Highest popular-vote percentage ever won
What is the highest popular-vote percentage ever won in a presidential election?
Lyndon B. Johnson, with 61.1% of the national popular vote in his 1964 defeat of Barry Goldwater, the highest share of the popular-vote era (1824–present). Franklin D. Roosevelt is second, with 60.8% in 1936; Richard Nixon is third, with 60.7% in 1972.
No presidential candidate has matched Lyndon B. Johnson’s 61.1% of the national popular vote in 1964, the highest share of the popular-vote era.
| # | Candidate | Election | Popular-vote share | Electoral |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lyndon B. Johnson D | 1964 | 61.1% | 486 |
| 2 | Franklin D. Roosevelt D | 1936 | 60.8% | 523 |
| 3 | Richard Nixon R | 1972 | 60.7% | 520 |
| 4 | Warren G. Harding R | 1920 | 60.3% | 404 |
| 5 | Ronald Reagan R | 1984 | 58.8% | 525 |
| 6 | Herbert Hoover R | 1928 | 58.0% | 444 |
| 7 | Dwight D. Eisenhower R | 1956 | 57.4% | 457 |
| 8 | Franklin D. Roosevelt D | 1932 | 57.3% | 472 |
| 9 | Theodore Roosevelt R | 1904 | 56.4% | 336 |
| 10 | Andrew Jackson D | 1828 | 56.0% | 178 |
| 11 | Ulysses S. Grant R | 1872 | 55.6% | 286 |
| 12 | Dwight D. Eisenhower R | 1952 | 55.2% | 442 |
| 13 | Abraham Lincoln R | 1864 | 55.0% | 212 |
| 14 | Franklin D. Roosevelt D | 1940 | 54.7% | 449 |
| 15 | Andrew Jackson D | 1832 | 54.2% | 219 |
| 16 | Calvin Coolidge R | 1924 | 54.1% | 382 |
| 17 | George H. W. Bush R | 1988 | 53.4% | 426 |
| 18 | Franklin D. Roosevelt D | 1944 | 53.3% | 432 |
| 19 | William Henry Harrison W | 1840 | 52.9% | 234 |
| 20 | Barack Obama D | 2008 | 52.9% | 365 |
| 21 | Ulysses S. Grant R | 1868 | 52.7% | 214 |
| 22 | William McKinley R | 1900 | 51.7% | 292 |
| 23 | William Howard Taft R | 1908 | 51.6% | 321 |
| 24 | Joe Biden D | 2020 | 51.3% | 306 |
| 25 | Barack Obama D | 2012 | 51.1% | 332 |
How this ranking is measured
Ranked by share of the national popular vote (1824–present). This is distinct from “Biggest landslides,” which ranks the winner’s margin over the runner-up: a candidate can post a huge share in a two-way race, or a smaller share when strong third parties are on the ballot. LBJ’s 61.1% (1964) leads the popular-vote era.