Can You Name Which President Lost These Elections?

La Follette, who was nicknamed “Fighting Bob,” was a nationally renowned third-party candidate in the 1924 election. As the former governor and senator from Wisconsin, La Follette claimed his home state as well as 13 electoral votes, plus 5 million popular votes nationwide. La Follette and Democrat John W. Davis ultimately lost to incumbent President Calvin Coolidge.

Going up against the eventual winner Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel J. Tilden earned 4,300,590 votes in the 1876 election, compared to Hayes’ 4,036,298. Even still, Hayes ultimately won by claiming 185 Electoral College votes to Tilden’s 184. An Electoral Commission was established to determine the victor, which controversially awarded the presidency to Hayes.

The 1892 presidential election is historic in being the only race in which a former U.S. President reclaimed the presidency. Former Commander in Chief Grover Cleveland defeated incumbent Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland had served as President between 1885 and 1889 before losing to Harrison in 1888. Harrison then served just one term before ceding back the office.

George B. McClellan served as the overall commanding general of the Union Army for about six months toward the beginning of the Civil War. After he failed to pursue the army of General Robert E. Lee in 1862, however, President Abraham Lincoln removed him from command. McClellan then ran against Lincoln in the election of 1864, losing in a landslide.

Ross Perot ran for President in 1992 and 1996, losing to Bill Clinton both times. He was still one of the more successful third-party candidates in history, winning around 19% of the popular vote in 1992. In the 1996 race, Perot founded the Reform Party, which called for campaign and governmental reform. Perot lost the election, though he received 8% of the vote.

The moral of the story is, if your name starts with "Hora," don't challenge Ulysses S. Grant in a presidential election. The Civil War hero and Union general was very popular going into his first term in 1869, winning the Electoral College by a margin of nearly 3-to-1 over Democratic candidate Horatio Seymour. Then, in the 1872 election, Grant defeated Horace Greeley by an even larger margin, securing himself a second term.

In the presidential election of 1824, Andrew Jackson won the most electoral votes and the largest share of the popular vote, but no candidate held a majority. Since the Constitution requires an Electoral College majority, the race was decided by the House of Representatives, with John Quincy Adams as the victor. Jackson became the seventh U.S. President five years later, serving from 1829 to 1837.

William Jennings Bryan was a brilliant orator and shrewd lawyer but never achieved the highest office in the land, despite trying three times. Bryan served in the House of Representatives from 1891 to 1895, but during the elections of 1896, 1900, and 1908, he lost to William McKinley twice and William Taft once. After his failed presidential bids, Bryan served as secretary of state under Woodrow Wilson.

In the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson got revenge on his rival John Adams by defeating him with 73 electoral votes to 65 and made Adams the first one-term President in American history. It would be another 28 years before another incumbent President lost his second election — this time it would be John Quincy Adams, the former President's son.

Franklin D. Roosevelt has the distinct honor of producing the most presidential losers, beating four consecutive challengers in elections. First, FDR topped the incumbent President Herbert Hoover in the election of 1932. From there he took easy victories over Alf Landon in 1936 and Wendell Willkie in 1940. In 1944, he won the presidential election again, this time beating Thomas E. Dewey.

Henry Clay ran in three presidential elections and is considered to be one of the most qualified candidates never to win due to his contributions to domestic policy. Known as the "Great Pacificator," he began his campaigns in 1824 when he came in fourth to John Quincy Adams. Eight years later, he came in second to incumbent Andrew Jackson, and 12 years after that, he lost in a close race to James K. Polk.

On the early morning of November 4, 1948, the "Chicago Tribune" decided to call that year's presidential election for Thomas E. Dewey. Unfortunately for the "Tribune," their polls and sources got it wrong, and Harry Truman had actually won the presidency. More than 100,000 papers with the erroneous headline "Dewey Defeats Truman" were printed before it was changed.

Theodore Roosevelt departed the White House in 1909, despite being eligible to run for reelection. His successor, William Howard Taft, served one term before Roosevelt returned to challenge Taft in the 1912 election. In that year, Roosevelt ran as a member of the new Bull Moose Party. Both Roosevelt and Taft lost the election to the eventual winner, Woodrow Wilson.

Democratic candidate Walter Mondale only won a single state in the election of 1984 against incumbent President Ronald Reagan. In addition to the historic lopsidedness of his loss, Mondale's candidacy also broke barriers by featuring the first woman on a major party ticket. Mondale's running mate, Geraldine Ferraro, served as a representative until 1985.

In 1952 and 1956, Adlai Stevenson II was the Democratic candidate for the presidency. Stevenson was soundly defeated in both of his races against Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower but went on to become ambassador to the United Nations under JFK. Stevenson was the grandson of Adlai Stevenson I, Grover Cleveland's first Vice President.

Franklin D. Roosevelt easily coasted to victory in 1936, winning 523 electoral votes compared to opponent Alf Landon’s mere eight votes (the states of Maine and Vermont). It was the lowest electoral vote total since 1820, when James Monroe won an uncontested election by a count of 231-1, as one rogue elector gave his vote to John Quincy Adams.

Following George Washington's two-term presidency, the United States had its first presidential election in 1796. The race pitted Federalist John Adams against Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson. The resulting election ended in a narrow victory for Adams, who carried 71 electoral votes to Jefferson's 68, making Jefferson the first presidential loser in U.S. history.

Before the outbreak of the Civil War came the election of 1860, which was contested among Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and the eventual winner, Republican Abraham Lincoln. After Lincoln, Douglas took the lion's share of the remaining vote.

On election night in 2000, Al Gore conceded to incumbent President George W. Bush. But upon realizing the vote count in Florida was too close to call, Gore rescinded. After a machine recount that edged Bush over Gore, lawsuits were filed about the legality of the ballots counted, among other issues. Ultimately, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a selective manual recount, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the decision and declared Bush the winner.

Richard Nixon, who was the Vice President under Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961, decided it was his turn at the top title. In 1960, he ran for the presidency against John F. Kennedy. An unprecedented electoral strategy and strong voter response to Kennedy's good looks on television helped propel him to a win. Nixon eventually won the Oval Office when he beat Hubert Humphrey eight years later.

Harry S. Truman was the ultimate victor of the 1948 presidential election, despite an early “Chicago Tribune” headline that erroneously declared, “Dewey Defeats Truman.”