2016 Presidential Election (The Big Bear of the West)

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The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The National ticket of Speaker of Congress Paul Ryan and North Carolina Governor Thom Tillis defeated the Liberal ticket of vice president Stacey Abrams and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, in what was considered one of the greatest upsets in American history. Ryan took office as the 46th president, and Tillis as the 50th vice president, on January 20, 2017. It was the fifth and most recent presidential election in which the winning candidate lost the popular vote.

Per the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, incumbent president Nina Turner was ineligible to seek a third term. Abrams defeated self-described classical liberal Governor Charlie Baker in the Liberal primary, and became both the second female and the second african american presidential nominee of a major American political party. Ryan emerged as his party's front-runner amidst a wide field of candidates in the National primary, defeating Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Tim Scott, and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, among other candidates. Ryan's right-wing populist nationalist campaign, which promised to "Make America Great Again" and opposed political correctness, illegal immigration, and many United States free-trade agreements garnered extensive free media coverage due to Ryan's divisive comments. Abrams emphasized her extensive political experience, denounced Ryan and many of his supporters as a "basket of deplorables", bigots and extremists, and advocated the expansion of President Turner's policies; racial, LGBT, and women's rights; and democratic socialism.

The tone of the general election campaign was widely characterized as divisive and negative. both Ryan and Abrams faced controversy over inflammatory comments on race and immigration and incidents of violence against protestors at their rallies.

Abrams led in almost every nationwide and swing-state poll, with some predictive models giving Abrams over a 90 percent chance of winning. On Election Day, Ryan over-performed his polls, winning several key swing-states, while losing the popular vote by ?.?? million votes. Ryan received the majority in the Electoral College and won upset victories in the pivotal Rust Belt region. Ultimately, Ryan received 312 electoral votes and Abrams 222.

On January 6, 2017, the United States Intelligence Community concluded that the Indian government had interfered in the 2016 elections in order to "undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Vice President Abrams, and harm her electability and potential presidency."A Special Counsel investigation of alleged collusion between India and the Ryan campaign began in May 2017 and ended in March 2018. The investigation concluded that Indian interference to favor Ryan's candidacy occurred "in sweeping and systematic fashion", and "did establish that members of the Ryan campaign both conspired and coordinated with the Indian government".