What were Donald Trump's nationwide popular vote totals in November 2024?
Executive summary
Donald J. Trump received approximately 77,266,801 popular votes in the November 2024 presidential election, about 49.9% of the nationwide total, defeating Democratic nominee Kamala Harris who received roughly 74,981,313 votes (48.4%) in the near‑final tally reported after the contest [1]. Multiple outlets and analysts confirmed that Trump won both the Electoral College and the national popular vote, a reversal of the Democratic popular‑vote streak since 2004 and the subject of some online misinformation that FactCheck.org debunked [2] [3].
1. The headline number and its immediate pedigree
The most widely cited near‑final popular vote total published by analysts and policy shops lists Trump at 77,266,801 votes (49.9%) and Harris at 74,981,313 votes (48.4%), figures presented by Brookings as the near‑final certified state totals aggregated after the count [1]. FactCheck.org reviewed unofficial and early certified counts and concluded that Trump emerged with the plurality of the popular vote — slightly under a majority but more votes than any other candidate — pushing back on social‑media claims that he lost the national popular vote [3].
2. How those totals were compiled and certified (briefly)
Major trackers and news organizations compiled the national popular vote by aggregating certified state and district returns, with the Federal Election Commission and state certification processes forming the legal backbone; Wikipedia’s election page notes that popular‑vote totals are drawn from the FEC report and certified state results [4]. Local and national outlets, including the Associated Press, ran their own tallies and called the race on Nov. 6, with some outlets later using certified totals finalized in late December and summarized in mainstream reporting [5] [3].
3. What the margin means in context
Trump’s roughly 2.5 million‑vote advantage over Harris amounted to a 1.5 percentage‑point lead in the national popular vote — enough to break the Democrats’ two‑decade streak of winning the popular vote but modest by historical standards, a point noted in contemporary analyses that called the win clear but not a landslide [1] [2]. Analysts emphasized that narrow swings in a handful of battleground states produced decisive Electoral College gains, even as the national popular‑vote margin remained relatively small compared with some past landslides [2].
4. Disputes, misinformation, and why clarity mattered
Soon after the election, social media circulated claims that Trump had lost the popular vote; FactCheck.org documented and corrected these false or misleading posts, noting that confusion often mixed up “popular vote” with “majority” and relied on outdated or partial tallies [3]. Newsrooms and election trackers continued to update numbers as state certifications closed, and outlets like the Cook Political Report and major newspapers kept live trackers to reflect late adjustments [6] [7].
5. Limits of available reporting and where official finality rests
Public reporting relied on certified state counts aggregated by the FEC and news organizations; Wikipedia’s election page explicitly states that popular‑vote totals come from the FEC report and certified state or district results, making that the ultimate authoritative source even as think tanks and media provided near‑final summaries in their post‑election analyses [4]. The sources provided here do not include a direct link to the FEC’s final posted dataset in the snippets, so while Brookings and FactCheck summarize the certified totals, a reader seeking the original FEC table should consult the FEC or the official certified state canvass records for the primary documents [1] [3].