2004 United States presidential election in Nevada

none June 2025 September 2023 2004 United States presidential election 2004 United States presidential election in Nevada Nevada presidential no 2000 United States presidential election in Nevada 2000 2008 United States presidential election in Nevada 2008 November 2, 2004 x200px George-W-Bush (cropped).jpeg George W. Bush Republican Party (United States) Texas Dick Cheney 5 418,690 50.47% John F. Kerry (wide crop).jpg John Kerry Democratic Party (United States) Massachusetts John Edwards 0 397,190 47.88% 275px County results 275px Congressional district results Bush #f2b3be 40–50% #e27f90 50–60% #cc2f4a 60–70% #d40000 70–80% Kerry #86b6f2 50–60% President George W. Bush Republican Party (United States) George W. Bush Republican Party (United States) 77.5% (of registered voters) 50.0% (of voting age population) The 2004 United States presidential election in Nevada took place on November 2, 2004, and was part of the 2004 United States presidential election. Voters chose five representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Nevada was won by incumbent President George W. Bush with a 2.59% margin of victory. This made the state 0.13% to the right of the nation at-large and the closest to the national results. A number of media outlets called Nevada for Bush, declared him re-elected for a second term. Prior to the election, news organizations who made predictions were split on whether Nevada was a swing state or leaned towards Bush. Kerry won just one county of the state—Clark County, Nevada's most populous county, and home to Las Vegas. Kerry's second-best performance in the state was in Washoe County, Nevada's next-most populated county, which he lost with 47% of the vote. Moreover, Nevada at the time had voted for the winner of every presidential election since 1912, except for 1976. Independent and third-party candidates collectively won 1.7% of the vote; among this group, Ralph Nader received the greatest share, garnering 0.58%. This was the last time that Nevada was carried by the Republican nominee until Donald Trump did so in 2024, and remains the last time that a Republican has carried Washoe County. Nevada, still considered a swing state, would vote for the Democratic nominee in every subsequent election in between 2008 and 2020, albeit sometimes by narrow margins. Caucuses 2004 Nevada Democratic caucuses Campaign Predictions There were 12 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day.Article title +SourceRankingD.C. Political ReportLean RAssociated PressToss-upCNNLikely RCook Political ReportToss-upNewsweekLean RNew York TimesLean RRasmussen ReportsToss-upResearch 2000Lean RWashington PostToss-upWashington TimesSolid RZogby InternationalLikely D FlipWashington DispatchLikely R Polling Bush trailed in only one pre-election poll throughout the general election. By the fall, Bush pulled away and reached 50%. However, in the last week, some voters changed their preferences against Bush, resulting in his polling margin falling slightly. An average of the final three polls before Election Day showed Bush leading 49% to 47%.http://uselectionatlas.org/USPRESIDENT/GENERAL/CAMPAIGN/2004/polls.php?fips=32 Election 2004 Polls - Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections Fundraising Bush raised $2,296,762.https://www.campaignmoney.com/political/campaigns/george_w_bush.asp?cycle=04 George W Bush - $374,659,453 raised, '04 election cycle, Republican Party, President www.campaignmoney.com Kerry raised $793,504.http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/campaigns/john_f_kerry.asp?cycle=04 John F Kerry - $345,826,176 raised, '04 election cycle, Democrat Party, President Advertising and visits Bush visited the state 3 times, while Kerry visited Nevada 6 times. Both of them visited the same places: Las Vegas and Reno. Almost every week, the candidates combined spent over $1 million in advertising.http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/special/president/campaign.ads/ CNN.com Specials www.cnn.com Analysis In 2000, Bush had won Nevada by only 3.54%, despite that it had been Bill Clinton's second-closest win in 1996. He also fell slightly short of an outright majority. Hence, he was thought by many observers to be vulnerable in the state, which had voted Republican for six elections in a row between 1968 and 1988 before Bill Clinton. In the end, Bush improved his vote share to just over a majority, although his margin narrowed to 2.59%, due to Kerry improving over Gore by a greater amount than Bush improved over his own prior performance. In particular, Bush's vote share actually fell slightly in Washoe County, the state's second-largest county and its largest red county in both 2000 and 2004. Washoe County had given the Republican nominee its biggest raw-vote margin in the state in every election from 1944 through 2000 save 1964 (when this distinction went to smaller Douglas County) and the three elections of the 1980s (when it went to larger Clark County). In 2004, the 'Cow County' of Elko County displaced Washoe County as the county giving Bush his biggest raw-vote margin in Nevada. However, Bush performed strongly in Nevada's Cow Counties (its 14 counties apart from Clark, Washoe, and Carson City2007-08-06 Presidential candidates thinking big think Elko https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/presidential-candidates-thinking-big-think-elko/ 2021-01-12 Las Vegas Review-Journal en-US), winning over 60% of the vote in Douglas and Lyon Counties, over 70% in Churchill County, and over 75% in Elko County (where he received the highest vote share of any nominee since William Jennings Bryan in 1896). He also did well in Nye County, another of the larger Cow Counties, getting 58.5%, an improvement of 1.8% over four years prior. And he managed to keep Clark County from being a blowout, holding Kerry to a 4.9% margin there. Together with his limiting his backslide in Washoe, this was enough to give Bush another win in Nevada. This would be the last time until 2024 that Nevada had voted Republican. Despite winning all but one of state's counties, Bush performed less consistently in Nevada's congressional districts, where he won two of the three—one of them by just a single percentage point. Despite Bush winning the state, incumbent Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid won reelection. Results 2004 United States presidential election in NevadaPartyCandidateVotesPercentageElectoral votes Republican George W. Bush (incumbent) 418,690 50.47% 5 Democratic John Kerry 397,190 47.88% 0 Independent Ralph Nader 4,838 0.58% 0 N/A None of these Candidates 3,688 0.44% 0 Libertarian Michael Badnarik 3,176 0.38% 0 American Independent Michael Peroutka 1,152 0.14% 0 Green David Cobb 853 0.10% 0 Totals 829,587 100.00% 5 Voter turnout (Voting age population) 50.0% By county CountyGeorge W. BushRepublicanJohn KerryDemocraticVarious candidatesOther partiesMarginTotal#%#%#%#%Carson City13,17157.00%9,44140.86%4942.14%3,73016.14%23,106Churchill7,33571.65%2,70526.42%1971.92%4,63045.23%10,237Clark255,33746.82%281,76751.66%8,2931.52%-26,430-4.84%545,397Douglas15,19263.57%8,27534.63%4311.80%6,91728.94%23,898Elko11,93877.98%3,05019.92%3212.10%8,88858.06%15,309Esmeralda36776.30%9920.58%153.12%26855.72%481Eureka57177.37%14419.51%233.12%42757.86%738Humboldt3,89672.59%1,36125.36%1102.05%2,53547.23%5,367Lander1,60278.03%41420.17%371.80%1,18857.86%2,053Lincoln1,57977.14%41820.42%502.44%1,16156.72%2,047Lyon11,13664.93%5,63732.87%3782.20%5,49932.06%17,151Mineral1,33657.41%93140.01%602.58%40517.40%2,327Nye8,48758.49%5,61638.70%4072.80%2,87119.79%14,510Pershing1,34169.95%53828.06%381.98%80341.89%1,917Storey1,25357.80%87140.18%442.03%38217.62%2,168Washoe81,54551.26%74,84147.05%2,6931.69%6,7044.21%159,079White Pine2,60468.49%1,08228.46%1163.05%1,52240.03%3,802Totals418,69050.47%397,19047.88%13,7071.65%21,5002.59%829,587 right 250px Swing by county Legend #77e3ff Democratic — +5-7.5% #aaeeff Democratic — +2.5-5% #d5f6ff Democratic — +0-2.5% #ffd5d5 Republican — +0-2.5% #ffaaaa Republican — +2.5-5% #ff8080 Republican — +5-7.5% #ff5555 Republican — +7.5-10% #ff2a2a Republican — +10-12.5% 250px Trend by county Legend #77e3ff Democratic — +5-7.5% #aaeeff Democratic — +2.5-5% #d5f6ff Democratic — +0-2.5% #ffd5d5 Republican — +0-2.5% #ffaaaa Republican — +2.5-5% #ff8080 Republican — +5-7.5% #ff5555 Republican — +7.5-10% #ff2a2a Republican — +10-12.5% By congressional district Bush won two of three congressional districts.http://www.swingstateproject.com/diary/4161/ Presidential Results by Congressional District, 2000-2008 – Swing State Project District Bush Kerry RepresentativeNevada 1 1st 42% 57%Shelley BerkleyNevada 2 2nd 57% 41%Jim GibbonsNevada 3 3rd 50% 49%Jon Porter Electors List of 2004 United States presidential electors Technically speaking, the voters of Nevada cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Nevada is allocated 5 electors because it has 3 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 5 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and their running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 5 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. An elector who votes for someone other than their candidate is known as a faithless elector. The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 13, 2004, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead, the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols. The following were the members of the Electoral College from Nevada. All 5 were voted for Bush/Cheney, to whom they were unanimously pledged:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fnews%2Farchive%2F2004%2F12%2F13%2Fstate1909EST0163.DTL Article Not Found! 2022-02-14 2008-04-08 https://web.archive.org/web/20080408190526/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fnews%2Farchive%2F2004%2F12%2F13%2Fstate1909EST0163.DTL dead Joe Brown Milton Schwartz John Marvel Beverly Willard Paul Willis See also United States presidential elections in Nevada References Nevada 2004 Presidential