United States presidential elections in Ohio

Presidential elections in Ohio
Number of elections	55
Voted Democratic	16
Voted Republican	30
Voted Whig	3
Voted Democratic-Republican	6
Voted other	0
Voted for winning candidate	45
Voted for losing candidate	10

Following is a table of United States presidential elections in Ohio, ordered by year. Since its admission to statehood in 1803, Ohio has participated in every U.S. presidential election.

Ohio is considered a swing state, being won by either the Democratic or Republican candidates from election to election. As a swing state, Ohio is usually targeted by both major-party campaigns, especially in competitive elections.^[1] Pivotal in the election of 1888, Ohio has been a regular swing state since 1980.^[2]^[3]

Additionally, Ohio is considered a bellwether. Historian R. Douglas Hurt asserts that not since Virginia "had a state made such a mark on national political affairs".^[4] The Economist notes that "This slice of the mid-west contains a bit of everything American—part north-eastern and part southern, part urban and part rural, part hardscrabble poverty and part booming suburb".^[5] In the time since the Civil War, Ohio has had ten misses (eight Democratic winners, one Democratic-Republican winner and one Whig winner) in the presidential election (John Quincy Adams in 1824, Martin Van Buren in 1836, James Polk in 1844, Zachary Taylor in 1848, James Buchanan in 1856, Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892, Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, John F. Kennedy in 1960, and Joe Biden in 2020), and prior to the 2020 election it also had the longest consistent perfect streak of any state, voting for the winning presidential candidate in each election from 1964 to 2016 — a streak that ended when Joe Biden won in 2020. No Republican has ever won the presidency without winning Ohio, and since the advent of the duopoly two-party system, Democrats have won the presidency without winning Ohio only eight times, in the elections noted above.

Winners of the state are in bold.

Party abbreviations:

D = Democratic
R = Republican
D-R = Democratic-Republican
Fed. = Federalist
Prog. = Progressive (three distinct parties in 1912, 1924 and 1948, respectively)
Am. Ind. = American Independent Party (1968)
States' Rights D = States' Rights Democrats ("Dixiecrats") of 1948
Lib. R = Liberal Republican Party ("Mugwumps") in 1872
Const'l Union = Constitutional Union Party (1860)
N. Dem = Northern Democratic Party (1860)
S. Dem = Southern Democratic Party (1860)
Nat'l R = National Republican Party (1828 & 1832, later merging into the Whig Party).

^ "The Odds of an Electoral College-Popular Vote Split Are Increasing". FiveThirtyEight. 2016-11-01. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved 2016-11-06.
^ Trolling the Campuses for Swing-State Votes Archived May 28, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Julie Salamon, "The New York Times", October 2, 2004.
^ Game Theory for Swingers Archived February 1, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Jordan Ellenberg, "Slate.com", October 25, 2004.
^ Holli (1999), p. 162.
^ " A grain of sand for your thoughts" Archived February 26, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, The Economist, December 20, 2005. Retrieved December 23, 2005.

[1] "The Odds of an Electoral College-Popular Vote Split Are Increasing". FiveThirtyEight. 2016-11-01. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved 2016-11-06.

[2] Trolling the Campuses for Swing-State Votes Archived May 28, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Julie Salamon, "The New York Times", October 2, 2004.

[3] Game Theory for Swingers Archived February 1, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Jordan Ellenberg, "Slate.com", October 25, 2004.

[holli162-4] Holli (1999), p. 162.

[5] " A grain of sand for your thoughts" Archived February 26, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, The Economist, December 20, 2005. Retrieved December 23, 2005.

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