Share of electoral votes for major parties in US presidential elections 1860-2020

With Abraham Lincoln's victory in the 1860 presidential election, the Republican Party cemented its position as one of the two major political parties in the United States. Since 1860, candidates from both parties have faced one another in 41 elections, with the Republican candidate winning 24 elections, to the Democrats' 17. The share of electoral college votes is often very different from the share of the popular vote received by each candidate in the elections, as the popular vote differences tend to be much smaller.Electoral college systemIn the U.S., the electoral college system is used to elect the president. For most states, this means that the most popular candidate in each state then receives that state's allocation of electoral votes (which is determined by the state's population). In the majority of elections, the margin of electoral votes has been over thirty percent between the two major party candidates, and there were even some cases where the winner received over ninety percent more electoral votes than the runner-up.Biggest winnersThe largest margins for the Republican Party occurred in the aftermath of the American Civil War, in the pre-Depression era of the 1920s, with Eisenhower after the Second World War, and then again with the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush campaigns in the 1970s and 80s. For the Democratic Party, the largest victories occurred during the First and Second World Wars, and for Lindon B. Johnson and Bill Clinton in the second half of the 20th century. In the past six elections, the results of the electoral college vote have been relatively close, compared with the preceding hundred years; George W. Bush's victories were by less than seven percent, Obama's victories were larger (by around thirty percent), and in the most recent elections involving Donald Trump he both won and lost by roughly 14 percent.

随着亚伯拉罕·林肯在1860年总统大选中的胜利，共和党巩固了其在美国两大主要政党之一的地位。自1860年以来，两党候选人在41次选举中相互对决，共和党候选人赢得24次选举，而民主党则赢得了17次。选举人团票的份额往往与每位候选人获得的普选票份额大相径庭，因为普选票的差异通常要小得多。选举人团制度在美国，选举人团制度被用于选举总统。对于大多数州而言，这意味着在该州最受欢迎的候选人将获得该州的选举人票配额（该配额由该州的人口决定）。在大多数选举中，两大党候选人之间的选举人票差距超过百分之三十，甚至有些情况下获胜者获得的选举人票比亚军多出百分之九十以上。最大赢家共和党在南北战争后的时期、20世纪20年代的萧条前夕、二战后的艾森豪威尔时期，以及70年代和80年代的尼克松、里根和布什竞选活动中，均取得了最大的胜利。对于民主党而言，最大的胜利发生在第一次和第二次世界大战期间，以及20世纪下半叶的林登·B·约翰逊和比尔·克林顿时期。在过去六次选举中，选举人团票的结果与前一百年相比相对接近；乔治·W·布什的胜利幅度不到百分之七，奥巴马的胜利幅度更大（约百分之三十），而在最近涉及唐纳德·特朗普的选举中，他既赢得了选举，又以大约百分之十四的差距输掉了选举。