Tom Kacich: If nominated, Trump could tie a local electoral record

Aug. 7—Should he again become the Republican nominee for president next year, Donald Trump could join William Jennings Bryan as the only mainline presidential candidates to lose in Champaign County three times.

Bryan, a Democrat born in Salem, was his party's nominee for president in 1896, 1900 and 1908. He not only lost nationally each time but also in Champaign County, getting 39.5, 41.5 and 38.5 percent of the vote here, respectively. Republican Trump lost the county with 36.4 percent in 2016 and 36.9 percent in 2020.

Other notable facts from Champaign County election history:

* Two other presidential contenders have run twice and lost: Republican Thomas Dewey in 1944 and 1948, and Democrat Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and 1956. Dewey, however, won Champaign County both times, with 57.5 and 60.9 percent of the vote, respectively. Stevenson, even though he was born 50 miles from Champaign in Bloomington, lost both elections in Champaign County with less than 40 percent of the vote.

* The only man to be elected president four times, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had mixed results in Champaign County. He won in 1932 and 1936 with 53 and 52.7 percent of the vote, but he lost in 1940 and 1944 with 46.7 and 42.5 percent of the vote. Much of the rest of traditionally Republican East Central Illinois followed suit. Roosevelt won every area county in 1932, and lost only one (Ford) in 1936. But by 1940, he won only Coles and Macon counties, and by 1944, only Macon stayed with FDR. Macon had gone for Herbert Hoover in 1928, giving him almost 71 percent of the vote, but voted Democratic in the next five presidential elections. It finally returned to the GOP in 1952 and has stayed there most of the time since, voting for Trump in 2016 (56.4 percent) and 2020 (57.9 percent).

* Illinois may be called "The Land of Lincoln," but it wasn't particularly supportive of his presidential election campaigns. He won the state in 1860 with just 50.7 percent of the vote, and lost in 57 of 102 counties. He lost his home county, Sangamon, and most other counties in the southern half of the state. He ran strong in East Central Illinois, however, taking Champaign (58.5 percent), Vermilion (58.6 percent), Iroquois (59.7 percent) and Ford (61.4 percent) counties. In the 1864 election, Lincoln took 54.4 percent of the statewide vote but still lost 53 counties, including Ford. He also lost Sangamon County again.

* The most successful gubernatorial candidate in Champaign County history was Democrat Augustus French in 1848. He got every one of the 254 votes cast in the county. He also enjoyed 100 percent success in several other counties, including Sangamon (1,506 votes) and St. Clair (2,511). French got 86.7 percent of the vote statewide in a three-way contest. The ninth governor in Illinois history had lived for a time in Paris in Edgar County.

* Republican presidential candidates have won 18 of the 30 elections since Champaign County was organized in 1833. Democrats have won 11 elections (including the last eight), and Progressive Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt won in a three-way race in 1912.

* Warren G. Harding, whom historians have ranked among the worst presidents in U.S. history, ironically has the highest winning percentage of any presidential contender in Champaign County's history: 71.8 percent in the 1920 election.

* The most popular governor in modern Champaign County history (excepting French's 1848 landslide) is Republican James R. Thompson, who got 76.7 percent of the vote in 1976 and followed that up with wins in 1978 (73.3 percent), 1982 (58.8 percent) and 1986 (59.6 percent).

* The greatest margin of victory by a Democratic candidate for governor was J.B. Pritzker's 58.8 percent last year. Pritzker was the first Democratic candidate to win Champaign County since Henry Horner in 1932. In his first election in 2018, Pritzker trounced Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who had been elected four years earlier with 54.7 percent of the vote. Rauner got just 37.7 percent in 2018.