This answer underlines the point that the Electoral College currently favors Republicans, as there are a number of states that seem automatically to vote Republican in recent years, while only the District of Columbia can be counted on to vote automatically Democratic. Specifically, ten states accounting for 62 electoral votes have voted Republican in every election since 1964 (Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming). Four states accounting for another 33 electoral votes have voted Republican in every election since 1964 except one (Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina and South Carolina). And two other states accounting for 16 electoral votes have voted Democrat only once since 1964, opting for third party candidate George Wallace in 1968 (Alabama and Mississippi). Add to this that Texas, with its 32 electoral votes, has not voted for a Democrat since 1976, and the Republicans can put 143 electoral votes in their column almost before the election begins. So Bill Clinton, despite gaining two decisive victories, never won over 400 electoral votes. His totals were 370 to 168 over George Bush, and 379 to 159 over Bob Dole.
The other choices:
1988, George Bush 428, Michael Dukakis 111
1912, Woodrow Wilson 435, Theodore Roosevelt 88, William Howard Taft 8
1972, Richard Nixon 520, George McGovern 17
And Herbert Hoover. . . If you answered Hoover, you thought about 1932, but forgot about 1928!
1928, Herbert Hoover 444, Alfred E. Smith 87
Copyright © 2000 by Richard Warren Field