When was the last time the Republican Party won the popular vote?

(NEXSTAR) - Former President Donald Trump has won the presidency over Vice President Kamala Harris, winning both the electoral college vote and the popular vote, something that has become very rare for a Republican candidate to do since the turn of the century.

According to Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), Trump currently leads the popular vote with over 70 million votes, compared to Harris' roughly 66 million. This comes as quite a surprise to most Americans and even Trump himself agreed this past weekend that a Republican winning the popular vote is extremely difficult.

“When you have New York, Illinois and California, you have automatically, it’s like ridiculous, automatically goes to a Democrat, it’s tough to win the popular vote because they’re three big states,” he said.

The victory by the former president makes it the first time that a Republican candidate won the popular vote since George W. Bush in 2004 when he was reelected over John F. Kerry.

To find the next instance of a Republican winning the popular vote, you'd have to go back another 16 years to when Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, won the 1988 election over Michael S. Dukakis.

Winning the popular vote and the electoral college vote was actually the norm in the 1900s, with each winning candidate having won both in each of the 25 elections from 1900-1996.

That streak lasted until George W. Bush's first presidential win in 2000 when Bush won the election but lost the popular vote to Al Gore. Making Bush the first president to do so since 1888, when Grover Cleveland won the popular vote, but lost the election to Benjamin Harrison.