District partisanship

The presidential vote within a contest’s district in 2016, 2020 and 2024: the usual control for a district’s partisan lean.

Returned by: GET /v1/contests, GET /v1/contests/{id}, GET /v1/elections/{slug}/export
Found in: District (partisanship)
Shapes: The full record is in a district’s partisanship. The shorter forms in each year leave some fields out; a field that isn’t in every form says where it is.

How it connects

Every district carries partisanship, so every contest has its district’s presidential vote alongside its own result.
With format=csv, GET /v1/contests gives each year’s dem_two_party_pct and total_votes as columns.

Good to know

Only official counts for exactly the district’s area: a state (from the FEC’s official results), a county (from the MIT Election Data and Science Lab’s county returns, CC0) or a district an election office reported (California’s congressional and legislative districts). Nothing is estimated from other areas, so most local districts have none.
A district that covers exactly one county (a county court or prosecutor’s district, for example) carries that county’s figure.
dem_two_party_pct is 100 × Democratic / (Democratic + Republican). Subtract 50 for the usual lean; third-party votes are only in total_votes.
2016 is not loaded yet, so president_2016 is null everywhere for now.

Fields

Field	Type	Meaning	Example
`president_2016`	District partisanshipor null	The 2016 presidential vote in the district; null where we have no official count for it.Only in a district’s partisanship.	—
`president_2020`	District partisanshipor null	The 2020 presidential vote in the district; null where we have no official count for it.Only in a district’s partisanship.	—
`president_2024`	District partisanshipor null	The 2024 presidential vote in the district; null where we have no official count for it.Only in a district’s partisanship.	—
`dem_votes`	integer	Votes for the Democratic nominee for president in the district.Only in each year.	`323719`
`rep_votes`	integer	Votes for the Republican nominee for president in the district.Only in each year.	`62594`
`total_votes`	integer	All votes for president in the district, every candidate and write-ins.Only in each year.	`402964`
`dem_two_party_pct`	number	The Democratic share of the two-party vote, 0 to 100: 100 × dem_votes / (dem_votes + rep_votes). Subtract 50 for the usual lean measure; the Republican share is 100 minus it.Only in each year.	`83.797`
`method`	string	How the district’s count was made: official_district, official_county, statewide (or aggregated_precincts, reserved).`official_district`, `official_county`, `statewide`, `aggregated_precincts` meaningsOnly in each year.	`official_county`
`source`	object	The source of the count.Only in each year.	—
`source.name`	string	Who published the count.Only in each year.	`MIT Election Data and Science Lab, County Presidential Election Returns 2000-2024 (v20)`
`source.url`	stringURL	Where the count was published.Only in each year.	`https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/VOQCHQ`
`retrieved_on`	stringYYYY-MM-DD	When we read it from the source.Only in each year.	`2026-11-14`

Download every dictionary as CSV or JSON.

Sample (JSON)

One district partisanship as the API returns it, in a district’s partisanship. More in the sample data.

{
  "president_2016": null,
  "president_2020": {
    "dem_votes": 378156,
    "rep_votes": 56417,
    "total_votes": 443553,
    "dem_two_party_pct": 87.018,
    "method": "official_county",
    "source": {
      "name": "MIT Election Data and Science Lab, County Presidential Election Returns 2000-2024 (v20)",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/VOQCHQ"
    },
    "retrieved_on": "2026-11-14"
  },
  "president_2024": {
    "dem_votes": 323719,
    "rep_votes": 62594,
    "total_votes": 402964,
    "dem_two_party_pct": 83.797,
    "method": "official_county",
    "source": {
      "name": "MIT Election Data and Science Lab, County Presidential Election Returns 2000-2024 (v20)",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/VOQCHQ"
    },
    "retrieved_on": "2026-11-14"
  }
}