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Trivia answer
George Washington aside, which non-incumbent presidential candidate won the highest share of the Electoral College vote?
a. Abraham Lincoln
b. Ronald Reagan
c. Franklin D. Roosevelt
d. John F. Kennedy
In the 1980 presidential election, Gov. Ronald Reagan (R) won 90.9% of the Electoral College vote over incumbent Jimmy Carter (D). Reagan carried 44 states, winning 489 electoral votes. Aside from George Washington's win with 100% of the Electoral College in the first presidential election in 1789, this was the best performance by a non-incumbent in presidential history.
The next-best performance by a non-incumbent was Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt's (D) 1932 victory over incumbent Herbert Hoover (R). That year, Roosevelt received 88.9% of the Electoral College vote and carried 42 of the 48 states. The previous record-holder was Sen. Franklin Pierce's (D) 1852 win over Gen. Winfield Scott (Whig), which was the last presidential election with the Whig Party as a major party. Pierce received 85.8% of the vote.
The only presidential election won without a majority in the Electoral College was in 1824, when none of the four Democratic-Republican candidates won a majority of the vote. Sen. Andrew Jackson won 37.9% of the Electoral College vote to Secretary of State John Quincy Adams' 32.2%. The election went to the U.S. House, which selected Adams.[1]
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