2016 United States presidential election in Nevada

2016 United States presidential election in Nevada

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Turnout	76.83%
Nominee Hillary Clinton Donald Trump Party Democratic Republican Home state New York New York Running mate Tim Kaine Mike Pence Electoral vote 6 0 Popular vote 539,260 512,058 Percentage 47.92% 45.50%
County Results Clinton   40–50%   50–60% Trump   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%
President before election Barack Obama Democratic Elected President Donald Trump Republican

Elections in Nevada
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Ballot measures 2002 and 2016 2002 Nevada Question 2 2016 Nevada Question 2
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Reno 2018
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The 2016 United States presidential election in Nevada was held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Nevada 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. Nevada has six votes in the Electoral College.^[1]

Clinton won the state with 47.92% of the vote, while Trump won 45.5%, which represents a tight margin between the two. Clinton's vote share marked a considerable decline from the vote shares Barack Obama got from the state in 2008 and 2012. With his overall victory in the presidential election, Trump became the first Republican since William Howard Taft in 1908 to win the presidency without Nevada, and the first since William McKinley in 1900 to do so without carrying Washoe County. As of 2021, this is the only election cycle since 1976 in which Nevada has voted for the losing presidential candidate.

Primary elections[]

Democratic caucuses[]

The 2016 Nevada Democratic caucuses took place on February 20 in the U.S. state of Nevada, traditionally marking the Democratic Party's third nominating contest in their series of presidential primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

With all other candidates having dropped out of the race ahead of the Nevada caucuses, the two remaining candidates were Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.^[2]

Process[]

Of the total number of 43 delegates the Nevada Democratic Party may send to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, 35 are pledged and 8 are unpledged.

The delegate selection process is a system with three levels:

1. The first step in the delegate selection process were the precinct caucuses on February 20, which elected about 12,000 delegates to the county conventions.
2. At the county conventions on April 2, the county delegates selected about 4,000 delegates to the state convention.
3. At the state convention on May 14–15, the final 35 pledged delegates to the National Convention will be selected. 23 of them are allocated proportionally based on congressional district results, whereas the remaining 12 are allocated based on the state convention as a whole.

A majority of participants at the February caucuses supported Hillary Clinton. However, the county conventions on April 2, 2016, resulted in more Sanders delegates than Clinton delegates being sent to the state convention in May.

Debates and forums[]

October 2015 debate in Las Vegas

On October 13, 2015, the Democratic Party's first debate was held at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. Hosted by Anderson Cooper, it aired on CNN and was broadcast on radio by Westwood One. Participants were the candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Jim Webb, Martin O'Malley, and Lincoln Chafee. It was the only debate appearance of Chafee and Webb, who ended their campaigns on October 23 and October 20, respectively.

February 2016 forum in Las Vegas

On February 18, MSNBC and Telemundo hosted a forum in Las Vegas.

Caucus Results[]

Nevada Democratic caucuses, February 20, 2016
Candidate	County delegates		Estimated delegates
	Count	Percentage	Pledged	Unpledged	Total
Hillary Clinton	6,440	52.64%	20	4	24
Bernie Sanders	5,785	47.29%	15	1	16
Uncommitted	8	0.07%	0	3	3
Total	12,233	100%	35	8	43
Source: The Green Papers

County Conventions[]

The County Conventions were marked by bickering between Clinton and Sanders supporters, most notably in Clark County,^[3] which had been won by Clinton during the caucuses and led to the attempted arrest of the head of the credentials committee, Sanders supporter Christine Kramar, after the Clinton supporters on the Clark Country Democratic committee attempted to depose her from her position. Kramar had discovered that the Clark County Democratic Party had been having private correspondence with only Clinton's campaign, as opposed to both campaigns.

The results statewide goes as follows:^[4] Sanders 3846 (55.23%) Clinton 2124 (44.77%)

Sanders won most of the northern counties in Nevada, including Washoe County, and Clinton won most of the southern counties, including Clark County.

State Convention[]

The state convention was held in May as the final stage of the delegate selection process. Supports of Senator Sanders were angered when Party officials declined to accept the credentials of close to 60 pro-Sanders delegates. Nevada Democratic Party Chairwoman, Roberta Lange, allegedly received numerous death threats and threats to the lives of her family and grandchildren; a criminal investigation has yet to confirm these claims or the identities of those allegedly involved. At the convention, Sanders supporters protested until the staff cancelled the event.^[5][6] The event was later criticized as being violent, although there is no evidence that violence occurred.^[7]

Despite charges by Sanders supporters that the convention was rigged against their candidate, according to Jon Ralston,^[6] "the facts reveal that the Sanders folks disregarded rules, then when shown the truth, attacked organizers and party officials as tools of a conspiracy to defraud the senator of what was never rightfully his in the first place."^[6][8] After Sanders campaign Chair Jeff Weaver repeated assertions of process-rigging by Democratic Party officials, Politifact examined the evidence and concluded that, while the Party's selection process was "arcane" and "incredibly confusing", the fact is that "Clinton’s supporters simply turned out (attended the Convention) in larger numbers and helped her solidify her delegate lead." Moreover, according to Politifact: "There’s no clear evidence the state party 'hijacked' the process or ignored 'regular procedure.'"^[9]

The Nevada Democratic Party wrote to the Democratic National Committee accusing Sanders supporters of having a "penchant for extra-parliamentary behavior — indeed, actual violence — in place of democratic conduct in a convention setting."^[10] Sanders responded by denouncing the alleged use of violence while asserting that they were not treated with "fairness and respect" in a statement.^[10]

In a TV segment, comedian Samantha Bee reported on the fracas,^[11][12] as did Last Week Tonight with John Oliver^[13] and Late Night with Seth Meyers in "A Closer Look" segment.^[14]

Republican caucus[]

Delegates from Nevada to the Republican National Convention were allocated proportionally based on the caucus results.

This section should include a summary of Nevada Republican caucuses, 2016. See Wikipedia:Summary style for information on how to incorporate it into this article's main text. (April 2016)

Nevada Republican precinct caucuses, February 23, 2016

Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Actual delegate count
			Bound	Unbound	Total
Donald Trump	34,531	45.75%	14	0	14
Marco Rubio	17,940	23.77%	7	0	7
Ted Cruz	16,079	21.30%	6	0	6
Ben Carson	3,619	4.79%	2	0	2
John Kasich	2,709	3.59%	1	0	1
Invalid	266	0.35%	0	0	0
Rand Paul (withdrawn)	170	0.23%	0	0	0
Jeb Bush (withdrawn)	64	0.08%	0	0	0
Chris Christie (withdrawn)	50	0.07%	0	0	0
Carly Fiorina (withdrawn)	22	0.03%	0	0	0
Mike Huckabee (withdrawn)	21	0.03%	0	0	0
Rick Santorum (withdrawn)	11	0.01%	0	0	0
Jim Gilmore (withdrawn)			0	0	0
Unprojected delegates:			0	0	0
Total:	75,482	100.00%	30	0	30
Source: The Green Papers

General election[]

Polling[]

From the first poll conducted in May 2016, and throughout the summer, the race was a complete tossup with neither Clinton nor Trump having a large lead. Clinton won most polls in the summer by 1-2 points. From late September till October 20, Clinton won or tied in every poll. On October 20, Trump won a poll 47% to 44%. The race was neck and neck until election day, with neither candidate taking a significant lead. The average of the final 3 polls had Clinton up 45.6% to 45% for Trump.^[15]

Predictions[]

The following are final 2016 predictions from various organizations for Nevada as of Election Day.

Source	Ranking	As of
Los Angeles Times[16]	Lean D	November 6, 2016
CNN[17]	Tossup	November 8, 2016
Rothenberg Political Report[18]	Tilt D	November 7, 2016
Sabato's Crystal Ball[19]	Lean D	November 7, 2016
NBC[20]	Lean D	November 7, 2016
Electoral-vote.com[21]	Tossup	November 7, 2016
RealClearPolitics[22]	Tossup	November 8, 2016
Fox News[23]	Lean D	November 7, 2016
ABC[24]	Lean D	November 7, 2016

Results[]

Presidential general election, November 8, 2016^[25]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Hillary Clinton	539,260	47.92%
	Republican	Donald Trump	512,058	45.50%
	Libertarian	Gary Johnson	37,384	3.29%
		None of these candidates	28,863	2.54%
	Constitution	Darrell Castle	5,268	0.46%
	Reform	Rocky de la Fuente	2,552	0.23%
Total votes			1,125,385	100.00%

On the congressional district level, Hillary Clinton won the 1st district and the 4th district, and Donald Trump won the 2nd district and the 3rd district.^[26]

By county[]

	Hillary Rodham Clinton Democratic		Donald John Trump Republican		Various candidates Various parties
County	%	#	%	#	%	#	Total
Carson City	38.42%	9,610	52.47%	13,125	9.12%	2,281	25,016
Churchill	20.20%	2,210	71.59%	7,830	8.21%	898	10,938
Clark	52.43%	402,227	41.72%	320,057	5.85%	44,872	767,156
Douglas	30.32%	8,454	62.45%	17,415	7.23%	2,016	27,885
Elko	18.33%	3,401	73.02%	13,551	8.66%	1,607	18,559
Esmeralda	15.37%	65	77.78%	329	6.86%	29	423
Eureka	8.67%	74	84.66%	723	6.67%	57	854
Humboldt	21.55%	1,386	70.28%	4,521	8.18%	526	6,433
Lander	16.70%	403	75.76%	1,828	7.54%	182	2,413
Lincoln	13.37%	285	78.38%	1,671	8.26%	176	2,132
Lyon	25.86%	6,146	67.36%	16,005	6.78%	1,611	23,762
Mineral	31.90%	637	59.04%	1,179	9.06%	181	1,997
Nye	26.00%	5,094	68.00%	13,324	6.01%	1,177	19,595
Pershing	21.70%	430	70.79%	1,403	7.52%	149	1,982
Storey	29.40%	752	63.17%	1,616	7.43%	190	2,558
Washoe	46.39%	97,379	45.14%	94,758	8.47%	17,772	209,909
White Pine	18.74%	707	72.17%	2,723	9.09%	343	3,773

By congressional district[]

Clinton and Trump each won 2 of the state's 4 congressional districts, with Trump carrying a district that elected a Democrat in the same cycle.^[27]

District	Trump	Clinton	Representative
1st	33%	62%	Dina Titus
2nd	52%	40%	Mark Amodei
3rd	48%	47%	Joe Heck
			Jacky Rosen
4th	45%	50%	Cresent Hardy
			Ruben Kihuen

Analysis[]

Hillary Clinton won the state over nationwide winner Donald Trump, marking the third presidential election in a row that Nevada has voted Democratic. Most counties in the state of Nevada are rural, and voted heavily for Trump. As a whole, the rural counties outside of Las Vegas and Reno gave Donald Trump a 66-27 margin. However, Clinton won the state's two most populous counties, Clark County and Washoe County, which contain about 85% of the state's population, and thus won the state's electoral votes. Compared to 2012, Clinton's margin of victory was narrower in these two counties and statewide.

This is the second time since 1908, and first time since 1976, that Nevada voted for a candidate who did not win the general election.

References[]

External links[]

• RNC 2016 Republican Nominating Process
• Green papers for 2016 primaries, caucuses, and conventions
• Green papers for the 2016 Nevada caucuses and convention