List of United States presidential candidates by number of primary votes received

In United States presidential politics, voters within both the Democratic and Republican parties select their candidates for the presidential election through a series of primary elections. For this list, any candidate that received at least 250,000 total votes in an election year's primary contests will be included. Only elections conducted since nationwide primaries were instituted in 1972 are shown.

History

The first state to hold a primary was Florida in 1901. In 1905, Wisconsin was the first state to hold a direct open primary. Five years later, in 1910, Oregon was the first state to hold a primary that bound its state's delegates to the convention based on election results. Between 1932 and 1968, twelve states held primaries consistently, while the remaining states chose which candidate received their delegates through state party bosses. In 1972, both parties held a primary or caucus in every state for the first time. However, Republican Richard Nixon was the incumbent president and was seeking re-election. As such, the Republican primary was uneventful that year, with Nixon winning every state easily. On the Democratic side, six candidates battled for the nomination. George McGovern of South Dakota won the first nationwide primary. Today, the first state to hold a caucus during primary season is Iowa, typically in early February. Shortly after that is the first primary, held in New Hampshire.

List

 Became their party's nominee
 Became president
Rank Candidate Party Home state Votes received Year Source
1 Joe Biden Democratic Delaware 19,076,052 2020
2 Donald Trump Republican Florida 18,159,752 2020
3 Hillary Clinton Democratic New York 17,857,501 2008
4 Barack Obama Democratic Illinois 17,584,692 2008
5 Hillary Clinton Democratic New York 16,917,853 2016
6 Donald Trump Republican New York 14,015,993 2016
7 Bernie Sanders Democratic Vermont 13,210,550 2016
8 George W. Bush Republican Texas 12,089,564 2000
9 Al Gore Democratic Tennessee 10,642,105 2000
10 Bill Clinton Democratic Arkansas 10,482,411 1992
11 Mitt Romney Republican Massachusetts 10,048,134 2012
12 John Kerry Democratic Massachusetts 10,045,891 2004
13 Jimmy Carter Democratic Georgia 10,043,016 1980
14 Michael Dukakis Democratic Massachusetts 9,898,750 1988
15 Bill Clinton Democratic Arkansas 9,706,802 1996
16 Bernie Sanders Democratic Vermont 9,679,213 2020
17 John McCain Republican Arizona 9,615,533 2008
18 George H. W. Bush Republican Texas 9,199,463 1992
19 Bob Dole Republican Kansas 9,024,742 1996
20 George H. W. Bush Republican Texas 8,258,512 1988
21 Barack Obama Democratic Illinois 8,044,659 2012
22 George W. Bush Republican Texas 7,853,863 2004
23 Ted Cruz Republican Texas 7,822,100 2016
24 Ronald Reagan Republican California 7,709,793 1980
25 Ted Kennedy Democratic Massachusetts 7,381,693 1980
26 Walter Mondale Democratic Minnesota 6,952,912 1984
27 Jesse Jackson Democratic South Carolina 6,788,991 1988
28 Gary Hart Democratic Colorado 6,504,842 1984
29 Ronald Reagan Republican California 6,484,987 1984
30 Jimmy Carter Democratic Georgia 6,235,609 1976
31 John McCain Republican Arizona 6,070,050 2000
32 Gerald Ford Republican Michigan 5,529,899 1976
33 Richard Nixon Republican California 5,378,704 1972
34 Ronald Reagan Republican California 4,760,222 1976
35 Mitt Romney Republican Massachusetts 4,567,127 2008
36 John Kasich Republican Ohio 4,290,448 2016
37 Mike Huckabee Republican Arkansas 4,147,961 2008
38 Hubert Humphrey Democratic Minnesota 4,121,372 1972
39 Jerry Brown Democratic California 4,071,232 1992
40 George McGovern Democratic South Dakota 4,053,451 1972
41 Rick Santorum Republican Pennsylvania 3,938,527 2012
42 George Wallace Democratic Alabama 3,755,424 1972
43 Paul Tsongas Democratic Massachusetts 3,696,010 1992
44 Marco Rubio Republican Florida 3,515,576 2016
45 Jesse Jackson Democratic Illinois 3,282,431 1984
46 John Edwards Democratic North Carolina 3,207,048 2004
47 Al Gore Democratic Tennessee 3,185,806 1988
48 Pat Buchanan Republican Virginia 3,184,943 1996
49 George H. W. Bush Republican Texas 3,070,033 1980
50 Pat Buchanan Republican Virginia 2,899,488 1992
51 Elizabeth Warren Democratic Massachusetts 2,831,472 2020
52 Bill Bradley Democratic New Jersey 2,804,945 2000
53 Newt Gingrich Republican Georgia 2,737,442 2012
54 Michael Bloomberg Democratic New York 2,488,734 2020
55 Jerry Brown Democratic California 2,449,374 1976
56 Bob Dole Republican Kansas 2,333,375 1988
57 Ron Paul Republican Texas 2,099,441 2012
58 George Wallace Democratic Alabama 1,955,388 1976
59 Edmund Muskie Democratic Maine 1,840,217 1972
60 Steve Forbes Republican New York 1,751,187 1996
61 Mo Udall Democratic Arizona 1,611,754 1976
62 John Anderson Republican Illinois 1,572,174 1980
63 Dick Gephardt Democratic Missouri 1,399,041 1988
64 Ron Paul Republican Texas 1,145,138 2008
65 Henry Jackson Democratic Washington 1,134,375 1976
66 Pat Robertson Republican Virginia 1,097,446 1988
67 Paul Simon Democratic Illinois 1,082,960 1988
68 Alan Keyes Republican Maryland 995,555 2000
69 John Edwards Democratic North Carolina 994,029 2008
70 Howard Dean Democratic Vermont 937,015 2004
71 Pete Buttigieg Democratic Indiana 924,237 2020
72 Ben Carson Republican Florida 857,039 2016
73 Frank Church Democratic Idaho 830,818 1976
74 Dennis Kucinich Democratic Ohio 643,067 2004
75 John Glenn Democratic Ohio 617,909 1984
76 Lyndon LaRouche Democratic Virginia 596,422 1996
77 Rudy Giuliani Republican New York 592,391 2008
78 Jerry Brown Democratic California 575,296 1980
79 Wesley Clark Democratic Arkansas 572,207 2004
80 Eugene McCarthy Democratic Minnesota 553,990 1972
81 Amy Klobuchar Democratic Minnesota 529,713 2020
82 Henry Jackson Democratic Washington 505,198 1972
83 Lamar Alexander Republican Tennessee 495,590 1996
84 Alan Keyes Republican Maryland 471,716 1996
85 Bill Weld Republican Massachusetts 453,959 2020
86 Shirley Chisholm Democratic New York 430,703 1972
87 Gary Hart Democratic Colorado 415,716 1988
88 Al Sharpton Democratic New York 383,683 2004
89 Robert Byrd Democratic West Virginia 340,309 1976
90 George McGovern Democratic South Dakota 334,801 1984
91 Terry Sanford Democratic North Carolina 331,415 1972
92 Jack Kemp Republican New York 331,333 1988
93 Bob Kerrey Democratic Nebraska 318,457 1992
94 John M. Ashbrook Republican Ohio 311,543 1972
95 Lyndon LaRouche Democratic Virginia 306,772 2000
96 Sargent Shriver Democratic Maryland 304,399 1976
97 Fred Thompson Republican Tennessee 287,581 2008
98 Jeb Bush Republican Florida 286,694 2016
99 Tom Harkin Democratic Iowa 280,340 1992
100 Tulsi Gabbard Democratic Hawaii 273,940 2020
101 Tom Steyer Democratic California 259,792 2020

See also


This page was last updated at 2023-03-20 03:26 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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