1. By: Benedict Gombocz

2. United States presidential election, 1968
 Held November 5, 1968; came four years
after Democrat and incumbent Lyndon B.
Johnson won by historic landslide
 Johnson, who had become very
unpopular for increasing number of
troops sent to Vietnam, declined to seek
or accept a second full term; VP Hubert
H. Humphrey was selected as
Democratic candidate after prior
candidate Robert F. Kennedy was
assassinated
 Was a breaking election against the
background, which included the
assassination and death of Martin Luther
King, Jr. in April resulting in riots across
the country, the assassination of Robert
F. Kennedy, widespread protests in
opposition to Vietnam War, and violent
fights between police and anti-war
demonstrators at 1968 Democratic
National Convention as Democratic Party
broke continually
 President before election was Democrat
Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas; elected
President was Republican Richard Nixon
of California

3. United States presidential election, 1972
 Held November 7, 1972
 Democratic Party’s nomination was won by
Senator George McGovern of South Dakota,
who ran on anti-war campaign as opponent
of incumbent Republican Richard Nixon, but
he received only limited support from his
party, along with medical scandal and firing
of VP nominee Thomas Eagleton, who was
replaced by Sargent Shriver
 With a strong economy and successes in
foreign affairs (particularly ending U.S.
involvement in Vietnam, establishing
diplomatic relations with China, and most
prominently détente with Soviet leader
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev), Nixon won over
McGovern in landslide, only slightly lower
than predecessor Lyndon B. Johnson eight
years earlier
 Subsequent Watergate Scandal was
inspiration for bumper stickers saying “Don’t
blame me – I’m from Massachusetts”
(reference to McGovern’s only victory in that
state)
 Earliest U.S. presidential election where one
of the two major candidates is still alive

4. United States presidential election, 1976
 Held November 2, 1976; was
preceded by 1974 resignation of
President Richard Nixon in the crisis
following the wake of the Watergate
Scandal
 Candidates were incumbent President
and Republican candidate Gerald
Ford; his Democratic opponent was
relatively not well known ex-Governor
of Georgia Jimmy Carter
 Ford dealt with struggling economy
and paid a heavy price for pardoning
predecessor Nixon; Carter ran as
Washington outsider and reformer ,
defeating Ford in narrow victory, and
became first president to be elected
from Deep South since Zachary Taylor
in 1848, and first Deep South
president since Andrew Johnson
(1865-1869)
 No Democratic candidate since 1976
has been able to match or exceed
Carter’s electoral performance in the
South

5. United States presidential election, 1980
 Held November 4, 1980; was contest
between incumbent President and
Democrat Jimmy Carter and Republican
opponent Ronald Reagan as well as
Republican Congressman John B.
Anderson (who ran as Independent
candidate)
 Reagan, helped by Iran hostage crisis
and deteriorating economy at home, won
election in landslide, gaining largest
number of electoral votes ever won by
non-incumbent presidential candidate
 After receiving Democratic nomination
over Ted Kennedy, Carter labeled
Reagan a “dangerous right-wing radical”;
Reagan, for his own part, constantly
mocked Carter, winning decisive victory
 In simultaneous Congressional elections,
Republicans gained control of U.S.
Senate for the first time since 1952
 This election marked the birth of what is
commonly refereed to as the “Reagan
Revolution”

6. United States presidential election, 1984
 Held November 6, 1984; was contest
between incumbent President and
Republican candidate Ronald Reagan; his
Democratic opponent was former VP Walter
Mondale
 As a result of strong economic recovery from
deep recession of 1981-1982, Reagan won
in 49 of 50 states; became only second
presidential (and Republican) candidate to
do so since Richard Nixon’s victory twelve
years prior
 Mondale only carried home state Minnesota
and District of Columbia; he won Minnesota
with 3,761 votes, making Reagan short 3,800
votes of winning all fifty states
 Reagan’s electoral votes of 525 (out of 538)
is largest ever gained by presidential
candidate; Mondale’s 13 electoral votes is
also second fewest ever gained by second
place candidate, only second to Alf Landon’s
eight 48 years prior
 In national popular vote, Reagan gathered
58.8% to Mondale’s 40.6%; no candidate
since has been able to equal, if exceed,
Reagan’s 1984 electoral result

7. United States presidential election, 1988
 Held November 8, 1988; first
election since 1952 where
incumbent (Ronald Reagan) stood
down as president in honor of
serving maximum of two terms by
22nd Amendment
 Reagan’s VP George H. W. Bush
received Republican nomination,
while Democrats nominated
Governor of Massachusetts Michael
Dukakis
 Bush campaigned on “good
economy” with his campaign slogan
“Read my lips: no new taxes,”
stable international stage, and on
Reagan’s popularity; Dukakis’
campaign suffered from several
failures
 Result was third consecutive
landslide for Republicans

8. United States presidential election, 1992
 Held November 3, 1992; was contest of
three major candidates: Incumbent
Republican President George H. W.
Bush, Arkansas Governor and Democrat
Bill Clinton, and businessman and
Independent candidate from Texas Ross
Perot
 Bush received hostile response from a
large part of his conservative base by not
following 1988 campaign against raising
taxes; the economy was still in a
recession from the Reagan years and
Bush’s strength in foreign policy was
seen as far less important after collapse
of Soviet Union and peaceful climate in
Middle East following Iraq’s defeat in
Persian Gulf War of 1990-1991
 Clinton gained plurality in popular vote
along with wide Electoral College margin
 This election was important realigning
election with three consecutive
Republican landslides; Democrats
received backing in Northeast, Great
Lakes region and California, but won only
four states in Clinton’s native South,
which included his home state Arkansas

9. United States presidential election, 1996
 Held November 5, 1996; was contest
between Democratic national ticket of
incumbent President Bill Clinton of
Arkansas and Vice President Al Gore of
Tennessee and Republican national
ticket of former Kansas Senator Bob Dole
and former Housing Secretary Jack
Kemp of New York
 Businessman Ross Perot ran as Reform
Party candidate with economist Pat
Choate as his running mate; received
less media attention than Clinton and
Dole and was ostracized from
presidential debates , and while still
getting worthy results as third-party
candidate, did not reclaim his success of
1992 election
 Clinton benefited from recovered
economy which pulled out of early 1990s
recession, and relatively fixed world
stage
 President before election was Democrat
Bill Clinton of Arkansas; elected
President was Democrat Bill Clinton of
Arkansas, who was re-elected with
substantial margin in both popular vote
and electoral college

10. United States presidential election, 2000
 Held November 7, 2000; was contest
between Republican candidate , then-
governor of Texas and son of ex-
president George H. W. Bush (1989-
1993) George W. Bush and Democratic
candidate and then-VP Al Gore
 Incumbent President Bill Clinton, having
served maximum two terms allowed by
22nd Amendment, was vacating the office
 Bush narrowly won November 7 election
and received 271 electoral votes to
Gore’s 266 (one elector refrained in the
official tally)
 Well known for controversy over
awarding of 25 electoral votes in Florida,
the follow-up recount process in that
state, and unusual event of winning
candidate having won less votes than
opponent; fourth election where electoral
vote winner did not also win plurality of
popular vote
 President before election was Democrat
Bill Clinton of Arkansas; elected president
was Republican George W. Bush of
Texas

11. United States presidential election, 2004
 Held November 2, 2004; incumbent
President and Republican candidate
George W. Bush defeated Democratic
candidate and then-junior U.S. Senator
from Massachusetts John Kerry
 Foreign policy, in particular Bush’s
handling of War on Terror and 2003
invasion of Iraq, was dominant theme
during election campaign
 As in 2000 presidential election, voting
controversies and concerns of defects
arose both during and after vote
 Winner was not decided until following
day, when Kerry chose not to dispute
Bush’s victory in Ohio, which had enough
electoral votes to determine victor
 Only three of fifty states switched
allegiance- New Mexico and Iowa voted
Democratic in 2000, but Republican in
2004; New Hampshire, in contrast, voted
Republican in 2000, but Democratic in
2004
 In Electoral College, Bush got 286 votes;
Kerry got 251

12. United States presidential election, 2008
 Held November 4, 2008; then-junior U.S.
Senator from Illinois and Democrat Barack
Obama defeated senior U.S. Senator from
Arizona and Republican John McCain
 Obama won 365 electoral votes, far
exceeding McCain’s 173; popular vote for the
two candidates was 69,456,897 to
59,934,814, respectively
 During presidential election campaign, both
candidates ran on platform of change and
reform in Washington; in the last few months
of election campaign, Domestic policy and
the economy rose as primary themes after
the start of the late 2000s economic
recession
 Together with Democratic and Republican
parties, the three minor parties (Constitution
Party, Green Party, and Libertarian Party)
nominated candidates with access to ballots
in enough states to theoretically gain
minimum of 270 electoral votes needed to
win election
 First election where a candidate of African
American descent was elected President and
also first where a person of African American
descent won nomination of one of two major
parties

13. United States presidential election, 2012
 Is scheduled to be held November 6, 2012; incumbent
President and Democrat Barack Obama is seeking second and
final term
 As of January 19, 2012, four Republican candidates are
seeking their party’s nomination: Newt Gingrich (former speaker
of U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia), Ron Paul
(U.S. Representative from Texas), Mitt Romney (former
Governor of Massachusetts), and Rick Santorum (former
Senator from Pennsylvania)
 As written in Constitution, 2012 presidential election will occur
at the same time as U.S. Senate elections in which one-third of
Senators will be up for re-election (33 in this election); U.S.
House of Representatives elections (which takes place every
two years) will elect members for 113th Congress
 Eleven gubernational elections and several elections for state
legislatures will also occur at same time