While Republican Donald Trump has secured a return to the White House, the popular vote is still being tallied as ballots are counted across the country.
But as things stand late Wednesday morning, the president-elect maintains a firm lead of nearly 5 million votes over Vice President Kamala Harris. If Trump ultimately wins the national popular vote – a moral victory that won’t ultimately sway the election outcome – he’d be the first Republican presidential candidate to do so in two decades.
Here’s what to know about the popular vote and Trump’s path to winning it for the first time in his three presidential campaigns.
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Electoral College map: Follow results
What is the national popular vote?
After all the votes have been tallied, the candidate with the most individual ballots cast in their favor has won the popular vote.
However, the Electoral College, not the national popular vote, is what determines the winners of presidential elections in the United States. Statewide popular votes are used to determine which presidential candidate receives that state’s batch of electoral votes, with the exception of Nebraska and Maine, both of which allow the splitting of electors in a form of “proportional representation.”
But while the popular vote does not always align with the eventual winner, it does offer a look at who individual voters prefer in the White House and can be seen as a moral victory for a candidate.
Could Trump win the popular vote?
Late Wednesday morning, Trump had garnered 71.7 million votes, leading Democrat Harris, who had 66.8 million.
Live results: Follow here to get the latest popular vote counts
If Trump were to win the popular vote in the 2024 presidential election, it would be the first time he has accomplished the feat in any of his three general election campaigns.
Even though he won enough electoral votes for a victory in 2016, he lost the popular vote to Clinton by nearly 2.9 million votes, becoming one of five presidents who lost the popular vote but won the presidency.
President Joe Biden also won the popular vote by a 4-point margin over Trump in 2020 on his way to unseating the then-incumbent.
Biden received more than 81 million votes in the 2020 presidential election, according to the Federal Election Commission. That’s just over 51% of the popular vote. Biden holds the record for most votes ever won by a U.S. presidential candidate.
When is the last time a Republican won the popular vote?
The last Republican to win a popular vote in the United States was George W. Bush during his reelection campaign in 2004.
Bush defeated Democratic Sen. John Kerry that year after accruing 50.7% of the popular vote and 286 electoral votes, according to the American Presidency Project.
Bush, however, lost the popular vote in 2000 to Al Gore, who received just 48.4%, of the votes, the American Presidency Project states. Votes for minor party candidates prevented the two major parties from receiving a majority of the popular vote.
Before Biden and Clinton claimed the lionshare of popular votes in their respective elections against Trump, Barack Obama won it twice when he was elected in 2008 and reelected in 2012, defeating late U.S. Sen. John McCain and Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, respectively, according to the American Presidency Project.
Contributing: Anna Kaufman, Jonathan Limehouse, Clare Mulroy, USA TODAY
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 2024 popular vote results: How did Trump, Harris fare?
