2004 Electoral Map

2004 Election Results

George W. Bush defeated John Kerry, winning 286 electoral votes to 251 and securing a popular-vote majority after losing the popular vote four years earlier. Kerry carried states worth 252 electoral votes, but one Minnesota elector voted for his running mate, John Edwards.

Ohio was decisive. Bush held its 20 electoral votes by roughly 119,000 votes, or about two percentage points. Had Kerry flipped Ohio while holding his other states, he would have won the presidency. Florida, the center of the 2000 dispute, stayed Republican by a much more comfortable five-point margin.

Only three states changed sides from 2000. Bush picked up Iowa and New Mexico, while Kerry won New Hampshire. The South remained solidly Republican, and Democrats retained their strength along the Pacific Coast, in the Northeast and across much of the Upper Midwest. The map changed little even as turnout rose sharply.

The September 11 attacks and the Iraq War dominated the campaign. Bush argued that changing presidents would put national security at risk; Kerry challenged his handling of the war but struggled against attacks on his consistency and leadership. Bush’s victory strengthened his claim to a mandate, though the Electoral College still turned on a single closely divided state.