United States presidential election in West Virginia, 2016
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County Results
Trump—50-60%
Trump—60-70%
Trump—70-80%
Trump—80-90% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Elections in West Virginia | |||||||||
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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 68.7% of the vote, giving him his second largest margin of victory in the country, only behind Wyoming. Hillary Clinton received 26.5% of the vote. 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
Six candidates appeared on the Democratic presidential primary ballot:[1] (alphabetically)
- Hillary Clinton
- Rocky De La Fuente
- Paul T. Farrell Jr.
- Martin O'Malley (withdrawn)
- Keith Judd
- Bernie Sanders
West Virginia Democratic primary, May 10, 2016 | |||||
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Candidate | Popular vote | Estimated delegates | |||
Count | Percentage | Pledged | Unpledged | Total | |
Bernie Sanders | 124,700 | 51.41% | 18 | 2 | 20 |
Hillary Clinton | 86,914 | 35.84% | 11 | 6 | 17 |
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Martin O'Malley (withdrawn) | 3,796 | 1.57% | |||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
Eleven candidates appeared on the Republican presidential primary ballot:[1]
- Jeb Bush (withdrawn)
- Ben Carson (withdrawn)
- Chris Christie (withdrawn)
- Ted Cruz (withdrawn)
- Carly Fiorina (withdrawn)
- Mike Huckabee (withdrawn)
- John Kasich (withdrawn)
- Rand Paul (withdrawn)
- Marco Rubio (withdrawn)
- Donald Trump
West Virginia Republican primary, May 10, 2016 | |||||
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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 J. Trump won West Virginia in a 42-point routing over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton,[2] thanks to ardent support from coal industry workers in Appalachia. He thus captured all five electoral votes from the Mountain State. Mr. 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.[3][4] Democrats' championing of environmentalism is viewed as a threat in coal country, and Clinton faced a towering rejection from Mountain State voters, with only the state of Wyoming giving Mr. Trump a larger margin of victory.
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.[5]
See also
- Democratic Party presidential debates, 2016
- Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2016
- Republican Party presidential debates, 2016
- Republican Party presidential primaries, 2016
References
- 1 2 http://ballot-access.org/2016/02/02/west-virginia-presidential-primary-ballots-set/
- ↑ "West Virginia Election Results 2016". Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ↑ "Deep in Virginia's craggy coal country, they saw Trump as their only hope". Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ↑ Thomas, Zoe (2016-11-02). "Coal country West Virginia feels forgotten by politics". BBC News. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
- ↑ "West Virginia Election Results 2016 – The New York Times". Retrieved November 10, 2016.