Theodore Roosevelt standing on a podium pointing into the crowd during a campaign rally speech. Ca. 1900s.

Bettmann / Getty Images

How Much Do You Know About Presidential Elections?

Take our quiz and find out

Bill Hogan and Dena Bunis Bill Hogan and Dena Bunis

AARP

Published June 22, 2021

10 Questions

How Much Do You Know About Presidential Elections?

[ {
  "question" : "What was the worst finish in history for an incumbent president running for reelection?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Millard Fillmore in 1856, with 21.6 percent of the vote.",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Herbert Hoover in 1932, with 39.7 percent of the vote.",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "William Howard Taft in 1912, with 23.2 percent of the popular vote.",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Martin Van Buren in 1848, with 10.1 percent of the vote.",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Democrat Woodrow Wilson won the election handily as Taft split the Republican vote with former President Theodore Roosevelt, who ran as the standard bearer for the Bull Moose Party.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Which of these candidates won the presidency but lost the state they lived in?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Richard M. Nixon",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "James K. Polk",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Donald J. Trump",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Woodrow Wilson",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "All of the above",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Nixon and Trump both lost New York, Wilson lost New Jersey and Polk lost Tennessee.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Zachary Taylor won the 1848 election with 1,361,394 votes. He would have had one more, but:",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Taylor didn't vote for himself.",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Taylor's only son, Richard, repudiated the Whig Party and aligned himself with his father's opponent, Democrat Lewis Cass.",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "In a silent act of \"gentlemanliness,\" Taylor later disclosed, he'd cast his vote for former President Martin Van Buren, the nominee of the Free Soil Party.",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Taylor's running mate, Millard Fillmore, was unable to reach his polling place in East Aurora, N.Y., on Election Day.",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "A 40-year Army veteran known as \"Old Rough and Ready,\" Taylor had never run for office and, in fact, had never even registered to vote.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "In terms of the popular vote, what was the closest presidential election in history?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "1824 (Andrew Jackson vs. John Quincy Adams)",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "1880 (James A. Garfield vs. Winfield Scott Hancock)",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "1888 (Benjamin Harris vs. Grover Cleveland)",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "2000 (George W. Bush vs. Al Gore)",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Despite capturing fewer than 2,000 more popular votes than Hancock, Garfield was easily elected, capturing 214 of the 369 electoral votes cast.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "What newspaper famously went to press with the headline \"Dewey Defeats Truman\" in the 1948 presidential election?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "The Albany (N.Y.) Times Union",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "The Chicago Daily News",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "The Chicago Daily Tribune",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "The New York Post",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "The Tribune, which had once branded Truman a \"nincompoop,\" called on Arthur Sears Henning, its veteran Washington correspondent, to predict the outcome of the election and write the newspaper's lead story before the actual results were in. Some 150,000 copies were published before the gaffe was corrected.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "When was the last time a third-party presidential candidate won votes in the Electoral College?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "John B. Anderson, in 1980",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "H. Ross Perot, in 1992 ",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "J. Strom Thurmond, in 1948",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "George C. Wallace, in 1968",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "The nominee of the American Independent Party carried five Southern states and won 46 electoral votes, nearly succeeding in his mission to throw the election into the House of Representatives.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Which one of these presidents did NOT win the Nobel Peace Prize?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Jimmy Carter",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Franklin Delano Roosevelt",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Barack Obama",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Woodrow Wilson",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "While Roosevelt didn’t get the peace prize, his fifth cousin, Theodore, did in 1906 “for his role in bringing to an end the bloody war recently waged between two of the world’s great powers, Japan and Russia.”",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "In what presidential election did Franklin Delano Roosevelt win the most electoral votes?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "1932",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "1936",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "1940",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "1944",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "In his first bid for reelection, FDR won nearly 61 percent of the popular vote and 523 electoral votes. His Republican opponent, Alf Landon, won just 8 electoral votes.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Who was the only person to serve as vice president and president without being elected to either post?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "John Quincy Adams",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Lyndon Johnson",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Gerald Ford",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "William Howard Taft",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Ford became vice president when Spiro T. Agnew resigned in October 1973 and became president when Richard M. Nixon resigned 10 months later in August 1974. Ford ran for a full term in 1976 but lost to Jimmy Carter.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Who was the youngest man to be inaugurated president?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Bill Clinton",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "John F. Kennedy",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Theodore Roosevelt",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Abraham Lincoln",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "While Kennedy was the youngest presidential candidate to be elected, Roosevelt was younger when he was pressed into service: He was 42 years and 322 days old when he assumed the presidency after William McKinley was assassinated.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
} ]

Quiz Progress

0 Correct

0 Incorrect