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    Presidential candidates, 2016

    From Ballotpedia - Reading time: 34 min


    See also: Splits between the Electoral College and popular vote
    U.S. presidential election, 2016
    Party Candidate Vote % Votes Electoral votes
         Democratic Hillary Clinton/Tim Kaine 48.3% 65,844,969 227
         Republican Green check mark transparent.pngDonald Trump/Mike Pence 46.2% 62,979,984 304
         Libertarian Gary Johnson/Bill Weld 3.3% 4,492,919 0
         Green Jill Stein/Ajamu Baraka 1.1% 1,449,370 0
         - Other 1.2% 1,684,908 7
    Total Votes 136,452,150 538
    Election results via: Ballotpedia


    Note: Trump and Clinton were projected to receive 306 and 232 electoral votes, respectively. Seven electors, however, cast votes for other candidates. Read about what happened here. The results listed above are based on reports from state secretary of state offices and election boards.


    Presidential Elections-2016-badge.png

    2016 Presidential Election
    Date: November 8, 2016
    Candidates
    Winner: Donald Trump (R)
    Hillary Clinton (D) • Jill Stein (G) • Gary Johnson (L) • Vice presidential candidates
    Election coverage
    Important dates • Nominating process • Ballotpedia's 2016 Battleground Poll • Polls • Debates • Presidential election by state • Ratings and scorecards
    Ballotpedia's presidential election coverage
    2024 • 2020 • 2016
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    Donald Trump won the presidency of the United States.

    The following candidates ran for the office of President of the United States. They were (1) nominated by their party for the presidency and (2) featured in at least three major national polls. For a full list of candidates by state, please see Candidates by state primary ballot.

    Hillary Clinton (D)

    Hillary Clinton (D)
    Donald Trump (R)

    Donald Trump (R)
    Jill Stein (G)

    Jill Stein (G)
    Gary Johnson (L)

    Gary Johnson (L)

    As of November 1, 2016, a total of 1,780 candidates had filed a Statement of Candidacy with the Federal Election Commission.[1] A full list of these candidates and their parties and filing dates can be found here.

    In order to get on the ballot, a candidate for president of the United States must meet a variety of complex, state-specific filing requirements and deadlines. These regulations, known as ballot access laws, determine whether a candidate or party will appear on an election ballot. These laws are set at the state level. A presidential candidate must prepare to meet ballot access requirements well in advance of primaries, caucuses, and the general election. For more information, see Ballot access for presidential candidates.

    Presidential candidates who made more than 15 percent of general election ballots:

    Vice presidential candidates[edit]

    See also: Vice presidential candidates, 2016 and Possible vice presidential picks, 2016
    Tim Kaine (D)

    Tim Kaine (D)
    Mike Pence (R)

    Mike Pence (R)
    Ajamu Baraka (G)

    Ajamu Baraka (G)
    William Weld (L)

    William Weld (L)

    Policy positions[edit]

    2016 presidential candidates on domestic affairs[edit]

    Click the tiles below to learn more about the 2016 presidential candidates’ positions on domestic affairs.

    Abortion
    Black Lives Matter
    Branches of government
    Civil liberties
    Climate change
    Constitution
    Crime and justice
    DACA and DAPA
    Education
    Energy and environmental policy
    Epidemic control
    Federal assistance programs
    Gun control
    Healthcare
    Immigration
    Infrastructure
    LGBTQ rights
    Marriage equality
    Puerto Rico
    Stop and frisk
    Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland
    Supreme Court vacancy
    Transgender restroom access
    Zika virus

    2016 presidential candidates on economic affairs and government regulations[edit]

    Click the tiles below to learn more about the 2016 presidential candidates’ positions on economic affairs and government regulations.

    Agriculture and food policy
    Budgets
    Labor and employment
    Taxes
    Trade
    Trans-Pacific Partnership
    Wall Street and banking policy

    2016 presidential candidates on foreign affairs and national security[edit]

    Click the tiles below to learn more about the 2016 presidential candidates’ positions on foreign affairs and national security.

    Foreign affairs
    Iran nuclear deal
    ISIS and terrorism
    Military and veterans
    National security
    North Korea
    Russia
    Syrian refugees
    Technology, privacy, and cybersecurity

    Polls[edit]

    See also: General election polls and Primary election and hypothetical polls
    The latest hypothetical head-to-head polling and archives of polls dating back to 2013 can be seen on the full presidential polling page.


    Clinton-Trump 2016 head-to-head presidential polls (September-October 2016)
    Poll Democratic Party Hillary Clinton Republican Party Donald TrumpUnsure or OtherMargin of ErrorSample Size
    Quinnipiac
    October 17-18, 2016    		50%44%6%+/-3.11,007
    Economist/YouGov
    October 15-18, 2016    		47%43%10%+/-3.9925
    Fox News
    October 15-17, 2016    		49%42%9%+/-3912
    Bloomberg
    October 14-17, 2016    		50%41%9%+/-3.11,006
    Monmouth
    October 14-16, 2016    		53%41%6%+/-3.6726
    CBS News
    October 12-16, 2016    		51%40%9%+/-31,189
    NBC News/SurveyMonkey
    October 10-16, 2016    		51%43%6%+/-124,804
    ABC News/Washington Post
    October 10-13, 2016    		50%46%4%+/-4740
    NBC News/Wall St. Journal
    October 10-13, 2016    		51%41%8%+/-3.3905
    Fox News
    October 10-12, 2016    		49%41%10%+/-3917
    NBC News/Wall Street Journal
    October 8-10, 2016    		50%40%10%+/-3.5806
    Reuters/Ipsos
    October 6-10, 2016    		44%37%19%+/-2.22,363
    PRRI/The Atlantic
    October 5-9, 2016    		49%38%13%+/-3.9886
    NBC News/SurveyMonkey
    October 3-9, 2016    		51%44%5%+/-123,329
    Economist/YouGov
    October 7-8, 2016    		48%43%9%+/-4.2971
    Quinnipiac
    October 5-6, 2016    		50%44%6%+/-31,064
    Fox News
    October 3-6, 2016    		48%44%8%+/-3896
    Economist/YouGov
    October 1-October 3, 2016    		48%43%9%+/-3.9911
    Reuters/Ipsos
    September 29-October 3, 2016    		44%37%19%+/-3.21,239
    CBS News
    September 28-October 2, 2016    		49%43%8%+/-41,217
    CNN/ORC
    September 28-October 2, 2016    		51%45%4%+/-31,213
    NBC News/SurveyMonkey
    September 26-October 2, 2016    		50%44%6%+/-126,925
    Fox News
    September 27-29, 2016    		49%44%7%+/-3911
    Public Policy Polling
    September 27-28, 2016    		49%45%6%+/-3.2933
    Reuters/Ipsos
    September 22-26, 2016    		44%38%18%+/-3.51,041
    Note: A "0%" finding means the candidate was not a part of the poll. The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org.

    Ballotpedia's Battleground Poll[edit]

    See also: Ballotpedia's battleground poll, 2016

    Ballotpedia partnered with Evolving Strategies and surveyed voters across seven states (June 10 – 22) regarding their vote preferences. We tested six election scenarios. In one set, we matched Hillary Clinton (D) in a series of two-way contests with Donald Trump (R), Ohio Governor John Kasich (R), and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R). In the second set, we matched these same candidates in a series of three-way contests that also included former governor Gary Johnson.

    In all seven states, Clinton polled higher than Trump. The tightest battleground race between the two frontrunners was in Iowa, where Clinton led Trump by a weighted 4 percentage points. Clinton saw the largest lead in Michigan, where she led Trump by a weighted 17 percentage points. Comparatively, John Kasich polled ahead of Clinton in five of the seven states, and Paul Ryan polled ahead of Clinton in three states.


    BP Poll - Survey Results (percent support) Chart.png
    Evolving Strategies and Ballotpedia surveyed 4,242 registered voters, with a margin of error of +/-4.0%.

    2016 Battleground states[edit]

    See also: Presidential battleground states, 2016
    See also Trump wins White House as “Blue Wall” crumbles

    In 2016, 12 states and two congressional districts were key to deciding the outcome of the presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.[2] In electoral votes, that came to 159, more than half of the 270 votes needed to win an electoral college majority and become president. Throughout 2016, polling was often tight in these states and districts, and their voting histories made their outcomes difficult to predict. For these reasons, we referred to them as "battlegrounds."

    Why did these states have so much sway in the election?[edit]

    The reason these states and two districts had so much sway in the 2016 presidential election was largely because most of the electoral college map was already set in place before any votes for president were cast, but the battleground states were still up for grabs. Clinton, for example, began the general election with an almost guaranteed 200 electoral votes from 16 states and Washington, D.C. That's 74 percent of the 270 electoral votes needed to win. Trump began with an almost guaranteed 179 electoral votes—66 percent of 270—from 22 states. We knew this because of these states' past election results, demographic trends, and polling data. What this means is that 38 states and Washington, D.C.—a total of 379 electoral votes—were not competitive in 2016. But the battleground states were, and there were more than enough electoral votes between them to get either candidate to the White House.

    Paths to victory[edit]

    Clinton needed slightly fewer of these battleground states' electoral votes than Trump. To win, she needed only 70 of the 159 electoral votes in the battlegrounds, while Trump needed 91. Those 21 electoral votes that separated Clinton and Trump might not sound all that significant, but they were. Ballotpedia broke down all the different combinations of battleground states that could get Clinton and Trump to 270 electoral votes or higher. We found that Clinton had almost twice as many paths to victory as Trump, at 10,581 different combinations to 5,572, respectively. The 2016 battleground states are highlighted on the map below in grey. Maine and Nebraska are yellow because their second congressional districts were battlegrounds.[2] States in blue and red are ones that were generally considered safe for Clinton and Trump, respectively.


    Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing[edit]

    From July 2015 to September 2016, Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing provided a curated account of the day's most important news in the 2016 presidential election. It featured candidates' commentary on current events and policy positions, recent polls, debates, Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee politics, advertising campaigns, super PAC activity, campaign staff transitions and more.

    To view the archive of daily briefings, click here.

    Full list of declared candidates[edit]

    Former presidential candidates[edit]

    The following candidates and politicians suspended their presidential campaign or declined to run.

    Dropped out

    Lincoln Chafee (D)
    Lawrence Lessig (D)
    Martin O'Malley (D)
    Bernie Sanders (I)
    Jim Webb (D)


    Jeb Bush (R)
    Ben Carson (R)
    Chris Christie (R)
    Ted Cruz (R)
    Carly Fiorina (R)
    Jim Gilmore (R)
    Lindsey Graham (R)
    Mike Huckabee (R)
    Bobby Jindal (R)
    John Kasich (R)
    George Pataki (R)
    Rand Paul (R)
    Rick Perry (R)
    Rick Santorum (R)
    Marco Rubio (R)
    Scott Walker (R)




    Declined to run

    Joe Biden (D)
    Andrew Cuomo (D)
    Al Gore (D)
    Dennis Kucinich (D)
    Brian Schweitzer (D)
    Elizabeth Warren (D)


    Kelly Ayotte (R)
    Nikki Haley (R)
    Peter King (R)
    Susana Martinez (R)
    Mike Pence (R)
    Mitt Romney (R)


    Paul Ryan (R)
    Brian Sandoval (R)




    Related pages[edit]

    Recent news[edit]

    This section links to a Google news search for the term 2016 + Presidential + Candidates

    2016 Presidential Candidates News Feed


    External links[edit]

    Footnotes[edit]

    1. ↑ Federal Election Commission, "2016 Presidential Form 2 Filers," accessed November 1, 2016
    2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Maine and Nebraska allocate their electoral votes proportionally. They are the only two states that do this.
    v • e
    2016 United States Presidential Election
    OverviewsPresidential Elections-2016-badge.png
    Candidate profiles
    Path to the presidency
    Policy positions
    On the campaign trail
    Campaign staff
    Debates
    Analysis
    The media's coverage of Donald Trump • The media's coverage of Hillary Clinton

    Post-debate analysis overview
    Democratic: April 14, 2016 (CNN) • March 9, 2016 (Univision) • March 6, 2016 (CNN) • February 11, 2016 (PBS) • February 4, 2016 (MSNBC) • January 17, 2016 (NBC) • December 19, 2015 (ABC) • November 14, 2015 (CBS) • October 13, 2015 (CNN)
    Republican: March 10, 2016 (CNN) • March 3, 2016 (FNC) • February 25, 2016 (CNN) • February 13, 2016 (CBS) • February 6, 2016 (ABC) • January 28, 2016 (FNC) • January 14, 2016 (FBN) • December 15, 2015 (CNN) • November 10, 2015 (FBN) • October 28, 2015 (CNBC) • September 16, 2015 (CNN)

    Insiders Poll: First Democratic debate (October 13, 2015) • Presidential Nominating Index: Clinton remains choice of Democratic Insiders • Presidential Nominating Index: Bush remains choice of Republican Insiders • Insiders Poll: Winners and losers from the Fox News Republican Debate
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