republican donald trump won the popular vote in the 2016 u.s. presidential election.
who won the popular vote in the 2016 u.s. presidential election?
republican donald trump
the united states presidential election of 2016 was the 58th quadrennial presidential election. the electoral vote distribution was determined by the 2010 census from which presidential electors electing the president and vice president were chosen; a simple majority (270) of the 538 electoral votes were required to win. former president barack obama, a member of the democratic party, was ineligible to be elected to a third term due to term limits established by the twenty-second amendment to the united states constitution. businessman and reality television personality donald trump of new york won the republican party's presidential nomination on july 19, 2016, after defeating texas senator ted cruz, ohio governor john kasich, florida senator marco rubio, and several other candidates in the republican primary elections. former secretary of state, first lady and new york senator hillary clinton won the democratic party's presidential nomination on july 26, 2016, after defeating vermont senator bernie sanders and others in the democratic primary elections. this was the first election with a female presidential nominee from a major political party, as well as the first election since 1944 that had major party presidential nominees from the same home state. clinton won the popular vote, taking 48% of the vote compared to trump's 46% of the vote, but trump won the electoral vote and thus the presidency. libertarian gary johnson won 3.3% of the popular vote, the strongest performance by a third party presidential nominee since the 1996 election. trump won the states of michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin, florida, ohio, and iowa, all of which were won by obama in 2008 and 2012. the election is one of five presidential elections in american history in which the winner of the popular vote did not win the presidency.
2016 united states elections
a november 2016 gallup poll following the 2016 u.s. presidential election showed that americans support for amending the u.s. constitution to replace the electoral college with a national popular vote fell to 49%, with 47% opposed. republican support for replacing the electoral college with a national popular vote dropped significantly, from 54% in 2011 to 19% in 2016, which gallup attributed to a partisan response to the 2016 result, where the republican candidate won the electoral college despite losing the popular vote. in march 2018, a pew research center poll showed that 55% of americans supported replacing the electoral college with a national popular vote, with 41% opposed, but that a partisan divide remained in that support, as 75% of self-identified democrats supported replacing the electoral college with a national popular vote, while only 32% of self-identified republicans did.
national popular vote interstate compact