United States presidential election in Virginia, 2016

United States presidential election in Virginia, 2016

November 8, 2016
Turnout	72.05% (of registered voters)[1]
Nominee Hillary Clinton Donald Trump Party Democratic Republican Home state New York New York Running mate Tim Kaine Mike Pence Electoral vote 13 0 Popular vote 1,981,473 1,769,443 Percentage 49.73% 44.41%
County and Independent City Results Clinton   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%   80-90% Trump   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%   80-90%
President before election Barack Obama Democratic Elected President Donald Trump Republican

Treemap of the popular vote by county.

Logo used by Clinton's Virginia campaign

The 2016 United States presidential election in Virginia was held on November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 General Election in which all 50 states plus The District of Columbia participated. Virginia voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting the Republican Party's nominee, businessman Donald Trump, and running mate Indiana Governor Mike Pence against Democratic Party nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine.

On March 1, 2016, in the presidential primaries, Virginia voters expressed their preferences for the Democratic, Republican, and Green parties' respective nominees for president. Virginia voters do not register by party.

The Democratic Party candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of New York, carried Virginia with a 49.7% plurality in the popular vote against businessman Donald Trump of New York, who carried 44.4%, a victory margin of 5.3%. Clinton seemed to benefit from having Tim Kaine on the ticket. Whereas the national popular vote swung 1.9% Republican from the previous election, Virginia swung 1.37% Democratic.^[2][3] This was also the first time since 1944 where Virginia was more Democratic than the national average.

Trump became the first Republican candidate since Calvin Coolidge in 1924 to win the White House without carrying Virginia. The Old Dominion had been a traditionally Democratic-leaning state from the party's founding until 1952. Although Virginia was later considered a reliable Republican-leaning state from 1952 until 2008, it has not voted Republican in 12 years. This is due largely to migration into counties in Northern Virginia close to Washington, D.C., which has tilted those densely populated areas towards the Democratic Party once more.

Virginia was the only state of the eleven former states that belonged to the Confederate States of America to vote Democratic in this election. This is a reversal from 1976, when it was the only state that had belonged to the CSA to vote Republican. This was the first time since 1996 that Virginia went for the losing candidate. Virginia was also the only state Hillary Clinton won which was never carried by her husband, Bill Clinton, in either of his runs for president in 1992 or 1996.

General election

Democratic primary

The 108 delegates (95 pledged delegates and 13 super delegates) from Virginia to the Democratic National Convention were allocated in this way. Among the pledged delegates, 62 of them were allocated based on the popular vote in each congressional district. The 33 at-large delegates were then allocated based on the statewide popular vote.^[13]

County results of the Virginia Democratic presidential primary, 2016.

  Hillary Clinton

  Bernie Sanders

Republican primary

The 49 delegates from Virginia to the Republican National Convention were allocated proportionally based on the popular vote.^[14]

Virginia Republican primary, 2016

March 1, 2016 (2016-03-01)

Candidate Donald Trump Marco Rubio Ted Cruz Home state New York Florida Texas Delegate count 17 16 8 Popular vote 356,840 327,918 171,150 Percentage 34.80% 31.98% 16.69%   Candidate John Kasich Ben Carson Home state Ohio Maryland Delegate count 5 3 Popular vote 97,784 60,228 Percentage 9.54% 5.87%

Virginia results by county   Donald Trump   Marco Rubio

Virginia Republican primary, March 1, 2016
Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Actual delegate count
			Bound	Unbound	Total
Donald Trump	356,840	34.80%	17	0	17
Marco Rubio	327,918	31.98%	16	0	16
Ted Cruz	171,150	16.69%	8	0	8
John Kasich	97,784	9.54%	5	0	5
Ben Carson	60,228	5.87%	3	0	3
Jeb Bush (withdrawn)	3,645	0.36%	0	0	0
Rand Paul (withdrawn)	2,917	0.28%	0	0	0
Mike Huckabee (withdrawn)	1,458	0.14%	0	0	0
Chris Christie (withdrawn)	1,102	0.11%	0	0	0
Carly Fiorina (withdrawn)	914	0.09%	0	0	0
Jim Gilmore (withdrawn)	653	0.06%	0	0	0
Lindsey Graham (withdrawn)	444	0.04%	0	0	0
Rick Santorum (withdrawn)	399	0.04%	0	0	0
Unprojected delegates:			0	0	0
Total:	1,025,452	100.00%	49	0	49
Source: The Green Papers

Libertarian nomination

The 2016 Libertarian Party presidential ticket was former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson for president and former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld for vice president. They earned those nominations at the Libertarian Party 2016 National Convention on Memorial Day weekend.^[15]

Green primary

The Virginia Green Party held its primary from March 20 through April 3. Party members were able to vote online through an email ballot or through the mail.^[16] On April 13, it was announced that Jill Stein had won with 76% of the vote. The state's four delegates were apportioned at the May 28 state meeting.^[17]

Virginia Primary, April 3, 2016
Candidate	Votes	Percentage	National delegates
Jill Stein	35	76%	3
Kent Mesplay	3	6%	1
William Kreml	2	4.1%	-
Darryl Cherney	2	3.8%	-
Sedinam Curry	1	1.7%	-
Write-ins	3	8.4%	-
Total	46	100.00%	4

Polling

State voting history

Virginia joined the Union in June 1788 and has participated in all elections from 1789 onwards, except 1864 and 1868 (due to its secession from the US due to the American Civil War). Since 1900, Virginia voted Democratic 54.17 percent of the time and Republican 45.83 percent of the time. From 1968 to 2004, Virginia voted for the Republican Party candidate. However, in the 2008 and 2012 elections, the state voted for the Democratic Party. The same trend continued in the 2016 presidential elections.^[18]

Clinton had several advantages in Virginia. The first was due in part to her landslide win in the Democratic primary against Senator Bernie Sanders. The second was Virginia has a significant number of African American voters, many of whom backed Clinton in the primary and both of President Barack Obama's wins in the state. The third was Clinton's pick of the state's own US Senator, Tim Kaine, as her Vice Presidential running mate.

While polls throughout the campaign showed Clinton leading Republican Donald Trump by varying margins in Virginia, it was announced on October 13 that the Trump campaign was pulling its resources out of the state, likely ceding to Clinton what was perceived to be a critical battleground state. According to the Trump campaign, the reason for pulling out of Virginia was to compete in more critical battleground states like Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio, all of which were states he won.^[19]

See also

Elections in Virginia
Federal government Presidential elections 1788-89 1792 1796 1800 1804 1808 1812 1816 1820 1824 1828 1832 1836 1840 1844 1848 1852 1856 1860 1872 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 Presidential primaries Democratic 2008 2016 Republican 2008 2012 U.S. Senate elections 1922 1924 1928 1930 1934 1936 1940 1942 1946 1948 1952 1954 1958 1960 1964 1966 1970 1972 1976 1978 1982 1984 1988 1990 1994 1996 2000 2002 2006 2008 2012 2014 2018 U.S. House elections 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 Special elections U.S. Senate, 1920 U.S. Senate, 1933 U.S. Senate, 1946 U.S. Senate, 1966 1st congressional district, 2007
State government Gubernatorial elections 1851 1855 1859 1863 (Confederate) 1863 (Union) 1869 1873 1877 1881 1885 1889 1893 1897 1901 1905 1909 1913 1917 1921 1925 1929 1933 1937 1941 1945 1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013 2017 Lieutenant Governor elections 2013 2017 Attorney General elections 2005 2013 2017 House of Delegates elections 1975 1977 1979 1981 1982 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 Senate elections 1975 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 Other elections 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017
Ballot measures 1970 1972 1974 1976 1977 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1987 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2010 2012 2014 2016 2016 Fairfax County Meals Tax Referendum
Norfolk Mayoral elections 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018
Richmond Mayoral elections 2004 2008 2012 2016 City Council elections 2016
Virginia Beach Mayoral elections 2004 2008 2012 2016

• Democratic Party of Virginia
• Republican Party of Virginia
• Libertarian Party of Virginia
• Green Party of Virginia

References

External links

• RNC 2016 Republican Nominating Process
• Green papers for 2016 primaries, caucuses, and conventions
• 2016 Presidential primaries, ElectionProjection.com
• Decision Desk Headquarter Results for Virginia