Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway — perhaps seeking to push back on the increasing attention to Hillary Clinton’s widening lead in the national popular vote — has been touting her boss’s margin of victory in the Electoral College. With Trump officially declared the winner in Michigan on Monday, he’s got 306 electoral votes — 56.9 percent of the available total of 538 and nothing to sneeze at. That’s more than George W. Bush got in either of his Electoral College victories, making it the highest total for a Republican since 1988.
But in a historical context, Trump’s Electoral College performance is decidedly below-average. So it’s a bit Orwellian to call it a “landslide” or a “blowout.” There have been 54 presidential elections since the ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804. (Before that, presidential electors cast two votes each, making it hard to compare them to present-day elections.) Of those 54 cases, Trump’s share of the electoral vote — assuming there are no faithless electors or results overturned by recounts — ranks 44th:
| ELECTORAL VOTES | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RANK | ELECTION | WINNER | TOTAL | WINNER | WINNER’S SHARE |
| 1 | 1820 | James Monroe | 232 | 231 | 99.6 |
| 2 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 531 | 523 | 98.5 |
| 3 | 1984 | Ronald Reagan | 538 | 525 | 97.6 |
| 4 | 1972 | Richard Nixon | 538 | 520 | 96.7 |
| 5 | 1804 | Thomas Jefferson | 176 | 162 | 92.0 |
| 6 | 1864 | Abraham Lincoln | 233 | 212 | 91.0 |
| 7 | 1980 | Ronald Reagan | 538 | 489 | 90.9 |
| 8 | 1964 | Lyndon B. Johnson | 538 | 486 | 90.3 |
| 9 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 531 | 472 | 88.9 |
| 10 | 1956 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 531 | 457 | 86.1 |
| 11 | 1852 | Franklin Pierce | 296 | 254 | 85.8 |
| 12 | 1940 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 531 | 449 | 84.6 |
| 13 | 1816 | James Monroe | 217 | 183 | 84.3 |
| 14 | 1928 | Herbert Hoover | 531 | 444 | 83.6 |
| 15 | 1952 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 531 | 442 | 83.2 |
| 16 | 1912 | Woodrow Wilson | 531 | 435 | 81.9 |
| 17 | 1944 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 531 | 432 | 81.4 |
| 18 | 1872 | Ulysses S. Grant | 352 | 286 | 81.3 |
| 19 | 1840 | William Henry Harrison | 294 | 234 | 79.6 |
| 20 | 1988 | George H. W. Bush | 538 | 426 | 79.2 |
| 21 | 1832 | Andrew Jackson | 286 | 219 | 76.6 |
| 22 | 1920 | Warren G. Harding | 531 | 404 | 76.1 |
| 23 | 1868 | Ulysses S. Grant | 294 | 214 | 72.8 |
| 24 | 1924 | Calvin Coolidge | 531 | 382 | 71.9 |
| 25 | 1904 | Theodore Roosevelt | 476 | 336 | 70.6 |
| 26 | 1996 | Bill Clinton | 538 | 379 | 70.4 |
| 27 | 1808 | James Madison | 175 | 122 | 69.7 |
| 28 | 1992 | Bill Clinton | 538 | 370 | 68.8 |
| 29 | 1828 | Andrew Jackson | 261 | 178 | 68.2 |
| 30 | 2008 | Barack Obama | 538 | 365 | 67.8 |
| 31 | 1908 | William Howard Taft | 483 | 321 | 66.5 |
| 32 | 1900 | William McKinley | 447 | 292 | 65.3 |
| 33 | 1892 | Grover Cleveland | 444 | 277 | 62.4 |
| 34 | 1844 | James K. Polk | 275 | 170 | 61.8 |
| 35 | 2012 | Barack Obama | 538 | 332 | 61.7 |
| 36 | 1896 | William McKinley | 447 | 271 | 60.6 |
| 37 | 1860 | Abraham Lincoln | 303 | 180 | 59.4 |
| 38 | 1812 | James Madison | 217 | 128 | 59.0 |
| 39 | 1856 | James Buchanan | 296 | 174 | 58.8 |
| 40 | 1888 | Benjamin Harrison | 401 | 233 | 58.1 |
| 41 | 1880 | James A. Garfield | 369 | 214 | 58.0 |
| 42 | 1836 | Martin Van Buren | 294 | 170 | 57.8 |
| 43 | 1948 | Harry S. Truman | 531 | 303 | 57.1 |
| 44 | 2016 | Donald Trump | 538 | 306 | 56.9 |
| 45 | 1960 | John F. Kennedy | 537 | 303 | 56.4 |
| 46 | 1848 | Zachary Taylor | 290 | 163 | 56.2 |
| 47 | 1968 | Richard Nixon | 538 | 301 | 55.9 |
| 48 | 1976 | Jimmy Carter | 538 | 297 | 55.2 |
| 49 | 1884 | Grover Cleveland | 401 | 219 | 54.6 |
| 50 | 2004 | George W. Bush | 538 | 286 | 53.2 |
| 51 | 1916 | Woodrow Wilson | 531 | 277 | 52.2 |
| 52 | 2000 | George W. Bush | 538 | 271 | 50.4 |
| 53 | 1876 | Rutherford B. Hayes | 369 | 185 | 50.1 |
| 54 | 1824 | John Quincy Adams | 261 | 84 | 32.2 |
By comparison, the average Electoral College winner claimed 70.9 percent of the available electoral votes, which would equate to 381 electoral votes given today’s total of 538 electors. For my money, it’s a bit much to call something a “landslide” when it can’t top that threshold. It’s not clear to me that President Obama’s win in 2008 should be thought of as a landslide, for instance. And Trump’s win surely doesn’t qualify. But cheer up, Trump fans: Your guy was elected president of the United States.