21 of the 50 U.S. states have been the birthplace of U.S. presidents. Historically, Virginia has been the most common birthplace of U.S. presidents, with eight in total; although seven of these were born in the 1700s, and Woodrow Wilson is the most recent Virginian to have been elected president, in 1912. Similarly to Virginia, Ohio has produced seven U.S. presidents, although they were all born between 1822 and 1865, and all served as president between 1845 and 1923. Born in the USA Five presidents, including the incumbent President Donald Trump, were born in New York; the first of which, Martin Van Buren, also has the distinction of being the first president born in the independent United States. Eight of the first nine presidents, all born in Massachusetts, South Carolina or Virginia, were born as British subjects when these states were still part of the Thirteen Colonies. Since then, no other presidents were born in areas that had not yet been admitted into the United States, and no U.S. presidents were ever born in the Confederate States of America, a U.S. territory or any foreign country. The U.S. Constitution includes the "natural-born-citizen clause", which is generally understood to mean that only those born in the U.S. may be elected to the office of president or vice president; however, the exact meaning of the phrase "natural-born-citizen" has never been finally clarified and remains open to interpretation. Increasing variety With President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election, he became just the second president to have been born in Pennsylvania (the other being James Buchanan). Today, there have been 13 states which were the birthplace of just one president, and, apart from Biden, Donald Trump and George H. W. Bush, seven of the most recent ten presidents were born in these states. Barack Obama is the only U.S. president not to have been born on the U.S. mainland, as he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1961. There are 29 states, along with the District of Columbia, that are yet to produce a U.S. president.

Since 1789, 45 different men have served as President of the United States, and the average age of these men when taking office for the first time was approximately 57 years. Two men, Grover Cleveland and Donald Trump, were elected to two non-consecutive terms, and Donald Trump's victory in 2024 made him the oldest man ever elected as president, where he will be 78 years and seven months old when taking office again. Record holders The oldest president to take office for the first time was Joe Biden in 2021, at 78 years and two months - around five months younger than Donald Trump when he assumes office in 2025. The youngest presidents to take office were Theodore Roosevelt in 1901 (42 years and 322 days), who assumed office following the assassination of William McKinley, and the youngest elected president was John F Kennedy in 1961 (43 years and 236 days). Historically, there seems to be little correlation between age and electability, and the past five presidents have included the two oldest to ever take office, and two of the youngest. Requirements to become president The United States Constitution states that both the President and Vice President must be at least 35 years old when taking office, and must have lived in the United States for at least 14 years of their life. Such restrictions are also in place for members of the U.S. Congress, although the age and residency barriers are lower. Additionally, for the roles of President and Vice President, there is a "natural-born-citizen" clause that was traditionally interpreted to mean candidates must have been born in the U.S. (or were citizens when the Constitution was adopted). However, the clause's ambiguity has led to something of a reinterpretation in the past decades, with most now interpreting it as also applying to those eligible for birthright citizenship, as some recent candidates were born overseas.

Of the 44 men who have served as President of the United States, eight died while in office, while 31 passed away after their term had ended. Five presidents, including incumbent President Donald Trump, are still alive today. The most common state in which U.S. presidents have died was New York, which has seen the deaths of nine U.S. presidents. A total of fourteen presidents have passed away in the same state in which they were born, which includes all four who passed away in Virginia, but none of those who did so in Washington D.C. Although seven presidents were born in Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes is the only to have passed away in this state. The most recent presidential death occurred in November 2018, when George H. W. Bush passed away in his family home in Houston, Texas. At 94 years old, Bush Sr. had been the oldest living president at the time of his death; however that title has since passed to Jimmy Carter, who will turn 96 years old in October 2020. John F. Kennedy was the president who died at the youngest age, when he was assassinated at 46 years old; while James K. Polk was the youngest president to die of natural causes, at 53 years of age.

The 45 men who have served as the President of the United States (officially there have been 46 as Grover Cleveland is counted twice) have fathered, adopted or allegedly fathered at least 190 children. Of these 190, 169 were conceived naturally, eleven were adopted and there are ten reasonable cases of alleged paternity (possibly more). Today, there are 34 living presidential children; the oldest of which is Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, daughter of Lyndon B. and Lady Bird Johnson; the youngest is Barron Trump, son of Donald and Melania Trump. John Tyler is the president who fathered the most children, having fifteen children over two marriages (and allegedly fathering more with slaves), while his successor, James K. Polk, remains the only U.S. president never to have fathered or adopted any known children. Coincidentally, as of November 2020, the U.S.' tenth president, John Tyler, has two grandsons who are still alive today, despite the fact that he was born in 1790.

The First Family

The president, their children and spouse are collectively known as the First Family of the United States; the current first family is made up of President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, as well as their children, Hunter and Ashley. Two of President Biden's children died before he was elected to office; his son Beau died of cancer in 2015, while his one year old daughter Naomi was killed in a car accident in 1972, along with Biden's wife, Neilia (who was also Beau and Hunter's mother). Two presidents' sons have gone on to assume the presidency themselves; these were John Quincy Adams and George W. Bush respectively, while one presidential grandson, Benjamin Harrison, later became president.

Alleged children

Three U.S. presidents have allegedly fathered illegitimate children with slaves. The most well-known and substantial of these allegations relates to Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings; who was also the half-sister of Jefferson's wife Martha (with whom he had already fathered six children). Following Martha's passing in 1782, its is believed that the future-president would then go on to have a relationship with Hemings that spanned four decades and saw the birth of as many as eight children between 1790 and 1808. Hemings, thought to have been 14 years old at the beginning of the relationship (Jefferson was 44), and her children remained enslaved to Jefferson until his death in 1826. DNA tests conducted in recent years have confirmed a genetic connection between the Hemings and Jefferson families, and the majority of historians accept that Thomas Jefferson was the father of at least six of Hemings' children. Less substantial claims have also been levelled at John Tyler, with political opponents claiming that he fathered several children with slaves in the years following his first wife's death; although these claims have been widely disregarded by historians, with little investigation into their validity. It is alleged that William Henry Harrison also fathered at least six children with one of his slaves, Dilsia, however these claims are anecdotal and have been disregarded or ignored by historians. In spite of this, to this day, there are some African-American families in the U.S. who claim to be the descendants of both Harrison and Tyler.

It is generally accepted that two other presidents, Grover Cleveland and Warren G. Harding, fathered children through extramarital affairs. It is likely that Grover Cleveland had fathered a child out of wedlock in 1874; even paying child support to the mother, acknowledging that he could have been the father. When the child's mother accused Cleveland of rape, he had her institutionalized to discredit these accusations, and the child was taken away and raised by Cleveland's friends. The issue came to light nationally during the 1884 election campaign, but Cleveland still emerged victorious. In 1927, four years after his death in office, it came to light that Warren G. Harding had fathered a child out of wedlock a year before winning the 1920 election. The child was conceived during one of his two long-term, extramarital affairs, and Harding did pay the mother child support, although he kept the affair and child a secret. Harding died before the child's fourth birthday, his family dismissed these claims as rumors, claiming that he was infertile; however, DNA tests confirmed that the child was his in 2015. While there have been numerous accusations of presidents' infidelity in the past century, particularly relating to John F. Kennedy and Donald Trump; Trump is the only president since Harding to have had a child out of wedlock (although the couple did get married two months after the birth of their daughter, Tiffany).

Since 1789, the United States has had 45 different men serve as president, of which five are still alive today. At 78 years and two months, Joe Biden became the oldest man to ascend to the presidency for the first time in 2021, however Donald Trump was older when he re-entered the White House, at 78 years and seven months. Eight presidents have died while in office, including four who were assassinated by gunshot, and four who died of natural causes. The president who died at the youngest age was John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated at 46 years old in Texas in 1963; Kennedy was also the youngest man ever elected to the office of president. The longest living president in history is Jimmy Carter, who celebrated his 100th birthday in just before his death in 2024. The youngest currently-living president is Barack Obama, who turned 63 in August 2024. Coincidentally, presidents Clinton, Bush Jr., and Trump were all born within 66 days of one another, between June and August 1946. George Washington The U.S.' first president, George Washington, died after developing a severe inflammation of the throat, which modern scholars suspect to have been epiglottitis. However, many suspect that it was the treatments used to treat this illness that ultimately led to his death. After spending a prolonged period in cold and wet weather, Washington fell ill and ordered his doctor to let one pint of blood from his body. As his condition deteriorated, his doctors removed a further four pints in an attempt to cure him (the average human has between eight and twelve pints of blood in their body). Washington passed away within two days of his first symptoms showing, leading many to believe that this was due to medical malpractice and not due to the inflammation in his throat. Bloodletting was one of the most common and accepted medical practices from ancient Egyptian and Greek times until the nineteenth century, when doctors began to realize how ineffective it was; today, it is only used to treat extremely rare conditions, and its general practice is heavily discouraged. Zachary Taylor Another rare and disputed cause of death for a U.S. president was that of Zachary Taylor, who died sixteen months into his first term in office. Taylor had been celebrating the Fourth of July in the nation's capital in 1850, where he began to experience stomach cramps after eating copious amounts of cherries, other fruits, and iced milk. As his condition worsened, he drank a large amount of water in an attempt to alleviate his symptoms, but to no avail. Taylor died of gastroenteritis five days later, after being treated with a heavy dose of drugs and bloodletting. The most commonly accepted theories for his illness are that the ice used in the milk and the water consumed afterwards were contaminated with cholera, and that this was further exacerbated by the large amounts of acid in his system from eating so much fruit. There are some suggestions that recovery was feasible, but the actions of his doctors had made this impossible. Additionally, there have been conspiracy theories suggesting that Taylor was poisoned by pro-slavery secessionists from the Southern States, although there appears to be no evidence to back this up.

According to Article II: Section one of the United States Constitution, the President of the United States (as well as the Vice President) must be at least 35 years of age, and have lived in the country for at least 14 years when taking office. Requirements for the House of Representatives and the Senate are also outlined in the Constitution, in Article I: Sections two and three, although figures are lower. There is no minimum age for Supreme Court Justices given in the constitution. Terms and term lengths The President of the United States is elected for a term of four years, and may hold office for a maximum of two terms (Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only president to have served more than two terms, as an exception was made during the Second World War). There is no maximum number of terms for Vice Presidents, who may hypothetically serve in the role under a number of presidents, although no Vice President has ever served more than two full terms. In the event of a President's death or removal from office, the Vice President would then assume the presidency - if the remaining term time is less than two years then this person may seek two further terms in the presidency, giving a maximum term length of 10 years (although this has never happened). For representatives and senators, there is no maximum number of terms providing the candidate wins re-election. Some states did have term limits in the past, but these were invalidated in 1995 when the Supreme Court ruled that no state can impose stricter qualifications than those outlined in the Constitution. The longest-serving Senator was Robert Byrd, who served for over 51 years between 1959 and 2010, while the longest-serving Representative was John Dingell Jr., who served for over 59 years between 1955 and 2015. As appointments to the Supreme Court are lifetime appointments, they are not restricted by term lengths or limits. Natural-born-citizen clause Unlike the other roles, the Constitution includes a "natural-born-citizen" clause in reference to the President and Vice President, where a person must have been born in the U.S. (or be a citizen at the time of the Constitution's adoption) to be eligible for either role. This was included to prevent unwanted foreign influence at the highest level of U.S. government. Historically, there were few challenges to this clause, however, as there is no clear definition of what makes a natural-born-citizen, it has been addressed several times in the past two decades. This was most notable in the 2008 election, where John McCain's status was called into question since he was born in the United States' Panama Canal Zone, while Barack Obama's eligibility was questioned due to a widely-discredited conspiracy theory that he was born in Kenya (this became known as the "birther movement"). Since 2016, questions were raised over candidates such as Ted Cruz and Tulsi Gabbard, who acquired U.S. citizenship through their parents - since this time it has become more widely accepted that those who qualify for birthright citizenship should also be considered natural-born-citizens.

The state of Ohio has taken part in 55 U.S. presidential elections, voting for the nationwide winner in 45 of these elections, giving a success rate of 82 percent. With this high success rate and relatively high number of electoral votes, Ohio has generally been viewed as a battleground state throughout U.S. history. Before 2020, Ohio had voted for the overall winner in every election since 1964, and had only failed to choose the winner in three elections since 1888. In the 2020 election, however, the Buckeye State somewhat lost its reputation as a bellweather state, as Donald Trump carried the popular vote by an 8.1 percent margin; the same margin as his victory in 2016. Ohioans in office Seven U.S. president were born in Ohio, which is the second highest number after Virginia's eight presidents. Despite being the birthplace of so many presidents, all of these men served in office between 1869 and 1925, meaning that seven of the ten presidents who served between these years were from Ohio; the first was Ulysses S. Grant, who was first elected in 1868, and the final was Warren G. Harding, who was elected in 1920. No other major party candidate, before or after these years, was born in Ohio; although William Henry Harrison did live and hold public office there before winning the 1840 election. Electoral votes Ohio's allocation of electoral votes has been among the highest in the country since the 1820s, staying between 21 and 26 votes between the 1832 and 2008 elections. However, after peaking at 26 votes in the 1960s, Ohio's allocation of votes has gradually fallen to just 18 votes in recent elections, and is expected to fall again in the 2024 election. It remains to be seen whether Ohio will regain its reputation as a key battleground state in future elections.

The 36th presidential election in the United States took place in 1928, and was contested by Herbert Hoover of the Republican Party, and Al Smith of the Democratic Party. Prior to the national conventions it was generally accepted that Hoover and Smith would lead their parties' tickets, and both men were widely respected and admired in the political sphere. Despite this, they both faced significant opposition from within their parties, however neither set of opponents could rally behind a candidate, and both Hoover and Smith won convincing nominations at their respective national conventions. Results Herbert Hoover won in the third Republican landslide in a row, making him the 31st President of the United States, and the first to be born west of the Mississippi River. Hoover received 58 percent of the popular vote, taking almost every state outside of the south, as well as several southern states which had been regarded as Democrat strongholds. Smith took just 16 percent of the electoral vote, and much of his failure has been attributed to the US' strong economy under Republican leadership, as well as anti-Catholic sentiment among the US population, and his anti-Prohibition stance. No third party candidate managed to receive more than one percent of the popular vote.

Of the 45 men who have held (or will hold) the title of President of the United States, 21 of them have, to some degree, spoken a foreign language (i.e. one that was not English). The most commonly spoken foreign languages were Latin and Greek, which were both spoken to some extent by at least ten presidents, while a further five had some knowledge of Latin only. The majority of those who studied these languages were required to do so in order to gain entry to educational institutions, although there are some reports that President John Adams had worked as a Greek and Latin teacher before taking office, while James A. Garfield was a professor of these subjects in Hiram College, Ohio. There are also more anecdotal claims that Garfield (who was ambidextrous) could write in both languages simultaneously with each hand. Martin Van Buren is notable as he was the first U.S. president born following U.S. independence; which may make it more surprising that he is the only U.S. president who did not speak English as a first language, instead growing up in a Dutch-speaking community in New York, while learning English in school.

Jefferson's boasts Three U.S. presidents, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and John Quincy Adams, appear to have been fluent in at least three foreign languages, while Jefferson and Adams had some knowledge of a number of other languages. Jefferson famously boasted to Adams once that he had learned Spanish in just 19 days, by using a just a grammar book and a copy of Don Quixote, although Adams expressed doubts over the legitimacy of these claims. Jefferson was known, however, to study somewhat uncommon languages, and was known to translate documents into Old English, while books in Arabic, Irish Gaelic and Welsh were found in his personal library after his death.

Modern presidents Of the six currently-living U.S. presidents, President Trump and Biden are the only without some proficiency in a foreign language. President Carter is said to have had a fluent grasp of the Spanish language, and has continued to practice it in recent years (although he often downplays his own abilities when interviewed about it), while President George W. Bush has made some public addresses (partly) in Spanish. President Clinton studied German in university, is said to speak it fluently, and has even made public addresses in German while in Berlin. President Obama was said to have become fluent in Indonesian as a child, when living in the country between the ages of six and ten; this is one of the few non-European languages (along with Hebrew and Mandarin) to have been spoken by a U.S. president, although Obama has also downplayed his proficiency in the language while in office, sometimes claiming not to speak any foreign languages at all.

Since 1852, the U.S. presidential election has been contested in California 44 times, with Californians successfully voting for the winning candidate on 35 occasions, giving an overall success rate of 80 percent. California has awarded the majority of its electoral votes to the Republican Party in 23 elections, the Democratic Party in 20 elections, and the only year when a third-party candidate won a majority was in 1912, where Theodore Roosevelt won the state while campaigning as the Progressive Party's nominee. Between 1952 and 1988, there was only one election that was not won by the Republican candidate, while all elections since 1992 have been won by the Democratic nominee. In the 2024 election, Oakland-born Vice President Kamala Harris ran as the Democratic nominee, and comfortably won her home state but lost the nationwide vote. Californian under-representation? California was admitted to the union in 1850, and was granted just four electoral votes in its first three presidential elections. In the past two centuries, California's population has grown rapidly, largely due to a positive net migration rate from within the U.S. and abroad. Today, it has the highest population of any state in the U.S, with almost forty million people, and has therefore been designated 54 electoral votes; the most of any state. Although California has been allocated around ten percent of the total electoral votes on offer nationwide, The Golden State is home to roughly twelve percent of the total U.S. population, therefore a number closer to 62 electoral votes would be more proportional to the U.S. population distribution. Despite this, California's total allocation was reduced to 54 in the 2024 election. Native Californians As of 2020, Richard Nixon is the only native Californian to have been elected to the presidency, having won the election in 1968 and 1972. California also voted for Nixon in the 1960 election, although John F. Kennedy was the overall winner. Two other U.S. Presidents had declared California as their home state; they were Herbert Hoover, who won the 1928 election, and Ronald Reagan, who won in 1980 and 1984 respectively. While states generally support candidates who were born or reside there, Californian candidates have failed to carry their home state or state of birth in four U.S. presidential elections, these were; John C. Frémont in 1854 (who actually came third in California), Herbert Hoover in 1932, and Adlai Stevenson in both the 1952 and 1956 elections.

Of the forty* men who have been elected to the office of U.S. president, the average weight of U.S. presidents has been approximately 189lbs (86kg). The weight range has been between 122lbs (55kg) and 332lbs (151kg), meaning that the heaviest president, William Howard Taft, was almost three times as heavy as the lightest president, James Madison (who was also the shortest president). Although Taft weighed over 300lbs during his presidency in 1909, he did implement a fitness and dietary regimen in the 1920s, that helped him lose almost 100lbs (45kg) before his death due to cardiovascular disease in 1930. Increase over time The tallest ever president, Abraham Lincoln (who was 6'4"), actually weighed less than the presidential average, and also less than the average adult male in the U.S. in 2018. It is important to note that the average weight of U.S. males has gradually increased in the past two decades, with some studies suggesting that it may have even increased by 15lbs (7kg) since the 1980s. The presidential averages have also increased over time, as the first ten elected presidents had an average weight of 171lbs (78kg), while the average weight of the ten most recent is 194lbs (88kg). Recent presidents In recent years, the heaviest president has been Donald Trump, who weighed 237lbs (108kg) during his first term in office; however medical reports published in June 2020 show that he gained 7lbs (3kg) during this term. There was also controversy in 2018, when it appeared that Trump's official height had been increased from 6'2" to 6'3", which many speculated was done to prevent him from being categorized as "obese" (according to his BMI). In the past half century, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton were the only other presidents to have weighed more than the presidential average, although both men were also 6'2" (188cm) tall. President Joe Biden weighs below the presidential average, at 177lbs (81kg).

The most common first name for a U.S. president is James, followed by John and then William. Six U.S. presidents have been called James, although Jimmy Carter was the only one who did not serve in the nineteenth century. Five presidents have been called John; most recently John Fitzgerald Kennedy, while John is also the middle name of the incumbent President Donald Trump.

Middle names

Middle names were rarely given in the U.S.' early years, however the practice became more common throughout the nineteenth century. Three U.S. presidents actually went by their middle names in their adulthood, namely Stephen Grover Cleveland, Thomas Woodrow Wilson and David Dwight Eisenhower. Several presidents also shared their middle names with other presidents' surnames, including Ronald Wilson Reagan and William Jefferson Clinton. Coincidentally, there were two U.S. presidents who had just the initial "S." as their middle name, these were; Harry S. Truman, whose S represented his grandfathers (Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young); and Ulysses S. Grant, whose S was added to his name through a clerical error (likely due to his mother's maiden name; Simpson) when being enrolled in West Point Military Academy, but the initial stuck and he kept it throughout the rest of his life.

Family ties

Five surnames have been shared by U.S. presidents, and four of these pairs have been related. Adams and Bush are the names of the two father-son pairs (the Adams pair also share their first name; the Bush pair share a first and a middle name), while William Henry Harrison was the grandfather of Benjamin Harrison. Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt were fifth cousins, however FDR's marriage to Theodore's niece, Eleanor, made him a nephew-in law (Theodore even gave Eleanor away on her wedding day). James Madison and Zachary Taylor were also second cousins. Multiple other presidents are distant cousins from one another, often several times removed (George W. Bush and Barack Obama are technically tenth cousins, twice removed), and a number of presidents have become related by marriage. The only presidents to share a surname and not be related are Andrew Johnson and Lyndon B. Johnson.

New York has taken part in all U.S. presidential elections since 1792, and has cast the majority of its electoral votes for the nationwide winner in 47 elections, giving a success rate of 81 percent. New York has generally voted for the more liberal candidate in U.S. elections, and has been a safe Democratic state since the 1988 election. In the 2020 election, New York was a comfortable win for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who carried the state by a 23 percent margin; however, the native New Yorker, Donald Trump, won in several of New York's more rural districts with around seventy percent of their popular vote, showing a stark contrast between urban and rural districts. Presidents from the Empire State A total of five U.S. presidents were born in New York; these were Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Donald Trump. These five men ran for president in eleven different elections, and carried their home state in six elections; Donald Trump is the only New Yorker to have won the election without carrying his home state. Several other losing candidates have carried their home state, with the most recent being Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, and Thomas E. Dewey in 1948 (both held public office in New York, but were born elsewhere).

Declining significance Throughout most of U.S. history, New York was the most populous state, and therefore had the largest share of electoral votes. This began in the 1812 election, where New York had 29 electoral votes; the allocation then fluctuated throughout the rest of the 1800s and early 1900s, peaking at 47 votes in the 1930s and 1940s. Since the 1950s, however, New York's allocation of electoral votes has gradually declined, and it was overtaken by California in the 1972 election, and then Texas in 2004. This is due to differing population growth rates across various regions of the U.S., as growth rates along the southern border tend to be much higher than in states along the east coast. In the 2020 election, New York's allocation of electoral votes is 29; this is expected to fall again to 28 votes in the 2024 election, where it will likely be overtaken by Florida as the third-most populous state.

Pennsylvania has taken part in every U.S. presidential election, correctly voting for the nationwide winner in 47 out of 59 elections, giving a success rate of eighty percent. Since 1828, Pennsylvania has voted for the Democratic nominee in twenty elections, and the Republican Party's nominee in 26 elections (including all but one elections from 1860 to 1932). The only time where Pennsylvania did not vote for a major party candidate was in 1912, where it granted its 38 electoral votes to Theodore Roosevelt, who was running as the candidate of the newly-formed Progressive Party. After voting Democrat in all elections between 1992 and 2012, Pennsylvania voted red in 2016, as Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by less than one percent of the popular vote. In 2020, Joe Biden flipped Pennsylvania blue again by 1.2 percent of the popular vote. Pennsylvania proved to be the decisive state in the week following the 2020 election, as the returns of mail in ballots gradually swung the result in Biden's favor, following a strong early showing from Donald Trump; the development of these results eventually signaled that Joe Biden had (provisionally) obtained the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election, leading all major news outlets to declare him the winner.

Pennsylvanians in office Prior to the 2020 election, James Buchanan is the only U.S. president to have been born in the Keystone State. Several other major party nominees have been born in Pennsylvania, including three of the losing candidates who ran between 1864 and 1884. Although he is more commonly associated with Delaware, Joe Biden's victory in 2020 made him the the second U.S. president to have been born in Pennsylvania, having spent the first ten years of his life in Scranton. Biden will, most likely, want to be remembered more favorably than Buchanan, who is consistently ranked as the worst U.S. president in history. Weakening influence From 1804 until 1964, Pennsylvania had the second-highest allocation of electoral votes in every U.S. presidential election (usually behind New York), with the number peaking at 38 electoral votes between 1912 and 1928. Since then, Pennsylvania's allocation of electoral votes has fallen gradually, and is expected to be just 19 votes in the 2024 election; half of what it was one century previously. The reason for this drop in electoral votes is due Pennsylvanians migrating to other parts of the country, while growing populations across the border and Midwestern states has seen a shift in population distribution across the country. Nonetheless, with 19 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is likely to remain one of the most valuable battleground states in future elections.

Voters from the state of Massachusetts have been involved in all 59 U.S. presidential elections, and have voted for the overall winning candidate on 39 occasions, giving a success rate of 66 percent. Generally speaking, Massachusetts has voted for the more liberal candidate throughout its electoral history, voting for the Federalist, Whig and Republican Party nominees throughout most of the nineteenth century, and then switching to the Democratic Party in the twentieth century. Since 1928, Massachusetts has voted for the Democratic nominee in 20 out of 24 elections, breaking with this tradition only when voting for Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan in each of their landslide victories. In the 2020 election, Joe Biden won with almost two thirds of the popular vote. Bay State presidents A total of four U.S. presidents have been born in Massachusetts; these were both John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams, John F. Kennedy, and George H. W. Bush (although his family moved to Connecticut the year after his birth); of these four, Bush was the only who failed to win in his birth state, however his competitor, Michael Dukakis, was also a Massachusetts native and was the state governor at the time. Calvin Coolidge, while born and raised in Vermont, spent most of his adulthood and political career in Massachusetts, and was a resident there when ascending to the presidency. Massachusetts was also the birth or home state of several losing candidates, such as Rufus King, Daniel Webster or John Kerry, all of whom carried Massachusetts in their respective elections; while former Governor Mitt Romney was the only major party nominee not to win the state while living there. Electoral vote allocation As one of the original thirteen colonies, Massachusetts had a high share of the electoral college votes in early years, rising to 22 votes in the 1810s. This number then fluctuated throughout most of the nineteenth century, between twelve and 15 votes, before rising to 18 votes in the 1910s and 1920s. In the past hundred years, due to a slower population growth rate than in other states, Massachusetts' allocation of electoral votes has gradually fallen to eleven votes in the past few elections, and it is expected to stay at this level in the 2024 election.

Missouri has taken part in all 51 U.S. presidential elections since 1820, voting for the winning candidate on 37 occasions, giving a success rate of 73 percent. Missouri was a staunchly Democrat state for most of the nineteenth century, only voting Republican during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Throughout the twentieth century, Missouri was the epitomic bellwether state; siding with the winning candidate in 23 out of 25 elections, only failing to vote for the nationwide winner in 1900 and 1956. The Show-Me State has voted for the Republican Party's nominee in the past six elections, with Donald Trump winning the 2016 election in Missouri by the largest margin in over three decades; the state's status has changed from being a battleground state to a safe red state, and in the 2020 election, Donald Trump won the state again, with the same share of the popular vote. Missouri's President As of 2020, President Harry S. Truman is the only Missouri native to have ascended to the presidency. Truman was born and raised in Missouri, and then represented his home state in the senate, before winning the vice presidency in the 1944 election, and ascending to the presidency less than four months after taking office. No other president has been born in or resided in Missouri when taking office, nor has any major party candidate (although Benjamin G. Brown did receive some electoral votes in the 1872*** election). Electoral votes Since its admission to the union in 1821****, Missouri's allocation of electoral votes grew from just three to eighteen throughout the nineteenth century. It then plateaued at this number from 1904 to 1928, but has fallen to just ten votes since 2012. For the past century, Missouri's population growth in each decade has been below ten percent, and growing at a much lower rate than the national average; it is estimated that Missouri's population growth in the 2010s was just 2.5 percent, which is its lowest growth rate of any decade since records began.

The state of Virginia has taken part in all U.S. elections since 1789, except for the 1864 and 1868 elections due to its status during and after the American Civil War; of the 57 elections in which it participated, Virginians sided with the nationwide winner 38 times, giving a success rate of 67 percent. In its early years, Virginia sided with the Democratic-Republican nominee, before voting for the Democratic nominee in most elections between 1828 and 1948. The only time where Virginia voted for a third party candidate was in 1860, where it backed the Constitutional Union's John Bell in the lead up to the Civil War. Like most southern states, Virginia was a reliably Republican state from the 1950s onwards, and the only time where a Democrat won the Old Dominion between 1952 and 2004 was in Lyndon B. Johnson's landslide victory in 1964. Unlike most southern states, however, Virginia has transitioned into a blue state in recent years, with Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote with a 5.4 percent margin in 2016; this transition has been attributed to a growing Hispanic population and the extension of the Washington D.C. metropolitan area in the north of the state, making it one of the most ethnically diverse regions of the country. In the 2020 election, Democratic nominee Joe Biden won Virginia by a comfortable, ten percent margin. "Mother of Presidents" Virginia has the unofficial nickname of "Mother of Presidents", as eight of the 45 men who have served as president were born here (officially 46 (incl. Biden) as Grover Cleveland is counted twice). Four of the U.S.' first five presidents were born in Virginia; these were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe. The most recent Virginian to ascend to the presidency was Woodrow Wilson, who was born in 1856 and served between 1913 and 1921 (although Wilson is more commonly associated with New Jersey). Since Wilson, no major party candidate has ever been born in or resided in Virginia when seeking office, although Virginian Senator Harry F. Byrd received 15 electoral votes in the 1960 election, as a protest against John F. Kennedy's liberal attitudes towards civil rights. Electoral votes In the first six U.S. presidential elections, Virginia was allocated the highest number of electoral votes of any state, and this number peaked at 25 electoral votes between the 1812 and 1820 elections. From this point until the civil war, the number of votes gradually decreased to 15, as population growth in other states was much faster than that of Virginia. During the civil war, the region of West Virginia became a separate state, and since the 1872 election, Virginia's allocation of electoral votes has remained constant, fluctuating between 11 and 13 votes.

The U.S. presidential election has been held in North Carolina on 57 occasions; this was every election except the first, in 1789, and the 1864 election, when North Carolina was a member of the Confederate States of America. North Carolina has awarded all (or at least a majority) of its electoral votes to the nationwide winning candidate in 38 elections, giving a success rate of 67 percent. The "Tar Heel State" has voted for the Democratic nominee in thirty elections, and the Republican nominee in 15; although eleven of these have come in the past 14 elections. Despite North Carolina voting red in most elections since 1968, it has often been seen as a battleground state, with the four most recent popular votes split by fewer than four points. In the 2020 election, North Carolina was on of the closest results nationwide, with Donald Trump winning the popular vote by a one percent margin. North Carolinians in office Two U.S. presidents were born in North Carolina; the first was James K. Polk, who spent the first seven years of his life in the Waxhaws region, and the second was Andrew Johnson, who was born and raised in Raleigh. Coincidentally, both these men would move to Tennessee, where they would establish political careers before ascending to the presidency. Polk also failed to win the election in his state of birth, while Johnson's election (as Abraham Lincoln's vice presidential nominee) was not contested there. Electoral votes Between 1812 and 1840, North Carolina had 15 electoral votes, however this then decreased to just nine votes by the Reconstruction era, as higher net migration rates in other states saw the saw North Carolina's population grow more slowly than the national average. The allocation then rose to 13 votes in the 1930s, and remained at 13 or 14 until 2004, when it then returned to 15. Historically, the majority of North Carolinians have lived in rural areas, although recent decades have seen the population shift to be come more urban or suburban, and grow due to an influx of migrants from Latin America and South or Southeast Asia. In the 2024 election, North Carolina is expected to gain another electoral vote as its population grows faster than the national average, and higher birth rates among urban and foreign-born populations is likely to increase the Democratic Party's voter base in the state.

The state of Indiana has taken part in all U.S. presidential elections since 1816, and correctly voted for the winning candidate in 38 out of 52 elections, giving a success rate of 73 percent. Indiana's electors have always voted for a major party nominee; voting for the Whig nominee twice, the Democratic-Republican nominee three times, the Democratic Party's nominee 14 times, and the Republican Party's nominee 33 times. Since 1940, Indiana has voted for the Republican candidate in all but two elections, which were in 1964 and 2008; in the 2020 election, Republican nominee Donald Trump won the popular vote in Indiana by a margin of 16 percent.. Indiana natives Indiana has been home to one U.S. president, as Benjamin Harrison moved there in his twenties before becoming a lawyer and entering the world of politics. No U.S. president has ever been born in Indiana, Vice President Mike Pence was born and raised in the Hoosier State, and was Governor before becoming vice president. FDR's opponent in the 1940 election, Wendell Wilkie, was also born there. Indiana native Pete Buttigieg made history in the 2020 election cycle, by becoming the first openly gay person to launch a major presidential campaign and win a presidential primary or caucus; although he later dropped out of the race. Electoral votes Indiana was allocated just three electoral votes in its first few presidential elections; an influx of migrants saw the population grow rapidly in the next five decades, and the state had 15 electoral votes in elections between 1872 and 1928. Since the 1920s, Indiana's allocation of electoral votes has gradually decreased, falling to eleven in the four most recent elections, and it is expected to remain at eleven until the 2024 election.

In the 2016 United States presidential election, preliminary results indicated that 74.16 percent of eligible voters in Minnesota voted in the election. Significantly less, only about 42.52 percent, of eligible Hawaiian voters voted in the election.

Eligible voting in the U.S.

There are a few requirements necessary for an American to vote in elections. An American is eligible to vote if they are a U.S. citizen, either by birth or naturalization, they meet their state’s residency requirements, and if they are at least 18 years old. In some states, 17-year-olds are allowed to register to vote and vote in primaries if they will be 18 years old before the date of the general election.

Voter turnout

Despite the few requirements in place in order to vote, the United States trails other developed, democratic nations in voter turnout. There are a few reasons as to why this might be, but two leading reasons for not voting are lack of time and general apathy. Election Day, which takes place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, is not a public holiday, so many voters may not be able to leave work in order to vote before the polls close.