How many votes did Trump get in the 2020 US presidential election against Biden?
The 2020 election knocked Donald Trump out of the top spot though he is likely planning a return to centre stage.
Joe Biden was chosen by the US electorate to hold office as the 46th President of the United States despite incumbent Donald Trump initially claiming that he had carried the 2020 election. While the result never seemed in doubt based upon the popular vote this doesn’t really matter in a US presidential election; it is the electoral college votes that really matter.
In the end Trump was handsomely defeated by Joe Biden by a wide-margin on both the popular vote as well as the electoral college. Biden took 306 electoral votes while Trump received 232. In terms of raw voting numbers, Joe Biden received 81,283,501 (51.3%) and Trump 74,223,975 (46.8%).
The “most votes for a sitting president” claim
Donald Trump has referenced this claim a number of times in the build-up to the midterm elections, and it is true. He won nine million more votes than the second highest number for a sitting president, Barack Obama with 65,915,795 in 2012.
It’s important to look at these numbers with some context.
The 2020 election had a turnout of 66.9%, some 7% higher then the turnout for the 2016 election prior and nearly 7% greater than 2012. With a higher population in the eight years difference between 2012 and 2020 coupled with this voting surge it is no wonder Trump managed to amass so many votes for himself and his opponent.
Extremely high turnout was a major factor in Trump receiving a record number of votes and still losing. With US population stagnating it may have to take even more voter participation to overcome this figure and lose.