Share of electoral votes for major parties in US presidential elections 1860-2020
The largest margins for the Republican Party occurred in the aftermath of the American Civil War, in the inter-war period, after the Second World War, and then again with the Nixon, Reagan and George H. W. Bush campaigns in the 1970s and 80s. For the Democratic Party, the largest victories occurred during First and Second World Wars, and for Lindon B. Johnson and Bill Clinton in the second half of the twentieth century. In the past six elections, the results of the electoral college vote have been relatively close, compared with the preceding hundred years; George W. Bush's victories were by less than seven percent, Obama's victories were larger (by around thirty percent), and in the most recent elections involving Donald Trump he both won and lost by roughly 14 percent. The percentage of electoral college votes are often very different to the percentage of the popular vote received by each candidate in the elections, as the popular vote differences tend to be much smaller.