“Electing the President” is an amazing digital resource for understanding the popular vote in presidential elections from 1840-2020

I could play around on this site for hours on end.

From the website: “Most presidential election maps emphasize the candidates and parties who won or lost the Electoral College. Electing the President shifts the focus to American voters, highlighting the more complex and nuanced landscape of the popular vote across nearly 50 presidential elections dating back to 1840.”

Check it out here.

I live in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Let’s see how my county voted over the years:

1840: William Henry Harrison (Whig). Harrison won the national race.

1844: James K. Polk (Democrat). Polk won the national race.

1848: Zachary Taylor (Whig). Taylor won the national race.

1852: Franklin Pierce (Democratic). Pierce won the national race.

1856: James Buchanan (Democrat). Buchanan won the national race.

1860: Abraham Lincoln (Republican). Lincoln won the national race.

1864: George McClellan (Democrat). McClellan lost the national race to Abraham Lincoln.

1868: Horatio Seymour (Democrat). Seymour lost the national race to U.S. Grant.

1872: U.S. Grant (Republican). Grant won the national race.

1876: Samuel Tilden (Democrat). Tilden lost the national race to Rutherford B. Hayes.

1880: Winfield Scott (Democrat). Scott lost the national race to James A. Garfield.

1884: Grover Cleveland (Democrat). Cleveland won the national race.

1888: Grover Cleveland (Democrat). Cleveland lost the national race to Benjamin Harrison.

1892: Grover Cleveland (Democrat). Cleveland won the national race.

1896: William McKinley (Republican). McKinley won the national race.

1900: William McKinley (Republican). McKinley won the national race.

1904: Theodore Roosevelt (Republican). Roosevelt won the national race.

1908: William Howard Taft (Republican). Taft won the national race.

1912: Woodrow Wilson (Democrat). Wilson won the national race.

1916: Woodrow Wilson (Democrat). Wilson won the national race.

1920: Warren G. Harding (Republican). Harding won the national race.

1924: Calvin Coolidge (Republican). Coolidge won the national race.

1928: Herbert Hoover (Republican). Hoover won the national race.

1932: Herbert Hoover (Republican). Hoover lost the national race to Franklin Roosevelt.

1936: Franklin Roosevelt (Democrat). Roosevelt won the national race.

1940: Franklin Roosevelt (Democrat). Roosevelt won the national race.

1944: Thomas Dewey (Republican). Dewey lost the national race to Franklin Roosevelt.

1948: Thomas Dewey (Republican). Dewey lost the national race to Harry Truman.

1952: Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican). Eisenhower won the national race.

1956: Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican). Eisenhower won the national race

1960: Richard Nixon (Republican). Nixon lost the national race to John F. Kennedy.

1964: Lyndon Johnson (Democrat). Johnson won the national race.

1968: Richard Nixon (Republican). Nixon won the national race.

1972: Richard Nixon (Republican). Nixon won the national race.

1976: Gerald Ford (Republican). Ford lost the national race to Jimmy Carter.

1980: Ronald Reagan (Republican). Reagan won the national race.

1984: Ronald Reagan (Republican). Reagan won the national race.

1988: George H.W. Bush (Republican). Bush won the national race.

1992: George H. W. Bush (Republican). Bush lost the national race to Bill Clinton.

1996: Bob Dole (Republican). Dole lost the national race to Bill Clinton.

2000: George W. Bush (Republican). Bush won the national race.

2004: George W. Bush (Republican). Bush won the national race.

2008: John McCain (Republican). McCain lost the national race to Barack Obama.

2012: Mitt Romney (Republican). Romney lost the national race to Barack Obama.

2016: Donald Trump (Republican). Trump won the national race.

2020: Donald Trump (Republican). Trump lost the national race to Joe Biden.

Summary:

• Cumberland County is 31-15 in picking the president.
• Cumberland County has not gone Democrat since LBJ in 1964.
• Cumberland County had a very strong Democratic presence during the Civil War and the decades that followed. In 1860, Lincoln was elected in the county by a mere 410 votes. In 1872, U.S. Grant (Republican) beat Horace Greeley by a mere 342 votes. Democrats won the county in 1864, 1868, 1876, 1880, 1884, 1888, 1892.