The following table presents data on the United States presidential elections. Each row shows information on the winner of the presidency and the winner's strongest opponent.

This data shows that in 2004, Bush had the weakest margin of victory by which a U. S. president has ever been re-elected.

Votes are counted in thousands (given the margin of error and the discrepancies among the different sources i used, it didn't seem justified to report significance down to single votes). "VAP" stands for "voting-age population". "EVs" stands for "electoral votes". The blue column along the right side shows the total number of votes cast, together with its percentage of VAP (thus providing a measure of the turnout). The bold green rows are years that the president was re-elected; the italic red rows are years that the president was defeated by a challenger.

The central orange column shows the margins of victory measured as a percentage of the popular vote. In 2004, Bush won by 3.1%, which is the smallest bold number in that column. You can also see that the percentage of the voting-age population that voted for Kerry is the highest for any defeated challenger since 1960; based on the rest of the popular vote percentages, it's likely that a larger fraction of eligible voters voted for Kerry than any defeated challenger in history.

Year Winner Votes % Votes % VAP EVs Margin Opponent Votes % Votes % VAP EVs Voters % VAP
1789 Washington (F) 69 Adams (F) 34
1792 Washington (F) 132 Adams (F) 77
1796 Adams (F) 71 Jefferson (D-R) 68
1800 Jefferson (D-R) 73 Burr (D-R) 73
1804 Jefferson (D-R) 162 Pinckney (F) 14
1808 Madison (D-R) 122 Pinckney (F) 47
1812 Madison (D-R) 128 Clinton (F) 89
1816 Monroe (D-R) 183 King (F) 34
1820 Monroe (D-R) 231 Adams (N-R) 1
1824 Adams (Coalition) 88 29.4% 84 -9.8% Jackson (D-R) 117 39.2% 99 299
1828 Jackson (D) 579 53.5% 178 7.5% Adams (N-R) 498 46.0% 83 1081
1832 Jackson (D) 676 53.3% 219 15.1% Clay (N-R) 484 38.2% 49 1268
1836 Van Buren (D) 750 50.3% 170 0.6% Harrison (W) 741 49.6% 73 1492
1840 Harrison (W) 1275 52.9% 234 6.1% Van Buren (D) 1129 46.8% 60 2412
1844 Polk (D) 1339 49.5% 170 1.5% Clay (W) 1300 48.1% 105 2704
1848 Taylor (W) 1361 47.3% 163 4.8% Cass (D) 1223 42.5% 127 2879
1852 Pierce (D) 1602 50.7% 254 6.8% Scott (W) 1387 43.9% 42 3162
1856 Buchanan (D) 1836 45.3% 174 12.2% Fremont (R) 1342 33.1% 114 4055
1860 Lincoln (R) 1866 39.8% 180 23.0% Breckinridge (D) 788 16.8% 72 4685
1864 Lincoln (R) 2218 55.0% 212 10.1% McClellan (D) 1813 45.0% 21 4032
1868 Grant (R) 3014 52.7% 214 5.3% Seymour (D) 2709 47.3% 80 5722
1872 Grant (R) 3598 55.5% 286 11.7% Greeley (D-LR) 2842 43.8% 0 6482
1876 Hayes (R) 4034 48.0% 185 -3.0% Tilden (D) 4289 51.0% 184 8413
1880 Garfield (R) 4446 48.3% 214 0.0% Hancock (D) 4444 48.3% 155 9210
1884 Cleveland (D) 4875 48.5% 219 0.3% Blaine (R) 4849 48.2% 182 10050
1888 Harrison (R) 5444 47.8% 233 -0.8% Cleveland (D) 5534 48.6% 168 11383
1892 Cleveland (D) 5552 46.1% 277 3.1% Harrison (R) 5179 43.0% 145 12057
1896 McKinley (R) 7108 51.0% 271 4.2% Bryan (D-P) 6520 46.8% 176 13936
1900 McKinley (R) 7218 51.7% 292 6.9% Bryan (D-P) 6256 44.8% 155 13970
1904 Roosevelt (R) 7627 56.4% 336 18.8% Parker (D) 5083 37.6% 140 13519
1908 Taft (R) 7676 51.6% 321 8.5% Bryan (D) 6407 43.0% 162 14883
1912 Wilson (D) 6293 41.8% 435 14.4% Roosevelt (P) 4120 27.4% 88 15041
1916 Wilson (D) 9126 49.2% 277 3.1% Hughes (R) 8547 46.1% 254 18533
1920 Harding (R) 16171 60.3% 404 26.2% Cox (D) 9140 34.1% 127 26798
1924 Coolidge (R) 15718 54.1% 382 25.2% Davis (D) 8386 28.8% 136 29076
1928 Hoover (R) 21373 58.1% 444 17.3% Smith (D) 15000 40.8% 87 36790
1932 Roosevelt (D) 22825 57.4% 472 17.8% Hoover (R) 15758 39.6% 59 39747
1936 Roosevelt (D) 27748 60.8% 523 24.2% Landon (R) 16680 36.5% 8 45642
1940 Roosevelt (D) 27263 54.7% 449 9.9% Willkie (R) 22306 44.8% 82 49840
1944 Roosevelt (D) 25594 53.4% 432 7.5% Dewey (R) 22005 45.9% 99 47967
1948 Truman (D) 24106 49.5% 303 4.4% Dewey (R) 21970 45.1% 189 48692
1952 Eisenhower (R) 33936 55.1% 442 10.8% Stevenson (D) 27315 44.4% 89 61551
1956 Eisenhower (R) 35585 57.4% 457 15.4% Stevenson (D) 26030 42.0% 73 62025
1960 Kennedy (D) 34200 49.7% 31.3% 303 0.2% Nixon (R) 34088 49.6% 31.2% 219 68783 63.0%
1964 Johnson (D) 42957 61.0% 37.7% 486 22.4% Goldwater (R) 27149 38.5% 23.8% 52 70443 61.7%
1968 Nixon (R) 31759 43.6% 26.4% 301 0.9% Humphrey (D) 31136 42.7% 25.9% 191 72906 60.6%
1972 Nixon (R) 47169 59.9% 33.5% 520 22.9% McGovern (D) 29171 37.1% 20.7% 17 78727 55.9%
1976 Carter (D) 40826 50.1% 26.8% 297 2.1% Ford (R) 39148 48.0% 25.7% 240 81556 53.5%
1980 Reagan (R) 43902 50.7% 26.7% 489 9.7% Carter (D) 35484 41.0% 21.6% 49 86515 52.6%
1984 Reagan (R) 54455 58.8% 31.2% 525 18.2% Mondale (D) 37577 40.6% 21.5% 13 92653 53.1%
1988 Bush (R) 47946 52.3% 26.2% 426 7.6% Dukakis (D) 41016 44.8% 22.4% 111 91595 50.1%
1992 Clinton (D) 44908 43.0% 23.7% 370 5.6% Bush (R) 39102 37.5% 20.6% 168 104405 55.1%
1996 Clinton (D) 45591 47.3% 23.2% 379 8.1% Dole (R) 37816 39.2% 19.2% 159 96456 49.1%
2000 Bush (R) 50456 47.9% 24.1% 271 -0.5% Gore (D) 50997 48.4% 24.4% 266 105405 50.4%
2004 Bush (R) 58979 51.1% 27.1% 279 3.1% Kerry (D) 55384 48.0% 25.4% 252 115428 53.0%
Year Winner Votes % Votes % VAP EVs Margin Opponent Votes % Votes % VAP EVs Voters % VAP

Sources: Federal Register data for 1789 to 2000, ICPSR election results for 1824 to 1972, FEC VAP and turnout figures for 1960 to 1996, FEC election results for 2000, Census 2000, Washington Post results for 2004, FEC VAP figures for 2004.

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