United States presidential election in West Virginia, 2016

United States presidential election in West Virginia, 2016
November 8, 2016
Turnout 57.45%[1]

 
Nominee Donald Trump Hillary Clinton
Party Republican Democratic
Home state New York New York
Running mate Mike Pence Tim Kaine
Electoral vote 5 0
Popular vote 489,371 188,794
Percentage 68.50% 26.43%
County Results
Trump
  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.

The 2016 United States presidential election in West 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. West 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 May 10, 2016, in the presidential primaries, West Virginia voters expressed their preferences for the Democratic, Republican, Green, and Libertarian parties' respective nominees for president. Registered members of each party only voted in their party's primary, while voters who were unaffiliated chose any one primary in which to vote.

Donald Trump easily won West Virginia, with 68.5% of the vote, giving him his largest share of the vote in any state. Hillary Clinton received just over a quarter of the vote, with 26.4%. Trump's performance in the state made it his second strongest state in the 2016 election after Wyoming[2].

West Virginia was also one of two states where Donald Trump won every county, the other being Oklahoma. Trump's 42.2% margin of victory is the largest of any presidential candidate from either party in the state's history, besting Abraham Lincoln's 36.4% margin of victory in 1864.

Primary elections

Democratic primary

County results of the West Virginia Democratic presidential primary, 2016.
  Bernie Sanders

Six candidates appeared on the Democratic presidential primary ballot:[3] (alphabetically)

West Virginia Democratic primary, May 10, 2016
Candidate Popular vote Delegates
Count Percentage Pledged Unpledged Total
Hillary Clinton 86,914 35.84% 11 8 19
Bernie Sanders 124,700 51.41% 18 18
Paul T. Farrell Jr. 21,694 8.94%
Keith Russell Judd 4,460 1.84%
Martin O'Malley (withdrawn) 3,796 1.57%
Rocky De La Fuente 975 0.40%
Uncommitted N/A 0 0 0
Total 242,539 100% 29 8 37
Source: The Green Papers, West Virginia Secretary of State

Republican primary

County results of the West Virginia Republican presidential primary, 2016.
  Donald Trump

Eleven candidates appeared on the Republican presidential primary ballot:[3]

West Virginia Republican primary, May 10, 2016
Candidate Votes Percentage Actual delegate count
Bound Unbound Total
Donald Trump 157,238 77.05% 32 0 32
Ted Cruz (withdrawn) 18,301 8.97% 0 0 0
John Kasich (withdrawn) 13,721 6.72% 1 0 1
Ben Carson (withdrawn) 4,421 2.17% 0 0 0
Marco Rubio (withdrawn) 2,908 1.43% 0 0 0
Jeb Bush (withdrawn) 2,305 1.13% 0 0 0
Rand Paul (withdrawn) 1,798 0.88% 0 0 0
Mike Huckabee (withdrawn) 1,780 0.87% 0 0 0
Chris Christie (withdrawn) 727 0.36% 0 0 0
Carly Fiorina (withdrawn) 659 0.32% 0 0 0
David Eames Hall 203 0.10% 0 0 0
Uncommitted 1 0 1
Unprojected delegates: 0 0 0
Total: 204,061 100.00% 34 0 34
Source: The Green Papers

Polling

Analysis

As expected, Republican nominee Donald Trump won West Virginia in a 42-point rout (the largest of any presidential candidate in the state's history) over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton,[4] thanks to ardent support from coal industry workers in Appalachia. He thus captured all five electoral votes from the Mountain State. Trump had promised to bring back mining jobs in economically depressed areas of coal country, whereas his opponent had proposed investing millions into converting the region to a producer of green energy.[5][6] Democrats' championing of environmentalism is viewed as a threat in coal country, and Clinton faced a towering rejection from Mountain State voters. Clinton was also seen as being "haunted" by a comment she made within the state itself, in which in describing the transition to clean energy she stated "We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business."[7]

West Virginia was once a solidly Democratic state; it voted Democratic in every election from 1932 to 1996, except for the Republican landslides of 1956, 1972, and 1984. However, in recent years it has drifted to becoming solidly Republican, and has stayed that way since it was won by George W. Bush in 2000. Barack Obama, for example, failed to win even a single county in 2012. West Virginia is one of the two states where Hillary Clinton did not win any counties, the other being Oklahoma, which last voted for a Democrat in 1964.[8]

General election

Statewide results

U.S. presidential election in West Virginia, 2016[9]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Republican Donald Trump 489,371 68.50% Increase6.30%
Democratic Hillary Clinton 188,794 26.43% Decrease 9.11%
Libertarian Gary Johnson 23,004 3.22% Increase2.28%
Green Jill Stein 8,075 1.13% Increase0.47%
Constitution Darrell Castle 3,807 0.53% Increase0.53%
Majority 300,577 42.07% Increase15.31%
Total votes 714,423 100.00%
Republican win

By congressional district

Trump won all three congressional districts.[10]

District Trump Clinton Representative
1st 68% 26% David McKinley
2nd 66% 29% Alex Mooney
3rd 73% 23% Evan Jenkins

By county

County Clinton% Clinton# Trump% Trump# Others% Others# Total
Barbour County20.19%1,22274.78%4,5275.04%3056,054
Berkeley County28.75%12,32165.91%28,2445.33%2,28542,850
Boone County20.61%1,79074.90%6,5044.48%3898,683
Braxton County25.95%1,32169.49%3,5374.56%2325,090
Brooke County26.71%2,56868.92%6,6254.37%4209,613
Cabell County34.60%11,44760.00%19,8505.40%1,78833,085
Calhoun County17.42%45677.76%2,0354.81%1262,617
Clay County19.11%56877.39%2,3003.50%1042,972
Doddridge County12.75%36283.03%2,3584.23%1202,840
Fayette County27.97%4,29067.53%10,3574.50%69015,337
Gilmer County21.43%54574.56%1,8964.01%1022,543
Grant County10.33%51287.69%4,3461.98%984,956
Greenbrier County26.77%3,76567.94%9,5565.30%74514,066
Hampshire County18.36%1,58077.74%6,6923.90%3368,608
Hancock County25.68%3,26270.14%8,9094.18%53112,702
Hardy County20.47%1,15575.74%4,2743.79%2145,643
Harrison County27.52%7,69467.06%18,7505.42%1,51627,960
Jackson County21.85%2,66374.01%9,0204.14%50412,187
Jefferson County39.42%9,51854.68%13,2045.90%1,42524,147
Kanawha County37.34%28,26357.93%43,8504.73%3,57775,690
Lewis County19.44%1,34776.13%5,2744.43%3076,928
Lincoln County20.65%1,45975.11%5,3074.25%3007,066
Logan County16.93%2,09280.08%9,8972.99%37012,359
Marion County30.24%6,96463.69%14,6686.07%1,39723,029
Marshall County22.08%2,91873.14%9,6664.78%63213,216
Mason County20.43%2,08175.14%7,6544.43%45110,186
McDowell County23.18%1,43874.63%4,6292.19%1366,203
Mercer County20.47%4,70475.73%17,4043.80%87422,982
Mineral County17.73%2,05078.43%9,0703.84%44411,564
Mingo County14.41%1,37083.19%7,9112.41%2299,510
Monongalia County40.78%14,69951.13%18,4328.09%2,91736,048
Monroe County19.14%1,11176.54%4,4434.32%2515,805
Morgan County20.55%1,57374.89%5,7324.56%3497,654
Nicholas County19.39%1,84076.40%7,2514.21%4009,491
Ohio County30.62%5,49362.10%11,1397.28%1,30617,938
Pendleton County22.60%72974.36%2,3983.04%983,225
Pleasants County19.71%62174.86%2,3585.43%1713,150
Pocahontas County25.45%92868.46%2,4966.09%2223,646
Preston County19.51%2,47075.35%9,5385.14%65112,659
Putnam County23.64%5,88471.46%17,7884.90%1,22124,893
Raleigh County21.75%6,44374.44%22,0483.81%1,12729,618
Randolph County25.15%2,73570.15%7,6294.71%51210,876
Ritchie County12.17%49683.56%3,4054.27%1744,075
Roane County23.29%1,22272.06%3,7814.65%2445,247
Summers County24.48%1,19071.06%3,4554.46%2174,862
Taylor County22.81%1,49172.39%4,7334.80%3146,538
Tucker County21.61%75173.81%2,5654.58%1593,475
Tyler County13.88%50781.99%2,9964.13%1513,654
Upshur County19.16%1,76675.99%7,0054.85%4479,218
Wayne County22.11%3,35773.46%11,1524.43%67315,182
Webster County18.67%55677.30%2,3024.03%1202,978
Wetzel County21.69%1,35972.13%4,5196.18%3876,265
Wirt County15.94%38678.90%1,9115.16%1252,422
Wood County23.59%8,40071.41%25,4345.0%1,78135,615
Wyoming County13.56%1,06283.60%6,5472.83%2227,831

See also

References

  1. ↑ "2016 General Election Turnout". www.sos.wv.gov. Retrieved 2017-09-03.
  2. ↑ "2016 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
  3. 1 2 http://ballot-access.org/2016/02/02/west-virginia-presidential-primary-ballots-set/
  4. ↑ "West Virginia Election Results 2016". Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  5. ↑ "Deep in Virginia's craggy coal country, they saw Trump as their only hope". Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  6. ↑ Thomas, Zoe (2016-11-02). "Coal country West Virginia feels forgotten by politics". BBC News. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  7. ↑ Strauss, Daniel (May 10, 2016). "Clinton haunted by coal country comment". Politico. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
  8. ↑ "West Virginia Election Results 2016 – The New York Times". Retrieved November 10, 2016.
  9. ↑ https://transition.fec.gov/pubrec/fe2016/2016presgeresults.pdf
  10. ↑ https://www.cookpolitical.com/introducing-2017-cook-political-report-partisan-voter-index
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