Overview of Joe Biden's electoral history
Biden at his presidential kick-off rally in Philadelphia , May 2019
The electoral history of Joe Biden , the 46th and current president of the United States , began in 1970.[ 1] Biden served as the 47th vice president (2009–2017), and as a United States senator from Delaware (1973–2009). Biden is the oldest elected and serving president , the second Catholic president , after John F. Kennedy , and the first president from Delaware.
A member of the Democratic Party , Biden was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970, and became the seventh-youngest senator in American history when he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Delaware in 1972 , at the age of 29. He was re-elected to the Senate six times, and was the fourth-most senior senator . He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in both 1988 and 2008 .
In January 2009, Biden resigned from the Senate, to serve as Barack Obama 's vice president, after they won the 2008 presidential election . They were re-elected to a second term in 2012 .
Biden announced his candidacy in the 2020 presidential election on April 25, 2019.[ 2] A total of 29 major candidates declared their candidacies for the primaries, the largest field of presidential candidates for any American political party since 1972;[ 3] but over time, the field narrowed down to Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont .[ 4] Eventually, Sanders withdrew from the race, and Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee in April 2020.[ 5] Biden reached the delegate threshold needed to secure the nomination in June 2020.[ 6] He defeated incumbent president Donald Trump in the general election , with 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232. Biden received more than 81 million votes, the most votes ever cast for a candidate in a U.S. presidential election .[ 7]
County council election (1970)
U.S. Senate elections (1972–2008)
1972
1972 U.S. Senate map
1978
1978 U.S. Senate map
1984
1984 U.S. Senate map
1990
1990 U.S. Senate map
1996
1996 U.S. Senate map
2002
2002 U.S. Senate map
2008
2008 U.S. Senate map
Presidential primaries (1984–1988)
1984
1988
Presidential elections
2008
New Hampshire primary
Primaries
Excluding penalized contests,[ 19] only primary and caucuses votes:
2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries [ 20]
Candidate
Votes
%
Barack Obama
16,706,853
49.04
Hillary Clinton
16,239,821
47.67
John Edwards
742,010
2.18
Bill Richardson
89,054
0.26
Uncommitted
82,660
0.24
Dennis Kucinich
68,482
0.20
Joe Biden
64,041
0.19
Mike Gravel
27,662
0.08
Christopher Dodd
25,300
0.07
Others
22,556
0.07
Total votes
34,068,439
100.00
Including penalized contests:
2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries [ 20]
Candidate
Votes
%
Hillary Clinton
18,225,175
48.03
Barack Obama
17,988,182
47.41
John Edwards
1,006,275
2.65
Uncommitted
299,610
2.79
Bill Richardson
106,073
0.28
Dennis Kucinich
103,994
0.27
Joe Biden
81,641
0.22
Scattering
44,348
0.12
Mike Gravel
40,251
0.11
Christopher Dodd
35,281
0.09
Total votes
37,980,830
100.00
Nomination
General election
Electoral College map of the 2008 presidential election
2008 United States presidential election Candidate Running mate Party Popular vote Electoral vote Votes % Votes % Barack Obama Joe Biden Democratic 69,498,516 52.91 365 67.84 John McCain Sarah Palin Republican 59,948,323 45.64 173 32.16 Ralph Nader Matt Gonzalez Independent 739,034 0.56 Bob Barr Wayne Allyn Root Libertarian 523,715 0.40 Chuck Baldwin Darrell Castle Constitution 199,750 0.15 Cynthia McKinney Rosa Clemente Green 161,797 0.12 Others 290,626 0.22 Total 131,361,761 100.00 538 100.00 Source: [ 22]
2012
Nomination
General election
Electoral College map of the 2012 presidential election
2012 United States presidential election Candidate Running mate Party Popular vote Electoral vote Votes % Votes % Barack Obama (inc.)Joe Biden (inc.) Democratic 65,915,795 51.06 332 61.71 Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Republican 60,933,504 47.20 206 38.29 Gary Johnson Jim Gray Libertarian 1,275,971 0.99 Jill Stein Cheri Honkala Green 469,627 0.36 Others 490,513 0.38 Total 129,085,410 100.00 538 100.00 Source: [ 22]
2020
Primaries
First-instance vote by state and territory Joe Biden
Bernie Sanders
Michael Bloomberg
2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries [ 24]
Candidate
Votes
%
Joe Biden
19,076,052
51.79
Bernie Sanders
9,679,213
26.28
Elizabeth Warren
2,831,472
7.69
Michael Bloomberg
2,488,734
6.76
Pete Buttigieg
924,237
2.51
Amy Klobuchar
529,713
1.44
Tulsi Gabbard
273,940
0.74
Tom Steyer
259,792
0.71
Andrew Yang
170,517
0.46
Uncommitted
130,081
0.35
Michael Bennet
63,124
0.17
Julian Castro
37,037
0.10
Others
370,044
1.01
Total votes
36,833,956
100.00
Nomination
General election
Electoral College map of the 2020 presidential election
2020 United States presidential election Candidate Running mate Party Popular vote Electoral vote Votes % Votes % Joe Biden Kamala Harris Democratic 81,268,924 51.31 306 56.88 Donald Trump (inc.)Mike Pence (inc.)Republican 74,216,154 46.86 232 43.12 Jo Jorgensen Spike Cohen Libertarian 1,865,724 1.18 Howie Hawkins Angela Walker Green 405,035 0.26 Others 628,584 0.40 Total 158,384,421 100.00 538 100.00 Source: [ 26]
See also
Notes
^ a b Chosen by acclamation.
References
^ "Biden and Harris inauguration live: Joe Biden becomes the 46th US president" . BBC News . Retrieved 2021-01-20 .
^ Saenz, Arlette (April 25, 2019). "Joe Biden announces he is running for president in 2020" . CNN . Archived from the original on April 25, 2019. Retrieved April 25, 2019 .
^ Burns, Alexander; Flegenheimer, Matt; Lee, Jasmine C.; Lerer, Lisa; Martin, Jonathan (January 10, 2020). "Who's Running for President in 2020?" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved January 22, 2020 .
^ Korecki, Natasha (March 2, 2020). "How Biden engineered his astonishing comeback" . Politico. Retrieved October 22, 2020 .
^ Ember, Sydney (April 8, 2020). "Bernie Sanders Is Dropping Out of 2020 Democratic Race for President" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved April 8, 2020 .
^ Detrow, Scott (June 5, 2020). "Biden Formally Clinches Democratic Nomination, While Gaining Steam Against Trump" . NPR . Retrieved June 5, 2020 . The AP delegate estimate reached the magic number of 1,991 delegates for Biden as seven states and the District of Columbia continue counting votes from Tuesday's primaries
^ Lewis, Sophie (November 7, 2020). "Joe Biden breaks Obama's record for most votes ever cast for a U.S presidential candidate" . CBS .
^ "State of Delaware Official Results of General Election (Excluding Write-in Votes) 1970" (PDF) . Office of the Delaware State Election Commissioner. Retrieved 2020-04-28 .
^ Clerk of the United States House of Representatives (1973). "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 7, 1972" (PDF) . U.S. Government Printing Office .
^ Clerk of the United States House of Representatives (1979). "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 7, 1978" (PDF) . U.S. Government Printing Office .
^ Clerk of the United States House of Representatives (1985). "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 6, 1984" (PDF) . U.S. Government Printing Office .
^ Clerk of the United States House of Representatives (1991). "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 6, 1990" (PDF) . U.S. Government Printing Office .
^ Clerk of the United States House of Representatives (1997). "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 5, 1996" (PDF) . U.S. Government Printing Office .
^ Clerk of the United States House of Representatives (2003). "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 5, 2002" (PDF) . U.S. Government Printing Office .
^ Clerk of the United States House of Representatives (2009). "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 4, 2008" (PDF) . U.S. Government Printing Office .
^ Our Campaigns - US President - D Convention Race - Jul 16, 1984
^ "Democrats Acclaim Dukakis and Assert Unity" . partners.nytimes.com . Retrieved April 4, 2013 .
^ "Presidential Primary Election January 8" . Sos.nh.gov. 2008-01-08. Archived from the original on 2012-04-27. Retrieved 2012-01-04 .
^ Florida and Michigan violated Democratic National Committee rules by moving their primaries before February 5, 2008, resulting in a nullification of their primaries, until the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee voted to restore half their delegates.
^ a b "2008 Democratic Popular Vote" . RealClearPolitics . Retrieved February 15, 2020 .
^ "CNN.com Video" . CNN . Retrieved May 1, 2010 .
^ a b "Federal Elections 2012" (PDF) . Federal Election Commission . Washington, D.C.: Federal Election Commission. 2013. Retrieved January 20, 2021 .
^ "Beau Biden Speech Kicks Of Motion To Nominate Father Joe Biden For Vice President" . The Huffington Post . September 6, 2012.
^ "Democratic Convention - Nationwide Popular Vote" . The Green Papers. Retrieved March 19, 2020 .
^ "The Math Behind the Democratic Delegate Allocation - 2020" . The Green Papers . Retrieved January 4, 2020 .
^ "Official 2020 presidential general election results" (PDF) . Federal Election Commission . 1 February 2021. Retrieved 6 February 2021 .