2016 Presidential Election

Previous Election: 2012 Presidential Election

Next Election: 2020 Presidential Election

The 2016 Election saw Donald J. Trump (R-NY) run against Hillary Clinton (D-NY). Each was nominated after contentious party primaries. The election was the 58th Presidential Election in the United States, and the fifth where the eventual President did not win the Popular Vote. The Previous election saw Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate and former governor of Massachusetts, run against the incumbent President Barack Obama. Barack Obama won the election by a wide margin, however he lost states he won in 2008, namely North Carolina, Indiana, and Nebraska Second District (NE-2). The Republican Party held the Senate and the House of Representatives, but later polls showed Clinton leading in the election by a close, but still respectable, margin.

## Republican Primaries

The Republican nomination was highly contested. Below is a list of the nominees.

* Donald J. Trump, President of the Trump Organization
* Ted Cruz, Senator from Texas
* Marco Rubio, Senator from Florida
* John Kasich, Governor of Ohio
* Ben Carson, Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery for John Hopkins Hospital
* Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida (related to 41st President George H.W. Bush and 43rd President George W. Bush)
* Rand Paul, Senator from Kentucky
* Mike Huckabee, Governor of Arkansas
* Carly Fiorina, CEO of Hewlett-Packard
* Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey
* Jim Gilmore, Governor of Virginia
* Rick Santorum, Senator from Pennsylvania
* Various others who withdrew before the Primaries

The search for a nominee for the Republican Party came after the 2012 loss of Mitt Romney in the general election. Jeb Bush, a relative of the Bush family, a prominent political family in Texas whose members where on the Republican ticket for President or Vice President in 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, and 2004. Others would soon join the race.

The race for the Republican Nomination began on March 23rd, when United States Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, announced his candidacy for the Presidency. Cruz won the initial primary race in Iowa, with businessman Donald Trump coming in second. Trump then came in first at the New Hampshire primary. He, Marco Rubio, and Cruz seemed like the front-runners. Rubio would later lose to Trump in his home state of Florida, dropping out of the race. Trump won a resounding Super Tuesday victory and secured the nomination for the Presidency.

## Democratic Primaries

The Democratic Primary was essentially a contest between Bernie Sanders, the incumbent senator from Vermont, and Hillary Clinton, the former Secretary of State. Others, such as former governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley ran but dropped out mid-way through the primaries. In Iowa, the first state to hold a primary, Hillary Clinton beat Sanders by about 0,2%, the narrowest in history. Sanders won the New Hampshire primary with a convincing 22% of the vote. Clinton would then win a close victory in Nevada and a wide victory in South Carolina, wrapping up the early state primaries. On Super Tuesday, Clinton won 8 contests to Sanders 4, a lead but not a mandate. When these same numbers repeated with the mid-March primaries, she emerged a clear frontrunner to a now desperate Sanders. Sanders was able to recover this, however, winning 8 of the 9 primaries in late March and early April (Clinton won Arizona). This however was the final time the Sanders campaign performed well. Clinton won a majority in the primaries throughout the remainder of the spring as well as the summer, and Sanders would eventually have to concede.

## Vice Presidential Selection

Each candidate upon securing the nomination began to hunt to find a suitable Vice President. Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, made it known that his choices included Senator Jeff Sessions (AL), former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (GA), and Indiana governor Mike Pence. Only July 15th, 2016, nominee Trump confirmed Pence was his choice. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton selected Senator Timothy Caine (VA) has her running mate out of a field of many candidates. The general election began then.

## Third Parties

### Libertarian Party

*See Also: Libertarian Party*

The largest third party in the United States at the time, the Libertarian Party hosted primaries in six states. Of those, five voted for former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, who had served as a Republican until the end of his 2003 term but later switched to the Libertarians in 2011. He selected William Weld, a former Massachusetts governor who would flip-flop between the Republican and Libertarian Parties, as his running mate. Aside from Trump/Pence and Clinton/Kaine, the Johnson/Weld ticket was the only with ballot access in all 50 states. This was the fourth time in party history this had been the case.

### Green Party

*See Also: Green Party*

The second-largest third party in the United States at the time and the largest left-leaning third party, the Greens held primaries in 37 states. They nominated Jill Stein, the party's nominee in 2012, for the presidency and Ajumu Baraka for the Vice Presidency. Unlike the Libertarians, they did not have ballot access in all fifty states. They only had write-in status in Georgia, North Carolina, and Indiana, sued (but did not gain) for access in Oklahoma, and no ballot access whatsoever in Nevada and South Dakota.

### Other Independent Campaigns

Constitution Party ticket: Darrell Castle/Scott Bradley

Independent Party ticket: Evan McMullin/Cindy Finn (reached record levels in Utah)

Party for Socialism and Liberation: Gloria La Riva/Eugene Puryear

## General Campaign

In many ways it was the race to the bottom in the 2016 campaign. Clinton and Trump where widely disliked, likely the reason 3rd Parties did so well.

## Election Day

The results on election day saw Donald Trump emerge with 306 Electoral Votes to Hillary Clinton's 232. However, Clinton won 48% of the popular vote to Trump's 46%. The Libertarian Candidate, Johnson, won 3%, a party record.

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### Election Highlights

* Flipped Republican
	+ Florida, lasted voted Republican in a Presidential Election for George W. Bush in 2004, flipped by Barack Obama in 2008.
	+ Iowa, lasted voted Republican in a Presidential Election for George W. Bush in 2004, flipped by Barack Obama in 2008.
	+ Ohio, lasted voted Republican in a Presidential Election for George W. Bush in 2004, flipped by Barack Obama in 2008.
	+ Michigan, lasted voted Republican in a Presidential Election for George H.W. Bush in 1988, flipped by William Clinton in 1992.
	+ Pennsylvania, lasted voted Republican in a Presidential Election for George H.W. Bush in 1988, flipped by William Clinton in 1992.
	+ Wisconsin, lasted voted Republican in a Presidential Election for Ronald Reagan in 1984, flipped by Micheal Dukakis in 1988.
* Longest Streak voting Democratic: Washington D.C. (Since 1964)
* Longest Streak voting Republican: Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska (exc. 2nd) North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming