Story highlights Clinton outpaced Trump by almost 2.9 million votes

She lost the Electoral College, however

(CNN) More Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than any other losing presidential candidate in US history.

The Democrat outpaced President-elect Donald Trump by almost 2.9 million votes, with 65,844,954 (48.2%) to his 62,979,879 (46.1%), according to revised and certified final election results from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

margin ranks third among defeated candidates, according to statistics from Clinton's 2.1%margin ranks third among defeated candidates, according to statistics from US Elections Atlas . Andrew Jackson won by more than 10% in 1824 but was denied the presidency, which went to John Quincy Adams. In 1876, Samuel Tilden received 3% more votes than Rutherford B. Hayes, who eventually triumphed by one electoral vote.

Though the legitimacy of his victory has never come into serious doubt, Trump has repeatedly argued, usually via Twitter, that he would have won the popular vote, too, if that had been his focus.

"I would have done even better in the election, if that is possible, if the winner was based on popular vote -- but would campaign differently," he tweeted as recently as Wednesday morning, more than six weeks after the election. In late November, Trump also falsely claimed that "millions" of Clinton voters had cast ballots "illegally."

In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 27, 2016

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