Historical polling for U.S. Presidential elections

United States presidential election, 1936

The Literary Digest famously predicted that Alf Landon would win based on mail-in cards sent in from their readers. It had successfully predicted the winners of the elections in 1920, 1924, 1928 and 1932. Many people believed their forecasts.

George Gallup predicted very different results based on statistical random sampling. The accuracy of Gallup's forecasts was a very visible demonstration of the value of modern statistical methods. The people who mailed in cards to the Literary Digest were more affluent with an overwhelmingly negative evaluation of Roosevelt. They were not representative of the voting public, and it showed in the results.

Incumbent President Roosevelt won because his New Deal programs were very popular among the American people, apart from the respondents to the Literary Digest poll. Republican nominee Alf Landon claimed that the new deal was too costly and ineffective, as well as that FDR was slowly making the U.S. a dictatorship. However, these attacks did not gain much traction.

United States presidential election, 1940

Throughout this campaign, Roosevelt promised that he would not bring the United States into any new wars if he was given another term and also promised to continue the New Deal. Willkie attacked FDR for seeking a third term and accused FDR of trying to turn the U.S. into a dictatorship by refusing to leave office. However, Willkie's attacks gained little traction, and FDR consistently led in all the polls and was reelected by a large margin.

United States presidential election, 1944

FDR also actively campaigned in this election against his doctors' advice in order to counter Republican claims that he was close to death. FDR maintained a consistent (albeit sometimes narrow) lead in the polls at all times and won a solid victory in this election due to the American successes in World War II and Roosevelt's popularity.

United States presidential election, 1948

Incumbent President Harry Truman's popularity was low at the end of 1946. However, he was able to regain his popularity by attacking the "Do-Nothing" Republican Congress of 1947-1948 and tying Dewey to it, and by energizing certain segments of the Democratic base through various actions such as ending segregation in the U.S. military and recognizing Israel. Gallup, and other polling organizations, failed to identify Truman's comeback and to predict his victory in the 1948 election.

United States presidential election, 1952

Dissatisfaction with the Korean War, corruption, and the threat of Communism (K1c2) allowed popular World War II hero general Dwight Eisenhower to win the election in a huge landslide after consistently leading in the polls, mostly by large margins.

United States presidential election, 1956

After consistently leading in the polls by huge margins, popular incumbent President Dwight Eisenhower was easily reelected due to the economic prosperity at home and ending the Korean War abroad.

United States presidential election, 1960

The polls throughout this election always indicated a very close race. Incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon initially led in the polls, but then suffered some problems (a poor image in the first television debate, a knee injury which prevented him from campaigning) which caused John F. Kennedy to take the lead in the polls for most of the campaign. In the end JFK won an extremely narrow victory over Nixon.

United States presidential election, 1964

Incumbent President Lyndon Johnson always maintained a huge lead in the polls due to massive popular sympathy following the JFK assassination, a good economy, lack of severe foreign problems, and an effective campaign to portray Goldwater as a dangerous, out-of-touch extremist. Johnson won the election in a huge landslide as well.

United States presidential election, 1968

This campaign was always close according to the polls, but after the tumultuous 1968 Democratic Convention and the riots near it, Nixon was able to establish a lead and consistently maintain it throughout the campaign. American Independent candidate George Wallace ran in opposition to civil rights and in support of segregation and thus got a lot of support in the South. Humphrey began catching up to Nixon in the polls late in the campaign but he ran out of time and Nixon won a narrow victory in the election itself.

United States presidential election, 1972

Incumbent U.S. President Richard Nixon was always able to maintain a huge lead over Democratic challenger George McGovern due to the economic recovery following the 1969-1970 recession and due to successfully portraying McGovern as a foreign policy lightweight and as a social radical ("amnesty, abortion, and acid"). McGovern's campaign was also hurt by him having to change Vice Presidential candidates in the middle of the campaign, causing many people to question his judgement.

United States presidential election, 1976

Challenger Jimmy Carter was able to open up a huge lead over incumbent President Gerald Ford due to dissatisfaction with Watergate, Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, and the sluggish economy. Ford managed to close the gap near the end of the campaign by having some good debate performances (among other things). However, Ford was hurt by his comment saying that there was no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and he ran out of time to close the polling gap with Carter, thus allowing Carter to pull off a narrow victory on election day.

United States presidential election, 1980

Incumbent President Jimmy Carter initially had a huge lead in the polls, due to the rally-around-the flag effect of the Iranian hostage crisis and the perceived extremism of Reagan. The continuing hostage crisis and the poor economy hurt Carter, and the prospect John B. Anderson running as an independent appealed to around 20% of Americans who saw Carter as a lesser evil to Reagan. As a result, Anderson took a third of Carter's support in the spring, but did not seem to hurt Reagan, despite Anderson being a Republican. Carter would never recover this loss of support, while Reagan would end up peeling around two-thirds of initial Anderson voters. This race remained close until near the end, when Reagan asked Americans if they were better off than they were four years ago. Afterwards Reagan managed to win a huge landslide victory in the general election.

United States presidential election, 1984

Incumbent President Ronald Reagan led in all pre-election polls and was able to secure an easy victory over Democratic opponent Walter Mondale due to the improving economy and falling unemployment rate.

United States presidential election, 1988

Initially Democrat Michael Dukakis was able to open a huge lead in the polls. However, Vice President Bush's campaign successfully portrayed Dukakis as soft on crime and also used the good economy, Reagan's popularity, and his no new taxes pledge to close the gap with Dukakis in the polls and eventually open up a huge lead over Dukakis. Bush ended up winning the general election.

United States presidential election, 1992

In the spring and early summer, the polls fluctuated with incumbent President Bush and independent challenger Ross Perot trading the lead in the polls. However, Perot withdrew from the race in July and Clinton was able to open up a consistent lead in the polls from July onward by blaming Bush for the poor economy and promising that he'll fix it (the economy, stupid). Perot returned to the race in September but was never able to recapture all his previous support and Clinton ended up winning the general election by a comfortable margin.

United States presidential election, 1996

Incumbent President Bill Clinton held a comfortable lead in the polls throughout this entire election cycle due to the good economy and stable international situation. Clinton ended up winning the general election by a wide margin.

United States presidential election, 2000

This election was close throughout the whole campaign since Gore was able to use the good economy to his advantage while being hurt by perceptions of him as robotic and pompous. The Lewinsky scandal also might have hurt Gore and helped Bush in the polls among voters who were concerned about moral values. Finally, Gore was hurt by his refusal to campaign with incumbent President Bill Clinton, which could have turned out more Democrats to vote. In the end Gore won the popular vote but very narrowly lost Florida in the initial vote count as well as multiple recounts, with the decision upheld by the Supreme Court, the electoral vote, and the election.

United States presidential election, 2004

This election was close throughout the entire campaign. Dissatisfaction with the Iraq War and with a sluggish economy helped Kerry. However, Bush accused Kerry of flip-flopping and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth accused Kerry of being unpatriotic. A decisive moment came in a week before the election where Al-Qaeda released a video warning Americans if they re-elected Bush. Afterwards, Bush's poll ratings in decisive swing states gave Bush a comfortable lead. In the end, Bush managed to pull off a narrow victory in the general election.

United States presidential election, 2008

The campaign was close throughout the spring and summer, with Obama and McCain both trading leads. The U.S. economy went into a recession in December 2007, but initially Obama was hurt in the polls due to weak support from Hillary Clinton supporters. The Republicans also attacked Obama for being inexperienced, and McCain got a temporary bump in the polls after he picked Sarah Palin to be his Vice Presidential nominee. However, the financial crisis (which started in mid-September 2008) allowed Obama to open up a consistent and comfortable lead in the polls in the beginning of October. Obama won the general election by a comfortable margin.

United States presidential election, 2012

Early on, Barack Obama and his campaign aired negative attack ads hammering Republican challenger Mitt Romney as an out-of-touch, plutocratic, wealthy job destroyer, from his days as a corporate CEO at Bain Capital. Romney bounced back in the polls against the incumbent after strong performances in the primaries, and because the economy was still recovering from the 2007-2009 recession.

In April, after Obama publicly expressed his support of same-sex marriage, and a story of Romney bullying a kid in high school perceived to be gay was published, Obama took larger leads in the polls, however Romney and the GOP attacked Obama for falsely saying the economy was doing well, for welfare waivers, and also China's unfair trade practices. Throughout much of the summer, May, July, and August, with the exception of June, the polls stayed close, as Romney made several "gaffes" on a foreign trip to Europe and Israel while visiting that month during the time of the 2012 Summer Olympics. After the conventions, it was clear that Obama had the lead, as he led in all polls from every major publication. However, after a poor showing in the first debate, Romney took the lead and had the polls tied in early October, up to mid October.

From mid-October onward, the Democrats regained their momentum. Obama won re-election by a relatively close margin in the popular vote, but by a large margin in the Electoral College.

United States presidential election, 2016

Political outsider and businessman Donald Trump was seen unfavorably by many pollsters and pundits throughout the election, many predicted he'd lose by a close margin or by a blowout against Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. However, Trump was able to win over many blue-collar workers within the Great Lakes and Rust Belt regions, which for many years had been Democratic strongholds. Clinton won the popular vote by nearly three million, but with many votes coming from solidly blue states such as California and New York, they were minimized by Trump's unexpectedly large electoral vote margin.