2016 United States presidential election in Virginia
The 2016 United States presidential election in 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. Virginia voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting the Republican Party's nominee, businessman Donald Trump, and running mate Indiana Governor Mike Pence against Democratic Party nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine.
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| Turnout | 72.1% (of registered voters) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Democratic Party candidate, Hillary Clinton of New York, carried Virginia with a 49.73% plurality in the popular vote against businessman Donald Trump of New York, who carried 44.41%, a victory margin of 5.32%. Clinton seemed to benefit from having former Virginia governor Tim Kaine on the ticket. Whereas the national popular vote swung 1.77% Republican from the previous election, Virginia swung 1.44% Democratic. (Due to a higher third-party vote, Clinton's percentage was lower than Obama's in both 2008 and 2012, however.)
Conversely, Trump became the first Republican since Calvin Coolidge in 1924 to win the White House without carrying Virginia and Clinton the first Democrat to carry the state without winning the presidency since John W. Davis in that same election. Trump is also the first Republican since Ronald Reagan in 1980 to win the presidency without sweeping every former confederate state. Virginia had been a traditionally Democratic-leaning state from the party's founding until 1952. It then became reliably Republican-leaning from 1952 until 2004, after which point it has voted Democratic in every presidential election. This was due largely to migration into counties in Northern Virginia, close to Washington, D.C., which has further tilted these densely populated areas towards the Democratic Party. This is the most recent election where Virginia voted to the left of Colorado.