In sheer numbers, the Republican candidate to receive the most votes in an election is Donald J. Trump, who, in 2020, saw 74,223,975 ballots cast in his favor. Though this was the party’s best performance, in terms of votes, as other candidates have won a greater share of the total vote, he still lost with then-candidate Biden received just over 81 million votes.

As expected, the number of votes received by Republicans and Democrats, for that matter, increases as time goes on. So, unsurprisingly, Donald Trump also took second place for his 2016 win against Democrat Hillary Clinton when he defeated her in the Electoral College but lost the popular vote. In the third spot, we have George W. Bush, whose 2004 run against John Kerry earned him 62,040,610. Bush earned 10 million more votes in 2004 than 2000, with overall voter turnout jumping six percent. Since 2000, Republicans have won the White House three times, but only won the popular vote once. In 2000 and 2016, George W. Bush and Donald Trump secured victories through the Electoral College without winning the popular vote. The Electoral College gives more power to smaller states, as whoever wins those states, wins all electoral college votes.

What about votes as a share of the electorate?

However, if we look at which GOP candidates have secured the greatest share of the vote, we will need to go back a few decades.

In 1972, when Richard Nixon was running for re-election he earned 60.7 percent of the vote (47,168,710 votes), defeating Democrat George McGovern, only to resign two years later after the Watergate Scandal broke. Closely behind Nixon, is Warren G. Harding who in the election of 1920 earned 60.4 percent of the vote. This election was the first to take place after the 19th amendment was passed which extended voting rights to women, and the number of votes cast jumped 43 percent compared to the election of 1916.

In third place, we have Herbert Hoover, who was elected in 1932 with 58.2 percent of the vote. President Hoover, and the Republican party, would be blamed for the financial crisis, and he was defeated by Franklin D. Rosevelt in 1932. President Rosevelt would go on to win the next four presidential elections.