What were the official nationwide certified popular vote totals for Joe Biden and Donald Trump in November 2024?

1. Official certified nationwide popular-vote totals and where the numbers come from

Post-election compilations of state-certified returns — the basis for the Federal Election Commission’s and other official aggregations — show Donald J. Trump with approximately 77,266,801 votes (about 49.9%) and Kamala D. Harris with approximately 74,981,313 votes (about 48.4%) in the 2024 presidential contest; Brookings presents these “near final” totals drawn from certified state counts, and the Federal Election Commission’s official returns are the underlying primary record for the nationwide tabulation ^{[1] [2]}. Major outlets and trackers that rely on certified state certificates and the FEC’s compilation echoed similar totals in their post-certification reporting and trackers ^{[5] [6]}.

2. Why Joe Biden has no certified nationwide popular-vote total for November 2024

Joe Biden was not the Democratic Party’s general-election nominee on the November 2024 ballots in most jurisdictions: reporting and official election documentation indicate that Vice President Kamala Harris was the Democratic ticket in the general election after Biden’s withdrawal from the race, meaning certified vote totals for the November general election reflect Harris as the principal Democratic candidate rather than Biden ^{[3] [4]}. Consequently, there is no nationwide certified “popular vote total” for Joe Biden from the November 2024 general election to report from state certificates and the FEC’s presidential returns ^[2].

3. Margin, significance, and alternative ways the data have been presented

The certified counts produced a narrow national margin in the popular vote — roughly a 1.5 percentage-point advantage for Trump over Harris in the Brookings near-final tabulation — a shift from Biden’s large 2020 popular-vote margin and one frequently cited to analyze turnout and partisan shifts across regions ^[1]. Different post-election trackers and datasets report vote totals with minor variations because of late adjustments, certification timing, or rounding; independent aggregators (news outlets, academic trackers, the Cook Political Report) generally converge on totals close to the figures above but may publish slightly different final tallies depending on whether they wait for every state certificate or the FEC consolidated report ^{[6] [5]}.

4. What official records and press coverage confirm — and what reporting cannot show

The primary official sources for the nationwide certified popular-vote totals are the state certificates of vote and the Federal Election Commission’s consolidated presidential general-election report; the National Archives records the Electoral College certificates and the congressional certification process, which confirm the Electoral College outcome separate from the pure popular-vote totals ^{[2] [4]}. Media outlets and think tanks summarized these certified popular-vote totals for public consumption ^{[1] [7]}. Reporting cannot, however, retroactively create a certified Biden popular-vote total for November 2024 where none exists in state certification documents; available sources do not provide a nationwide, state-certified Biden total for that general election ^{[3] [2]}.

5. Bottom line for readers tracking the raw totals

The certified nationwide popular-vote totals from the November 2024 general election show Donald J. Trump at about 77.27 million votes and Kamala D. Harris at about 74.98 million votes, as compiled from state-certified returns and official FEC reporting ^{[1] [2]}. There is no certified nationwide popular-vote total for Joe Biden from the November 2024 general election because he was not the certified nominee on the general-election returns ^{[3] [4]}.