United States presidential elections in Ohio

Following is a table of United States presidential elections in Ohio, ordered by year. Since its admission to statehood in 1803, Ohio has participated in every U.S. presidential election.

Since 2016, Ohio is considered as a Republican leaning state. For most of its statehood from the Twentieth century on, Ohio has been considered a swing state, being won by either the Democratic or Republican candidates from election to election. As a swing state, Ohio was usually targeted by both major-party campaigns, especially in competitive elections. Pivotal in the election of 1888, Ohio was a regular swing state from 1980 until 2016.Trolling the Campuses for Swing-State Votes , Julie Salamon, "The New York Times", October 2, 2004.Game Theory for Swingers , Jordan Ellenberg, "Slate.com", October 25, 2004.

Additionally, Ohio was previously considered a bellwether. Historian R. Douglas Hurt asserts that not since Virginia "had a state made such a mark on national political affairs".Holli (1999), p. 162. The Economist notes that "This slice of the mid-west contains a bit of everything American—part north-eastern and part southern, part urban and part rural, part hardscrabble poverty and part booming suburb"." A grain of sand for your thoughts" , The Economist, December 20, 2005. Retrieved December 23, 2005. In the time since the Revolutionary War, Ohio has had ten misses (eight Democratic winners, one Democratic-Republican winner and one Whig winner) in the presidential election (John Quincy Adams in 1824, Martin Van Buren in 1836, James Polk in 1844, Zachary Taylor in 1848, James Buchanan in 1856, Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892, Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, John F. Kennedy in 1960, and Joe Biden in 2020), and prior to the 2020 election it also had the longest consistent perfect streak of any state, voting for the winning presidential candidate in each election from 1964 to 2016 — a streak that ended when Joe Biden won in 2020. No Republican has ever won the presidency without winning Ohio, and since the advent of the duopoly two-party system, Democrats have won the presidency without winning Ohio only eight times, in the elections noted above.

Winners of the state are in bold.

Party abbreviations: D = Democratic R = Republican D-R = Democratic-Republican Fed. = Federalist Prog. = Progressive (three distinct parties in 1912, 1924 and 1948, respectively) Am. Ind. = American Independent Party (1968) States' Rights D = States' Rights Democrats ("Dixiecrats") of 1948 Lib. R = Liberal Republican Party ("Mugwumps") in 1872 Const'l Union = Constitutional Union Party (1860) N. Dem = Northern Democratic Party (1860) S. Dem = Southern Democratic Party (1860) Nat'l R = National Republican Party (1828 & 1832, later merging into the Whig Party).

Elections from 1864 to present

Year Winner (nationally) Votes Percent Runner-up (nationally) Votes Percent Other nationalcandidates Votes Percent Electoralvotes Notes2024Donald Trump (R)3,116,57955.21Kamala Harris (D)2,476,00343.86172020 Joe Biden (D) 2,679,165 45.24 Donald Trump (R) 3,154,834 53.27 — 18 2016 *2016 official Federal Election Commission report. Donald Trump (R) 2,841,006 51.31 Hillary Clinton (D) 2,394,169 43.24 — 18 * Clinton (D) won national popular vote 48.0% to 45.9% 20122012 official Federal Election Commission report. Barack Obama (D) 2,827,710 50.67 Mitt Romney (R) 2,661,433 47.69 — 18 20082008 official Federal Election Commission report. Barack Obama (D) 2,940,044 51.50 John McCain (R) 2,677,820 46.91 — 20 2004 George W. Bush (R) 2,859,768 50.81 John Kerry (D) 2,741,167 48.71 — 20 2000 * George W. Bush (R) 2,351,209 49.97 Al Gore (D) 2,186,190 46.46 — 21 * Gore (D) won national popular vote, 48.4% to 47.9% 1996 Bill Clinton (D) 2,148,222 47.38 Bob Dole (R) 1,859,883 41.02 Ross Perot (Reform) 483,207 10.66 21 1992 Bill Clinton (D) 1,984,942 40.18 George H. W. Bush (R) 1,894,310 38.35 Ross Perot 1,036,426 20.98 21 1988 George H. W. Bush (R) 2,416,549 55.00 Michael Dukakis (D) 1,939,629 44.15 — 23 1984 Ronald Reagan (R) 2,678,560 58.90 Walter Mondale (D) 1,825,440 40.14 — 23 1980 Ronald Reagan (R) 2,206,545 51.51 Jimmy Carter (D) 1,752,414 40.91 John B. Anderson 254,472 5.94 25 1976 Jimmy Carter (D) 2,011,621 48.92 Gerald Ford (R) 2,000,505 48.65 — 25 1972 Richard Nixon (R) 2,441,827 59.63 George McGovern (D) 1,558,889 38.07 — 25 1968 Richard Nixon (R) 1,791,014 45.23 Hubert Humphrey (D) 1,700,586 42.95 George Wallace (Am. Ind.) 467,495 11.81 26 1964 Lyndon B. Johnson (D) 2,498,331 62.94 Barry Goldwater (R) 1,470,865 37.06 — 26 1960 John F. Kennedy (D) 1,944,248 46.72 Richard Nixon (R) 2,217,611 53.28 — 25 1956 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) 2,262,610 61.11 Adlai Stevenson II (D) 1,439,655 38.89 T. Coleman Andrews/Unpledged Electors —— 25 1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) 2,100,391 56.76 Adlai Stevenson II (D) 1,600,367 43.24 - 25 1948 Harry S. Truman (D) 1,452,791 49.48 Thomas E. Dewey (R) 1,445,684 49.24 Strom Thurmond (States' Rights D) —— 25 Henry Wallace (Prog.) won 1.3% of Ohio's votes 1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) 1,570,763 49.82 Thomas E. Dewey (R) 1,582,293 50.18 — 25 1940 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) 1,733,139 52.2 Wendell Willkie (R) 1,586,773 47.8 — 26 1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) 1,747,140 57.99 Alf Landon (R) 1,127,855 37.44 — 26 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) 1,301,695 49.88 Herbert Hoover (R) 1,227,319 47.03 — 26 1928 Herbert Hoover (R) 1,627,546 64.89 Al Smith (D) 864,210 34.45 — 24 1924 Calvin Coolidge (R) 1,176,130 58.33 John W. Davis (D) 477,888 23.7 Robert M. La Follette (Prog.) 357,948 17.75 24 1920 Warren G. Harding (R) 1,182,022 58.47 James M. Cox (D) 780,037 38.58 Parley P. Christensen (Farmer-Labor) —— 24 1916 Woodrow Wilson (D) 604,161 51.86 Charles E. Hughes (R) 514,753 44.18 — 24 1912 Woodrow Wilson (D) 424,834 40.96 Theodore Roosevelt (Prog.) 229,807 22.16 William H. Taft (R) 278,168 26.82 24 National vote: D 41.8%, Prog 27.4% & R 23.2% 1908 William H. Taft (R) 572,312 51.03 William Jennings Bryan (D) 502,721 44.82 — 23 1904 Theodore Roosevelt (R) 600,095 59.75 Alton B. Parker (D) 344,674 34.32 — 23 1900 William McKinley (R) 543,918 52.30 William Jennings Bryan (D) 474,882 45.66 — 23 1896 William McKinley (R) 525,991 51.86 William Jennings Bryan (D & People's) 477,497 47.08 — 23 1892 Grover Cleveland (D) 404,115 47.53 Benjamin Harrison (R) 405,187 47.66 James B. Weaver (People's) 14,850 1.75 23 Electoral vote split 22 (Harrison) to 1 (Cleveland) 1888 * Benjamin Harrison (R) 416,054 49.51 Grover Cleveland (D) 396,455 47.18 — 23 * Cleveland (D) won national popular vote, 48.6% to 47.8% 1884 Grover Cleveland (D) 368,280 46.94 James G. Blaine (R) 400,082 50.99 — 23 1880 James A. Garfield (R) 375,048 51.73 Winfield S. Hancock (D) 340,821 47.01 James B. Weaver (Greenback Labor) 6,456 0.89 22 1876*David Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections; Ohio, 1876. Rutherford B. Hayes (R) 330,698 50.21 Samuel J. Tilden (D) 323,182 49.07 — 22 * Tilden (D) won a national popular majority, 50.9% to 47.9% 1872 Ulysses S. Grant (R) 281,852 53.24 Horace Greeley (D & Lib. R) 244,321 46.15 — 22 1868 Ulysses S. Grant (R) 280,159 54.0 Horatio Seymour (D) 238,506 46.0 — 21 1864 Abraham Lincoln (Nat'l Union) 265,674 56.4 George B. McClellan (D) 205,609 43.6 — 21

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 Electoralvotes 1860Abraham Lincoln (R) 231,709 52.3Stephen A. Douglas (N. Dem.) 187,421 42.3John C. Breckinridge (S. Dem.) 11,406 2.6John Bell (Const'l Union) 12,194 2.8 23

Elections from 1828 to 1856

Year Winner (nationally) Votes Percent Runner-up (nationally) Votes Percent Other nationalcandidates Votes Percent Electoralvotes Notes 1856 James Buchanan (D) 170,874 44.21 John C. Frémont (R) 187,497 48.51 Millard Fillmore (American & Whig) 28,126 7.28 23 1852 Franklin Pierce (D) 168,933 47.83 Winfield Scott (Whig) 152,523 43.18 John P. Hale (Free Soil) 31,732 8.98 23 1848 Zachary Taylor (Whig) 138,359 42.12 Lewis Cass (D) 154,773 47.12 Martin Van Buren (Free Soil) 35,347 10.76 23 1844 James K. Polk (D) 149,061 47.74 Henry Clay (Whig) 155,113 49.68 — 23 1840 William Henry Harrison (Whig) 148,157 54.1 Martin Van Buren (D) 124,782 45.57 — 21 1836 Martin Van Buren (D) 96,238 47.56 William Henry Harrison (Whig) 104,958 51.87 various 21 1832 Andrew Jackson (D) 81,246 51.33 Henry Clay (Nat'l R) 76,539 48.35 William Wirt (Anti-Masonic) 509 0.32 21 1828 Andrew Jackson (D) 67,596 51.6 John Quincy Adams (Nat'l R) 63,453 48.4 — 16

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 Electoralvotes 1824 Andrew Jackson (D-R) 12,280 24.55 John Quincy Adams (D-R) 18,489 36.96 Henry Clay (D-R) 19,255 38.49 William H. Crawford (D-R) no ballots 16

Note: The national popular vote (from 18 of 24 states, the other six had electors chosen by the state legislature) was Jackson 41.36%, Adams 30.92%, Clay 12.99% and Crawford 11.21%. After none of the candidates had a majority on the electoral college, Adams won the contingent election in the House of Representatives.

Elections from 1804 to 1820

In the election of 1820, incumbent President James Monroe ran effectively unopposed, winning all eight of Ohio’s electoral votes, and all electoral votes nationwide except one vote in New Hampshire. To the extent that a popular vote was held, it was primarily directed to filling the office of vice president.

Year Winner (nationally) Loser(s) (nationally) Electoralvotes Notes 1820 James Monroe (D-R) — 8 Monroe effectively ran unopposed. 1816 James Monroe (D-R) Rufus King (Fed.) 8 1812 James Madison (D-R) DeWitt Clinton (Fed./D-R Fusion) 7 1808 James Madison (D-R) Charles C. Pinckney (Fed.) 3 1804Thomas Jefferson (D-R) Charles C. Pinckney (Fed.) 3

See also Elections in Ohio

Notes

References