2004 United States presidential election information
55th quadrennial U.S. presidential election
For related races, see 2004 United States elections.
2004 United States presidential election
← 2000
November 2, 2004
2008 →
538 members of the Electoral College 270 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout
60.1%[1] 5.9 pp
Nominee
George W. Bush
John Kerry
Party
Republican
Democratic
Home state
Texas
Massachusetts
Running mate
Dick Cheney
John Edwards
Electoral vote
286
251[a]
States carried
31
19 + DC
Popular vote
62,040,610
59,028,444
Percentage
50.7%
48.3%
Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Bush/Cheney and blue denotes those won by Kerry/Edwards. Numbers indicate electoral votes cast by each state and the District of Columbia. Faithless elector: John Edwards 1 (MN)
President before election
George W. Bush
Republican
Elected President
George W. Bush
Republican
The 2004 United States presidential election was the 55th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. The Republican ticket of incumbent President George W. Bush and his running mate incumbent Vice President Dick Cheney were elected to a second term, defeating the Democratic ticket of John Kerry, a United States senator from Massachusetts and his running mate John Edwards, a United States senator from North Carolina.
Bush and Cheney were renominated by their party with no difficulty. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean emerged as the early front-runner in the 2004 Democratic Party presidential primaries, but Kerry won the first set of primaries in January and clinched his party's nomination in March after a series of primary victories. Kerry chose Edwards, who had himself sought the party's 2004 presidential nomination, to be his running mate.
Foreign policy was the dominant theme throughout the election campaign, particularly Bush's handling of the war on terror and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Bush presented himself as a decisive leader and attacked Kerry as a "flip-flopper". Kerry criticized Bush's conduct of the Iraq War, despite having voted for it himself. Domestic issues were debated as well, including the economy and jobs, health care, abortion, same-sex marriage and embryonic stem cell research.
Bush won by a narrow margin of 35 electoral votes and took 50.7% of the popular vote. Bush swept the South and the Mountain States and took the crucial swing states of Ohio, Iowa, and New Mexico, the latter two flipping Republican. Although Kerry flipped New Hampshire, Bush won both more electoral votes and states than in 2000. Ohio was the tipping-point state, and was considered to be the state that allowed Bush to win re-election. Some aspects of the election process were subject to controversy, but not to the degree seen in the 2000 presidential election. As of 2020, this is the most recent presidential election in which the Republican nominee won the popular vote and the only presidential election since 1984 in which the incumbent Republican president won re-election. Bush also became the only incumbent president to win re-election after previously losing the popular vote
Since the death of 2000 vice-presidential nominee Joe Lieberman in 2024, this is the earliest presidential election in which all major-party candidates for president and vice president are still alive.
^"National General Election VEP Turnout Rates, 1789-Present". United States Election Project. CQ Press.
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Global Information
5.9 pp
