If current US President Donald Trump does not win re-election, he will not be the first sitting president in history to fall from grace, but he will be the first in the last three decades. In 1992, George HW Bush failed to win his second term when Democrat Bill Clinton won the election. Since Bush, the three presidents of the United States, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush (Junior) and Barack Obama, have won their re-elections.
Click here for full coverage of the US elections.
Only four presidents, in the last 100 years, failed to win reelection.
George HW Bush
The 1992 presidential elections marked the end of a long period of Republican rule in the United States that began in 1968. Bush’s approval rating was 89% and his re-election was considered very high. But Clinton won 43 percent of the popular vote along with 370 electoral college votes. Bush obtained only 37.3 percent of the popular vote and 168 votes in the polling stations.
Jimmy Carter
Democrat Jimmy Carter lost to Republican Ronald Reagan in the 1980 US elections. It was a landslide victory for Reagan, as he won 50.7 percent of the popular vote. Reagan, 69, was the oldest person to be elected to the first term until Donald Trump, 70, was elected president in 2016.
Gerald ford
In 1976, Republican Gerald Ford lost to Jimmy Carter, who lost him to Ronald Reagan in 1980. When President Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Ford, the vice president, was named president. Thus he became the only president who had never been elected by the Electoral College.
Herbert hoover
Republican Herbert Hoover was defeated by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. It was a landslide victory for Roosevelt as the election was overshadowed by the Great Depression.
Both Donald Trump and his challenger Joe Biden have claimed to be ahead in the election, as the final result in four states remains pending.
Neither candidate had obtained the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win the White House. But Biden’s chances were better as he had 253 votes in the electoral college compared to 213 won by President Trump, according to the latest US media projections.
Results for Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Nevada have yet to be declared as officials continue to count millions of votes, some cast Tuesday and many more during weeks of early voting amid the growing pandemic.
(With contributions from the agency)
.
