[162] When Jackson won the Pennsylvania nomination, Calhoun dropped out of the presidential race.[163] Afterwards, Jackson won the nomination in six other states and had a strong second-place finish in three others.[164]
In the presidential election, Jackson won a plurality of the popular vote, receiving 42 percent. More importantly, he won a plurality of electoral votes, receiving 99 votes from states in the South, West, and Mid-Atlantic. He was the only candidate to win states outside of his regional base: Adams dominated New England, Crawford won Virginia and Georgia, and Clay took three western states. Because no candidate had a majority of 131 of electoral votes, the House of Representatives held a contingent election under the terms of the Twelfth Amendment. The amendment specifies that only the top three electoral vote-winners are eligible to be elected by the House, so Clay was eliminated from contention.[165] Clay, who was also Speaker of the House and presided over the election's resolution, saw a Jackson presidency as a disaster for the country.[166] Clay threw his support behind Adams, who won the contingent election on the first ballot. 