The president of the United States is often considered the most powerful individual on the planet and the leader of the free world. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the election of this leader, which occurs every four years, occasionally results in soaring political tensions, allegations of fraud, and even provokes violence. Between the creation of the position and today, the US has had 59 presidential elections. Some are especially noteworthy for revealing or causing significant sociopolitical divides and shifts. Others are noteworthy for revealing circumstances where a presidential candidate can win the White House while winning fewer popular votes than a rival, which is often considered undemocratic. Here are the eight most divisive presidential elections.
Setting the Stage: The Electoral College
The US Constitution of 1787 created a new position: chief executive. Under the unsuccessful Articles of Confederation, the fledgling United States had struggled without a central government that possessed any sort of executive authority. To correct this, the framers of the Constitution bestowed the new chief executive, known as the president, with significant powers. He was to be commander-in-chief of the military, chief executive and enforcer of laws, and chief of state. To ensure that only a wise and capable man could attain the position, the framers created an electoral college to select the nation’s singular leader.
Of course, the notion of an elite group of electors contrasted sharply with the direct democracy used in most states at the time. Many were skeptical and felt that the institution was undemocratic. Constitutional framer Alexander Hamilton defended the Electoral College in Federalist Paper No. 68, arguing that protecting the public from foreign interference in elections and the rise of charming but corrupt politicians was necessary. In its first use, the Electoral College unanimously selected George Washington, hero of the American Revolutionary War, as the first president of the United States. While Washington was universally popular, would future electoral college picks be as readily accepted by the electorate?
Setting the Stage: The Peaceful Revolution of 1800
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Sign up to our Free Weekly NewsletterWashington handily won re-election in 1792 before voluntarily passing off the position. The winner in 1796 was John Adams, Washington’s vice president. Although the 1796 election had been America’s first partisan contest and featured significant negative campaigning (criticism of opponents), Adams’ victory meant a simple transfer of power. But what would happen whenever an incumbent president lost to a challenger? Many wondered if the president, stinging from an election loss, would refuse to relinquish power.
In 1800, both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams ran again, this time with Jefferson winning. As incumbent, Adams could have tried to use his executive authority to delay, or even prevent, Jefferson’s taking power. Fortunately, Adams accepted his loss gracefully, and incoming President Jefferson, during his inauguration, strove for unity. Thus, America’s first peaceful transfer of power between political factions (today known as parties) was completed. Although all elections since have resulted in peaceful transfers of power, there have been intense political upheavals and even violence both before and after some of these momentous elections.
1. 1824: House of Representatives Picks Adams
Early presidential elections in the United States were more complex than those of today due to the presence of multiple popular candidates who could vie for electors. Most states allotted electors—members of the electoral college—in an all-or-nothing fashion: whichever candidate won the most popular votes in the state received all of the electors. This meant that a field of four popular candidates could result in all of a state’s electors being awarded to someone who won significantly less than half of the popular vote. It also meant that it was easy for no candidate to receive a majority of votes in the electoral college, which was required to win the presidency.
If no candidate won a majority in the Electoral College, the top three electoral vote winners moved to the US House of Representatives, where state delegations voted. No weight was given to performance in either the national popular vote or the electoral college vote, meaning the third-place candidate in the electoral college could easily be chosen president by the House. This happened in 1824 when the House chose John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson despite Jackson performing the best of four candidates in both the popular vote and the electoral college. Angry, Jackson prepared for a rematch for four years, honing his populist rhetoric and developing a dim view of elites. The resulting era of Jacksonian Democracy would forever change American politics.
2. 1860: Lincoln Wins Without Southern Ballots
After the era of Jacksonian Democracy in the 1820s and 1830s, slavery became the dominant issue in American presidential politics. As the nation expanded westward, it was hotly contested whether each new state or territory would be slave or free. Many sought a balance, with one slave state being added to the union for each free state created. In the 1840s, the addition of Texas to the union, followed immediately after the Mexican-American War and the resulting Mexican Cession of the Southwest and California, intensified this debate.
In the 1860 presidential election, the new Republican Party chose anti-slavery candidate Abraham Lincoln as its nominee. Outraged, the South, composed of slave states, refused to put Lincoln on the ballot. However, Lincoln won the presidency anyway due to the greater population of the North. Frustrated, Southern states began to secede and form their own country, the Confederate States of America. In April 1861, the American Civil War began shortly after Lincoln’s inauguration when Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Although Lincoln did not live to see the end of the war, he did abolish slavery in practice thanks to his famous Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862.
3. 1876: Rutherford B. Hayes Wins With Elector Hijinks
The next US presidential election to spark allegations of undemocratic behavior occurred in 1876 when Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes faced off against Democratic candidate Samuel Tilden. Although Tilden won the popular vote and had more votes in the electoral college, there was a delay: three states’ electoral votes were in dispute. These three states were in the South, under Reconstruction after the Civil War. Because of this, Republicans—the party of the Union during the war—were effectively in charge of elections. These Republicans allegedly threw out Democratic votes in order for the delayed electoral votes to be given to Hayes.
More complications emerged in other states, such as electors being chosen improperly. Then, some states sent, perhaps accidentally, multiple sets of electoral votes to Washington DC, causing confusion. In January 1877, a commission was created to decide the election between Hayes and Tilden. When the commission narrowly awarded the election to Hayes, Democrats in Congress reacted angrily. Allegedly, Hayes smoothed this over by promising to end Reconstruction in the South, prompting Southern Democrats to end their opposition. Ultimately, Hayes won by a single electoral vote… with the election decided just two days before inauguration.
4. 1960: Kennedy Wins a Close One Thanks to Television
Although the election of 1948 is famously known for the incorrect Dewey Defeats Truman headline, with incumbent president Harry S. Truman scoring an upset re-election win, the election of 1960 was even closer. Republican Vice President Richard M. Nixon squared off against Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, with both men representing a youthful new era of leadership. Kennedy was handsome and popular, but Nixon enjoyed two terms of prosperity and strong leadership under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In a groundbreaking new development, both nominees debated on television on September 26, 1960.
Over sixty million people watched the relatively new technology, and they were seen as the most momentous debates since Abraham Lincoln debated Stephen Douglas in 1858 (creating the popular Lincoln-Douglas debate format). Famously, viewers largely felt that Kennedy won the debates… if they had watched on television. Radio listeners were more likely to vote for Nixon, suggesting that Kennedy’s performance on television was boosted by his physical appearance. Ironically, despite viewers feeling that Kennedy was healthier and more vigorous than Nixon, Kennedy had many health problems, and Nixon’s “sickly” appearance was due to his refusal to wear makeup.
5. 1968: Riots Lead to Nixon Law-and-Order Clincher
Eight years later, Nixon, having narrowly lost in 1960, was looking for an epic comeback. Kennedy’s vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, became president in November 1963 after the Kennedy assassination and won by a landslide in 1964. However, the painful stalemate in Vietnam and urban race riots during the summers beginning in 1965 had sapped Johnson’s popularity. In the spring of 1968, Johnson chose not to run for re-election, opening up the Democratic primaries. Democratic senator Robert F. Kennedy, the younger brother of John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in June while campaigning in California, traumatizing the country again only two months after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
Amid the turmoil, the Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago. In a surprise move, the convention chose Vice President Hubert Humphrey as the presidential nominee, despite Humphrey not announcing his candidacy until well into the primaries. Many young Democrats were upset, and the convention coincided with major riots in Chicago that were televised worldwide. The disarray of the Democrats helped Nixon win the election in November on a law-and-order platform, with an alleged strong assist from the Chennault affair and supposed sabotage of Johnson’s peace talks with North Vietnam. As a result, 1968 is often considered one of the most tumultuous years in domestic politics after the Civil War.
6. 2000: Green Party and Recount Drama in Florida
The 2000 presidential campaign occurred with relatively little drama, thanks to a strong economy and peaceful international situation. Democratic Vice President Al Gore, enjoying two terms of peace and prosperity under President Bill Clinton, faced off against Republican governor of Texas George W. Bush, son of former president George Bush Sr. It was a relatively close election, and Gore won the popular vote… but not the electoral vote. At issue was a near-tie in the state of Florida, leading to a recount. What heightened the drama was the fact that Florida’s governor, Jeb Bush, was George W.’s younger brother.
A hand recount of ballots resulted in lots of consternation as election officials, who may have had partisan leanings, struggled to determine whether various states of chads (perforated spots of the ballot intended to be punched through) indicated a vote. Democrats were also furious at a strong third-party attempt by Green Party nominee Ralph Nader, who had won almost 100,000 votes in Florida. Nader’s pro-environmentalism votes, most of whom likely came from Democrat-leaning voters, were far greater than George W. Bush’s eventual margin of victory in the state. Ultimately, the Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore ended the recount and allowed Florida to cast its electors for Bush, giving the Republican the win.
7. 2016: Trump Shocks Despite 2 Million Popular Vote Loss
The 2016 presidential election saw unexpected twists and turns for both parties. In early 2015, it was almost universally assumed that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the former First Lady and US Senator (D-NY), would easily be named the next Democratic presidential nominee. However, a left-leaning independent US Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, announced his own candidacy and made surprising headway. Despite mainstream media predictions that Sanders would soon fizzle, the self-proclaimed democratic socialist kept the primaries competitive all the way until California in June 2016. Although Clinton clinched the presidential nomination, pundits were shocked at the strength of a renewed progressive movement among younger Democrats.
Similarly, the pundits were also surprised on the other side of the political aisle. Donald Trump, the real estate mogul and former reality TV star, actually clinched the Republican presidential nomination in May. Most political analysts felt that the divisive political rookie had little chance in the general election against a powerhouse like Clinton, but Trump won a major upset… in the electoral college.
Although Clinton won almost 3 million more popular votes than Trump, the Republican nominee narrowly won most of the swing states, allowing for his electoral college victory. Due to Clinton’s strong popular vote margin of victory and Trump’s controversial nature, as well as the media’s embarrassing failure to predict the election outcome, the 2016 election is one of the most divisive in history.
8. 2020: Allegations of Fraud Lead to Epic Tensions
The 2020 presidential primaries were not as dramatic as their 2016 predecessors, but the unexpected late-blooming strength of former Democratic vice president Joe Biden caused drama later on. Biden became the first presidential nominee in modern history to not win one of the first three primary contests, surprising analysts. When Biden eventually clinched the Democratic nomination instead of Bernie Sanders, pundits eagerly watched to see how the former veep would do against incumbent president Donald Trump. Biden played the quiet moderate to Trump’s usual outspokenness, frustrating Trump’s campaign due to a lack of openings to attack.
With America on edge due to the ongoing Covid pandemic, the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden resulted in rudeness and hostilities. Although a second debate went smoother, the incumbent president struggled as a candidate due to the Covid pandemic. Biden won handily on election night in November, but then Trump refused to concede the election. In a first since 1800, an incumbent president was declaring the election fraudulent.
On January 6, 2021, two weeks before the inauguration, pro-Trump protesters stormed the US Capitol, allegedly fueled by Trump’s continued insistence that the election had been “stolen.” As of 2024, this event remains the subject of many criminal investigations. Ultimately, Trump did allow for the peaceful transfer of power on January 20, with Biden being inaugurated as planned, though Trump himself broke with tradition by refusing to attend.
