Economy

These Are the States Where Clinton Won the Popular Vote in 2016

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Viewed through the lens of the Electoral College, Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton badly in 2016: 304 to 227. However, part of the election story was that Clinton won the popular vote nationwide by 2.8 million votes. Clinton ended up with the most votes in a full 20 states. In some cases, the results were not even close, as Clinton’s vote total far outran that of Trump.
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The state where Clinton’s popular vote advantage was the biggest by population was California. She received 4.3 million more votes than Trump there, a landslide based on her 8.8 million votes to his 4.5 million. That means more than her total national advantage was from votes in the state.

She also trounced him in New York State. Her advantage was 1.7 million. She won 4.5 million, compared to Trump’s 2.8 million.


New York State was not an exception. She carried much of the Northeast. In New Jersey, she won by 546,000 votes on her way to a 2.1 million total. In Connecticut, she won by 248,000, for a total of 898,000. In Maine, she won by 22,000, as her total reached 357,000. In New Hampshire, she had a tiny edge of 2,000 as she received 349,000. In Rhode Island, her margin was 72,000, for a total of 252,000. And she won by 83,000 in Vermont, for a total vote of 178,000.

Her two most important wins, based on what it gave her in the electoral vote, were Virginia, where she won by 212,000 on a total vote of just shy of 2 million, and Illinois, where her margin was 944,000, for a total of 3.1 million.

As the following table below shows, the states that cost her dearly were Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio. It is left to Joe Biden whether he can put these states in his column come November 3.

State Trump (R) Clinton (D) Total Popular Vote
Alabama 1,318,255 (62.1%) 729,547 (34.4%) 2,123,372
Alaska 163,387 (51.3%) 116,454 (36.6%) 318,608
Arizona 1,252,401 (48.7%) 1,161,167 (45.1%) 2,573,165
Arkansas 684,872 (60.6%) 380,494 (33.7%) 1,130,676
California 4,483,814 (31.6%) 8,753,792 (61.7%) 14,181,604
Colorado 1,202,484 (43.3%) 1,338,870 (48.2%) 2,780,247
Connecticut 673,215 (40.9%) 897,572 (54.6%) 1,644,920
Delaware 185,127 (41.7%) 235,603 (53.1%) 443,814
District of Columbia 12,723 (4.1%) 282,830 (90.9%) 311,268
Florida 4,617,886 (49.0%) 4,504,975 (47.8%) 9,420,039
Georgia 2,089,104 (50.8%) 1,877,963 (45.6%) 4,114,732
Hawaii 128,847 (30.0%) 266,891 (62.2%) 428,937
Idaho 409,055 (59.3%) 189,765 (27.5%) 690,255
Illinois 2,146,015 (38.8%) 3,090,729 (55.8%) 5,536,424
Indiana 1,557,286 (56.9%) 1,033,126 (37.8%) 2,734,958
Iowa 800,983 (51.1%) 653,669 (41.7%) 1,566,031
Kansas 671,018 (56.7%) 427,005 (36.1%) 1,184,402
Kentucky 1,202,971 (62.5%) 628,854 (32.7%) 1,924,149
Louisiana 1,178,638 (58.1%) 780154 (38.4%) 2,029,032
Maine 335,593 (44.9%) 357,735 (47.8%) 747,927
Maryland 943,169 (33.9%) 1,677,928 (60.3%) 2,781,446
Massachusetts 1,090,893 (32.8%) 1,995,196 (60.0%) 3,325,046
Michigan 2,279,543 (47.5%) 2,268,839 (47.3%) 4,799,284
Minnesota 1,322,951 (44.9%) 1,367,716 (46.4%) 2,944,813
Mississippi 700,714 (57.9%) 485,131 (40.1%) 1,209,357
Missouri 1,594,511 (56.8%) 1,071,068 (38.1%) 2,808,605
Montana 279,240 (56.2%) 177,709 (35.7%) 497,147
Nebraska 495,961 (58.7%) 284,494 (33.7%) 844,227
Nevada 512,058 (45.5%) 539,260 (47.9%) 1,125,385
New Hampshire 345,790 (46.5%) 348,526 (46.8%) 744,296
New Jersey 1,601,933 (41.4%) 2,148,278 (55.5%) 3,874,046
New Mexico 319,667 (40.0%) 385,234 (48.3%) 798,319
New York 2,819,533 (36.5%) 4,556,118 (59.0%) 7,721,442
North Carolina 2,362,631 (49.8%) 2,189,316 (46.2%) 4,741,564
North Dakota 216,794 (63.0%) 93,758 (27.2%) 344,360
Ohio 2,841,005 (51.7%) 2,394,164 (43.6%) 5,496,487
Oklahoma 949,136 (65.3%) 420,375 (28.9%) 1,452,992
Oregon 782,403 (39.1%) 1,002,106 (50.1%) 2,001,336
Pennsylvania 2,970,733 (48.2%) 2,926,441 (47.5%) 6,165,478
Rhode Island 180,543 (39.9%) 252,525 (54.4%) 464,144
South Carolina 1,155,389 (54.9%) 855,373 (40.7%) 2,103,027
South Dakota 227,721 (61.5%) 117,458 (31.7%) 370,093
Tennessee 1,522,925 (60.7%) 870,695 (34.7%) 2,508,027
Texas 4,685,047 (52.2%) 3,877,868 (43.2%) 8,969,226
Utah 515,231 (45.5%) 310,676 (27.5%) 1,131,430
Vermont 95,369 (30.3%) 178,573 (56.7%) 315,067
Virginia 1,769,443 (44.4%) 1,981,473 (49.7%) 3,984,631
Washington 1,221,747 (36.8%) 1,742,718 (52.5%) 3,317,019
West Virginia 489,371 (68.5%) 188,794 (26.4%) 714,423
Wisconsin 1,405,284 (47.2%) 1,382,536 (46.5%) 2,976,150
Wyoming 174,419 (68.2%) 55,973 (21.9%) 255,849
Total: 62,984,828 (46.1%) 65,853,514 (48.2%) 136,669,276


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