While the counts have not yet been completed in all states, the president-elect has exceeded the mark of 74,260,000 votes. He thus improves his score from 2020, which was already a record.
This time, his detractors will not be able to say that he was “ill-elected”. This week, Donald Trump became the 47th president of the United States, winning 301 votes to 226 for his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris. This total should still evolve, since the result of Arizona, which allocates 11 electors, has not yet officially been announced. But the Republican candidate is well ahead while more than 80% of the ballots have been counted. A clear and flawless victory from the point of view of the electoral college therefore, but also of the popular vote, since unlike 2016, the year of his first election, Donald Trump is also certain to win the popular vote.
The icing on the cake: the billionaire has already broken the record for votes in a presidential election for a Republican candidate. With 74,263,792 votes counted by the Associated Press this Saturday morning, he exceeds his total from the 2020 election, during which he accumulated 74,223,975 votes despite his defeat. He also obtained 11 million more votes than his 2016 election, where he left the popular vote to Hillary Clinton with 62,984,828 votes.
Absolute record at 81 million votes
Certainly, American demographics, which are increasing by one to two million per year, can explain this increasing score. The population of the United States also gained 13 million inhabitants between 2016 and 2024. But Donald Trump also owes this score to the expansion of his electoral base. This year, the billionaire gained votes among Latinos (+13 points), young people (+6 points), non-graduates (+4 points), women (+2 points) and black men (+1 point). Proof that a real shift was at work in 2024.
Conversely, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is in free fall compared to the election of Joe Biden in 2020. She peaks today at 70,355,827 votes, and California, which only counted 60% of its bulletins, should see it approach 72 million. The vice-president will therefore be behind by around 10 million votes over Joe Biden, elected with 81,283,501 votes, an absolute record. The Democratic president had at the time benefited from a participation of 66%, the highest since the presidential election of… 1900 (73.7%), according to Statisa. For comparison, Donald Trump's first election in 2016 brought together 60% of Americans. The figures for 2024 are not yet known.
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