Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney won 62 million popular votes, for 50.7 percent. Kerry and his running mate, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, won 59 million, for 48.3 percent. This remains the only time between 1988 (when Bush's father did it) and 2020 that the Republican nominee for President got a majority of the popular vote.
Bush won 31 States for 286 Electoral Votes. Kerry won 19 States, plus the District of Columbia, for 251 EVs. One "faithless elector" from Minnesota voted for Edwards instead of Kerry.
Kerry got 49.2 percent of the vote in Iowa, and 49.0 percent in New Mexico. Had he won both of those States, that would not have been enough to swing the Electoral Vote in his favor: It would still have been 274-263 Bush.
The key State turned out to be Ohio: Kerry got 48.7 percent there, and it was still not called by 12:00 Noon, Eastern Time, on November 3. Switching its 20 Electoral Votes, and no others, would have given Kerry a 271-266 win. But, despite the various media outlets' refusal to call it for Bush, Bush's lead was such that, at 1:50 PM, Kerry began a press conference, and said, "I have come to the conclusion that we cannot win in Ohio," and announced that he had called Bush, and offered his concession. Bush's final margin in Ohio was 118,601.
Kerry's concession, at Faneuil Hall, Boston
As with Florida in 2000, there were rumors of Republican shenanigans in what turned out to be the decisive State. Kenneth Blackwell, Secretary of State for Ohio, and a former Mayor of Cincinnati, was accused of manipulating the vote. Blackwell has never won another election: He was the Republican nominee for Governor in 2006, but got clobbered by Democratic Congressman Ted Strickland. As of November 2, 2022, he works for the anti-choice, anti-gay Family Research Council.
The closeness of the Presidential election was also reflected in the Congressional elections: The Republicans gained only 3 seats in the House of Representatives, and actually gained more seats in the Senate, 4, in each case boosting what had been small majorities. Among the newly-elected Senators was a Democratic State Senator from Illinois, whose speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention had gained a great deal of notice: Barack Obama. (UPDATE: Also elected was Republican John Thune of South Dakota. In 2025, Thune became the Senate Majority Leader.)
During the campaign, Bush ran as the man who was fighting to avenge the 9/11 attacks, while his fellow Republicans mocked Kerry for saying that Democratic leadership could "reduce terrorism to the level of a nuisance."
After 4 more years, the economy was in tatters, and the Iraq War was no closer to being "won" than it was on this day.
There were 3 debates. The 1st was held at the University of Miami on September 30, just a few miles from the "Brooks Brothers Riot" that turned out to be instrumental in Bush's 2000 emergence as President. Bush was asked why he invaded Iraq. He said, “The enemy attacked us.” Kerry reminded him, and reminded America, “Saddam Hussein did not attack us on September 11, 2001. Osama bin Laden did.” At that moment, anybody who still planned to vote for Bush based on “national security” became, irrevocably, a fool.
As they did in 2000, the editors of Time magazine named Bush as their Person of the Year for 2004.
By 2016, after 8 years of Obama as President, with Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State in his 1st term, and then Kerry himself as Secretary of State in the 2nd term, Kerry had been proven correct: They had reduced terrorism, at least against American targets, at home and abroad, to the level of a nuisance.
In 2022, Kerry is President Joe Biden's Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, while Bush is getting a somewhat favorable reassessment: At least he wasn't as bad as Donald Trump.
UPDATE: Kerry left that job on March 6, 2024. He was 80 years old.
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November 2, 2004, as are all modern U.S. Election Days, was a Tuesday. The baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. And the NHL team owners had locked the players out, so there would be no season in 2004-05. But there were 3 NBA games played:
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Houston Rockets, 87-79 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.
* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Sacramento Kings, 107-98 at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas. Dirk Nowitzki scored 33 points.
* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets, 89-78 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Kobe Bryant scored 25 points.
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