Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day for December 14, 2020
The Number of the Day columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
December 14, 2020: When the Electoral College meets today and confirms Democrat Joe Biden as the president-elect, it will mark just the second time since 1892 that a president’s political party has held the White House for just a single term. The only other time this happened in either the 20th or 21st century came in 1976 when Democrat Jimmy Carter narrowly defeated Republican Gerald Ford.[1]
A recent column for the Deseret News noted a number of similarities between this year’s election and the results in 1976. It also noted similarities between President-elect Biden and the candidates in 1976—Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.[2]
In the late-19th century, there were three consecutive times when the president’s party held the White House for just a single term. In 1884, Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected after the Republicans had won six consecutive elections. Cleveland was then narrowly defeated in 1888 by Republican Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland, however, came back in 1892 to win another term in office for himself and the Democrats.[3]
Following that transition period, the Republicans then won four consecutive presidential elections and seven of the next nine.[3]
An earlier Number of the Day noted that 2020 marked the 9th consecutive presidential election where the winning candidate received 53% of the vote or less. That was the longest such streak in history. The previous record was seven consecutive elections from 1876 to 1900. That particular stretch included the three elections involving Grover Cleveland.
Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology.
- December 11, 2020 -22 percent of voters say their personal finances are getting better
- December 10, 2020 -45 percent of voters think it’s appropriate to discuss politics at family holiday gatherings
- December 9, 2020 –110,000 restaurants permanently closed due to pandemic
- December 8, 2020 -36 percent of voters say no leading news sources are unbiased
- December 7, 2020 -83% of House and Senate races won by double-digit landslide
- To see other recent numbers, check out the archive.
Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day is published by Ballotpedia weekdays at 8:00 a.m. Eastern. Click here to check out the latest update.
The Number of the Day is broadcast on local stations across the country. An archive of these broadcasts can be found here.
Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.
Ballotpedia is the nonprofit, nonpartisan Encyclopedia of American Politics.
See also
- Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day
- Electoral College
- Scott Rasmussen's Number of the Day for November 20, 2020
- Joe Biden
Footnotes
- ↑ Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections, "1976 Presidential General Election Results," accessed December 11, 2020
- ↑ Deseret News, "A Biden presidency will pave the way for a 21st-century Reagan," December 7, 2020
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Guardian, "Every US president listed," accessed December 11, 2020
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
