How many people voted for Trump in 2020? A look back at past election results.
Donald Trump will return to the White House in 2025. His success in swing states like Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania pushed his electoral vote count over the 270 threshold to win back the presidency.
How did he do it? Much of the Trump campaign focused on "low-propensity voters" who don't typically get out to vote and an appeal to young men. Exit polls indicated Trump boosted his support among several demographics, including Black men and Hispanic voters.
As we approach Inauguration Day 2025, here's a look back at the 2020 election results and the votes that secured President Joe Biden a spot in the Oval Office.
How many people voted for Trump in 2020?
Donald Trump received about 74 million votes in the 2020 presidential election, according to the Federal Election Commission. That's almost 47% of the popular vote. He won 232 electoral votes – 270 are needed to win. His opponent and current president Joe Biden won 306 electoral votes.
The Electoral College is the presidential voting process established by the Constitution. Generally, the candidate who wins the most votes in a state gets that state’s electoral votes. Maine and Nebraska split up these votes. For example, Nebraska gave Trump four of its five electoral votes in 2020 and Biden one. How many electoral votes a state gets is based on how many members of Congress it has, which is based on population size.
In 2020, Trump won electoral votes from these states, according to Paste BN’s election results tracker:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arkansas
- Florida
- Idaho
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine (one out of four)
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska (four out of five)
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- West Virginia
- Wyoming
Trump falsely claimed the results of many states were incorrect after the votes were tallied, alleging fraud and demanding recounts by hand. The recounts affirmed Biden’s victory. Shortly after the election, Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to change the outcome of the election.
Who won the popular vote in 2020?
Biden won both the popular vote and the Electoral College in the 2020 election.
Winning the popular vote does not necessarily guarantee the presidency – there have been five presidents who have lost the popular vote but won the presidency thanks to the Electoral College. In 2016, for example, Trump won 304 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton’s 227 but lost the popular vote by almost 2.9 million votes.
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