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2016 United States presidential election in West Virginia

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Main article: 2016 United States presidential election

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.

2016 United States presidential election in West Virginia
← 2012 November 8, 2016 2020 →
Turnout57.45%[1]
 
Nominee Donald Trump Hillary Clinton
Party Republican Democratic
Home state New York New York
Running mate Mike Pence Tim Kaine
Electoral vote 5 0
Popular vote 489,371 188,794
Percentage 68.50% 26.43%
President before election

Barack Obama
Democratic

Elected President

Donald Trump
Republican

Treemap of the popular vote by county

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 second 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.

Primary elections

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Democratic primary

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County results of the West Virginia Democratic presidential primary, 2016
  Bernie Sanders
Main article: 2016 West Virginia Democratic primary

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

West Virginia Democratic primary, May 10, 2016
Candidate Popular vote Delegates
Count Percentage Pledged Unpledged Total
Bernie Sanders 124,700 51.41% 18 18
Hillary Clinton 86,914 35.84% 11 8 19
Paul T. Farrell Jr. 21,694 8.94%
Keith Judd 4,460 1.84%
Martin O'Malley (withdrawn) 3,796 1.57%
Rocky De La Fuente 975 0.40%
Uncommitted — 0 0 0
Total 242,539 100% 29 8 37
Source: [4][5]

Republican primary

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County results of the West Virginia Republican presidential primary, 2016
  Donald Trump
Main article: 2016 West Virginia Republican primary

Eleven candidates appeared on the Republican presidential primary ballot:[3]

West Virginia Republican primary, May 10, 2016
Candidate Votes Percentage Actual delegate count
Bound Unbound Total
Donald Trump 157,238 77.05% 30 0 30
Ted Cruz (withdrawn) 18,301 8.97% 0 0 0
John Kasich (withdrawn) 13,721 6.72% 1 0 1
Ben Carson (withdrawn) 4,421 2.17% 0 0 0
Marco Rubio (withdrawn) 2,908 1.43% 0 0 0
Jeb Bush (withdrawn) 2,305 1.13% 0 0 0
Rand Paul (withdrawn) 1,798 0.88% 0 0 0
Mike Huckabee (withdrawn) 1,780 0.87% 0 0 0
Chris Christie (withdrawn) 727 0.36% 0 0 0
Carly Fiorina (withdrawn) 659 0.32% 0 0 0
David Eames Hall 203 0.10% 0 0 0
Uncommitted 3 0 3
Unprojected delegates: 0 0 0
Total: 204,061 100.00% 34 0 34
Source: The Green Papers

General election

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State senate district results:

Predictions

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

Results

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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]
Party Candidate Running mate Popular vote Electoral vote Swing
Count % Count %
Republican Donald Trump of New York Mike Pence of Indiana 489,371 68.50% 5 100.00%  6.30%
Democratic Hillary Clinton of New York Tim Kaine of Virginia 188,794 26.43% 0 0.00%  9.11%
Libertarian Gary Johnson of New Mexico Bill Weld of Massachusetts 23,004 3.22% 0 0.00%  2.28%
Mountain Jill Stein of Massachusetts Ajamu Baraka of Illinois 8,075 1.13% 0 0.00%  0.47%
Constitution Darrell L. Castle of Tennessee Scott N. Bradley of Utah 3,807 0.53% 0 0.00%  0.51%
Total 714,423 100.00% 5 100.00%

By county

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County Donald Trump
Republican 		Hillary Clinton
Democratic 		Various candidates
Other parties 		Margin Total
# % # % # % # %
Barbour 4,527 74.02% 1,222 19.98% 367 6.00% 3,305 54.04% 6,116
Berkeley 28,244 65.13% 12,321 28.41% 2,799 6.46% 15,923 36.72% 43,364
Boone 6,504 74.09% 1,790 20.39% 485 5.52% 4,714 53.70% 8,779
Braxton 3,537 69.35% 1,321 25.90% 242 4.75% 2,216 43.45% 5,100
Brooke 6,625 68.33% 2,568 26.49% 503 5.18% 4,057 41.84% 9,696
Cabell 19,850 59.09% 11,447 34.08% 2,294 6.83% 8,403 25.01% 33,591
Calhoun 2,035 77.14% 456 17.29% 147 5.57% 1,579 59.85% 2,638
Clay 2,300 76.79% 568 18.96% 127 4.25% 1,732 57.83% 2,995
Doddridge 2,358 82.36% 362 12.64% 143 5.00% 1,996 69.72% 2,863
Fayette 10,357 66.91% 4,290 27.72% 831 5.37% 6,067 39.19% 15,478
Gilmer 1,896 73.52% 545 21.13% 138 5.35% 1,351 52.39% 2,579
Grant 4,346 87.53% 512 10.31% 107 2.16% 3,834 77.22% 4,965
Greenbrier 9,556 67.18% 3,765 26.47% 903 6.35% 5,791 40.71% 14,224
Hampshire 6,692 77.11% 1,580 18.20% 407 4.69% 5,112 58.91% 8,679
Hancock 8,909 69.59% 3,262 25.48% 631 4.93% 6,647 44.11% 12,802
Hardy 4,274 75.33% 1,155 20.36% 245 4.31% 3,119 54.97% 5,674
Harrison 18,750 66.14% 7,694 27.14% 1,907 6.72% 11,056 39.00% 28,351
Jackson 9,020 73.31% 2,663 21.64% 621 5.05% 6,357 51.67% 12,304
Jefferson 13,204 53.88% 9,518 38.84% 1,786 7.28% 3,686 15.04% 24,508
Kanawha 43,850 57.03% 28,263 36.76% 4,775 6.21% 15,587 20.27% 76,888
Lewis 5,274 76.04% 1,347 19.42% 315 4.54% 3,927 56.62% 6,936
Lincoln 5,307 74.36% 1,459 20.44% 371 5.20% 3,848 53.92% 7,137
Logan 9,897 79.56% 2,092 16.82% 451 3.62% 7,805 62.74% 12,440
Marion 14,668 62.77% 6,964 29.80% 1,735 7.43% 7,704 32.97% 23,367
Marshall 9,666 72.39% 2,918 21.85% 769 5.76% 6,748 50.54% 13,353
Mason 7,654 74.54% 2,081 20.26% 534 5.20% 5,573 54.28% 10,269
McDowell 4,629 74.11% 1,438 23.02% 179 2.87% 3,191 51.09% 6,246
Mercer 17,404 75.03% 4,704 20.28% 1,089 4.69% 12,700 54.75% 23,197
Mineral 9,070 77.71% 2,050 17.56% 551 4.73% 7,020 60.15% 11,671
Mingo 7,911 83.17% 1,370 14.40% 231 2.43% 6,541 68.77% 9,512
Monongalia 18,432 50.13% 14,699 39.97% 3,641 9.90% 3,733 10.16% 36,772
Monroe 4,443 75.92% 1,111 18.98% 298 5.10% 3,332 56.94% 5,852
Morgan 5,732 74.09% 1,573 20.33% 432 5.58% 4,159 53.76% 7,737
Nicholas 7,251 75.70% 1,840 19.21% 488 5.09% 5,411 56.49% 9,579
Ohio 11,139 61.16% 5,493 30.16% 1,582 8.68% 5,646 31.00% 18,214
Pendleton 2,398 73.69% 729 22.40% 127 3.91% 1,669 51.29% 3,254
Pleasants 2,358 74.17% 621 19.53% 200 6.30% 1,737 54.64% 3,179
Pocahontas 2,496 67.92% 928 25.25% 251 6.83% 1,568 42.67% 3,675
Preston 9,538 74.73% 2,470 19.35% 756 5.92% 7,068 55.38% 12,764
Putnam 17,788 70.56% 5,884 23.34% 1,539 6.10% 11,904 47.22% 25,211
Raleigh 22,048 73.76% 6,443 21.55% 1,401 4.69% 15,605 52.21% 29,892
Randolph 7,629 69.55% 2,735 24.93% 605 5.52% 4,894 44.62% 10,969
Ritchie 3,405 82.95% 496 12.08% 204 4.97% 2,909 70.87% 4,105
Roane 3,781 71.12% 1,222 22.99% 313 5.89% 2,559 48.13% 5,316
Summers 3,455 70.61% 1,190 24.32% 248 5.07% 2,265 46.29% 4,893
Taylor 4,733 71.79% 1,491 22.61% 369 5.60% 3,242 49.18% 6,593
Tucker 2,565 73.26% 751 21.45% 185 5.29% 1,814 51.81% 3,501
Tyler 2,996 81.15% 507 13.73% 189 5.12% 2,489 67.42% 3,692
Upshur 7,005 75.34% 1,766 18.99% 527 5.67% 5,239 56.35% 9,298
Wayne 11,152 72.67% 3,357 21.87% 838 5.46% 7,795 50.80% 15,347
Webster 2,302 76.45% 556 18.47% 153 5.08% 1,746 57.98% 3,011
Wetzel 4,519 71.59% 1,359 21.53% 434 6.88% 3,160 50.06% 6,312
Wirt 1,911 78.90% 386 15.94% 125 5.16% 1,525 62.96% 2,422
Wood 25,434 70.51% 8,400 23.29% 2,237 6.20% 17,034 47.22% 36,071
Wyoming 6,547 83.08% 1,062 13.48% 271 3.44% 5,485 69.60% 7,880
Totals 489,371 67.85% 188,794 26.18% 43,096 5.97% 300,577 41.67% 721,261

By congressional district

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Trump won all three congressional districts.[15]

District Trump Clinton Representative
1st 68% 26% David McKinley
2nd 66% 29% Alex Mooney
3rd 73% 23% Evan Jenkins

Polling

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See also: Statewide opinion polling for the United States presidential election, 2016 § West Virginia

Analysis

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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

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References

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  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. ^ a b "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. ^ "Election and voting information" (PDF).
  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.
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