A common view is that a president's popular mandate, as measured by the size of his margins of victory in the popular and electoral vote, predicts the likelihood of him launching enduring changes in policy and politics. The vote shares are represented graphically in figures below this table. "Landslide" elections are typically marked by very large popular vote majorities as well as complete, or near-complete, victory in all states.
As a practical matter, in anticipating presidential impact, it is also important to know the relative size of the President's party in the House and Senate. Those must be considered in relationship to the ideological cohesion and degree of party unity of the Congressional parties.
| Election | Popular vote | Electoral vote | Electoral vote% - Popular vote% |
|||
| % | Margin* | % | Margin* | |||
| John Quincy Adams | 1824 | nd | nd | 32.2 | -5.7 | n/a |
| Andrew Jackson | 1828 | 56.1 | 12.5 | 68.2 | 36.4 | 12.1 |
| 1832 | 54.2 | 16.8 | 76.0 | 59.0 | 21.8 | |
| Martin van Buren |
1836 |
50.8 | 14.2 | 57.8 | 33.0 | 7.0 |
| William Henry Harrison | 1840 | 6.1 | 79.6 | 59.2 | 26.7 | |
| James K. Polk |
1844 |
49.5 | 1.4 | 61.8 | 23.6 | 12.3 |
| Zachary Taylor | 1848 | 4.8 | 56.2 | 12.4 | 8.9 | |
| Franklin Pierce |
1852 |
50.8 | 6.9 | 85.8 | 71.6 | 35.0 |
| James Buchanan | 1856 | 12.2 | 58.8 | 20.3 | 13.5 | |
| Abraham Lincoln |
1860 |
39.9 | 10.4 | 59.4 | 35.6 | 19.5 |
| 1864 | 10.2 | 90.6 | 81.6 | 35.5 | ||
| Ulysses S. Grant | 1868 | 52.7 | 5.4 | 72.8 | 45.6 | 20.1 |
| 1872 | 55.6 | 11.8 | 81.9 | 63.8 | 26.3 | |
| Rutherford B. Hayes |
1876 |
-3.0 | 50.1 | 0.2 | 2.1 | |
| James Garfield | 1880 | 48.3 | 0.1 | 58.0 | 16.0 | 9.7 |
| Grover Cleveland - I |
1884 |
48.9 | 0.7 | 54.6 | 9.2 | 5.7 |
| Benjamin Harrison | 1888 | -0.8 | 58.1 | 16.2 | 10.3 | |
| Grover Cleveland - II |
1892 |
46.0 | 3.0 | 62.4 | 29.7 | 16.4 |
| William McKinley | 1896 | 5.3 | 61.0 | 21.4 | 9.9 | |
| 1900 | 51.7 | 6.2 | 65.3 | 30.6 | 13.6 | |
| Theodore Roosevelt | 1904 | 56.4 | 18.8 | 70.6 | 41.2 | 14.2 |
| William Howard Taft |
1908 |
51.6 | 8.6 | 66.5 | 33.0 | 14.9 |
| Woodrow Wilson | 1912 | 14.4 | 81.9 | 65.3 | 40.1 | |
|
1916 |
49.2 | 3.1 | 52.2 | 4.4 | 3.0 | |
| Warren G. Harding | 1920 | 26.2 | 76.1 | 52.2 | 15.8 | |
| Calvin Coolidge |
1924 |
54.0 | 25.2 | 71.9 | 46.3 | 17.9 |
| Herbert Hoover | 1928 | 17.4 | 83.6 | 67.2 | 25.4 | |
| Franklin D. Roosevelt |
1932 |
57.4 | 17.8 | 88.9 | 77.8 | 31.5 |
| 1936 | 60.8 | 24.3 | 98.5 | 97.0 | 37.7 | |
| 1940 | 54.7 | 9.9 | 84.6 | 69.2 | 29.9 | |
| 1944 | 53.4 | 7.5 | 81.4 | 62.8 | 28.0 | |
| Harry S. Truman |
1948 |
49.5 | 4.4 | 57.1 | 21.5 | 7.6 |
| Dwight D. Eisenhower | 1952 | 10.5 | 83.2 | 66.4 | 28.3 | |
| 1956 | 57.4 | 15.4 | 86.1 | 72.4 | 28.7 | |
| John F. Kennedy | 1960 | 49.7 | 0.2 | 56.4 | 15.6 | 6.7 |
| Lyndon B. Johnson |
1964 |
22.6 | 90.3 | 80.6 | 29.2 | |
| Richard Nixon | 1968 | 43.4 | 0.7 | 55.9 | 20.4 | 12.5 |
| 1972 | 60.7 | 23.2 | 96.7 | 93.5 | 36.0 | |
| Jimmy Carter | 1976 | 50.1 | 2.1 | 55.2 | 10.6 | 5.1 |
| Ronald Reagan |
1980 |
9.7 | 90.9 | 81.8 | 40.2 | |
| 1984 | 58.8 | 18.2 | 97.6 | 95.2 | 38.8 | |
| George Bush | 1988 | 53.4 | 7.8 | 79.2 | 58.6 | 25.8 |
| William J. Clinton |
1992 |
43.0 | 5.6 | 68.8 | 37.6 | 25.8 |
| 1996 | 49.2 | 8.5 | 70.4 | 40.8 | 21.2 | |
| George W. Bush | 2000 | -0.5 | 50.4 | 1.0 | 2.5 | |
| 2004 | 50.7 | 2.4 | 53.2 | 6.5 | 2.5 | |
| Barack Obama |
2008 |
52.9 | 7.2 | 67.8 | 35.6 | 14.9 |
| 2012 | 51.0 | 3.7 | 61.7 | 23.4 | 10.7 | |
| Donald J. Trump (First term) | 2016 | -2.0 | 56.5 | 14.3 | 10.3 | |
| Joseph R. Biden, Jr. | 2020 | 51.3 | 4.5 | 56.9 | 13.8 | 5.6 |
| Donald J. Trump (Second term) | 2024 | 49.8 | 1.5 | 58.3 | 16.0 | 8.4 |
*Margin is the difference between the winner's vote share and the share of his principal opponent.
