2016 United States Presidential Election (The Disunited Kingdom)
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538 members of the Electoral College 270 electoral votes needed to win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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55.7% ( 0.8%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The United States presidential election of 2016 was the 58th quadrennial American presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Democratic ticket of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Colorado governor John Hickenlooper defeated the Independent ticket of businessman Donald Trump and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and the Republican ticket of Marco Rubio and Ohio governor John Kasich. Clinton took office as the 45th President, and Hickenlooper as the 48th Vice President, on January 20, 2017.
Per the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, incumbent president Barack Obama was ineligible to seek a third term. Clinton defeated a number of smaller candidates in the Democratic primary, and became the first female presidential nominee of a major American political party. While Marco Rubio emerged as the Republican party's nominee, defeating a wide field of candidates in the Republican primary, including businessman Donald Trump. Following this, Trump ran for president as an independent, upsetting the entire race. Meanwhile, the Libertarian Party nominated former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson (though Trump replaced Johnson as the Libertarian nominee in several states), and the Green Party nominated Jill Stein.
Trump'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 Trump's inflammatory comments. Clinton emphasized her extensive political experience, denounced Trump and many of his supporters as a "basket of deplorables", bigots and extremists, and advocated the expansion of President Obama's policies; racial, LGBT, and women's rights; and inclusive capitalism. Rubio campaigned on balancing the federal budget, prioritizing defense spending, and repeal and replace Obamacare.
Clinton took advantage of the Republican split, and led in almost every nationwide and swing-state poll with experts predicting a landslide. On Election Day, Trump over-performed his polls, but Clinton managed to still win the election, with 31 states and a large majority of the electoral votes. Trump finished second with 106 electoral votes and TBD% of the popular vote. Rubio carried TBF% of the national vote and won Utah.