Presidential election 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. In one of the greatest election upsets in U.S. History, 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.
[1] Former
Secretary of State, First Lady and New York Senator
Hillary Clinton won the Democratic Party's presidential nomination on July 26, 2016, after a tough battle with Vermont Senator
Bernie Sanders 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. The election is one of
five presidential elections in American history that the winner of the popular vote did not win 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 flipped the states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, and Iowa, that were won by Obama in
2008 and
2012. The former two last voted Republican in 1988 and Wisconsin last did so in 1984.
Congressional elections Senate elections All seats in
Senate Class 3 were up for election. Democrats won a net gain of two seats, but Republicans retained a majority with 52 seats in the 100-member chamber.
House of Representatives elections All 435 voting seats in the
United States House of Representatives were up for election. Additionally, elections were held to select the
delegates for the
District of Columbia and the
U.S. territories, including the
Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico. Democrats won a net gain of six seats, but Republicans held a 241-to-194 majority following the elections. Nationwide, Republicans won the popular vote for the House of Representatives by a margin of 1.1 percent. ==State elections==