Overview of Joe Biden's electoral history
Biden at his presidential kick-off rally in
Philadelphia, May 2019
The electoral history of Joe Biden, the 46th and current president of the United States, began in 1970. Biden served as the 47th vice president (2009–2017), and as a United States senator from Delaware (1973–2009). Biden is the oldest elected and serving president, the second Catholic president, after John F. Kennedy, and the first president from Delaware.
A member of the Democratic Party, Biden was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970, and became the sixth-youngest senator in American history when he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Delaware in 1972, at the age of 29. He was re-elected to the Senate six times, and was the fourth-most senior senator. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in both 1988 and 2008.
In January 2009, Biden resigned from the Senate, to serve as Barack Obama's vice president, after they won the 2008 presidential election. They were re-elected to a second term in 2012.
Biden announced his candidacy in the 2020 presidential election on April 25, 2019. A total of 29 major candidates declared their candidacies for the primaries, the largest field of presidential candidates for any American political party since 1972; but over time, the field narrowed down to Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont. Eventually, Sanders withdrew from the race, and Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee in April 2020. Biden reached the delegate threshold needed to secure the nomination in June 2020. He defeated incumbent president Donald Trump in the general election, with 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232. Biden received more than 81 million votes, the most votes ever cast for a candidate in a U.S. presidential election.
County council election (1970)
U.S. Senate elections (1972–2008)
1972
1972 U.S. Senate map
1978
1978 U.S. Senate map
1984
1984 U.S. Senate map
1990
1990 U.S. Senate map
1996
1996 U.S. Senate map
2002
2002 U.S. Senate map
2008
2008 U.S. Senate map
Presidential primaries (1984–1988)
1984
1988
Presidential elections
2008
New Hampshire primary
Primaries
Excluding penalized contests, only primary and caucuses votes:
2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries
Candidate
|
Votes
|
%
|
Barack Obama
|
16,706,853
|
49.04
|
Hillary Clinton
|
16,239,821
|
47.67
|
John Edwards
|
742,010
|
2.18
|
Bill Richardson
|
89,054
|
0.26
|
Uncommitted
|
82,660
|
0.24
|
Dennis Kucinich
|
68,482
|
0.20
|
Joe Biden
|
64,041
|
0.19
|
Mike Gravel
|
27,662
|
0.08
|
Christopher Dodd
|
25,300
|
0.07
|
Others
|
22,556
|
0.07
|
Total votes
|
34,068,439
|
100.00
|
Including penalized contests:
2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries
Candidate
|
Votes
|
%
|
Hillary Clinton
|
18,225,175
|
48.03
|
Barack Obama
|
17,988,182
|
47.41
|
John Edwards
|
1,006,275
|
2.65
|
Uncommitted
|
299,610
|
2.79
|
Bill Richardson
|
106,073
|
0.28
|
Dennis Kucinich
|
103,994
|
0.27
|
Joe Biden
|
81,641
|
0.22
|
Scattering
|
44,348
|
0.12
|
Mike Gravel
|
40,251
|
0.11
|
Christopher Dodd
|
35,281
|
0.09
|
Total votes
|
37,980,830
|
100.00
|
Nomination
General election
2008 United States presidential electionCandidate | Running mate | Party | Popular vote | Electoral vote |
---|
Votes | % | Votes | % |
---|
| Barack Obama | Joe Biden | Democratic | 69,498,516 | 52.91 | 365 | 67.84 |
| John McCain | Sarah Palin | Republican | 59,948,323 | 45.64 | 173 | 32.16 |
| Ralph Nader | Matt Gonzalez | Independent | 739,034 | 0.56 | |
| Bob Barr | Wayne Allyn Root | Libertarian | 523,715 | 0.40 | |
| Chuck Baldwin | Darrell Castle | Constitution | 199,750 | 0.15 | |
| Cynthia McKinney | Rosa Clemente | Green | 161,797 | 0.12 | |
Others | 290,626 | 0.22 | |
Total | 131,361,761 | 100.00 | 538 | 100.00 |
|
Source: |
2012
Nomination
General election
2012 United States presidential electionCandidate | Running mate | Party | Popular vote | Electoral vote |
---|
Votes | % | Votes | % |
---|
| Barack Obama (inc.) | Joe Biden (inc.) | Democratic | 65,915,795 | 51.06 | 332 | 61.71 |
| Mitt Romney | Paul Ryan | Republican | 60,933,504 | 47.20 | 206 | 38.29 |
| Gary Johnson | Jim Gray | Libertarian | 1,275,971 | 0.99 | |
| Jill Stein | Cheri Honkala | Green | 469,627 | 0.36 | |
Others | 490,513 | 0.38 | |
Total | 129,085,410 | 100.00 | 538 | 100.00 |
|
Source: |
2020
Primaries
First-instance vote by state and territory
Joe Biden Bernie Sanders Michael Bloomberg |
2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
Candidate
|
Votes
|
%
|
Joe Biden
|
19,076,052
|
51.79
|
Bernie Sanders
|
9,679,213
|
26.28
|
Elizabeth Warren
|
2,831,472
|
7.69
|
Michael Bloomberg
|
2,488,734
|
6.76
|
Pete Buttigieg
|
924,237
|
2.51
|
Amy Klobuchar
|
529,713
|
1.44
|
Tulsi Gabbard
|
273,940
|
0.74
|
Tom Steyer
|
259,792
|
0.71
|
Andrew Yang
|
170,517
|
0.46
|
Uncommitted
|
130,081
|
0.35
|
Michael Bennet
|
63,124
|
0.17
|
Julian Castro
|
37,037
|
0.10
|
Others
|
370,044
|
1.01
|
Total votes
|
36,833,956
|
100.00
|
Nomination
General election
2020 United States presidential electionCandidate | Running mate | Party | Popular vote | Electoral vote |
---|
Votes | % | Votes | % |
---|
| Joe Biden | Kamala Harris | Democratic | 81,268,924 | 51.31 | 306 | 56.88 |
| Donald Trump (inc.) | Mike Pence (inc.) | Republican | 74,216,154 | 46.86 | 232 | 43.12 |
| Jo Jorgensen | Spike Cohen | Libertarian | 1,865,724 | 1.18 | |
| Howie Hawkins | Angela Walker | Green | 405,035 | 0.26 | |
Others | 628,584 | 0.40 | |
Total | 158,384,421 | 100.00 | 538 | 100.00 |
|
Source: |
See also