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1808 United States presidential election
176 members of the Electoral College; 89 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	36.8% 13.0 pp
	Presidential election results map. Green denotes states won by Madison, Light Orange denotes states won by Pinckney, and light green denotes states won by Clinton. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes cast by each state.
President before election; Thomas Jefferson; Democratic-Republican	Elected President ; James Madison; Democratic-Republican

Presidential elections were held in the United States from November 4 to December 7, 1808. The Democratic-Republican candidate James Madison defeated Federalist candidate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney decisively.

Madison had served as Secretary of State since President Thomas Jefferson took office in 1801. Jefferson, who had declined to run for a third term, threw his strong support behind Madison, a fellow Virginian. Sitting Vice President George Clinton and former Ambassador James Monroe both challenged Madison for leadership of the party, but Madison won his party's nomination and Clinton was renominated as vice president. The Federalists chose to re-nominate Pinckney, a former ambassador who had served as the party's 1804 nominee, again alongside Rufus King.

Despite the unpopularity of the Embargo Act of 1807, Madison won the vast majority of electoral votes outside of the Federalist stronghold of New England. Clinton received six electoral votes for president from his home state of New York. This election was the first of two instances in American history in which a new president was selected but the incumbent vice president won re-election, the other being in 1828.

Nominations

Democratic-Republican Party nomination

James Madison	George Clinton
Democratic-Republican Party 1808 Democratic-Republican Party Ticket
for President	for Vice President

5th U.S. Secretary of State (1801–1809)	4th Vice President of the United States (1805–1812)

Presidential candidates

James Madison (Virginia), Secretary of State
James Monroe (Virginia), Former U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain
George Clinton (New York), Vice President of the United States

Secretary of State
James Madison
from Virginia
Former U.S. Ambassador
James Monroe
from Virginia
Vice President
George Clinton
from New York

Vice-presidential candidates

Vice President
George Clinton
from New York
Governor
John Langdon
from New Hampshire
Secretary of War
Henry Dearborn
from Massachusetts
Senator
John Quincy Adams
from Massachusetts

Caucus

Senator Stephen R. Bradley, who had chaired the congressional nominating caucus during the 1804 presidential election, made a call for the 1808 caucus to the 146 Democratic-Republican members of the United States Congress and Federalist allies. The caucus was attended by 89 to 94 members of Congress.^[2]

The caucus was held in January 1808. With the support of outgoing President Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State James Madison won the presidential nomination over opposing candidates James Monroe and Vice President George Clinton. The caucus voted to give the vice presidential nomination to Clinton over his main opponent John Langdon, although Clinton's supporters believed Clinton would receive the Federalist Party's presidential nomination. The Federalists instead nominated Charles Cotesworth Pinckney that September. A committee of fifteen members was selected to manage Madison's campaign.^[2]^[3]

Seventeen Democratic-Republicans in Congress opposed Madison's selection and the caucus system whose authority to select presidential and vice-presidential candidates was disputed. Clinton also opposed the caucus system.^[2] Monroe, who was supported by dissident and majority leader John Randolph, was nominated by a group of Virginia Democratic-Republicans (Old Republicans), and although he did not actively try to defeat Madison, he also refused to withdraw from the race.^[4] Clinton was also supported by a group of New York Democratic-Republicans for president even as he remained the party's official vice presidential candidate.^[5]

Balloting

Presidential Ballot	Total	Vice Presidential Ballot	Total
James Madison	83	George Clinton	79
James Monroe	3	John Langdon	5
George Clinton	3	Henry Dearborn	3
		John Quincy Adams	1

Federalist Party nomination

Charles C. Pinckney	Rufus King
Federalist Party 1808 Federalist Party Ticket
for President	for Vice President

6th U.S. Minister to France (1796–1797)	3rd U.S. Minister to Great Britain (1796–1803)

The Federalist caucus met in September 1808 and re-nominated the party's 1804 ticket, which consisted of General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina and former Senator Rufus King of New York.^[6] This was the only time in American history that a defeated major party renominated its losing ticket for a second time.

General election

Campaign

The election was marked by opposition to Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807, a halt to trade with Europe that disproportionately hurt New England merchants and was perceived as favoring France over Britain. Nonetheless, Jefferson was still very popular with Americans generally and Pinckney was soundly defeated by Madison, though not as badly as in 1804. Pinckney received few electoral votes outside of New England.

Results

Pinckney retained the electoral votes of the two states that he carried in 1804 (Connecticut and Delaware), and he also picked up New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and three electoral districts in North Carolina besides the two electoral districts in Maryland that he carried earlier. Except for the North Carolina districts, all of the improvement was in New England.

Monroe won a portion of the popular vote in Virginia and North Carolina,^[4] while the New York legislature split its electoral votes between Madison and Clinton.^[5]

Electoral results
Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote^{(a), (b)}		Electoral vote^(c)	Running mate
Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Count	Percentage	Electoral vote^(c)	Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Electoral vote^(c)
James Madison	Democratic-Republican	Virginia	124,964	64.97%	122	George Clinton (incumbent)	New York	113
James Madison	Democratic-Republican	Virginia	124,964	64.97%	122	John Langdon	New Hampshire	9
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney	Federalist	South Carolina	60,976	31.70%	47	Rufus King	New York	47
George Clinton	Democratic-Republican	New York	—	—	6	James Madison	Virginia	3
George Clinton	Democratic-Republican	New York	—	—	6	James Monroe	Virginia	3
James Monroe	Democratic-Republican	Virginia	5,618	2.92%	0	None	N/A	0
Unpledged electors	None	N/A	776	0.40%	0	N/A	N/A	0
Total			192,334	100%	175			175
Needed to win					89			89

Source (Popular Vote): A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825^[7]
Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 30, 2005.

^(a) Only 10 of the 17 states chose electors by popular vote.
^(b) Those states that did choose electors by popular vote had widely varying restrictions on suffrage via property requirements.
^(c) One Elector from Kentucky did not vote.

Maps

Electoral College map
Map of presidential election results by county, shaded according to the vote share of the highest result for an elector of any given candidate
Map of presidential election results by electoral district, shaded according to the vote share of the highest result for an elector of any given candidate. Electoral boundaries for Maryland could not be found

Popular vote by state

The popular vote totals used are the elector from each party with the highest total of votes. The vote totals of Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee appear to be incomplete.


State	James Madison Democratic-Republican		Charles C. Pinckney Federalist		James Monroe Democratic-Republican		Other		Margin		Citation
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Kentucky	2,679+	76.89%	54	1.55%	No ballots		751	21.56%	1,874	53.78%	^[8]
Maryland	15,336	67.30%	7,433	32.62%	No ballots		18	0.08%	7,885	34.60%	^[9]
New Hampshire	12,793	47.59%	14,085	52.40%	No ballots		4	0.01%	-1,288	-4.8%	^[10]
New Jersey	18,670	55.97%	14,687	44.03%	No ballots		3	0.01%	3,980	11.93%	^[11]
North Carolina	9,932+	52.70%	7,975+	42.32%	939+	4.98%	No ballots		1,018	5.40%	^[12]
Ohio	3,645	60.82%	1,174	19.59%	1,174	19.59%	No ballots		2,471	41.23%	^[13]
Pennsylvania	42,518	78.37%	11,735	21.63%	No ballots		No ballots		30,783	56.74%	^[14]
Rhode Island	2,692	46.70%	3,072	53.30%	No ballots		No ballots		-380	-6.60%	^[15]
Tennessee	1,016	?^[a]	?^[a]	?^[a]	?^[a]	?^[a]	?^[a]	?^[a]	?^[a]	?^[a]	^[16]
Virginia	15,683	78.62%	761	3.81%	3,505	17.57%	No ballots		12,178	61.05%	^[17]

States that flipped from Democratic-Republican to Federalist

Close states

States where the margin of victory was under 5%:

New Hampshire, 4.8% (1,288 votes)

States where the margin of victory was under 10%:

Rhode Island, 6.6% (380 votes)
North Carolina, 5.40% (1,018 votes)

Popular vote

Madison			65.0%
Pinckney			31.7%
Monroe			2.9%
Unpledged electors			0.4%

Electoral vote—President

Madison			69.7%
Pinckney			26.9%
Clinton			3.4%

Electoral vote—Vice President

Clinton			64.6%
King			26.9%
Langdon			5.1%
Madison			1.7%
Monroe			1.7%

Electoral college selection

Method of choosing electors	State(s)
Each Elector appointed by state legislature	Connecticut Delaware Georgia Massachusetts New York South Carolina Vermont
Each Elector chosen by voters statewide	New Hampshire New Jersey Ohio Pennsylvania Rhode Island Virginia
State is divided into two electoral districts and half the electors are chosen from each district.	Kentucky
State is divided into electoral districts, with one Elector chosen per district by the voters of that district	Maryland North Carolina Tennessee

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ All non-Madison electors were reported under an "others" section.

References

^ "National General Election VEP Turnout Rates, 1789-Present". United States Election Project. CQ Press. Archived from the original on November 14, 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c National Party Conventions, 1831-1976. Congressional Quarterly. 1979.
^ Sabato, Larry; Ernst, Howard (January 1, 2009). Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections. Infobase Publishing. pp. 302–304.
^ ^a ^b Ammon, Harry (1963). "James Monroe and the Election of 1808 in Virginia". The William and Mary Quarterly. 20 (1): 33–56. doi:10.2307/1921354. JSTOR 1921354.
^ ^a ^b Kaminski, John P. (1993). George Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the New Republic. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 281–288. ISBN 9780945612186. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
^ Deskins, Donald Richard; Walton, Hanes; Puckett, Sherman (2010). Presidential Elections, 1789-2008: County, State, and National Mapping of Election Data. University of Michigan Press. pp. 49–50.
^ "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Archived from the original on May 13, 2018.
^ "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
^ "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
^ "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
^ "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
^ "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
^ "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
^ "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
^ "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
^ "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
^ "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.