1804 United States presidential election

Presidential elections were held in the United States from November 1 to December 4, 1804. The Democratic-Republican Party's ticket of incumbent president Thomas Jefferson and former New York governor George Clinton defeated the Federalist Party's ticket of former U . minister to France Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and former U . minister to the United Kingdom Rufus King. This was the first election held under the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which required separate ballots for president and vice president. Jefferson was unanimously renominated by his party's congressional nominating caucus in February; the caucus selected Clinton to succeed the outgoing vice president, Aaron Burr. A "semisecret" Federalist caucus elevated Pinckney and King as the party's national candidates; while news of the caucus was widely circulated, in states where electors were chosen by popular vote, the Federalist ticket was formally unpledged. Federalists in several states chose not to nominate electors, resulting in a lopsided popular vote margin for Jefferson. Jefferson was widely popular and considered unbeatable by many observers, following his narrow election four years earlier. Economic prosperity, the expansion of voting rights, and the disorganized state of the opposition all benefited his campaign. The Federalists portrayed Jefferson as a demagogue for his embrace of populist, democratic politics, and a dictator for his use of patronage and reforms to the federal judiciary. Jefferson's complicity in slavery did little to damage his candidacy even in New England, where he carried the Federalist stronghold of Massachusetts. Jefferson won the election in a landslide, carrying every state and all but two electoral districts where electors were chosen by popular vote. Pinckney received the electoral votes of Connecticut and Delaware, where electors were appointed by the legislature, and two votes from unpledged electors in Maryland. Jefferson polled more than 106,000 popular votes, representing 73 percent of the total, compared with fewer than 40,000 votes for the Federalist electors.