Some interesting trivia from Presidential elections. I'm starting with the 1824 election, for two reasons one, the popular vote was not used in Presidential elections prior to 1824, and two, the Democratic Party came into being in the 1824 election behind Andrew Jackson (at that time they called themselves the Democratic-Republican party).

Democrats presented a candidate in 49 Presidential elections so far, winning 23 of them. Republicans presented a candidate in 41 Presidential elections so far winning 24 of them.

Democrats running for re-election as President won 7 out of 9 such elections. Republicans running for re-election as President won 7 out of 10 such elections.

In the 49 Presidential elections starting with 1824, the winning candidate received a majority (50.1%) of the Popular Vote 29 times. Only twice has a candidate received 60% of the Popular Vote. A candidate has won election with as little as 39.8% of the Popular Vote.

Democrats ran for re-election 9 times, and increased their share of the Popular Vote 3 times while decreasing their share of the Popular Vote 6 times. Republicans ran for re-election 10 times, and increased their share of the Popular Vote 7 times while decreasing their share of the Popular Vote 3 times.

Three Democrats won their first term with less than 50% of the Popular Vote. While two of them won re-election, none of the three was able to win more than 50% of the Popular Vote in their re-election bid. Four Republicans won their first term with less than 50% of the Popular Vote. Three won re-election, and all three claimed more than 50% of the Popular Vote in their re-election bid.

Bonus: In 1872 Democrats nominated Horace Greeley (from New York) as their nominee, but instead of calling their candidate a Democrat, the Democrats ran Greeley as the "Liberal Republican" against the incumbent Grant. Greeley died 24 days after the election, so officially the Democrats won no electoral votes in that election, although they would have lost in any case. Also, a splinter group of Democrats nominated Charles O'Conor as the "Straight-Out Democrats" candidate; he claimed 0.3% of the Popular Vote, but his VP nominee was notable: John Quincy Adams II of Massachusetts.

The Curse of Tippecanoe - President's elected in years divisible by 20 have almost all died since 1840. If Trump is re-elected, he may not finish his term alive.

1840 - William Henry Harrison died of Typhoid
1860 - Lincoln assassinated
1880 - James Garfield assassinated
1900 - William McKinley assassinated
1920 - Warren Harding died of a heart attack
1940 - FDR had a cerebral hemorrhage
1960 - JFK assassinated
1980 - Ronald Reagan survived a gunshot wound
2000 - George W Bush survived an assassination attempt

The Curse of Tippecanoe - In 1811, William Henry Harrison lead a battle at Tippecanoe against a group of native american tribes lead by Tecumseh. Harrison won and earned the nickname "Old Tippecanoe." After the battle, Tecumseh's brother set a curse against Harrison who became the first victim of the curse.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan became the first president to survive the curse in 140 years. But, endured a gunshot wound from an attempted assassination. How did Reagan break the curse? He was the first president to be inaugurated on the west facing steps of Capitol Hill. He said that he never wanted to turn his back on Americans and it is said that attitude is what broke the curse.

In 2000, George Bush survived an assassination attempt after a grenade was thrown at he and Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili but failed to explode.

In 2020, Biden? Trump?

source: wikipedia.....and my tour guide from a trip to DC last week.

All very interesting information. What I found most pertinent to today is that it is fairly common to elect a president from either party with less than 50% of the popular vote.

So much chatter today is aimed at abandoning the electoral college for the popular vote. It looks like the EC has benefitted both parties.