2016 United States presidential election

This article is about the United States presidential election of 2016. For information about other elections in the United States on the same day, see United States elections, 2016.

United States presidential election, 2016

November 8, 2016
538 members of the Electoral College 270 electoral votes needed to win
Nominee Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Party Republican Democratic Home state New York New York Running mate Mike Pence Tim Kaine Projected electoral vote 306 232 States carried 30 + ME-02 20 + DC Popular vote 61,581,791 62,983,320 Percentage 46.69% 47.75%
Presidential election results map. Red denotes states projected for Trump/Pence; Blue denotes those projected for Clinton/Kaine; Numbers indicate electoral votes allotted to the winner of each state. The electoral college will vote on December 19, 2016.
President before election Barack Obama Democratic President-elect Donald Trump Republican

The United States presidential election of 2016 was the 58th and most recent quadrennial American presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican Party nominee, businessman Donald Trump from New York, and his running mate, Governor Mike Pence of Indiana, defeated the Democratic Party nominee, former Secretary of State and former Senator Hillary Clinton from New York, and her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia.

Voters selected presidential electors, who in turn will vote, based on the results of their jurisdiction, for a new president and vice president through the Electoral College on December 19, 2016. Trump is expected to take office as the 45th President on January 20, 2017; Pence is expected to take office as the 48th Vice President. The 2016 election was the fifth in American history, after the presidential elections of 1824, 1876, 1888, and 2000, where the eventual winner of the election failed to win the popular vote nationwide.

The series of presidential primary elections and caucuses took place between February and June 2016, staggered among the 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. This nominating process was also an indirect election, where voters cast ballots for a slate of delegates to a political party's nominating convention, who in turn elected their party's presidential nominee. Businessman and reality television personality Donald Trump became the Republican Party's presidential nominee on July 19, 2016, after defeating Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, and 15 other major candidates in the Republican primary elections. Former Secretary of State and Senator for New York Hillary Clinton became the Democratic Party's presidential nominee on July 26, 2016, after defeating Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

A total of 29 third party and independent presidential candidates appeared on the ballot in at least one state. Former Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson and physician Jill Stein repeated their 2012 roles as the nominees for the Libertarian Party and Green Party, respectively. With ballot access to the entire electoral college, Johnson acquired 4.1 million votes, the highest nationwide vote share for a third party candidate since Ross Perot in 1996. Stein received 1.3 million votes, the most for a Green nominee since Ralph Nader in 2000, and the most for a fourth place finisher in history, surpassing Henry A. Wallace's 1948 total. Independent Evan McMullin obtained 21% of the total votes in his home state of Utah, the highest statewide vote share for a candidate other than the Democratic or Republican nominees since Ross Perot in 1992.

By early morning November 9, 2016, initial vote counts indicated that Donald Trump was projected to obtain over 270 electoral votes, a majority of the 538 electors in the electoral college required to make him the president-elect of the United States. The victory, considered unlikely by most pre-election forecasts, was characterized by various news organizations as an "upset" and the most "shocking" U.S. presidential election result since 1948. The main states that secured the victory of Trump are situated in the Great Lakes/Rust Belt region. Wisconsin went Republican for the first time since 1984, while Pennsylvania and Michigan went Republican for the first time since 1988. Maine split its electoral votes for the first time since 1828. Despite winning the popular vote by a relatively narrow margin, Hillary Clinton lost the electoral vote by 74.

Both Clinton and Trump caused major divides within their respective parties, with both nominees having record unfavorability ratings (54.4% and 58.5% on average, respectively) due to a number of controversies surrounding both candidates.

Background

Further information: United States presidential election § Procedure

Barack Obama, the incumbent president, whose term expires on January 20, 2017

Article Two of the United States Constitution provides that the President and Vice President of the United States must be natural-born citizens of the United States, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the United States for a period of at least 14 years. Candidates for the presidency typically seek the nomination of one of the political parties of the United States, in which case each party devises a method (such as a primary election) to choose the candidate the party deems best suited to run for the position. Traditionally, the primary elections are indirect elections where voters cast ballots for a slate of party delegates pledged to a particular candidate. The party's delegates then officially nominate a candidate to run on the party's behalf. The general election in November is also an indirect election, where voters cast ballots for a slate of members of the Electoral College; these electors in turn directly elect the President and Vice President.

President Barack Obama, a Democrat and former U.S. Senator from Illinois, was ineligible to seek reelection to a third term due to restrictions of the Twenty-second Amendment; in accordance with Section I of the Twentieth Amendment, his term expires at 12 noon on January 20, 2017.

2008 presidential election

Further information: United States presidential election, 2008

In the 2008 election, Obama was elected president, defeating the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, with 53% of the popular vote and 68% of the electoral vote, succeeding two-term Republican President George W. Bush, the former Governor of Texas. Since the end of 2009, Obama's first year in office, polling companies such as Gallup have found Obama's approval ratings to be between 40–50%.

2010 midterm elections

Further information: United States elections, 2010

In the 2010 midterm elections, the Democratic Party suffered significant losses in Congress; the Republicans gained 63 seats in the House of Representatives – taking back control of the chamber in the process – and six seats in the Senate, though short of achieving a majority. As a result of the Republicans' recapture of the House after losing it to the Democrats in the 2006 midterm elections, John Boehner became the 53rd Speaker of the House of Representatives, making Obama the first President in 16 years to lose the House of Representatives in the first half of his first term, in an election that was characterized by the economy's slow recovery, and the rise of the Tea Party movement.

A general election ballot, listing the presidential and vice presidential candidates

2012 presidential election

Further information: United States presidential election, 2012

In the 2012 presidential election, Obama defeated former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney with 51% of the popular vote and 62% of the electoral vote. Meanwhile, despite minor losses, Republicans retained their majority of seats in the House of Representatives while Democrats increased their majority in the Senate.

Speculation about the 2016 campaign began almost immediately following the 2012 campaign, with New York magazine declaring the race had begun in an article published on November 8, two days after the 2012 election. On the same day, Politico released an article predicting the 2016 general election would be between Clinton and former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush, while a The New York Times article named Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker as potential candidates.

2014 midterm elections

Further information: United States elections, 2014

In the 2014 midterm elections, voter turnout was the lowest since 1942: 36% of eligible voters voted. The Republicans retained control of the House of Representatives, increasing their majority to its largest since March 4, 1929, and gained a majority in the Senate.

Republican Party

Primaries

Main article: Republican Party presidential primaries, 2016

Seventeen major candidates entered the race starting March 23, 2015, when Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was the first to announce his candidacy: former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson of Maryland, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, businesswoman Carly Fiorina of California, former Governor Jim Gilmore of Virginia, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, former Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Governor John Kasich of Ohio, former Governor George Pataki of New York, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, former Governor Rick Perry of Texas, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, businessman Donald Trump of New York and Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin. This was the largest presidential primary field for any political party in American history.

Prior to the Iowa caucuses on February 1, 2016, Perry, Walker, Jindal, Graham and Pataki withdrew due to low polling numbers. Despite leading many polls in Iowa, Trump came in second to Cruz, after which Huckabee, Paul and Santorum withdrew due to poor performances at the ballot box. Following a sizable victory for Trump in the New Hampshire primary, Christie, Fiorina and Gilmore abandoned the race. Bush followed suit after scoring fourth place to Trump, Rubio and Cruz in South Carolina. On March 1, 2016, the first of four "Super Tuesday" primaries, Rubio won his first contest in Minnesota, Cruz won Alaska, Oklahoma and his home of Texas and Trump won the other seven states that voted. Failing to gain traction, Carson suspended his campaign a few days later. On March 15, 2016, the second of four "Super Tuesday" primaries, Kasich won his only contest in his home state of Ohio and Trump won five primaries including Florida. Rubio suspended his campaign after losing his home state, but retained a large share of his delegates for the national convention, which he released to Trump.

Between March 16 and May 3, 2016, only three candidates remained in the race: Trump, Cruz and Kasich. Cruz won most delegates in four Western contests and in Wisconsin, keeping a credible path to denying Trump the nomination on first ballot with 1,237 delegates. Trump then augmented his lead by scoring landslide victories in New York and five Northeastern states in April and he grabbed all 57 delegates in the Indiana primary of May 3, 2016. Without any further chances of forcing a contested convention, both Cruz and Kasich suspended their campaigns. Trump remained the only active candidate and was declared the presumptive Republican nominee by Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus on the evening of May 3, 2016.

Nominees

Republican Party (United States) Republican Party ticket, 2016
Donald Trump	Mike Pence
for President	for Vice President
Chairman of The Trump Organization (1971–present)	50th Governor of Indiana (2013–present)
Campaign

Other major candidates

Main article: Republican Party presidential candidates, 2016

Major candidates were determined by the various media based on common consensus. The following were invited to sanctioned televised debates based on their poll ratings.

Trump received 14,010,177 total votes in the primary. He, Cruz, Rubio and Kasich each won at least one primary.

Candidates in this section are sorted by reverse date of withdrawal from the primaries
John Kasich	Ted Cruz	Marco Rubio	Ben Carson	Jeb Bush	Jim Gilmore	Carly Fiorina	Chris Christie
69th Governor of Ohio (2011–present)	U.S. Senator from Texas (2013–present)	U.S. Senator from Florida (2011–present)	Dir. of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins Hospital (1984–2013)	43rd Governor of Florida (1999–2007)	68th Governor of Virginia (1998–2002)	CEO of Hewlett-Packard (1999–2005)	55th Governor of New Jersey (2010–present)
Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign
W: May 4 4,287,479 votes	W: May 3 7,811,110 votes	W: Mar 15 3,514,124 votes	W: Mar 4 857,009 votes	W: Feb 20 286,634 votes	W: Feb 12 18,364 votes	W: Feb 10 40,577 votes	W: Feb 10 57,634 votes
Rand Paul	Rick Santorum	Mike Huckabee	George Pataki	Lindsey Graham	Bobby Jindal	Scott Walker	Rick Perry
U.S. Senator from Kentucky (2011–present)	U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (1995–2007)	44th Governor of Arkansas (1996–2007)	53rd Governor of New York (1995–2006)	U.S. Senator from South Carolina (2003–present)	55th Governor of Louisiana (2008–2016)	45th Governor of Wisconsin (2011–present)	47th Governor of Texas (2000–2015)
Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign
W: Feb 3 66,781 votes	W: Feb 3 16,622 votes	W: Feb 1 51,436 votes	W: December 29, 2015 2,036 votes	W: December 21, 2015 5,666 votes	W: November 17, 2015 222 votes	W: September 21, 2015 1 write-in vote in New Hampshire	W: September 11, 2015 1 write-in vote in New Hampshire

Vice presidential selection

Main article: Republican Party vice presidential candidate selection, 2016

Donald Trump turned his attention towards selecting a running mate after he became the presumptive nominee on May 4, 2016. In mid-June, Eli Stokols and Burgess Everett of Politico reported that the Trump campaign was considering New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich of Georgia, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, and Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin. A June 30 Washington Post report also included Senators Bob Corker of Tennessee, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Joni Ernst of Iowa, and Indiana Governor Mike Pence as individuals still being considered for the ticket. Trump also stated that he was considering two military generals for the position, including retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn.

In July 2016, it was reported that Trump had narrowed his list of possible running mates down to three: Christie, Gingrich, and Pence.

On July 14, 2016, several major media outlets reported that Trump had selected Pence as his running mate. Trump confirmed these reports in a message on Twitter on July 15, 2016, and formally made the announcement the following day in New York. On July 19, the second night of the 2016 Republican National Convention, Pence won the Republican vice presidential nomination by acclamation.

Democratic Party

Primaries

Main article: Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2016

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also served in the U.S. Senate and was the First Lady of the United States, became the first Democrat to formally launch a major candidacy for the presidency. Clinton made the announcement on April 12, 2015, via a video message. While Nationwide opinion polls in 2015 indicated that Clinton was the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, she faced challenges from Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who became the second major candidate when he formally announced on April 30, 2015, that he was running for the Democratic nomination. September 2015 polling numbers indicated a narrowing gap between Clinton and Sanders. On May 30, 2015, former Governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley was the third major candidate to enter the Democratic primary race. On June 3, 2015, Lincoln Chafee, former Independent Governor and Republican Senator of Rhode Island, became the fourth major candidate to announce his candidacy for the Democratic nomination. On July 2, 2015, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb became the fifth major Democratic candidate to announce his bid for the presidency. On September 6, 2015, former Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig became the sixth and final major Democratic candidate to enter the race.

On October 20, 2015, Webb announced his withdrawal from the Democratic primaries, and explored a potential Independent run. The next day Vice-President Joe Biden decided not to run, ending months of speculation, stating, "While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent." On October 23, Chafee withdrew, stating that he hoped for "an end to the endless wars and the beginning of a new era for the United States and humanity". On November 2, after failing to qualify for the second DNC-sanctioned debate after adoption of a rule change negated polls which before might have necessitated his inclusion in the debate, Lessig withdrew as well, narrowing the field to Clinton, O'Malley, and Sanders.

On February 1, 2016, in an extremely close contest, Clinton won the Iowa caucuses by a margin of 0.2 points over Sanders. After winning no delegates in Iowa, O'Malley withdrew from the presidential race that day. On February 9, Sanders bounced back to win the New Hampshire primary with 60% of the vote. In the remaining two February contests, Clinton won the Nevada caucuses with 53% of the vote and scored a decisive victory in the South Carolina primary with 73% of the vote. On March 1, 11 states participated in the first of four "Super Tuesday" primaries. Clinton won Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia and 504 pledged delegates, while Sanders won Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma and his home state of Vermont and 340 delegates. The following weekend, Sanders won victories in Kansas, Nebraska and Maine with 15–30-point margins, while Clinton won the Louisiana primary with 71% of the vote. On March 8, despite never having a lead in the Michigan primary, Sanders won by a small margin of 1.5 points and outperforming polls by over 19 points, while Clinton won 83% of the vote in Mississippi. On March 15, the second of four "Super Tuesday" primaries, Clinton won in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Between March 22 and April 9, 2016, Sanders won six caucuses in Idaho, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, Washington and Wyoming, as well as the Wisconsin primary, while Clinton won the Arizona primary. On April 19, Clinton won the New York primary with 58% of the vote. On April 26, in the third of four "Super Tuesday" primaries dubbed the "Acela primary", she won contests in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania, while Sanders won in Rhode Island. Over the course of May, Sanders accomplished another surprise win in the Indiana primary and also won in West Virginia and Oregon, while Clinton won the Guam caucus and Kentucky primary.

On June 4 and 5, Clinton won two victories in the Virgin Islands caucus and Puerto Rico primary. On June 6, 2016, the Associated Press and NBC News reported that Clinton had become the presumptive nominee after reaching the required number of delegates, including pledged delegates and superdelegates, to secure the nomination, becoming the first woman to ever clinch the presidential nomination of a major United States political party. On June 7, Clinton secured a majority of pledged delegates after winning primaries in California, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota, while Sanders only won in Montana and North Dakota. Clinton also won the final primary in Washington, D.C. on June 14. At the conclusion of the primary process, Clinton had won 2,204 pledged delegates (54% of the total) awarded by the primary elections and caucuses, while Sanders had won 1,847 (46%). Out of the 714 unpledged delegates or "superdelegates" who were set to vote in the convention in July, Clinton received endorsements from 560 (78%), while Sanders received 47 (7%).

Although Sanders had not formally dropped out of the race, he announced on June 16, 2016, that his main goal in the coming months would be to work with Clinton to defeat Trump in the general election. On July 8, appointees from the Clinton campaign, the Sanders campaign, and the Democratic National Committee negotiated a draft of the party's platform. On July 12, Sanders formally endorsed Clinton at a rally in New Hampshire in which he appeared with Clinton. On July 22, three days before the start of the Democratic National Convention, the Clinton campaign announced that Virginia Senator Tim Kaine had been selected as her running mate. Clinton was the first female presidential candidate nominated by a major political party.

Nominees

Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party ticket, 2016
Hillary Clinton	Tim Kaine
for President	for Vice President
67th U.S. Secretary of State (2009–2013)	U.S. Senator from Virginia (2013–present)
Campaign

Other major candidates

Main article: Democratic Party presidential candidates, 2016

The following candidates were frequently interviewed by major broadcast networks and cable news channels, or were listed in publicly published national polls. Lessig was invited to one forum, but withdrew when rules were changed which prevented him from participating in officially sanctioned debates.

Clinton received 16,849,779 votes in the primary.

Candidates in this section are sorted by date of withdrawal from the primaries
Bernie Sanders	Rocky De La Fuente	Martin O'Malley	Lawrence Lessig	Lincoln Chafee	Jim Webb
U.S. Senator from Vermont (2007–present)	Entrepreneur (1984 to present)	61st Governor of Maryland (2007–2015)	Harvard Law Professor (2009–2016)	74th Governor of Rhode Island (2011–2015)	U.S. Senator from Virginia (2007–2013)
Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign	Campaign
LN: July 26, 2016 13,167,848 primary votes and 1,846 delegates	LN: July 26, 2016 67,457 primary votes and 0 delegates	W: February 1, 2016 110,423 votes	W: November 2, 2015 4 write-in votes in New Hampshire	W: October 23, 2015 0 votes	W: October 20, 2015 2 write-in votes in New Hampshire

Vice presidential selection

Main article: Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection, 2016

In April 2016, the Clinton campaign began to compile a list of 15 to 20 individuals to vet for the position of running mate, even though Sanders continued to challenge Clinton in the Democratic primaries. In mid-June, the The Wall Street Journal reported that Clinton's shortlist included Representative Xavier Becerra of California, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro of Texas, Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti of California, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, Labor Secretary Tom Perez of Maryland, Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio, and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Subsequent reports stated that Clinton was also considering Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, retired Admiral James Stavridis, and Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado. In discussing her potential vice presidential choice, Clinton stated that the most important attribute she looked for was the ability and experience to immediately step into the role of president.

On July 22, Clinton announced that she had chosen Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her running mate. The delegates at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, which took place July 25–28, formally nominated the Democratic ticket.

Major third parties and independents

Parties in this section have obtained more than 100,000 votes nationally and one percent of the vote in at least one state.

Libertarian Party

Further information: Libertarian Party (United States) and Libertarian Party presidential primaries, 2016

Additional Party Endorsements: Independence Party of New York

Ballot access to all 538 electoral votes

Nominees

Libertarian Party ticket, 2016
Gary Johnson	William Weld
for President	for Vice President
29th Governor of New Mexico (1995–2003)	68th Governor of Massachusetts (1991–1997)
Campaign

Green Party

Further information: Green Party of the United States and Green Party presidential primaries, 2016

Ballot access to 480 electoral votes (522 with write-in): - map

• As write-in: Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina
• Ballot access lawsuit pending: Oklahoma
• No ballot access: Nevada, South Dakota

Nominees

Green Party ticket, 2016
Jill Stein	Ajamu Baraka
for President	for Vice President
Physician from Lexington, Massachusetts	Activist from Washington, D.C.
Campaign

Evan McMullin

Additional Party Endorsement: Independence Party of Minnesota

Ballot access to 84 electoral votes (451 with write-in): - map

• As write-in: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin
• No ballot access: District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wyoming

In some states, Evan McMullin's running mate was listed as Nathan Johnson on the ballot rather than Mindy Finn, although Nathan Johnson was intended to only be a placeholder until an actual running mate was chosen.

Independent ticket, 2016
Evan McMullin	Mindy Finn
for President	for Vice President
Chief policy director for the House Republican Conference (2015–2016)	President of Empowered Women (2015–present)
Campaign

Constitution Party

Further information: Constitution Party of the United States

Ballot access to 207 electoral votes (451 with write-in): - map

• As write-in: Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia
• No ballot access: California, District of Columbia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma

Nominees

Constitution Party ticket, 2016
Darrell Castle	Scott Bradley
for President	for Vice President
Attorney from Memphis, Tennessee	Businessman from Utah
Campaign

Ballot access

Presidential ticket	Party	Ballot access			Votes	Percentage
		States	Electors	% of voters
Trump / Pence	Republican	50 + DC	538	100%	61,533,356	46.71%
Clinton / Kaine	Democratic	50 + DC	538	100%	62,896,177%	47.74%
Johnson / Weld	Libertarian	50 + DC	538	100%	4,313,631	3.27%
Stein / Baraka	Green	44 + DC	480	89%	1,327,537	1.01%
McMullin / Finn	Independent	11	84	15%	517,880	0.39%
Castle / Bradley	Constitution	24	207	39%	188,255	0.14%

Candidates in bold were on ballots representing 270 electoral votes, without needing write-in states.

All other candidates were on the ballots of fewer than 25 states, but had write-in access greater than 270.

Other third parties and independents

Main article: United States third-party and independent presidential candidates, 2016

Party	Presidential nominee	Vice presidential nominee	Attainable Electors (write-in)	Popular Vote	States with ballot access (write-in)
American Delta Party Reform Party	Rocky De La Fuente Businessman from California	Michael Steinberg Lawyer from Florida	147 (305) map	32,408 (0.02%)	Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, Wyoming (Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia)
Party for Socialism and Liberation Peace and Freedom Liberty Union Party	Gloria La Riva Newspaper printer and activist from California	Eugene Puryear Activist from Washington, D.C.	112 (226) map	50,672 (0.04%)	California, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont, Washington (Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia)
Socialist Workers Party	Alyson Kennedy Mineworker and Labor Leader from Illinois	Osborne Hart of Pennsylvania	70 (123) map	11,667 (0.01%)	Colorado, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, Tennessee, Utah, Washington (Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)
Workers World Party	Monica Moorehead perennial candidate and political activist from Alabama	Lamont Lilly of North Carolina	30 (235) map	4,003 (0.00%)	New Jersey, Utah, Wisconsin (Alabama, Indiana, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, New, York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia)
Socialist Party USA Natural Law Party	Mimi Soltysik former National Co-Chair of the Socialist Party USA from California Campaign	Angela Nicole Walker of Wisconsin	25 (209) map	2,579 (0.00%)	Colorado, Michigan, Guam (Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin)
Prohibition Party	James Hedges former Tax Assessor for Thompson Township, Fulton County, Pennsylvania	Bill Bayes of Mississippi	21 (116) map	5,550 (0.00%)	Arkansas, Colorado, Mississippi (Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia)
Independent	Mike Smith Lawyer, Colorado	Daniel White	20 (222)	9,049 (0.01%)	Colorado, Tennessee (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington. West Virginia)
Independent	Richard Duncan of Ohio	Ricky Johnson	18 (173)	23,778 (0.02%)	Ohio (Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia)
Independent	Laurence Kotlikoff Economics Professor at Boston University, Massachusetts	Edward E. Leamer Economics Professor at UCLA, California	17 (428) map	2,371 (0.00%)	Colorado, Louisiana (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin)
America's Party	Tom Hoefling activist from Iowa	Steve Schulin of South Carolina	17 (369) map	3,203 (0.00%)	Colorado, Louisiana (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin)
Veterans Party of America	Chris Keniston reliability engineer from Texas	Deacon Taylor of Nevada	17 (196) map	6,826 (0.01%)	Colorado, Louisiana (Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin)
Legal Marijuana Now Party	Dan Vacek of Minnesota	Mark Elworth Jr. of Nebraska	16 (77)	13,530 (0.01%)	Iowa, Minnesota (Alabama, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)
Independent	Lynn Kahn Doctor of Clinical Psychology from Maryland	Kathleen Monahan of Florida	12 (160)	5,614 (0.00%)	Arkansas, Iowa (Alabama, Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia)
American Solidarity Party	Mike Maturen sales professional and magician from Michigan	Juan Muñoz of Texas	9 (332) map	2,136 (0.00%)	Colorado (Alabama, Alaska, California, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin)
Independent	Joseph Allen Maldonado of Oklahoma	Douglas K. Terranova	9 (212)	868 (0.00%)	Colorado (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin)
Independent	Ryan Alan Scott	Bruce Kendall Barnard	9 (108)	741 (0.00%)	Colorado (Alabama, Delaware, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)
American Party (South Carolina)	Peter Skewes Animal Science Professor at Clemson University, South Carolina	Michael Lacy	9 (83)	3,246 (0.00%)	South Carolina (Alabama, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)
Approval Voting Party	Frank Atwood of Colorado	Blake Huber of Colorado	9 (76)	334 (0.00%)	Colorado (Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)
Independent American Party	Kyle Kenley Kopitke of Michigan	Narthan R. Sorenson	9 (76)	1,073 (0.00%)	Colorado (Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)
Nutrition Party	Rod Silva restaurateur from New Jersey	Richard Silva	9 (76)	727 (0.00%)	Colorado (Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)
United States Pacifist Party	Bradford Lyttle peace activist from Illinois	Hannah Walsh	9 (76)	372 (0.00%)	Colorado (Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)
Socialist Equality Party	Jerry White peace activist from Michigan	Niles Niemuth journalist from Wisconsin	8 (166)	369 (0.00%)	Louisiana (Alabama, California, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia)
Independent	Princess Khadijah Jacob-Fambro of California	Milton Fambro of California	8 (75)	748 (0.00%)	Louisiana (Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)
Independent American Party	Rocky Giordani from California	Farley Anderson activist from Utah	6 (79)	2,177 (0.00%)	Utah (Alabama, Iowa, Kansas, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)
Constitution Party of Idaho	Scott Copeland of Texas	J.R. Meyers	4 (71)	2,368 (0.00%)	Idaho (Alabama, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont)

Swing states

Further information: Swing state

Presidential campaigns focus their resources on a relatively small number of competitive states, referred to as swing or battleground states. Some potential swing states are: Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina, and Ohio. Florida is the largest swing state and has been won by the overall winner every election since 1996. Ohio is another large swing state and has had a perfect bellwether record since 1964. The states regarded as competitive can fluctuate, as the polls fluctuate.

Some consensus among political pundits developed throughout the primary election season regarding swing states. From the results of presidential elections from 2004 through to 2012, generally the Democratic and Republican parties start with a safe electoral vote count of about 150 to 200. The margins required to constitute a swing state are vague, however, and local factors can come into play. It was thought that left-leaning states in the Rust Belt could become more conservative, as Trump mostly appealed to blue-collar workers. They represent a large portion of the American populace and were a major factor in Trump's eventual nomination. Trump's primary campaign was propelled by victories in Democratic states, and his supporters often did not identify as Republican.

In Maine and Nebraska, two electors are given to whoever has the most overall votes, and the winner of each congressional district receives one electoral vote. Every other state awards all of its electoral votes to the candidate with the highest vote percentage. Media reports indicated that both candidates planned to concentrate on Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio and North Carolina.

Among the Republican-leaning states, potential Democratic targets included Nebraska's second congressional district, Georgia, and Arizona. Trump's relatively poor polling in some traditionally Republican states, such as Utah, raised the possibility they could vote for Clinton, despite easy wins there by recent Republican nominees. Many analysts asserted that Utah is not a viable Democratic destination.

Sites and individuals publish electoral predictions. These generally rate the race by the probability either of the two main parties wins each state. "Tossup" is generally used to indicate that neither party has an advantage, "lean" to indicate a party has a slight edge, "likely" to indicate a party has a clear advantage, and "safe" to indicate a party is heavily favored. Ratings from the Cook Political Report, Sabato's Crystal Ball, or the Rothenberg-Gonzales Political Report are included in the table below. The state's 2014 Cook PVI and the latest swing for each state are also listed.

State	Electoral votes	2012 margin	Cook PVI	Cook Nov. 7 2016	RCP Nov. 6 2016	Roth. Nov. 7 2016	Sabato Nov. 7 2016	Last swing	2016 margin
Arizona	11	9.1 R	R+7	Lean R	Tossup	Tilt R	Lean R	2000	3.8 R
Colorado	9	5.4 D	D+1	Lean D	Tossup	Likely D	Likely D	2008	2.1 D
Florida	29	0.9 D	R+2	Tossup	Tossup	Tilt D	Lean D	2008	1.3 R
Georgia	16	7.8 R	R+6	Lean R	Tossup	Lean R	Likely R	1996	5.7 R
Iowa	6	5.8 D	D+1	Lean R	Tossup	Tilt R	Lean R	2008	9.6 R
Maine (statewide)	2	15.3 D	D+6	Likely D	Tossup	Likely D	Likely D	1988	2.7 D
Maine (CD-2)	1	8.6 D	D+2	Tossup	Tossup	No rating	Lean R	1992	TBD
Michigan	16	9.5 D	D+4	Lean D	Tossup	Lean D	Lean D	1992	0.3 R
Minnesota	10	7.7 D	D+2	Likely D	Lean D	Likely D	Likely D	1972	1.4 D
Nebraska (CD-2)	1	7.2 R	R+4	Tossup	Likely R	No rating	Lean R	2012	TBD
New Mexico	5	10.2 D	D+4	Likely D	Tossup	Safe D	Likely D	2004	8.3 D
Nevada	6	6.7 D	D+2	Lean D	Tossup	Tilt D	Lean D	2008	2.4 D
New Hampshire	4	5.6 D	D+1	Lean D	Tossup	Lean D	Lean D	2004	0.2 D
North Carolina	15	2.0 R	R+3	Tossup	Tossup	Tilt D	Lean D	2012	3.8 R
Ohio	18	3.0 D	R+1	Lean R	Tossup	Tossup	Lean R	2008	8.6 R
Pennsylvania	20	5.4 D	D+1	Lean D	Tossup	Lean D	Lean D	1992	1.2 R
Virginia	13	3.9 D	EVEN	Likely D	Tossup	Likely D	Likely D	2004	4.9 D
Wisconsin	10	6.9 D	D+2	Lean D	Lean D	Tilt D	Likely D	1988	1.0 R

Party conventions

Philadelphia

Cleveland

Orlando

Houston

Salt Lake City

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  Democratic Party

  Republican Party

  Libertarian Party

  Green Party

  Constitution Party

Democratic Party

Main article: 2016 Democratic National Convention

• July 25–28, 2016: Democratic National Convention was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Republican Party

Main article: 2016 Republican National Convention

• July 18–21, 2016: Republican National Convention was held in Cleveland, Ohio.

Libertarian Party

Main article: 2016 Libertarian National Convention

• May 26–30, 2016: Libertarian National Convention was held in Orlando, Florida.

Green Party

Main article: 2016 Green National Convention

• August 4–7, 2016: Green National Convention was held in Houston, Texas.

Constitution Party

Main article: 2016 Constitution Party National Convention

• April 13–16, 2016: Constitution Party National Convention was held in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Campaign finance

This is an overview of the money used in the campaign as it is reported to Federal Election Commission (FEC) and released in September 2016. Outside groups are independent expenditure only committees—also called PACs and SuperPACs. The sources of the numbers are the FEC and Center for Responsive Politics. Some spending totals are not available, due to withdrawals before the FEC deadline. As of September 2016, ten candidates with ballot access have filed financial reports with the FEC.

Candidate	Campaign committee (as of September 30)				Outside groups (as of October 16)			Total spent
	Money raised	Money spent	Cash on hand	Debt	Money raised	Money spent	Cash on hand
Hillary Clinton	$460,168,401	$400,504,099	$59,664,302	$626,094	$171,240,103	$148,604,471	$22,635,633	$534,352,332
Donald Trump	$224,449,710	$189,673,422	$34,776,287	$0	$214,496,514	$183,418,431	$31,078,083	$367,405,384
Gary Johnson	$10,573,731	$9,463,272	$1,217,539	$1,538,118	$1,378,510	$917,521	$460,988	$10,349,663
Rocky De La Fuente	$7,351,270	$7,354,663	-$3,392	$7,334,250	$0	$0	$0	$7,354,663
Jill Stein	$3,218,525	$3,144,843	$73,681	$87,740	$0	$0	$0	$3,144,843
Evan McMullin	$501,093	$496,776	$4,316	$0	$0	$0	$0	$496,776
Darrell Castle	$52,234	$51,365	$869	$2,500	$0	$0	$0	$51,365
Gloria La Riva	$29,243	$24,207	$5,034	$0	$0	$0	$0	$24,207
Monica Moorehead	$11,547	$9,127	$2,419	$4,500	$0	$0	$0	$9,127
Peter Skewes	$7,966	$4,238	$7,454	$8,000	$0	$0	$0	$4,238

Debates

Primary election debates

Main articles: Democratic Party presidential debates and forums, 2016; Republican Party presidential debates and forums, 2016; Libertarian Party presidential debates and forums, 2016; and Green Party presidential debates and forums, 2016

General election debates

Main article: United States presidential election debates, 2016

Hofstra University
Hempstead, NY

Longwood University
Farmville, VA

Washington University
St. Louis, MO

University of Nevada
Las Vegas

University of Colorado Boulder

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Sites of the 2016 general election debates

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a non-profit organization, hosted debates between qualifying presidential and vice-presidential candidates. According to the commission's website, to be eligible to opt to participate in the anticipated debates, "... in addition to being Constitutionally eligible, candidates must appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to have a mathematical chance of winning a majority vote in the Electoral College, and have a level of support of at least 15 percent of the national electorate as determined by five selected national public opinion polling organizations, using the average of those organizations' most recently publicly-reported results at the time of the determination."

The three locations chosen to host the presidential debates, and the one location selected to host the vice presidential debate, were announced on September 23, 2015. The site of the first debate was originally designated as Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio; however, due to rising costs and security concerns, the debate was moved to Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

On August 19, Trump's campaign manager confirmed that he would participate in a series of three debates. Trump had complained that two of the scheduled debates, one on September 26 and the other October 9, will have to compete for viewers with National Football League games, referencing the similar complaints made regarding the dates with low expected ratings during the Democratic Party presidential debates. According to a survey by Rasmussen Reports, the majority of American voters believe that the debate moderators at the presidential debates will be helping Hillary Clinton.

The Free & Equal Elections Foundation announced plans to host an open debate among all presidential candidates who had ballot access sufficient to represent a majority of electoral votes. In October 2016 Free and Equal extended the invitation to all candidates with ballot lines representing at least 15% of the electoral vote. The nominees of the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, Constitution, Reform, and Socialism and Liberation parties, as well as independent candidate Evan McMullin, were invited to participate. The debate was held at the University of Colorado Boulder's Macky Auditorium on October 25, 2016. It was moderated by Ed Asner and Christina Tobin, with Darrell Castle, Rocky De La Fuente, and Gloria La Riva participating.

PBS hosted a debate moderated by Tavis Smiley between Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

Debates among candidates for the 2016 U.S. presidential election

No.	Date	Time	Host	City	Moderator(s)	Participants
P1	September 26, 2016	9 p.m. EDT	Hofstra University	Hempstead, New York	Lester Holt	Hillary Clinton Donald Trump
VP	October 4, 2016	9 p.m. EDT	Longwood University	Farmville, Virginia	Elaine Quijano	Tim Kaine Mike Pence
P2	October 9, 2016	8 p.m. CDT	Washington University in St. Louis	St. Louis, Missouri	Anderson Cooper Martha Raddatz	Hillary Clinton Donald Trump
P3	October 19, 2016	6 p.m. PDT	University of Nevada, Las Vegas	Las Vegas, Nevada	Chris Wallace	Hillary Clinton Donald Trump
P4	October 25, 2016	7 p.m. MDT	University of Colorado Boulder	Boulder, Colorado	Ed Asner Christina Tobin	Darrell Castle Rocky De La Fuente Gloria La Riva
= Sponsored by the CPD;        = Sponsored by Free & Equal

Newspaper endorsements

Main article: Newspaper endorsements in the United States presidential election, 2016

Clinton was endorsed by The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Chicago Sun-Times and the New York Daily News editorial boards. Trump, who has frequently criticized the mainstream media, was not endorsed by a major newspaper, with the Las Vegas Review-Journal his highest profile supporter. Several papers which endorsed Clinton, such as the Houston Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, The San Diego Union-Tribune The Columbus Dispatch and the The Arizona Republic, endorsed their first Democratic candidate for many decades. USA Today, which had not endorsed any candidate since it was founded 34 years ago, broke tradition by giving an anti-endorsement against Trump, declaring him "unfit for the presidency". The Atlantic, which has been in circulation since 1857, gave Clinton its third-ever endorsement (after Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson).

Other traditionally-Republican papers, including The New Hampshire Union Leader, which had endorsed the Republican in every election for the last 100 years, the Detroit News, which had not endorsed a non-Republican in its 143 years, and the Chicago Tribune, endorsed Gary Johnson. Trump received favorable coverage, but no explicit endorsement, from Breitbart, an alt-right news and opinion website.

Forecasting

Further information: Nationwide opinion polling for the United States presidential election, 2016 and Statewide opinion polling for the United States presidential election, 2016

There were many ways to try to predict the outcome of the 2016 (or any other) election. Since the advent of scientific polling in 1936, opinion polls have been a nearly universally accepted method to predict the outcome of elections throughout the world. More recently, prediction markets have been formed, starting in 1988 with Iowa Electronic Markets.

Academic scholars have constructed models of voting behavior to forecast the outcomes of elections. An early successful model which is still being used is The Keys to the White House by Allan Lichtman. PollyVote takes a simple average of six types of inputs: Prediction markets, index models, expert judgment, citizen forecasts, poll aggregators and econometric models.

For the 2016 election, there were many competing election forecast approaches including Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight, The Upshot at The New York Times, Daily Kos, Princeton Election Consortium, Cook Political Report, Rothenberg and Gonzales, PollyVote, Sabato and Electoral-Vote.

These models mostly showed a Democratic advantage since the nominees were confirmed. Pollsters were puzzled by the failure of mainstream forecasting models to predict the 2016 election outcome. Further confusion was attributed to The New York Times' live presidential election forecast website for misleading graphing after analyst Alp Toker identified the use of pseudorandom jitter to give the impression of live fluctuations in its outcome predictions.

Maps

• 
  Results by state, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote
• 
  Results by Vote Distribution Among States. Each state's pie chart is proportional to the number of electoral votes they have.
• 
  Results by county. Red denotes counties that went to Trump; blue denotes counties that went to Clinton.
• 
  Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote.
• 
  Results by congressional district
• 
  Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for Trump
• 
  Results by county, shaded according to percentage of the vote for Clinton
• 
  Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote (Red-Purple-Blue view)
• 
  County swing from 2012 to 2016
• 
  County swing from 2012 to 2016, relative to national swing
• 
  Electoral vote cartogram

Results

File:Donald Trump's Victory Speech.webm

Trump's victory speech, November 9, 2016

The election was held on November 8, 2016. Hillary Clinton cast her vote in the New York City suburb of Chappaqua, while Donald Trump voted in a Manhattan public school. Throughout the day, the election process went more smoothly than many had expected, with only a few reports of long lines and equipment issues.

Early exit polls favored the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. However, as polls closed and the results came in throughout the night, those exit polls and forecasts proved inaccurate as the Republican candidate performed surprisingly well in all battleground states, especially Florida, Ohio and North Carolina. Even Wisconsin and Michigan, states that were predicted to swing blue, were won by Donald Trump.

On November 9, 2016, at 3:00 AM Eastern time, Donald Trump secured over 270 electoral votes, the majority of the 538 electors in the electoral college, enough to make him the president-elect of the United States. Clinton called Trump early on Wednesday morning, conceding defeat. Clinton asked her supporters to accept the result and hoped that Trump would be “a successful president for all Americans”. In his victory speech Trump appealed for unity saying “it is time for us to come together as one united people" and praised Clinton who was owed “a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country”.

Six states plus a portion of Maine that Obama won in 2012 switched to Trump. These are (with electoral college votes in parentheses): Florida (29), Pennsylvania (20), Ohio (18), Michigan (16), Wisconsin (10), Iowa (6), and Maine's second congressional district (1). Trump won exactly 100 more electoral college votes than Mitt Romney in 2012. Forty one states swung more Republican compared to the previous Presidential election, while nine states and the District of Columbia swung more Democratic.

It is estimated that 134.5 million Americans cast a ballot in 2016. Considering a voting age population of 251.1 million people and voting eligible population of 231.5 million people, this a turnout rate of 53.6% and 58.1% respectively.

Popular vote count is preliminary until all states have certified their results.

Electoral results

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote		Electoral vote	Running mate
			Count	Percentage		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Electoral vote
Donald Trump	Republican	New York	61,578,949	46.69%	306	Mike Pence	Indiana	306
Hillary Clinton	Democratic	New York	62,981,308	47.75%	232	Tim Kaine	Virginia	232
Gary Johnson	Libertarian	New Mexico	4,320,306	3.28%	0	William Weld	Massachusetts	0
Jill Stein	Green	Massachusetts	1,333,983	1.01%	0	Ajamu Baraka	Illinois	0
Evan McMullin	Independent	Utah	517,912	0.39%	0	Mindy Finn	District of Columbia	0
Darrell Castle	Constitution	Tennessee	188,845	0.14%	0	Scott Bradley	Utah	0
Other			970,046	0.76%	—	Other		—
Total			131,891,349	100%	538			538
Needed to win					270			270

Popular vote Clinton   47.75% Trump   46.69% Johnson   3.28% Stein   1.01% McMullin   0.39% Others   0.76%

Electoral vote Trump   56.88% Clinton   43.12%

Note: Popular vote count is preliminary until all states have certified their results.

So far, Trump has received more votes than any Republican except George W. Bush in 2004, and Clinton more votes than any Democrat except Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. Electoral vote figures are only projected, with the electoral college voting on December 19, 2016.

The Trump victory, considered unlikely by most pre-election forecasts, was characterized as an 'upset' and as 'shocking' by the media. This might be due to mainstream media's tendency to favor Clinton according to a poll by Media research Center and YouGov showing 59% of respondents felt news outlets favored Clinton over Trump while only 3% said media's bias would influence their vote.

Both major-party candidates were unusually old. At 70 years of age, Trump became the oldest person ever to be elected to a first term as president, surpassing Ronald Reagan, who was 69 years of age upon winning the 1980 election. Hillary Clinton would have been the second oldest after Ronald Reagan.

Along with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Trump was born in 1946; this is the first time a single birth year has produced three presidents. (1946 was a year of unusually numerous births, marking the first year of the post–World War II baby boom.) Trump will become the fifth president to be born in the state of New York, after Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt; he will be the second president born in New York City after Theodore Roosevelt.

Trump will also become the fourth president, after James K. Polk in 1844, Woodrow Wilson in 1916 and Richard Nixon in 1968, to win an election despite losing his home state.

Trump became the first person since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 to be elected president without having been elected to any other previous office, and the only individual to be elected president without any prior political or military experience. The 27th president, William Howard Taft, had no military experience and had been elected to political office only once, as an Ohio state judge. He then held appointed federal government offices as Collector of Internal Revenue for Ohio's First District, Solicitor General of the United States, a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, chair of the Second Philippine Commission, civilian governor of the Philippines, and Secretary of War under President Theodore Roosevelt. The 31st president, Herbert Hoover, also did not have military experience and had never held elected office. However, he had federal government service as head of the U.S. Food Administration during World War I and director of its successor after the War, the American Relief Administration. He also served in the Cabinets of Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge as U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

Results by state

States won by Clinton/Kaine

States won by Trump/Pence

Electoral methods

• WTA – Winner-takes-all
• CD – Congressional district^★

		Hillary Clinton Democratic			Donald Trump Republican			Gary Johnson Libertarian			Jill Stein Green			Evan McMullin Independent
State or district	Electoral method	#	%	Electoral votes	#	%	Electoral votes	#	%	Electoral votes	#	%	Electoral votes	#	%	Electoral votes	#
Alabama	WTA	718,084	34.55%	–	1,306,925	62.89%	9	44,211	2.09%	–	9,341	0.44%	–				AL
Alaska	WTA	93,007	37.72%	–	130,415	52.89%	3	15,396	5.92%	–	4,699	1.80%	–				AK
Arizona	WTA	1,123,979	45.34%	–	1,219,596	49.20%	11	104,688	4.15%	–	32,850	1.33%	–				AZ
Arkansas	WTA	378,632	33.65%	–	681,765	60.59%	6	29,662	2.63%	–	9,413	0.84%	–	13,187	1.17%	–	AR
California	WTA	6,191,799	61.78%	55	3,287,273	32.80%	–	370,518	3.32%	–	191,754	1.78%	–				CA
Colorado	WTA	1,126,384	46.91%	9	1,075,770	44.80%	–	142,171	5.17%	–	37,628	1.37%	–	28,602	1.04%	–	CO
Connecticut	WTA	823,360	53.86%	7	637,919	41.73%	–	48,691	3.01%	–	22,810	1.41%	–	1,481	0.10%	–	CT
Delaware	WTA	235,581	53.35%	3	185,103	41.92%	–	14,751	3.35%	–	6,100	1.38%	–				DE
District of ColumbiaWashington, D.C.	WTA	260,223	90.54%	3	11,553	4.02%	–	4,906	1.58%	–	4,258	1.39%	–				DC
Florida	WTA	4,487,657	47.79%	–	4,607,146	49.06%	29	206,799	2.20%	–	64,309	0.68%	–				FL
Georgia	WTA	1,856,509	45.74%	–	2,078,064	51.20%	16	125,293	3.06%	–			–				GA
Hawaii	WTA	266,827	60.98%	4	128,815	29.44%	–	15,949	3.70%	–	12,727	2.91%	–				HI
Idaho	WTA	190,971	27.46%	–	412,525	59.32%	4	28,369	4.10%	–	8,524	1.23%	–	46,702	6.72%	–	ID
Illinois	WTA	2,982,415	55.41%	20	2,121,573	39.41%	–	206,351	3.75%	–	74,994	1.36%	–				IL
Indiana	WTA	1,024,180	37.87%	–	1,544,609	57.12%	11	134,124	4.91%	–	1,829	0.07%	–				IN
Iowa	WTA	650,780	41.71%	–	798,923	51.21%	6	59,106	3.78%	–	11,459	0.73%	–	12,331	0.79%	–	IA
Kansas	WTA	414,572	36.13%	–	656,470	57.22%	6	53,648	4.70%	–	22,717	1.98%	–				KS
Kentucky	WTA	628,834	32.69%	–	1,202,942	62.54%	8	53,749	2.79%	–	13,913	0.72%	–	22,780	1.18%	–	KY
Louisiana	WTA	779,535	38.44%	–	1,178,004	58.09%	8	37,962	1.87%	–	14,020	0.69%	–	8,546	0.42%	–	LA
Maine (at-large)	CD	352,156	47.84%	2	332,418	45.16%	–	37,764	5.10%	–	13,995	1.90%	–				ME–a/l
Maine, 1st	CD	210,921	53.95%	1	154,173	39.43%	–	18,429	4.71%	–	7,446	1.90%	–				ME-1
Maine, 2nd	CD	143,952	41.06%	–	180,665	51.53%	1	19,335	5.52%	–	6,629	1.89%	–				ME-2
Maryland	WTA	1,502,820	59.50%	10	878,615	34.79%	–	76,017	2.85%	–	33,380	1.27%	–				MD
Massachusetts	WTA	1,967,667	60.81%	11	1,084,400	33.52%	–	136,784	4.22%	–	46,931	1.45%	–				MA
Michigan	WTA	2,264,807	47.33%	–	2,277,914	47.60%	16	173,021	3.61%	–	51,434	1.07%	–				MI
Minnesota	WTA	1,364,067	46.41%	10	1,321,120	44.95%	–	112,984	3.90%	–	36,991	1.26%	–	53,084	1.80%	–	MN
Mississippi	WTA	462,127	39.74%	–	678,284	58.32%	6	13,817	1.19%	–	3,595	0.31%	–				MS
Missouri	WTA	1,054,889	37.84%	–	1,585,753	56.88%	10	96,404	3.46%	–	25,086	0.90%	–	1,372	0.05%	–	MO
Montana	WTA	174,281	35.97%	–	273,879	56.52%	3	28,036	5.67%	–	7,868	1.60%	–				MT
Nebraska (at-large)	CD	273,185	33.96%	–	485,372	60.33%	2	37,577	4.67%	–	8,337	1.04%	–				NE–a/l
Nebraska, 1st	CD	98,694	36.11%	–	157,571	57.65%	1	13,791	5.05%	–	3,271	1.20%	–				NE-1
Nebraska, 2nd	CD	122,253	45.44%	–	131,338	48.82%	1	12,379	4.60%	–	3,056	1.14%	–				NE-2
Nebraska, 3rd	CD	52,562	19.95%	–	197,411	74.94%	1	11,447	4.35%	–	2,013	0.76%	–				NE-3
Nevada	WTA	537,753	47.89%	6	511,319	45.53%	–	37,299	3.32%	–			–				NV
New Hampshire	WTA	348,497	47.62%	4	345,810	47.25%	–	30,599	4.2%	–	6,395	0.87%	–				NH
New Jersey	WTA	1,967,444	54.77%	14	1,509,688	42.03%	–	71,439	1.86%	–	37,131	0.98%	–				NJ
New Mexico	WTA	380,923	48.26%	5	316,134	40.05%	–	74,031	9.34%	–	9,797	1.24%	–	5,722	0.72%	–	NM
New York	WTA	4,145,376	57.89%	29	2,638,135	36.84%	–	162,273	2.28%	–	100,110	1.41%	–				NY
North Carolina	WTA	2,162,822	46.13%	–	2,339,830	49.90%	15	127,794	2.8%	–	1,038	0.02%	–				NC
North Dakota	WTA	93,526	27.24%	–	216,133	62.95%	3	21,351	6.22%	–	3,779	1.10%	–				ND
Ohio	WTA	2,320,596	43.51%	–	2,776,683	52.06%	18	168,599	3.16%	–	44,310	0.82%	–				OH
Oklahoma	WTA	419,788	28.93%	–	947,934	65.33%	7	83,481	5.75%	–			–				OK
Oregon	WTA	949,319	49.89%	7	751,438	39.49%	–	92,680	4.80%	–	48,363	2.48%	–				OR
Pennsylvania	WTA	2,817,409	47.60%	–	2,890,633	48.84%	20	143,116	2.37%	–	49,040	0.81%	–				PA
Rhode Island	WTA	227,062	53.83%	4	166,454	39.46%	–	14,685	3.21%	–	6,171	1.37%	–				RI
South Carolina	WTA	850,629	40.71%	–	1,147,045	54.90%	9	49,204	2.34%	–	13,034	0.62%	–	21,016	1.00%	–	SC
South Dakota	WTA	117,442	31.74%	–	227,701	61.53%	3	20,845	5.63%	–			–				SD
Tennessee	WTA	868,853	34.90%	–	1,519,926	61.06%	11	70,286	2.82%	–	15,952	0.64%	–				TN
Texas	WTA	3,867,816	43.32%	–	4,681,590	52.43%	38	282,655	3.16%	–	71,327	0.80%	–	20,227	0.23%	–	TX
Utah	WTA	222,858	27.81%	–	375,006	46.80%	6	33,150	3.36%	–	7,695	0.78%	–	207,288	21.05%	–	UT
Vermont	WTA	178,082	61.12%	3	95,114	32.64%	–	10,077	3.44%	–	6,755	2.31%	–				VT
Virginia	WTA	1,916,148	49.49%	13	1,729,932	44.68%	–	118,272	2.97%	–	27,638	0.69%	–	52,860	1.37%	–	VA
Washington	WTA	1,210,824	55.57%	12	831,631	38.17%	–	153,236	4.80%	–	66,802	1.69%	–				WA
West Virginia	WTA	187,519	26.47%	–	486,304	68.65%	5	22,798	3.22%	–	8,016	1.13%	–				WV
Wisconsin	WTA	1,383,926	46.94%	–	1,411,432	47.87%	10	106,470	3.58%	–	31,016	1.04%	–				WI
Wyoming	WTA	55,964	21.63%	–	174,383	67.40%	3	13,287	5.3%	–	2,482	0.96%	–				WY
U.S. Total	–	62,562,377		232	61,332,151		306	4,316,584		–	1,328,710		–	514,926		–	US

^★Two states (Maine and Nebraska) allow for their electoral votes to be split between candidates. The winner within each congressional district gets one electoral vote for the district. The winner of the statewide vote gets two additional electoral votes. Results are from the Associated Press.

Close races

Red denotes states (or congressional districts that contribute an electoral vote) won by Republican Donald Trump; blue denotes those won by Democrat Hillary Clinton.

States where the margin of victory was under 1% (30 electoral votes; 26 won by Trump, 4 by Clinton):

1. Michigan, 0.27%
2. New Hampshire, 0.37%
3. Wisconsin, 0.81%

States where the margin of victory was between 1% and 5% (117 electoral votes; 76 won by Trump, 41 by Clinton):

1. Pennsylvania, 1.09%
2. Florida, 1.21%
3. Minnesota, 1.46%
4. Colorado, 2.62%
5. Maine, 2.68%
6. Nevada, 2.73%
7. Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, 3.38%
8. North Carolina, 3.77%
9. Arizona, 3.82%
10. Virginia, 4.81%

States/districts where the margin of victory was between 5% and 10% (83 electoral votes; 78 won by Trump, 5 by Clinton):

1. Georgia, 5.46%
2. New Mexico, 8.21%
3. Ohio, 8.55%
4. Texas, 9.11%
5. Iowa, 9.50%

Reactions

News report about the protests in Los Angeles on November 12th from Voice of America

Further information: International reactions to the United States presidential election, 2016 and Protests against Donald Trump § Post-election protests

Protests were held in many cities across the nation for several days after the election. Furthermore, suicide crisis hotlines reported a major increase in calls. Intense lobbying (some amounting to harassment) has been directed at various GOP electors of the United States Electoral College.

Voter demographics

Voter demographic data for 2016 were collected by Edison Research for the National Election Pool, a consortium of ABC News, The Associated Press, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News. The voter survey is based on questionnaires completed by 24,537 voters leaving 350 voting places throughout the United States on Election Day including 4,398 telephone interviews with early and absentee voters.

2016 Presidential vote by demographic subgroup
Demographic subgroup	Clinton	Trump	Other	% of total vote
Total vote	47.7	47.5	4.8	100
Ideology
Liberals	84	10	6	26
Moderates	52	41	7	39
Conservatives	15	81	4	35
Party
Democrats	89	9	2	37
Republicans	7	90	3	33
Independents	42	48	10	31
Party by gender
Democratic men	87	10	3	14
Democratic women	90	8	2	23
Republican men	6	90	2	17
Republican women	8	89	2	16
Independent men	37	51	10	17
Independent women	47	43	7	14
Gender
Men	41	53	6	48
Women	54	42	4	52
Gender by marital status
Married men	37	58	5	29
Married women	49	47	4	30
Non-married men	46	45	9	19
Non-married women	62	33	5	23
Race/ethnicity
White	37	58	5	70
Black	88	8	4	12
Asian	65	29	6	4
Other	56	37	7	3
Hispanic (of any race)	65	29	6	11
Gender by race/ethnicity
White men	31	63	5	34
White women	43	53	3	37
Black men	80	13	6	5
Black women	94	4	2	7
Latino men (of any race)	62	33	4	5
Latino women (of any race)	68	26	5	6
All other races	61	32	5	6
Religion
Protestant	37	60	3	27
Catholic	45	52	3	23
Mormon	25	61	14	1
Other Christian	43	55	2	24
Jewish	71	24	5	3
Other religion	58	33	9	7
None	68	26	6	15
Religious service attendance
Weekly or more	40	56	4	33
Monthly	46	49	5	16
A few times a year	48	47	5	29
Never	62	31	7	22
White evangelical or born-again Christian
White evangelical or born-again Christian	16	81	3	26
Everyone else	59	35	6	74
Age
18–24 years old	56	35	9	10
25–29 years old	53	39	8	9
30–39 years old	51	40	9	17
40–49 years old	46	50	4	19
50–64 years old	44	53	3	30
65 and older	45	53	2	15
Sexual orientation
LGBT	78	14	8	5
Heterosexual	47	48	5	95
First time voter
First time voter	56	40	4	10
Everyone else	47	47	6	90
Education
High school or less	45	51	4	18
Some college education	43	52	5	32
College graduate	49	45	6	32
Postgraduate education	58	37	5	18
Education by race/ethnicity
White college graduates	45	49	4	37
White no college degree	28	67	4	34
Non-white college graduates	71	23	5	13
Non-white no college degree	75	20	3	16
Family income
Under $30,000	53	41	6	17
$30,000–49,999	51	42	7	19
$50,000–99,999	46	50	4	31
$100,000–199,999	47	48	5	24
$200,000–249,999	48	49	3	4
Over $250,000	46	48	6	6
Issue regarded as most important
Foreign policy	60	34	6	13
Immigration	32	64	4	13
Economy	52	42	6	52
Terrorism	39	57	4	18
Community size
Cities (population 50,000 and above)	59	35	6	34
Suburbs	45	50	5	49
Rural areas	34	62	4	17

See also

• History of the United States (1991–present)
• List of United States presidential elections where winner lost popular vote

External links

• Presidential election process from USA.gov, the official United States Federal Government web portal
• 2016 United States presidential election at Curlie
• 2016 Presidential Form 2 Filers at the Federal Election Commission (FEC)
• Hillary Clinton's Concession Speech on YouTube