Now Can We Call It a Mandate?
Trish Ponder | Nov. 28, 2008

Sen. Barack Obama had the largest margin of victory in total votes than any candidate who was not an incumbent. While some results are still not final, right now Obama is showing 9,124,522 more votes than John McCain. By percentage, his victory is less impressive — Obama is only the 13th highest non-incumbent, with 7 percent more votes than his opponent.

Obama had the largest margin of victory than any candidate who was not an incumbent

Then again, vote margins don’t equal greatness. The president who got the highest number of total votes over his challenger ever was…Richard Nixon over Sen. George McGovern in 1972. Nixon got a stunning 17,995,488 more votes and became the only president to resign the office, which he did in 1974.

The highest percentage more than his challenger was Warren Harding in 1920 over Ohio Gov. James Cox. Harding pulled 26.2 percent more votes but died of a heart attack within two years of taking office, in 1923.

2 Responses »

  1. oklang January 29, 2009 @ 5:42 pm

    Non-incumbent? The article probably meant his party is not in office. An incumbent is the person who is currently in office and John McCain was not the president at the time of the election.

  2. Trish January 29, 2009 @ 10:14 pm

    Thanks oklang, but I know what “incumbent” means and the post is correct as written.

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