United States presidential elections in Hawaii

Presidential elections in Hawaii
Map of the United States with Hawaii highlighted
Number of elections16
Voted Democratic14
Voted Republican2
Voted other0
Voted for winning candidate10
Voted for losing candidate6

Hawaii is a state in the Western United States located in the Pacific Ocean about 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometres) from the U.S. mainland.[1] Since its admission to the Union in August 1959,[2][3] it has participated in 16 United States presidential elections. In the 1960 presidential election, Hawaii was narrowly won by the Democratic Party's candidate John F. Kennedy, defeating the Republican Party's candidate and incumbent vice president Richard Nixon by a margin of just 0.06% (115 votes).[4][5] In the 1964 presidential election, the Democratic Party's candidate Lyndon B. Johnson won Hawaii by a margin of 57.52%,[6] which remains the largest ever margin of victory in the state's history. Since the 1960 election, Hawaii has been won by the Democratic Party in every presidential election, except in 1972 and 1984, which were both won in a national Republican landslide victory by Nixon and Ronald Reagan respectively.[7][8]

In the 1992 presidential election, the independent candidate Ross Perot received the highest percentage of vote share (14.22%)[9] ever won by a third party candidate in Hawaii. In the 2016 presidential election, a faithless elector[a] pledged to the Democratic Party instead voted for Bernie Sanders for president and Elizabeth Warren for vice president.[11] Subsequently, the Democratic ticket of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine received only three electoral votes from Hawaii.[12] Gallup Poll has ranked Hawaii in the top ten most Democratic states.[13] As of 2020, no Republican has ever carried the state in two consecutive elections since Nixon and Reagan only won it in their 1972 and 1984 re-election bids, Democrats, however have carried the state in consecutive elections.

Hawaii is a signatory of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an interstate compact in which signatories award all of their electoral votes to the winner of the national-level popular vote in a presidential election, even if another candidate won an individual signatory's popular vote. As of 2021, it has not yet gone into force.[14]

  1. ^ Heckathorn, John; Swenson, J. Patricia Morgan; Motteler, Lee S. "Hawaii". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 14 June 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  2. ^ Lawrence, W. H. (August 22, 1959). "Hawaii Becomes the 50th State; New Flag Shown; Eisenhower Hails 'Historic Occasion' as Proclamation Joins Territory to Union 'Full Sister' Welcomed Stars Staggered in 9 Rows of 6 and 5 Each in Latest National Standard". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 30, 2021. Retrieved August 30, 2021.
  3. ^ Sprunt, Barbara (August 21, 2020). "Simmering Disputes Over Statehood Are About Politics And Race. They Always Have Been". NPR. Archived from the original on August 15, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  4. ^ Guide to U.S. Elections 2010, p. 789.
  5. ^ Tuttle, Daniel W. (1961). "The 1960 Election in Hawaii". The Western Political Quarterly. 14 (1): 331–338. doi:10.2307/443854. JSTOR 443854.
  6. ^ Guide to U.S. Elections 2010, p. 790.
  7. ^ Broder, David S. (November 8, 1972). "Nixon Wins Landslide Victory; Democrats Hold Senate, House McGovern Admits Defeat; President Calls for Harmony". The Washington Post. p. A01. Archived from the original on August 21, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  8. ^ Raines, Howell (November 7, 1984). "Reagan Wins By a Landslide, Sweeping at Least 48 States; G.O.P. Gains Strength in House". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on August 25, 2017. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  9. ^ Guide to U.S. Elections 2010, p. 797.
  10. ^ "What is the law on faithless electors?". Library of Congress. December 11, 2020. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference :faithless2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ "The Latest: Hawaii's 'faithless elector' vote will count". Associated Press. December 20, 2016. Archived from the original on January 18, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  13. ^ Jones, Jeffrey M. (February 14, 2015). "Massachusetts, Maryland Most Democratic States". Gallup Polls. Archived from the original on July 25, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
  14. ^ "Status of National Popular Vote Bill in Each State". National Popular Vote Inc. 11 November 2016. Retrieved 2022-12-27.


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