(Source: MIRS.news, Published 10/28/2024) The polls are projecting another razor-thin presidential election on Nov. 5, but if the margin of victory is under 1 percentage point, it would mark only the fourth time in Michigan’s history that the results were that close. 

The closest presidential election, by percentage, in Michigan history is Donald Trump’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton with .23 of a percentage point difference, according to the following table produced by MIRS, going off old Michigan Manuals and online sources. 

After that, the closest election was in 1940, when Republican Wendell Willkie defeated President Franklin D. Roosevelt by .33 of a percentage point. 

The only other election decided by less than a percentage point was in 1884 when James Blaine defeated Grover Cleveland by .80 of a percentage point. 

Roosevelt’s win in 1944 was also close, though, knocking off Thomas Dewey in Michigan by 1.01 percent.

- In raw votes, the closest vote was the second election Michigan ever held. That was in 1840 when William Henry Harrison defeated Martin Van Buren by 1,837 votes, which by percentage was a 4 percent win. 

- The biggest blowout in Michigan history was in 1924, the height of the Republican Party’s dominance, when Calvin Coolidge defeated John W. Davis by 62.25 percentage points, 75.37% to 13.12%. A third-party candidate, Robert LaFollette ate up 10.51%, as well. 

- The Democrats’ biggest blowout on the presidential front was in 1964 when President Lyndon Johnson beat Barry Goldwater by 33.6 percentage points, 66.7% to 33.1%. 

- The largest percentage ever achieved by a third-party candidate in Michigan was Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, when he won Michigan as a National Progressive candidate with 38.94 percent of the vote. It marked the only time a third-party candidate won Michigan’s electoral college votes. 

Other than that, the next highest percentage was in 1992 when Ross Perot scored 19.3 percent of the vote. After that, Van Buren got 16 percent as a Free Soil candidate in 1848 and LaFollette’s 10.51% was fourth-highest for third-party candidates. 

- The highest number of votes ever collected by a presidential candidate in Michigan was in 2008 with Barack Obama’s 2,872,579. Joe Biden’s 2,804,040 in 2020 is next, followed by Donald Trump’s 2,649,852 in 2020. 

- Michigan has eight candidates on the ballot in 2024, but that’s not the most. In 1984, 10 candidates were on the ballot. The modern-day roster of third parties on the ballot – Green, Libertarian, Natural Law and U.S. Taxpayers/Constitution -- has been a regular lineup since about 2000. Prior to that, the Prohibitionists were a standard third-party for 24 elections from 1872 until 1968, when their final nominee got all of 60 votes. 

Various forms of socialist parties and even a communist party were common until about the 1980s.