Electoral vote difference in U.S. presidential re-election campaigns 1792-2020

Since the presidency was established, sitting U.S. presidents have campaigned for re-election 28 times in total, with 18 successful re-elections, and ten unsuccessful campaigns. In history, twelve presidents have received a larger share of the electoral votes in their second campaign than in their previous campaign, while fifteen campaigns received a smaller share of these votes, yet five of those still returned a majority and were successful. The largest drop in share of electoral votes was in 1932, when Herbert Hoover received 72.5 percent fewer electoral votes than in 1928, losing to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who would go on to be re-elected three times after this. The smallest difference happened in 1828, when John Quincy Adams lost the presidency to Andrew Jackson, receiving 0.38 percent fewer electoral votes than in 1824, although the election in 1824 was irregular as no nominee received a majority. The only time where there was no difference in share of electoral votes was for George Washington in 1782, as both elections were uncontested and he received one hundred percent of the votes in both elections.