2016 United States presidential election in West Virginia

Last updated

2016 United States presidential election in West Virginia
Flag of West Virginia.svg
  2012 November 8, 2016 2020  
Turnout57.45% [1]
  Donald Trump official portrait (cropped).jpg Hillary Clinton by Gage Skidmore 2.jpg
Nominee Donald Trump Hillary Clinton
Party Republican Democratic
Home state New York New York
Running mate Mike Pence Tim Kaine
Electoral vote50
Popular vote489,371188,794
Percentage68.50%26.43%

West Virginia Presidential Election Results 2016.svg
2020 United States presidential election in West Virginia results by congressional district.svg
2016 Presidential election in West Virginia.svg

President before election

Barack Obama
Democratic

Elected President

Donald Trump
Republican

Treemap of the popular vote by county United States presidential election in West Virginia, 2016.svg
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 nominee, businessman Donald Trump, and running mate Indiana Governor Mike Pence against Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine.

Contents

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 won West Virginia with 68.5% of the vote, 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 strongest state in the 2016 election by total vote share. [2]

West Virginia was also one of two states where Donald Trump won every county, the other being Oklahoma. This was the second consecutive presidential election where every county within the state voted Republican. Trump's 42.1% 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. Hillary Clinton's performance was the worst by a major party nominee since 1912, when three candidates split the vote and received over 20% of the vote each, and, as of the 2024 election, remains the worst performance ever by a Democrat in West Virginia. Clinton won less votes in the general election than were cast in her party's primary overall, as well as less than the votes she received in the 2008 state primary. Hillary Clinton also received the fewest number of votes for a Democrat in a West Virginia presidential election since 1916, exactly 100 years prior.

Primary elections

Democratic primary

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

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

Republican primary

County results of the West Virginia Republican presidential primary, 2016
Donald Trump 2016WestVirginiaRepublicanPresidentialPrimary.jpg
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
CandidateVotesPercentageActual delegate count
BoundUnboundTotal
Donald Trump157,23877.05%30030
Ted Cruz (withdrawn)18,3018.97%000
John Kasich (withdrawn)13,7216.72%101
Ben Carson (withdrawn)4,4212.17%000
Marco Rubio (withdrawn)2,9081.43%000
Jeb Bush (withdrawn)2,3051.13%000
Rand Paul (withdrawn)1,7980.88%000
Mike Huckabee (withdrawn)1,7800.87%000
Chris Christie (withdrawn)7270.36%000
Carly Fiorina (withdrawn)6590.32%000
David Eames Hall2030.10%000
Uncommitted303
Unprojected delegates:000
Total:204,061100.00%34034
Source: The Green Papers

General election

200px|State senate district results:
Trump
50-60%
60-70%
70-80%
80-90% 2016 West Virginia Pres by Senate district.svg
200px|State senate district results:

Predictions

SourceRankingAs of
Los Angeles Times [6] Safe RNovember 6, 2016
CNN [7] Safe RNovember 4, 2016
Cook Political Report [8] Safe RNovember 7, 2016
Electoral-vote.com [9] Safe RNovember 8, 2016
Rothenberg Political Report [10] Safe RNovember 7, 2016
Sabato's Crystal Ball [11] Safe RNovember 7, 2016
RealClearPolitics [12] Safe RNovember 8, 2016
Fox News [13] Safe RNovember 7, 2016

Results

Chart of popular vote

  Trump (68.50%)
  Clinton (26.43%)
  Johnson (3.22%)
  Write-ins (0.53%)
  Stein (1.13%)
2016 United States presidential election in West Virginia [14]
PartyCandidateRunning matePopular voteElectoral voteSwing
Count%Count%
Republican Donald Trump of New York Mike Pence of Indiana 489,37168.50%5100.00%Increase2.svg6.30%
Democratic Hillary Clinton of New York Tim Kaine of Virginia 188,79426.43%00.00%Decrease2.svg9.11%
Libertarian Gary Johnson of New Mexico Bill Weld of Massachusetts 23,0043.22%00.00%Increase2.svg2.28%
Mountain Jill Stein of Massachusetts Ajamu Baraka of Illinois 8,0751.13%00.00%Increase2.svg0.47%
Constitution Darrell L. Castle of Tennessee Scott N. Bradley of Utah 3,8070.53%00.00%Increase2.svg0.51%
Write-in Various of VariousVarious of Various1,3720.19%00.00%Decrease2.svg0.03%
Total714,423100.00%5100.00%

By county

CountyDonald Trump
Republican
Hillary Clinton
Democratic
Various candidates
Other parties
MarginTotal
#%#%#%#%
Barbour 4,52774.02%1,22219.98%3676.00%3,30554.04%6,116
Berkeley 28,24465.13%12,32128.41%2,7996.46%15,92336.72%43,364
Boone 6,50474.09%1,79020.39%4855.52%4,71453.70%8,779
Braxton 3,53769.35%1,32125.90%2424.75%2,21643.45%5,100
Brooke 6,62568.33%2,56826.49%5035.18%4,05741.84%9,696
Cabell 19,85059.09%11,44734.08%2,2946.83%8,40325.01%33,591
Calhoun 2,03577.14%45617.29%1475.57%1,57959.85%2,638
Clay 2,30076.79%56818.96%1274.25%1,73257.83%2,995
Doddridge 2,35882.36%36212.64%1435.00%1,99669.72%2,863
Fayette 10,35766.91%4,29027.72%8315.37%6,06739.19%15,478
Gilmer 1,89673.52%54521.13%1385.35%1,35152.39%2,579
Grant 4,34687.53%51210.31%1072.16%3,83477.22%4,965
Greenbrier 9,55667.18%3,76526.47%9036.35%5,79140.71%14,224
Hampshire 6,69277.11%1,58018.20%4074.69%5,11258.91%8,679
Hancock 8,90969.59%3,26225.48%6314.93%5,64744.11%12,802
Hardy 4,27475.33%1,15520.36%2454.31%3,11954.97%5,674
Harrison 18,75066.14%7,69427.14%1,9076.72%11,05639.00%28,351
Jackson 9,02073.31%2,66321.64%6215.05%6,35751.67%12,304
Jefferson 13,20453.88%9,51838.84%1,7867.28%3,68615.04%24,508
Kanawha 43,85057.03%28,26336.76%4,7756.21%15,58720.27%76,888
Lewis 5,27476.04%1,34719.42%3154.54%3,92756.62%6,936
Lincoln 5,30774.36%1,45920.44%3715.20%3,84853.92%7,137
Logan 9,89779.56%2,09216.82%4513.62%7,80562.74%12,440
Marion 14,66862.77%6,96429.80%1,7357.43%7,70432.97%23,367
Marshall 9,66672.39%2,91821.85%7695.76%6,74850.54%13,353
Mason 7,65474.54%2,08120.26%5345.20%5,57354.28%10,269
McDowell 4,62974.11%1,43823.02%1792.87%3,19151.09%6,246
Mercer 17,40475.03%4,70420.28%1,0894.69%12,70054.75%23,197
Mineral 9,07077.71%2,05017.56%5514.73%7,02060.15%11,671
Mingo 7,91183.17%1,37014.40%2312.43%6,54168.77%9,512
Monongalia 18,43250.13%14,69939.97%3,6419.90%3,73310.16%36,772
Monroe 4,44375.92%1,11118.98%2985.10%3,33256.94%5,852
Morgan 5,73274.09%1,57320.33%4325.58%4,15953.76%7,737
Nicholas 7,25175.70%1,84019.21%4885.09%5,41156.49%9,579
Ohio 11,13961.16%5,49330.16%1,5828.68%5,64631.00%18,214
Pendleton 2,39873.69%72922.40%1273.91%1,66951.29%3,254
Pleasants 2,35874.17%62119.53%2006.30%1,73754.64%3,179
Pocahontas 2,49667.92%92825.25%2516.83%1,56842.67%3,675
Preston 9,53874.73%2,47019.35%7565.92%7,06855.38%12,764
Putnam 17,78870.56%5,88423.34%1,5396.10%11,90447.22%25,211
Raleigh 22,04873.76%6,44321.55%1,4014.69%15,60552.21%29,892
Randolph 7,62969.55%2,73524.93%6055.52%4,89444.62%10,969
Ritchie 3,40582.95%49612.08%2044.97%2,90970.87%4,105
Roane 3,78171.12%1,22222.99%3135.89%2,55948.13%5,316
Summers 3,45570.61%1,19024.32%2485.07%2,26546.29%4,893
Taylor 4,73371.79%1,49122.61%3695.60%3,24249.18%6,593
Tucker 2,56573.26%75121.45%1855.29%1,81451.81%3,501
Tyler 2,99681.15%50713.73%1895.12%2,48967.42%3,692
Upshur 7,00575.34%1,76618.99%5275.67%5,23956.35%9,298
Wayne 11,15272.67%3,35721.87%8385.46%7,79550.80%15,347
Webster 2,30276.45%55618.47%1535.08%1,74657.98%3,011
Wetzel 4,51971.59%1,35921.53%4346.88%3,16050.06%6,312
Wirt 1,91178.90%38615.94%1255.16%1,52562.96%2,422
Wood 25,43470.51%8,40023.29%2,2376.20%17,03447.22%36,071
Wyoming 6,54783.08%1,06213.48%2713.44%5,48569.60%7,880
Totals489,37167.85%188,79426.18%43,0965.97%300,57741.67%721,261

By congressional district

Trump won all three congressional districts. [15]

DistrictTrumpClintonRepresentative
1st 68%26% David McKinley
2nd 66%29% Alex Mooney
3rd 73%23% Evan Jenkins

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, [16] thanks to ardent support from coal industry workers in Appalachia. He thus captured all five electoral votes from West Virginia. 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. [17] [18] 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, while describing the transition to sustainable energy, she stated "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business." [19]

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. [20]

The change to increasing Republican control had also been reflected at the state level. While West Virginia was one of several states with a Democratic governor (Earl Ray Tomblin) in 2016 where Trump won, Republicans had won both chambers of the state legislature in the 2014 elections. In the ensuing years, more statewide executive offices also were won by Republican candidates.

See also

References

  1. "2016 General Election Turnout". www.sos.wv.gov. Archived from the original on July 13, 2017. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
  2. "FEDERAL ELECTIONS 2016--Election Results for the U.S. President, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives" (PDF). Retrieved November 18, 2020.
  3. 1 2 "West Virginia Presidential Primary Ballots Set | Ballot Access News".
  4. The Green Papers
  5. West Virginia Secretary of State
  6. "Our final map has Clinton winning with 352 electoral votes. Compare your picks with ours". Los Angeles Times . November 6, 2016. Retrieved November 13, 2016.
  7. Chalian, David (November 4, 2016). "Road to 270: CNN's new election map". CNN . Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  8. "2016 Electoral Scorecard". The Cook Political Report . November 7, 2016. Archived from the original on February 16, 2017. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  9. "2016 Electoral Map Prediction". Electoral-vote.com . November 8, 2016. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  10. "Presidential Ratings". The Rothenberg Political Report. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  11. Sabato, Larry J. (November 7, 2016). "2016 President". University of Virginia Center for Politics . Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  12. "2016 Election Maps - Battle for White House". RealClearPolitics. Retrieved November 13, 2016.
  13. "Electoral Scorecard: Map shifts again in Trump's favor, as Clinton holds edge". Fox News. November 7, 2016. Retrieved November 13, 2016.
  14. Federal Election Commission (December 2017). "Federal Elections 2016" (PDF). p. 44. Retrieved December 19, 2024.
  15. "Introducing the 2017 Cook Political Report Partisan Voter Index".
  16. "West Virginia Election Results 2016". The New York Times . Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  17. "Deep in Virginia's craggy coal country, they saw Trump as their only hope". Washington Post. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  18. Thomas, Zoe (November 2, 2016). "Coal country West Virginia feels forgotten by politics". BBC News. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  19. Strauss, Daniel (May 10, 2016). "Clinton haunted by coal country comment". Politico. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
  20. "West Virginia Election Results 2016 – The New York Times". The New York Times . Retrieved November 10, 2016.