President George W. Bush on 

November 2 was re-elected president 

of the United States.

“Voters turned out in historic 

numbers and delivered a historic victory,” Bush said in a November 3 

speech to supporters in Washington. 

“America has spoken, and I’m humbled by the trust and the confidence of 

my fellow citizens. ”

 As of November 3, Bush had 

won 29 states and 274 electoral votes 

with results in Iowa and New Mexico remaining too close to call. “President 

Bush’s decisive margin of victory makes this the first presidential election since 

1988 in which the winner received a majority of the popular vote,” said Andrew 

Card, Bush’s chief of staff, on November 3. “And in this election, President Bush 

received more votes than any presidential candidate in our country’s history.”

Inside This Issue:

• Overview of 2004 

Race. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . page 1

• Republicans Widen Control 

in Senate, House . . . . . . page 1

• Campaign Highlight:

Ballot Initiatives Give Voters 

the Opportunity to Make 

New Laws . . . . . . . . . . . .page 4

Election

FOCUS

NOVEMBER 4, 2004 U.S. Department of State ISSUE 1 • NO 16 

The Republican Party retained 

control of both the Senate and House 

of Representatives in the November 

2 elections, expanding its current 

majorities and extending the party’s 

control of Congress.

Republican candidates won 19 

of the 34 Senate seats up for election 

(voters elect one-third of the 100-

seat body for six-year terms every 

two years), increasing their current 

51-seat majority by four seats. Since 

the majority party sets the legislative 

agenda and chairs every Senate committee, party control of the Senate 

is important regardless of who is 

president or which party controls the 

House.

The 19 Republican victories 

included eight of the nine most 

competitive race—in Alaska, Florida, 

Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, 

Republicans Widen Control 

in Senate, House

(continued on page 3)

(continued on page 2)

FAST FACTS:

✔ An estimated 120 million 

Americans, or 60 percent 

of eligible voters, voted in 

the 2004 elections, compared to 

105.4 million voters, or 54 percent, in 2000.

At least six states—Alabama, 

Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, 

Tennessee and Virginia, plus 

the District of Colubmia—set 

new records in voter turnout.

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archives/election2004.html

President George W. Bush greets cheering

supporters at a victory rally, November 3 in 

Washington. (© AP/WWP)

Bush Wins 2004 U.S. Presidential 

Election

✔
ELECTION FOCUS 2004

2 ELECTION FOCUS 2004

The U.S. Department of State is pleased to present its election coverage newsletter, Election Focus 2004. The 

newsletter will provide non-partisan coverage of the U.S. election process, featuring articles, interviews, public opinion polls, and 

other information on the presidential primaries, debates, conventions and campaign activities of the major 

presidential candidates.

Election Focus 2004 is produced by the Democracy and Human Rights team in the Bureau of International Information Programs.

If you are interested in receiving this newsletter via a listserv, please send your request to: http://lists.state.gov/archives/election2004.html

 Bush also won the state of Florida 

– a state that was hotly contested in 

the 2000 election and a 2004 prize 

coveted by both candidates – with 52 

percent of the popular vote to Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry’s 

47 percent. Experts agreed that if 

either candidate won both Florida and 

Ohio they would secure the victory, 

and Bush did just that.

 Bush led Kerry by about 140,000 

votes in Ohio after the polls closed 

November 2, but uncounted provisional ballots resulted in delaying the 

official announcement of the winner. 

It was clear by November 3, however, 

that Kerry would not have enough 

votes to win the state even if the provisional ballots were included in the 

tally. As a result, the Kerry campaign 

conceded the election to Bush on 

November 3.

 In his concession speech from 

Boston, Kerry said he spoke to the 

president and offered him and first 

lady Laura Bush his congratulations. 

“We talked about the danger of division in our country and the need ... 

for unity, for finding common ground 

and coming together,” he said. “Today, I hope we can begin the healing.”

 In his speech to the nation, Bush 

echoed this theme of unity, reaching 

out to those who voted for Kerry, 

saying, “To make this nation stronger 

and better, I will need your support 

and I will work to earn it. I will do all 

I can do to deserve your trust. A new 

term is a new opportunity to reach 

out to the whole nation. We have one 

country, one Constitution, and one 

future that binds us.”

 The 2004 presidential election was 

marked by high voter turnout that 

resulted in long lines at many polling 

places even after the official closing 

time. Bush maintained a lead in the 

national popular vote throughout the 

evening, but the race appeared close 

as Kerry secured many of the country’s most populous states, including New York and California, which 

together have 86 Electoral College 

votes.

 In the end, however, Bush trumped 

Kerry’s 256 electoral votes with wins 

throughout the South and Midwest, 

especially in Florida and Ohio, which 

earned him 274 electoral votes, 

enough to win the election even 

with the results from Iowa and New 

Mexico still uncertain. ■

(continued from page 1)

— B U R E AU O F —

INTERNATIONAL 

INFORMATION

P R O G R A M S

THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Washington, DC 20547

http://usinfo.state.gov
ELECTION FOCUS 2004

HTTP://USINFO.STATE.GOV 3

Oklahoma, South Carolina and South 

Dakota. Republican John Thune’s 

victory in South Dakota over current 

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle 

marked the first loss by a Senate 

leader of either party since 1952.

Another significant Republican 

victory came in Louisiana, where 

David Vitter became the first 

Republican senator from the state 

since the 1880s. He won a majority 

of votes in the state’s open Election 

Day primary, avoiding the runoff 

election expected by some analysts.

The Democratic Party won 15 

Senate seats, lowering its current 

48-seat membership by four seats 

to 44. The 15 victories included 

the competitive race in Colorado, 

where Ken Salazar joined Republican 

Mel Martinez of Florida as the first 

Hispanic Americans elected to the 

Senate since 1977. Democrat Barack 

Obama, who won with a wide margin 

in Illinois, will be the first African 

American in the Senate since 1999.

In the House of Representatives, 

where all 435 seats are up for election 

every two years, Republicans won 

231 races, expanding their current 22-

seat majority by four seats.

 Democrats won 200 races, 

resulting in a net loss of five seats. 

Three House races remained 

undecided—in Louisiana and New 

York. The two uncalled races in 

Louisiana, where no candidate 

received over 50 percent of the vote, 

will be decided in a December 4 runoff election.

Despite the expanded Republican 

majority in the 109th Congress, both 

houses are expected to remain partisan and combative, according to 

Republican political consultant Paul 

Pelletier. 

For example, the expanded 

Republican majority in the Senate 

does not reach the 60-vote majority 

needed for actions such as stopping 

a filibuster, an extended floor debate 

used to forestall a vote. The new 

Senate could still find itself “deadlocked,” said analyst Jim Thurber 

of the Center for Congressional and 

Presidential Studies at American 

University. 

Since Congress has exclusive 

power to pass legislation and approve 

appropriations, it plays a crucial role 

in whether or not an administration 

can accomplish its goals. President 

Bush will need to engage closely 

with the new Congress and provide 

strong direction to push his legislative 

agenda, said Thurber. ■

(continued from page 1)

Republicans Widen Control 

in Senate, House

Governors’ Races

During the November 2 

balloting, 11 of the state’s 

governors were up for 

election. Republicans 

were victorious in Indiana, 

Missouri, Utah and 

Washington, while 

retaining the governorships 

in Vermont and North 

Dakota. The Democrats won 

in New Hampshire, Montana 

and West Virginia, while 

retaining seats in Delaware 

and North Carolina. As a 

result of these elections, 

the Republicans now occupy 

the governor’s office in 28 

states, while the Democrats 

have 22. 
ELECTION FOCUS 2004

4 ELECTION FOCUS 2004

Voters in 34 states voted on more 

than 150 ballot initiatives, including measures on stem cell research, 

same-sex marriages, decriminalizing 

marijuana and residency requirements 

for state welfare benefits or voting.

California voters approved by 

a significant margin a measure that 

will allocate $3 billion to human 

embryonic stem cell research. About 

59 percent of the 9.5 million people 

who cast ballots on the measure voted 

in favor. The Bush administration 

has placed restrictions on government-funded stem cell research. The 

Roman Catholic Church and other 

religious groups oppose these kinds of 

experiments since stem cells are harvested from human embryos, which 

are destroyed in the process. The 

measure, Proposition 71, authorizes 

the state government to sell $3 billion 

in bonds and dispense about $300 million a year to researchers. Supporters 

of the research argue that it holds great 

promise for developing treatments for 

a wide range of diseases.

Voters also registered their disapproval of same-sex marriages in all 

11 states where the issue was on the 

ballot. The voters approved measures in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, 

Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, 

North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, 

Oregon and Utah to define marriage as 

between a man and a woman. In some 

of the states, the measure also banned 

same-sex couples from receiving benefits as “domestic partners.” None of 

the states explicitly allows same-sex 

marriages, although such unions had 

been taking place in several states.

Voters defeated a measure in 

Alaska to decriminalize the use of 

marijuana by a considerable margin. Meanwhile, voters in Montana 

approved an initiative to allow the 

medical use of marijuana, but in 

Oregon voters defeated a measure to 

significantly expand medical use of 

the substance. 

In Arizona, voters approved by 

a significant margin an initiative that 

would require proof of citizenship 

to register to vote and to get Arizona 

state welfare benefits. The initiative 

requires that state and local government officials confirm the legal 

residency of applicants for welfare 

benefits and requires that they report 

suspected illegal aliens who apply for 

the benefits. This requirement would 

not apply to federal benefits. The 

governor of Arizona and a coalition of 

other groups opposed the initiative.

In Colorado, voters handily 

defeated an initiative that would have 

divided the state’s nine electoral votes 

proportionally according to how many 

popular votes the two presidential 

candidates received. Instead, the state 

continued to give all its electoral votes 

to the candidate winning more than 

50 percent of the vote. If approved, 

the measure was supposed to take 

effect immediately, so it could have 

been significant if Colorado’s electoral 

votes became crucial to a victory by 

President Bush or Senator Kerry. 

Voters in other states also voted 

on limits on medical malpractice 

claims, the minimum wage, employeepaid health care and many other 

issues. Not all states allow these kinds 

of ballot initiatives. ■

Ballot Initiatives Give Voters the 

Opportunity to Make New Laws

Campaign★★Highlight