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Election certification: Congress certifies Trump's win
Congress gathered to certify President-elect Donald Trump's election win. Vice President Kamala Harris led the joint session on Monday.
WASHINGTON - President-elect Donald Trump’s individual vote count was one for the record books. Not only did his 77.3 million votes top Kamala Harris’ 75 million votes, but it broke a decades-long streak.
For the first time in 20 years, the Democratic presidential candidate lost the popular vote.
RELATED: Congress certifies Donald Trump's election win, paving way for January inauguration
The last time the Democratic presidential candidate lost the popular vote was in 2004, when John Kerry was defeated by incumbent Republican George W. Bush.
The election that year was a contentious one, as foreign policy was in the forefront in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
In 2004, both candidates got an impressive number of votes, with Kerry receiving 59 million and Bush 62 million. Bush won both the electoral vote and popular vote, even setting a new popular vote record. The previous president with the most-ever individual votes was Ronald Reagan, with 54.5 million votes in 1986.
File: US President-elect Donald Trump speaks during Turning Point's annual AmericaFest 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona, on December 22, 2024. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Since 2004, the Democratic presidential candidate had come out on top with the popular vote until this election:
- Barack Obama (2008), 69.4 million to John McCain’s 59.9 million
- Barack Obama (2012), 65.8 million to Mitt Romney’s 60.9 million
- Hillary Clinton (2016), 65.7 million to Trump’s 62.9 million
- Joe Biden (2020), 81.2 million to Trump’s 74.2 million
One year, in particular, though, it was not enough to win them the White House. That was in 2016 when Hillary Clinton lost the electoral college to Trump.
The only other candidate in modern U.S. history to have won the popular vote but lost the White House was Democrat Al Gore in 2000, against George W. Bush.
READ MORE: The 2000 presidential election and Florida recount: ‘Truly a crazy year’
The election that year dragged on for weeks with the infamous Florida recount. Gore received 50.9 million votes to Bush’s 50.4 million. Bush won the White House that year with 271 electoral votes to Gore’s 266.
Popular vote totals for 2024 election
- Donald Trump: 77,303,573 votes (49.9%)
- Kamala Harris: 75,019,257 votes (48.4%)
Electoral vote totals for 2024 election
- Donald Trump: 312
- Kamala Harris: 226
The Source: The 2024 vote totals are via the Associated Press' certified count, finalized December 30, 2024. Information about historical vote counts was taken from The American Presidency Project, an online archive hosted by the University of California at Santa Barbara. This story was reported from Detroit.