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This article is a list of United States presidential candidates. The first U.S. presidential election was held in 1788–1789, followed by the second in 1792. Presidential elections have been held every four years thereafter.

Presidential candidates win the election by winning a majority of the electoral vote. If no candidate wins a majority of the electoral vote, the winner is determined through a contingent election held in the United States House of Representatives; this situation has occurred twice in U.S. history. The procedures governing presidential elections were changed significantly with the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804. Since 1824, a national popular vote has been tallied for each election, but the national popular vote does not directly affect the winner of the presidential election.

The United States has had a two-party system for much of its history, and the major parties of the two-party system have dominated presidential elections for most of U.S. history.^[1] The two current major parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. At various points prior to the American Civil War, the Federalist Party, the Democratic-Republican Party, the National Republican Party, and the Whig Party were major parties.^[1] These six parties have nominated candidates in the vast majority of presidential elections, though some presidential elections have deviated from the normal pattern of two major party candidates. In most elections, third party and independent candidates have also sought the presidency, but no such candidates have won the presidency since the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment, and only two such candidates have finished second in either the popular vote or the electoral vote.

Pre-12th Amendment: 1789–1800

Prior to the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804, each member of the Electoral College cast two votes, with no distinction made between electoral votes for president and electoral votes for vice president. Under these rules, the individual who received the most electoral votes would become president, and the individual who received the second most electoral votes would become vice president.^[2]^[a]

The following candidates received at least one electoral vote in elections held before the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804.^[3]^[4] Winning candidates are bolded. Political parties began to nominate presidential candidates in the 1796 presidential election,^[5] and candidates are listed as members of the Democratic-Republican Party (DR) or the Federalist Party (F) for the 1796 and 1800 elections.

Year	Winning Candidate	Runner-up	Others receiving electoral votes
1789	George Washington	John Adams	John Jay, Robert H. Harrison, John Rutledge, John Hancock, George Clinton, Samuel Huntington, John Milton, James Armstrong, Benjamin Lincoln, Edward Telfair
1792	George Washington	John Adams	George Clinton, Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr
1796	John Adams (F)	Thomas Jefferson (DR)	Thomas Pinckney (F), Aaron Burr (DR), Samuel Adams (DR), Oliver Ellsworth (F), George Clinton (DR), John Jay (F), James Iredell (F), Samuel Johnston (F), George Washington, John Henry (F), Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (F)
1800	Thomas Jefferson (DR)	Aaron Burr (DR)	John Adams (F), Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (F), John Jay (F)

Post-12th Amendment: 1804–present

Since the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804, each member of the Electoral College has cast one vote for president and one vote for vice president, and presidential candidates have generally competed on a ticket with a running mate who seeks to win the vice presidency.^[2]^[b] Since 1824, the national popular vote has been recorded,^[3] though the national popular vote has no direct effect on the winner of the election.^[c]

The following candidates won at least 0.1% of the national popular vote in elections held since 1824, or won at least one electoral vote from an elector who was not a faithless elector.^[4]^[6]

† and bolded indicates a winning candidate
‡ indicates a losing candidate who won a plurality or majority of the popular vote
↑ indicates a third party or independent candidate who finished second in the popular vote or the electoral vote (or both)
§ indicates a pending election that hasn't been fully confirmed

Year	Democratic-Republican candidate	Federalist candidate	Other candidate(s)
1804	Thomas Jefferson†	Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
1808	James Madison†	Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
1812	James Madison†	DeWitt Clinton^[d]
1816	James Monroe†	Rufus King^[e]
1820	James Monroe†	No opponent^[f]
Year	Democratic-Republican candidate	Democratic-Republican candidate	Other candidate(s)
1824	Andrew Jackson‡^[g]	John Quincy Adams†^[g]	William H. Crawford (Democratic-Republican) Henry Clay (Democratic-Republican)
Year	Democratic candidate	National Republican candidate	Other candidate(s)
1828	Andrew Jackson†	John Quincy Adams
1832	Andrew Jackson†	Henry Clay	John Floyd (Nullifier) William Wirt (Anti-Masonic)
Year	Democratic candidate	Whig candidate	Other candidate(s)
1836	Martin Van Buren†	William Henry Harrison^[h]	Hugh Lawson White (Whig) Daniel Webster (Whig) Willie Person Mangum (Whig)
1840	Martin Van Buren	William Henry Harrison†	James G. Birney (Liberty)
1844	James K. Polk†	Henry Clay	James G. Birney (Liberty)
1848	Lewis Cass	Zachary Taylor†	Martin Van Buren (Free Soil)
1852	Franklin Pierce†	Winfield Scott	John P. Hale (Free Soil) Daniel Webster (Whig)^[i]
Year	Democratic candidate	Republican candidate	Other candidate(s)
1856	James Buchanan†	John C. Frémont	Millard Fillmore (American)^[j]
1860	Stephen A. Douglas^[k]	Abraham Lincoln†	John C. Breckinridge↑ (Southern Democratic)^[k] John Bell (Constitutional Union)
1864	George B. McClellan	Abraham Lincoln†^[l]
1868	Horatio Seymour	Ulysses S. Grant†
1872	Horace Greeley^[m]	Ulysses S. Grant†	Charles O'Conor (Straight-Out Democratic)
1876	Samuel J. Tilden‡^[n]	Rutherford B. Hayes†	Peter Cooper (Greenback)
1880	Winfield Scott Hancock	James A. Garfield†	James B. Weaver (Greenback) Neal Dow (Prohibition)
1884	Grover Cleveland†	James G. Blaine	John St. John (Prohibition) Benjamin Butler (Greenback/Anti-Monopoly)
1888	Grover Cleveland‡	Benjamin Harrison†	Clinton B. Fisk (Prohibition) Alson Streeter (Union Labor)
1892	Grover Cleveland†	Benjamin Harrison	James B. Weaver (Populist) John Bidwell (Prohibition) Simon Wing (Socialist Labor)
1896	William Jennings Bryan^[o]	William McKinley†	John M. Palmer (National Democratic) Joshua Levering (Prohibition) Charles H. Matchett (Socialist Labor) Charles E. Bentley (National Prohibition)
1900	William Jennings Bryan	William McKinley†	John G. Woolley (Prohibition) Eugene V. Debs (Social Democratic) Wharton Barker (Populist) Joseph F. Maloney (Socialist Labor)
1904	Alton B. Parker	Theodore Roosevelt†	Eugene V. Debs (Socialist) Silas C. Swallow (Prohibition) Thomas E. Watson (Populist) Charles H. Corregan (Socialist Labor)
1908	William Jennings Bryan	William Howard Taft†	Eugene V. Debs (Socialist) Eugene W. Chafin (Prohibition) Thomas L. Hisgen (Independence) Thomas E. Watson (Populist)
1912	Woodrow Wilson†	William Howard Taft	Theodore Roosevelt↑ (Progressive) Eugene V. Debs (Socialist) Eugene W. Chafin (Prohibition) Arthur E. Reimer (Socialist Labor)
1916	Woodrow Wilson†	Charles Evans Hughes	Allan L. Benson (Socialist) Frank Hanly (Prohibition)
1920	James M. Cox	Warren G. Harding†	Eugene V. Debs (Socialist) Parley P. Christensen (Farmer-Labor) Aaron Watkins (Prohibition) James E. Ferguson (American) William Wesley Cox (Socialist Labor)
1924	John W. Davis	Calvin Coolidge†	Robert M. La Follette (Progressive) Herman P. Faris (Prohibition) William Z. Foster (Communist) Frank T. Johns (Socialist Labor)
1928	Al Smith	Herbert Hoover†	Norman Thomas (Socialist) William Z. Foster (Communist)
1932	Franklin D. Roosevelt†	Herbert Hoover	Norman Thomas (Socialist) William Z. Foster (Communist) William D. Upshaw (Prohibition) William Hope Harvey (Liberty)
1936	Franklin D. Roosevelt†	Alf Landon	William Lemke (Union) Norman Thomas (Socialist) Earl Browder (Communist)
1940	Franklin D. Roosevelt†	Wendell Willkie	Norman Thomas (Socialist) Roger W. Babson (Prohibition) Earl Browder (Communist)
1944	Franklin D. Roosevelt†	Thomas E. Dewey	Norman Thomas (Socialist) Claude A. Watson (Prohibition)
1948	Harry S. Truman†	Thomas E. Dewey	Strom Thurmond (States' Rights) Henry A. Wallace (Progressive) Norman Thomas (Socialist) Claude A. Watson (Prohibition)
1952	Adlai Stevenson II	Dwight D. Eisenhower†	Vincent Hallinan (Progressive) Stuart Hamblen (Prohibition)
1956	Adlai Stevenson II	Dwight D. Eisenhower†	T. Coleman Andrews (States' Rights)
1960	John F. Kennedy†	Richard Nixon	Harry F. Byrd (Democratic)^[p]
1964	Lyndon B. Johnson†	Barry Goldwater
1968	Hubert Humphrey	Richard Nixon†	George Wallace (American Independent)
1972	George McGovern	Richard Nixon†	John G. Schmitz (American Independent) Linda Jenness (Socialist Workers) Benjamin Spock (People's Party)
1976	Jimmy Carter†	Gerald Ford	Eugene McCarthy (Independent) Roger MacBride (Libertarian) Lester Maddox (American Independent) Thomas J. Anderson (American) Peter Camejo (Socialist Workers)
1980	Jimmy Carter	Ronald Reagan†	John B. Anderson (Independent) Ed Clark (Libertarian) Barry Commoner (Citizens)
1984	Walter Mondale	Ronald Reagan†	David Bergland (Libertarian)
1988	Michael Dukakis	George H. W. Bush†	Ron Paul (Libertarian) Lenora Fulani (New Alliance)
1992	Bill Clinton†	George H. W. Bush	Ross Perot (Independent) Andre Marrou (Libertarian) Bo Gritz (Populist)
1996	Bill Clinton†	Bob Dole	Ross Perot (Reform) Ralph Nader (Green) Harry Browne (Libertarian) Howard Phillips (Taxpayers) John Hagelin (Natural Law)
2000	Al Gore‡	George W. Bush†	Ralph Nader (Green) Pat Buchanan (Reform) Harry Browne (Libertarian)
2004	John Kerry	George W. Bush†	Ralph Nader (Independent/Reform) Michael Badnarik (Libertarian) Michael Peroutka (Constitution) David Cobb (Green)
2008	Barack Obama†	John McCain	Ralph Nader (Independent) Bob Barr (Libertarian) Chuck Baldwin (Constitution) Cynthia McKinney (Green)
2012	Barack Obama†	Mitt Romney	Gary Johnson (Libertarian) Jill Stein (Green)
2016	Hillary Clinton‡	Donald Trump†	Gary Johnson (Libertarian) Jill Stein (Green) Evan McMullin (Independent) Darrell Castle (Constitution)
2020	Joe Biden†	Donald Trump	Jo Jorgensen (Libertarian) Howie Hawkins (Green)
2024	Kamala Harris	Donald Trump†	Chase Oliver (Libertarian) Jill Stein (Green) Cornel West (Independent)

Notes

^ The pre-12th Amendment constitutional rules required a contingent election when multiple candidates tied for the highest number of electoral votes, or when no individual won an electoral vote from a majority of the electors. The former situation occurred in the 1800 presidential election, when the House of Representatives elected Thomas Jefferson over his nominal running mate, Aaron Burr.^[2]
^ A presidential candidate must win a majority of the electoral vote to win the election. If no candidate wins a majority of the vote, a contingent election is held in the House of Representatives. Just one election, the 1824 election, has been decided by a contingent election since the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment.^[2]
^ Five candidates have lost a presidential election despite winning a plurality or majority of the popular vote in that election.
^ Clinton was a Northern Democratic-Republican who challenged the incumbent Democratic-Republican president, James Madison, in the general election.^[7] Clinton was nominated for president by a legislative caucus of New York Democratic-Republicans, and much of his support came from Democratic-Republicans dissatisfied with Madison's leadership in the War of 1812. The Federalist Party did not officially nominate Clinton, but most Federalist leaders tacitly supported Clinton's candidacy in hopes of defeating Madison.^[8]
^ The Federalists did not nominate a ticket in 1816, though some Federalists were elected to serve as presidential electors. A majority of the Federalist electors cast their presidential vote for King and their vice presidential vote for John Eager Howard.^[9]
^ The Federalist Party did not nominate a presidential candidate and essentially conceded the 1820 presidential election before it was held. Monroe did not face any opposition in the election, although one presidential elector, William Plumer, cast his vote for John Quincy Adams.^[10]
^ ^a ^b The Democratic-Republican Party was unable to unite behind a single candidate in 1824.^[11] Four Democratic-Republicans received electoral votes in the general election, and, as no candidate won a majority of the electoral vote, the election was decided in a contingent election held in the House of Representatives. John Quincy Adams won that contingent election.^[4]
^ The Whigs did not unite around a single candidate in 1836, but the party ran only one presidential candidate per state.^[12] 25 states held a popular vote in the 1836 election; Harrison was the Whig candidate in fifteen states, most of which were in the North, White was the Whig candidate in nine states, all of which were in the South, and Daniel Webster was the Whig candidate in Massachusetts. Harrison and White each received electoral votes from multiple states, while Webster and Willie Person Mangum each received electoral votes from a single state (Massachusetts and South Carolina, respectively).^[4]
^ After his defeat at the 1852 Whig National Convention, Webster allowed various third party groups to nominate him for president, although he did not openly condone these efforts.^[13] Though Webster died shortly before the 1852 election was held, thousands of Whigs opposed to Winfield Scott, as well as members of the nativist Native American Party, cast their vote for Webster.^[14]
^ After the collapse of the Whig Party in the mid-1850s, the Republican Party and the American Party (the political organization of the Know Nothing movement) emerged as the major challengers to the Democratic Party. By 1856, neither the Republican nor the American Party had truly supplanted the Whig Party as the second major political party in the United States.^[15] Nonetheless, the American Party is frequently described as a third party.^[16]^[17]^[18] After the 1856 election, the Republican Party firmly established itself as one of the two major parties alongside the Democratic Party, while the American Party collapsed.^[19]
^ ^a ^b The Democratic Party fractured along sectional lines in 1860 and held multiple national conventions. The Northern Democrats nominated Stephen A. Douglas and the Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckinridge.^[20]^[21] Many sources consider Breckinridge to be a third party candidate,^[22]^[4]^[23] but other sources do not.^[24]^[3]
^ Hoping to rally War Democrats and other unionists during the American Civil War, the Republican Party campaigned as the National Union Party in the 1864 election.^[25]
^ Greeley and his running mate, Benjamin Gratz Brown, were originally nominated by the Liberal Republican Party, a splinter group of Republicans opposed to President Ulysses S. Grant. The Liberal Republican ticket was later nominated by the 1872 Democratic National Convention, as the Democrats hoped to defeat President Grant's re-election bid by uniting with the Liberal Republicans.^[26] Greeley died after election day but before the Electoral College cast its votes, and thus did not receive any electoral votes. Most of the electoral votes that he would have received had he lived instead went to Democrat Thomas A. Hendricks.^[3]
^ Though other losing candidates have won a plurality of the popular vote, Tilden is the only candidate in American history to lose a presidential election despite receiving a majority of the popular vote.^[27]
^ In 1896, after Bryan won the Democratic presidential nomination, he was also nominated by the Populist Party, a major third party.^[28] Bryan's running mate on the Democratic ticket, Arthur Sewall, won 149 electoral votes for vice president, while his running mate on the Populist ticket, Thomas E. Watson, won 27 electoral votes for vice president.^[4]
^ Byrd did not campaign in the 1960 election, and he tacitly supported the candidacy of Republican Richard Nixon.^[29] Nonetheless, he received 14 electoral votes from unpledged electors in Mississippi and Alabama, as well as 1 electoral vote from a faithless elector in Oklahoma.^[30]

References

^ ^a ^b Blake, Aaron (April 27, 2016). "Why are there only two parties in American politics?". Washington Post. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Neale, Thomas H. (3 November 2016), Contingent Election of the President and Vice President by Congress: Perspectives and Contemporary Analysis (PDF), Congressional Research Service
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "United States Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
^ Southwick (1998), pp. 12–13
^ For a full list of faithless electors, see: "Faithless Electors". FairVote. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
^ Morgan (1969), pp. 191–193
^ Siry (1985), pp. 457–460
^ Deskins et al. (2010), pp. 65
^ Preston, Daniel. "James Monroe: Campaigns and Elections". Miller Center. University of Virginia. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
^ Morgan (1969), p. 195
^ Deskins et al. (2010), pp. 106–107
^ Gienapp (1988), pp. 20–21
^ Gienapp (1988), pp. 29–30
^ McPherson (1988), pp. 140–144, 153–154
^ Cooper, William. "James Buchanan: Campaigns and Elections". Miller Center. University of Virginia. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
^ Boissoneault, Lorraine (January 26, 2017). "How the 19th-Century Know Nothing Party Reshaped American Politics". Smithsonian. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
^ Hicks (1933), p. 10
^ Gienapp (1985), p. 547
^ Smith (1975), pp. 106–113
^ VandeCreek, Drew E. "Campaign of 1860". Northern Illinois University Libraries. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
^ Patch, B. W. (1936). "Third Party Movements in American Politics". CQPress. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
^ Rosenstone et al. (2018), pp. 59–63
^ Hicks (1933), pp. 3–28
^ White (2009), pp. 592–593.
^ Hale (1950), p. 338
^ Faber & Bedford (2008), p. 81
^ Kazin (2006), pp. 63–65
^ Sweeney (1991), pp. 3, 32
^ Sweeney (1991), p. 3

Works cited

Deskins, Donald Richard; Walton, Hanes; Puckett, Sherman (2010). Presidential Elections, 1789–2008: County, State, and National Mapping of Election Data. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0472116973.
Faber, Richard B.; Bedford, Elizabeth A. (2008). Domestic Programs of the American Presidents: A Critical Evaluation. McFarland. ISBN 9780786431830.
Hale, William Harlan (1950). Horace Greeley: Voice of the People. Harper & Brothers. OCLC 336934.
Hicks, John D. (1933). "The Third Party Tradition in American Politics". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 20 (1): 3–28. doi:10.2307/1902325. JSTOR 1902325.
Gienapp, William E. (1985). "Nativism and the Creation of a Republican Majority in the North before the Civil War". The Journal of American History. 72 (3): 529–555. doi:10.2307/1904303. JSTOR 1904303.
Gienapp, William E. (1988). The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852-1856. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195055016.
Kazin, Michael (2006). A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan. Knopf. ISBN 978-0375411359.
McPherson, James M. (1988). Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199743902.
Morgan, William G. (1969). "The Origin and Development of the Congressional Nominating Caucus". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 113 (2): 184–196. JSTOR 985965.
Rosenstone, Steven J.; Behr, Roy L.; Lazarus, Edward H. (2018). Third Parties in America: Citizen Response to Major Party Failure (2nd ed.). Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691190525.
Siry, Steven Edwin (1985). "The Sectional Politics of "Practical Republicanism": De Witt Clinton's Presidential Bid, 1810–1812". Journal of the Early Republic. 5 (4): 441–462. doi:10.2307/3123061. JSTOR 3123061.
Smith, Elbert B. (1975). The Presidency of James Buchanan. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-0132-5.
Southwick, Leslie (1998). Presidential Also-Rans and Running Mates, 1788 through 1996 (Second ed.). McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0310-1.
Sweeney, James R. (1991). "Whispers in the Golden Silence: Harry F. Byrd Sr., John F. Kennedy, and Virginia Democrats in the 1960 Presidential Election". Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 99 (1): 3–44.
White Jr., Ronald C. (2009). A. Lincoln: A Biography. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6499-1.