (65.76%) | 38 | James M. Cox | 503,843 (27.20%) | 714,373 (38.56%) | [36] | ||||
1924 | Calvin Coolidge | Calvin Coolidge | 1,401,481 (65.34%) | 38 | John W. Davis | 409,192 (19.08%) | 992,289 (46.26%) | [37] [note 9] | ||||
Robert M. La Follette, Sr. | 307,567 (14.34%) | |||||||||||
1928 | Calvin Coolidge | Herbert Hoover | 2,055,382 (65.24%) | 38 | Al Smith | 1,067,586 (33.89%) | 987,796 (31.35%) | [38] | ||||
1932 | Herbert Hoover | Herbert Hoover | 1,453,540 (50.84%) | 36 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 1,295,948 (45.33%) | 157,592 (5.51%) | [39] | ||||
1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 2,353,987 (56.88%) | 36 | Alf Landon | 1,690,200 (40.84%) | 663,787 (16.04%) | [40] | ||||
1940 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 2,171,035 (53.23%) | 36 | Wendell Willkie | 1,889,848 (46.33%) | 281,187 (6.90%) | [41] | ||||
1944 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 1,940,479 (51.14%) | 35 | Thomas E. Dewey | 1,835,054 (48.36%) | 105,425 (2.78%) | [42] | ||||
1948 | Harry S. Truman | Thomas E. Dewey | 1,902,197 (50.93%) | 35 | Harry S. Truman | 1,752,426 (46.92%) | 149,771 (4.01%) | [43] [note 10] | ||||
1952 | Harry S. Truman | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 2,415,789 (52.74%) | 32 | Adlai Stevenson II | 2,146,269 (46.85%) | 269,520 (5.89%) | [44] | ||||
1956 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 2,585,252 (56.49%) | 32 | Adlai Stevenson II | 1,981,769 (43.30%) | 603,483 (5.89%) | [45] | ||||
1960 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | John F. Kennedy | 2,556,282 (51.06%) | 32 | Richard Nixon | 2,439,956 (48.74%) | 116,326 (2.32%) | 70.3% [46] | [47] | |||
1964 | Lyndon B. Johnson | Lyndon B. Johnson | 3,130,954 (64.92%) | 29 | Barry Goldwater | 1,673,657 (34.70%) | 1,457,297 (30.22%) | 67.9% [46] | [48] [note 11] | |||
1968 | Lyndon B. Johnson | Hubert Humphrey | 2,259,405 (47.59%) | 29 | Richard Nixon | 2,090,017 (44.02%) | 169,388 (3.57%) | 65.3% [46] | [49] | |||
George Wallace | 378,582 (7.97%) | |||||||||||
1972 | Richard Nixon | Richard Nixon | 2,714,521 (59.11%) | 27 | George McGovern | 1,796,951 (39.13%) | 917,570 (19.98%) | 56.0% [46] | [50] | |||
1976 | Gerald Ford | Jimmy Carter | 2,328,677 (50.40%) | 27 | Gerald Ford | 2,205,604 (47.73%) | 123,073 (2.67%) | 54.2% [46] | [51] [note 12] | |||
1980 | Jimmy Carter | Ronald Reagan | 2,261,872 (49.59%) | 27 | Jimmy Carter | 1,937,540 (42.48%) | 324,332 (7.11%) | 51.9% [46] | [52] | |||
John B. Anderson | 292,921 (6.42%) | |||||||||||
1984 | Ronald Reagan | Ronald Reagan | 2,584,323 (53.34%) | 25 | Walter Mondale | 2,228,131 (45.99%) | 356,202 (7.35%) | 54.0% [46] | [53] | |||
1988 | Ronald Reagan | George H. W. Bush | 2,300,087 (50.70%) | 25 | Michael Dukakis | 2,194,944 (48.39%) | 105,143 (2.31%) | 50.1% [46] | [54] | |||
1992 | George H. W. Bush | Bill Clinton | 2,239,164 (45.15%) | 23 | George H. W. Bush | 1,791,841 (36.12%) | 447,323 (9.03%) | 54.3% [46] | [55] | |||
Ross Perot | 902,667 (18.20%) | |||||||||||
1996 | Bill Clinton | Bill Clinton | 2,215,819 (49.17%) | 23 | Bob Dole | 1,801,169 (39.97%) | 414,650 (9.20%) | 48.9% [46] | [56] | |||
Ross Perot | 430,984 (9.56%) | |||||||||||
2000 | Bill Clinton | Al Gore | 2,485,967 (50.61%) | 23 | George W. Bush | 2,281,127 (46.44%) | 204,840 (4.17%) | 52.4% [46] | [57] | |||
2004 | George W. Bush | John Kerry | 2,938,095 (50.96%) | 21 | George W. Bush | 2,793,847 (48.46%) | 144,248 (2.50%) | 60.0% [46] | [58] | |||
2008 | George W. Bush | Barack Obama | 3,276,363 (54.65%) | 21 | John McCain | 2,655,885 (44.30%) | 620,478 (10.35%) | 62.1% [46] | [59] | |||
2012 | Barack Obama | Barack Obama | 2,990,274 (52.08%) | 20 | Mitt Romney | 2,680,434 (46.68%) | 309,840 (5.40%) | 58.1% [46] | [60] | |||
2016 | Barack Obama | Donald Trump | 2,970,733 (48.17%) | 20 | Hillary Clinton | 2,926,441 (47.46%) | 44,292 (0.72%) | 60.27% | [61] | |||
2020 | Donald Trump | Joe Biden | 3,458,229 (50.01%) | 20 | Donald Trump | 3,377,674 (48.84%) | 80,555 (1.16%) | 70.93% | [62] | |||
2024 | Joe Biden | Donald Trump | 3,543,308 (50.37%) | 19 | Kamala Harris | 3,423,042 (48.66%) | 67,856 (0.96%) | 76.60% | [63] |
Note: Bold candidate indicates president elected nationally.
Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 7, 1876. Republican Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio very narrowly defeated Democrat Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York. Following President Ulysses S. Grant's decision to retire after his second term, U.S. Representative James G. Blaine emerged as frontrunner for the Republican nomination; however, Blaine was unable to win a majority at the 1876 Republican National Convention, which settled on Hayes as a compromise candidate. The 1876 Democratic National Convention nominated Tilden on the second ballot.
Presidential elections were held in the United States from November 2 to December 5, 1792. Incumbent President George Washington was elected to a second term by a unanimous vote in the electoral college, while John Adams was reelected as vice president. Washington was essentially unopposed, but Adams faced a competitive re-election against Governor George Clinton of New York.
Presidential elections were held in the United States from November 4 to December 7, 1796, when electors throughout the United States cast their ballots. It was the first contested American presidential election, the first presidential election in which political parties played a dominant role, and the only presidential election in which a president and vice president were elected from opposing tickets. Incumbent vice president John Adams of the Federalist Party defeated former secretary of state Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party.
Presidential elections were held in the United States from October 31 to December 3, 1800. In what is sometimes called the "Revolution of 1800", the Democratic-Republican Party candidate, Vice President Thomas Jefferson, defeated the Federalist Party candidate and incumbent, President John Adams. The election was a political realignment that ushered in a generation of Democratic-Republican leadership. This was the first presidential election in American history to be a rematch. It was also the first election in American history where an incumbent president did not win re-election.
Presidential elections were held in the United States from October 30 to December 2, 1812. In the shadow of the War of 1812, incumbent Democratic-Republican President James Madison defeated DeWitt Clinton, the lieutenant governor of New York and mayor of New York City, who drew support from dissident Democratic-Republicans in the North as well as Federalists. It was the first presidential election to be held during a major war involving the United States.
Presidential elections were held in the United States from November 1 to December 4, 1816. In the first election following the end of the War of 1812, Democratic-Republican candidate James Monroe defeated Federalist Rufus King. The election was the last in which the Federalist Party fielded a presidential candidate.
Presidential elections were held in the United States from November 1 to December 6, 1820. Taking place at the height of the Era of Good Feelings, the election saw incumbent Democratic-Republican President James Monroe win reelection without a major opponent. It was the third and the most recent United States presidential election in which a presidential candidate ran effectively unopposed. James Monroe's re-election marked the first time in U.S. history that a third consecutive president won a second election.
Presidential elections were held in the United States from November 2 to December 5, 1832. Incumbent president Andrew Jackson, candidate of the Democratic Party, defeated Henry Clay, candidate of the National Republican Party.
Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 5, 1872. Incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant, the Republican nominee, defeated Democratic-endorsed Liberal Republican nominee Horace Greeley.
In the United States, the Electoral College is the group of presidential electors that is formed every four years during the presidential election for the sole purpose of voting for the president and vice president. This process is described in Article Two of the Constitution. The number of electoral votes exercised by each state is equal to that state's congressional delegation which is the number of Senators (two) plus the number of Representatives for that state. Each state appoints electors using legal procedures determined by its legislature. Federal office holders, including senators and representatives, cannot be electors. Additionally, the Twenty-third Amendment granted the federal District of Columbia three electors. A simple majority of electoral votes is required to elect the president and vice president. If no candidate achieves a majority, a contingent election is held by the House of Representatives, to elect the president, and by the Senate, to elect the vice president.
In the United States Electoral College, a faithless elector is an elector who does not vote for the candidates for U.S. President and U.S. Vice President for whom the elector had pledged to vote, and instead votes for another person for one or both offices or abstains from voting. As part of United States presidential elections, each state legislates the method by which its electors are to be selected. Many states require electors to have pledged to vote for the candidates of their party if appointed. The consequences of an elector voting in a way inconsistent with their pledge vary from state to state.
The election of the president and for vice president of the United States is an indirect election in which citizens of the United States who are registered to vote in one of the fifty U.S. states or in Washington, D.C., cast ballots not directly for those offices, but instead for members of the Electoral College. These electors then cast direct votes, known as electoral votes, for president and for vice president. The candidate who receives an absolute majority of electoral votes is then elected to that office. If no candidate receives an absolute majority of the votes for president, the House of Representatives elects the president; likewise if no one receives an absolute majority of the votes for vice president, then the Senate elects the vice president.
The 1812 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania took place as part of the 1812 United States presidential election. Voters chose 25 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.
The 1800 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania took place on December 1, 1800, during a special session of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Members of the bicameral state legislature chose 15 electors to represent Pennsylvania in the Electoral College as part of the 1800 United States presidential election. Eight Democratic-Republican electors and seven Federalist electors were selected. Unlike in the previous election, when one elector split his ballot between Republican Thomas Jefferson and Federalist Thomas Pinckney, all 15 electors followed the party line, with the Republicans voting for Jefferson and his running mate Aaron Burr and the Federalists for incumbent President John Adams and his running, mate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. This was the first and only U.S. presidential election in which Pennsylvania's electors were not chosen by popular vote.
The 1956 United States presidential election in Maryland took place on November 6, 1956, as part of the 1956 United States presidential election. State voters chose nine representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
Electoral history of John Adams, who had served as the second president of the United States (1797–1801) and the first vice president of the United States (1789–1797). Prior to being president, he had diplomatic experience as the second United States envoy to France (1777–1779), the first United States minister to the Netherlands (1782–1788), and the first United States minister to the United Kingdom (1785–1788). After losing the 1800 presidential election to Thomas Jefferson, he would mostly retire from political life, with his second youngest son, John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), being elected as the sixth president of the United States (1825–1829) in the 1824 presidential election against Senator Andrew Jackson of Tennessee.