North Dakota's electoral votes in U.S. presidential elections 1892-2020

North Dakota has taken part in all U.S. presidential elections since 1892, and sided with the nationwide winner on 22 occasions, which gives a success rate of 67 percent. In these 33 elections, North Dakota has awarded all of its electoral votes to the Republican candidate 27 times; the only times where North Dakota voted for the Democratic nominee was in the lead-up to each of the World Wars, and in Lyndon B. Johnson's landslide victory in 1964. In the 2020 election, North Dakota was a comfortable victory for Donald Trump, who finished with 65 percent of the popular vote; more than double number of votes than his opponent, and an improvement on his share in the 2016 election.

1892 split

In North Dakota's first presidential election in 1892, the Peace Garden State made election history by splitting its three electoral votes between three candidates; the only time where the electoral votes have been split evenly between three candidates. This came as the result of an agreement between the Democratic and People's Parties, where Grover Cleveland's name did not appear on the ballot in exchange for the People's Party's support for Democratic nominees in state and regional elections. Weaver won the popular vote by 0.5 percent, although North Dakota split their results by district, which also returned one vote for Benjamin Harrison of the Republican Party.

Electoral allocation

North Dakota's designated number of electoral votes has remained relatively low throughout its history, peaking at five votes in the 1910s and 1920s. Since the 1970s, North Dakota has had just three electoral votes at its disposal, as its population has fluctuated between six and seven hundred thousand people for most of this century. In the past decade, however, North Dakota's population growth has been among the highest in the country, and it is now estimated to exceed 760,000 people. If growth rates remain at this level, then North Dakota's allocation of electoral votes may increase in the near future, although this is unlikely to change in the next decade.