Home » History » American Presidents » MINORITY PRESIDENTS

MINORITY PRESIDENTS

© John S. Cooper

Many articles use the term "minority president" in describing past presidents and past elections. This is especially true when discussing a president's "mandate" to govern, the idea being that since he did not win a majority of the vote, he somehow has less of a mandate to enact his programs. One problem with this term is that there is no one accepted definition.

The term is commonly used in several different ways, but always refers to the popular vote. There is no such thing as a minority president in terms of electoral vote (which is the only vote that counts anyway) since a majority (more than 50%) of the electoral vote is required to win. If no candidate wins a majority of the electoral vote, then the U.S. House of Representatives chooses the President. (For more information on this, see my article entitled "The Electoral College: How It Works" published on March 24, 2000.)

In referring to the popular vote, one common use of the term "minority president" is defined as a person elected President who received fewer popular votes than his opponent. This has happened three times since we started keeping records of the popular vote. (Before 1824, all electors were chosen by state legislatures. In 1824, a majority of the electors were chosen by popular vote, and since 1828 most or almost all have been chosen that way. South Carolina was the last holdout, choosing electors by vote of the state legislature until after the Civil War.)

In 1824, with four major candidates running for the White House, no candidate got a majority of the electoral vote. John Quincy Adams, who finished second in both the popular and electoral votes (30.92% of the popular vote), was selected by the U.S. House of Representatives. Andrew Jackson, who defeated Adams in a rematch four years later, finished first in both the electoral and popular votes with 41.34%, but lost in the House of Representatives.

In 1876, Governor Samuel Tilden of New York won 50.97% of the popular vote, and Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio won only 47.95%. But due to irregularities in the electoral vote, a Congressional inquiry gave the disputed electoral votes to Hayes, making him the winner. (For more details on this election, see my article entitled "The Stolen Election of 1876" published on November 12, 1999.)

The final example of a man winning the White House even though more people voted for his opponent was in 1888. President Grover Cleveland was running for re-election against Benjamin Harrison, grandson of President William Henry Harrison. Although Cleveland won 48.62% of the popular vote to 47.82% for Harrison, Harrison won more electoral votes. Due to the distribution of the votes, Harrison carried certain key states by a narrow margin while losing other states by a wide margin.

The copyright of the article MINORITY PRESIDENTS in American Presidents is owned by . Permission to republish MINORITY PRESIDENTS in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.