2016 United States presidential election in Illinois

Presidential primary elections for three parties were held in Illinois. From January 25 to February 17, 2016, the Green Party of the United States held primaries and caucuses, as part of the Green Party presidential primaries, to elect delegates representing a candidate at the 2016 Green National Convention. Physician and activist Jill Stein won a landslide of the popular vote, taking almost all of the state's 23 delegates. On March 15, 2016, both the Democratic and Republican parties held primaries in Illinois as part of a five-state contest being held on the day in both the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries. In the Democratic primaries, 156 pledged delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention were elected and awarded to candidates proportionally, according to countywide and statewide vote. In the Republican primaries, 69 delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention were elected and awarded to the first place candidate, according to statewide vote. Democratic primary The 2016 Illinois Democratic presidential primary was held on March 15, 2016, in the U.S. state of Illinois as one of the Democratic Party's state primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Forum March 14, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio, and Springfield, Illinois: The tenth forum was held at 6:00 pm EDT on March 14, 2016, at the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and at the Old State Capitol State Historic Site (Illinois) in Springfield, Illinois. It aired on MSNBC. The first section of the town hall with Bernie Sanders was moderated by Chuck Todd; the second section of the town hall with Hillary Clinton was moderated by Chris Matthews. Results Six candidates appeared on the Democratic presidential primary ballot: Republican primary The 2016 Illinois Republican presidential primary was held on March 15, 2016, in the U.S. state of Illinois as one of the Republican Party's state primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Ten candidates appeared on the Republican presidential primary ballot: ==General election==

Predictions Polling Results By county Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican • Alexander (largest city: Cairo) • Carroll (largest city: Savanna) • Fulton (largest city: Canton) • Henderson (largest village: Oquawka) • Henry (largest city: Kewanee) • Jo Daviess (largest city: Galena) • Knox (largest city: Galesburg) • Mercer (largest city: Aledo) • Putnam (largest village: Granville) • Warren (largest city: Monmouth) • Whiteside (largest city: Sterling) By congressional district Clinton won 11 of 18 congressional districts, both candidates won a district held by the other party. Turnout For the state-run primaries (Democratic and Republican), turnout was 45.73%, with 3,505,795 votes cast. For the general election, turnout was 68.95%, with 5,536,424 votes cast. ==Analysis==

Although Clinton won the state by a nearly identical margin as Obama, the state’s internal politics changed dramatically. Clinton made massive gains in the state’s most college-educated counties, while Trump made massive gains in the rest of the state. Clinton's win in Illinois was largely the result of a lopsided victory in Cook County, the state's most populous county and home of Chicago, the city where Clinton was born and raised. Trump, meanwhile, won most of the downstate rural counties by large margins. Many of these counties had voted for Clinton's husband in both his 1992 and 1996 presidential runs. This is also the first presidential election in history where a Republican managed to win the White House nationally while failing to carry any of Chicago's collar counties (winning only McHenry County). To put in perspective the political turnaround in the region, between the 1854 creation of the Republican party and Barack Obama's 2008 election, Democrats only won any of the collar counties in just five landslide elections. In 1932 and 1936, Franklin Roosevelt carried Will County; In 1964, Lyndon Johnson carried Will and Lake; Bill Clinton carried Will in 1992 and added Lake to that in 1996. Illinois, along with Minnesota, was one of the only two Midwestern states not won by Donald Trump. The election marked the first time since 1988 in which Illinois did not vote the same as neighboring Wisconsin, and the first time since 1960 when the Democratic candidate won Illinois, while losing Wisconsin. This is the first time the Republicans have won Alexander County since Richard Nixon's 1972 landslide, as well as the first time they have won Fulton, Henderson, Knox, Mercer, and Putnam Counties since Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide. Whiteside County voted Republican for the first time since 1988. Cook County, the collar counties, and the downstate counties of Champaign and McLean were the only ones to swing towards Clinton. Champaign is the home of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, while McLean is the home of Illinois State University. Knowing these statistics, if one were to subtract Cook County's total votes from the rest of Illinois, Trump would have won the state with 1,692,728 votes to Clinton's 1,478,783 votes. Had Clinton won the election, she would have become the second president born in Illinois after Ronald Reagan, although both politicians jump-started their political careers in elected office elsewhere. Reagan served as Governor of California while Clinton served as a United States Senator from New York. As of the 2024 election, this is the most recent election where Kendall County and McLean County have voted Republican. ==See also==