How many popular votes did Kamala Harris receive in the 2020 vice presidential race?

1. Why you won’t find a standalone “Kamala Harris” popular-vote number

In U.S. presidential elections, ballots record votes for a presidential ticket (president and vice president together) rather than splitting president and vice president into two separately tallied, nationwide popular-vote totals. Official tallies and mainstream election compendia therefore report the ticket’s totals — in 2020 that is the Biden–Harris ticket with roughly 81.2 million votes — not a separate nationwide Harris-only vote count ^[1][2]. Because the vote is cast for the ticket, any claim that attempts to list a different nationwide popular-vote total just for Harris would be outside standard election reporting unless a source explicitly compiled one ^[1][2].

2. What the authoritative sources report for 2020

Ballotpedia and multiple election trackers list Joe Biden and Kamala Harris together as the Democratic ticket that won 306 Electoral College votes and more than 81 million popular votes in 2020; they list Donald Trump’s ticket at about 74.2 million votes ^[1][2]. These are the headline national figures used by journalists, historians and official record-keepers to describe the 2020 outcome ^[1][2].

3. Where confusion often arises: vice‑presidential vote totals in later coverage

Some later coverage and commentary — for example pieces comparing Harris’s 2024 performance to Biden’s 2020 performance — can speak as if “Harris” received her own vote total in 2020 when they mean “the Biden–Harris ticket” in 2020 versus “the Harris ticket” in 2024. For instance, analyses of how a 2024 candidate performed relative to 2020 often measure the ticket-level votes and margins rather than implying independent vice-presidential ballots ^[3][4]. Be cautious when headlines or analysts shorthand “Harris” versus “the Biden–Harris ticket”; the underlying data come from ticket-level counts ^[3][4].

4. What some sources assert and how they frame it

Ballotpedia and Ballot/official summaries explicitly attribute the 81.2 million popular-vote figure to Biden (with Harris as running mate) and the 306 electoral votes to that ticket ^[1][2]. News outlets and analyses referencing “Harris” in 2020 contexts typically mean her as part of that ticket; for example, pieces contrasting later Harris solo performance with Biden’s 2020 numbers measure ticket totals across years ^[3][4]. If you see a statement such as “Harris received X votes in 2020,” check whether the author is using shorthand for the Biden–Harris ticket ^[1][2][3].

5. What the sources do not say (limitations you should know)

None of the provided sources supply a separate, legally certified nationwide popular-vote total that counts only votes cast specifically for Kamala Harris as an individual separate from Joe Biden in 2020; available sources do not mention a distinct Harris-only national popular-vote figure from 2020 ^[1][2]. If you need a citationable number for “how many people voted for Kamala Harris in 2020,” the correct, source-backed answer is the Biden–Harris ticket’s popular-vote total (about 81.2 million), because that is how votes were recorded and reported ^[1][2].

6. How to cite this correctly in your work

If you are writing or reporting, phrase it this way: “Kamala Harris, as Joe Biden’s running mate on the 2020 Democratic ticket, was part of the Biden–Harris ticket that received approximately 81.2 million popular votes and 306 electoral votes in the 2020 election” — and cite the election summaries or Ballotpedia ^[1][2]. Avoid wording that implies a separate vice-presidential nationwide popular-vote tally unless you have a credible source that explicitly calculated one ^[1][2].

If you want, I can pull the exact FEC or Associated Press line-item numbers for each state’s Biden–Harris totals from authoritative databases (if you provide those sources) or format a short citation-ready sentence for use in a story.