Candidate

John Kerry

Democratic

Elections

Won

Electoral votes, all elections

251

Years

2004

Record

John Kerry: result of each presidential election
Year	Electoral votes	Popular vote	Result
2004	251 of 538	59,028,079 48.2%	Lost

Popular vote is the sum of the sourced state counts, shown only where every state that held a popular vote has one; sums from county returns (1868–1972) can run a few tenths of a point below national totals published elsewhere.

Electoral votesNational Archives, Electoral College results: 2004 (public domain, read 2026-10-03). How these figures were compiled

SourceMIT Election Data and Science Lab, U.S. President 1976–2024 (CC0 1.0, retrieved 2026-10-03). How these figures were compiled

Election by election

2004Democratic · Lost

States carried · 20 of 51

Closest states won

Wisconsinby 11,384 · 0.4 pts
New Hampshireby 9,274 · 1.4 pts
Pennsylvaniaby 144,248 · 2.5 pts

Closest states lost

IowaBush by 10,059 · 0.7 pts
New MexicoBush by 5,988 · 0.8 pts
OhioBush by 118,599 · 2.1 pts

Margins computed for 51 of 51 states: those with a sourced popular vote that names Kerry.

SourcesMIT Election Data and Science Lab, U.S. President 1976–2024 (CC0 1.0, retrieved 2026-10-03); Federal Election Commission, Federal Elections 2004: presidential results (Public domain (work of the U.S. government, 17 U.S.C. § 105), retrieved 2026-10-03). How these figures were compiled

From the National Archives

During the counting of the vote in Congress, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) and Sen. Barabara Boxer (D-Calif.) raised objections to the Ohio Certificate of Vote alleging that the votes were not regularly given. Both houses voted to override the objection, 74 to 1 in the Senate and 267 to 31 in the House of Representatives.

National Archives, Electoral College results for 2004, archives.gov, read October 3, 2026. Quoted as published.