State results reflect a divided nation
Trump made gains in the east and north, while Clinton banked on Latino vote
The 2016 vote was historic on many fronts.
America the melting pot stood up for Hillary Clinton, the first female candidate to run for president, but it was not enough to give her what she needed. The country stands divided. Whatever gains Clinton made thanks to the Latino vote, the women’s vote and with African-American support, Donald Trump’s campaign, trumped her.
To win, 270 electoral votes are needed out of a total of 538 and that number comes from the 435 U.S. Representatives plus 100 U.S. Senators plus 3 electors in the District of Colombia.
“It would be sweet, sweet justice if tonight it was the Latino vote that defeated Donald Trump,” said Ana Navarro, a CNN political analyst. During the campaign, Trump called Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. One of his campaign promises is to build a giant wall between Mexico and America.
Latino voters make up12 per cent of all U.S. eligible voters or 27.3 million people, according to the Pew Research Center. That is an increase of 4 million eligible voters from 2012.
All important Florida, holder of 29 electoral votes and home to a large Latin American population, flipflopped its support on Tuesday night but the sunshine state finally settled on Trump. Florida is known as a purple state, historically flipping back between Democrat blue and Republican red. Both campaigns know this is a battleground state, a must win in order to make it to the White House.
The Clinton team pushed hard in Florida, pushing the Obamas in the state to whip up the African-American vote, said Carlo Dade, a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa’s School of International Development. But it was not enough.
“The Latino vote is in an odd place. The Cuban vote is lumped with Latinos but they vote differently than Mexican Americans, who are the vast majority of ‘Latino’ voters,” said Dade. While younger Cuban Americans voted for Obama in 2012, older Cubans traditionally voted Republican, he said.
Former Republican presidential candidate, Marco Rubio, won his Florida Senate seat.
In Ohio, a rust belt state, there is a well known saying, “As Ohio goes, so goes the nation.” No Republican presidential candidate has gone to the White House without winning Ohio. And only two Democrats in the last100 years -- Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 and John F. Kennedy in 1960 -- won without Ohio, notes The Columbus Dispatch.
Both campaigns are well aware of the historic importance of Ohio. The Clinton campaign spent $46 million (U.S.) on advertising in Ohio, according to CNBC, while the Trump campaign spent less than half of that at $19 million. The economy is an important issue in Ohio, Trump knew it and promised change and he won the state.
In Michigan, it was a nail-biter as Trump continued to make gains throughout Tuesday night and Clinton was under performing. Clinton needed a big turn out from the African-American vote in Detroit.
Clinton did win her home state of New York, where both she and Trump voted on Tuesday. Both the Trump and Clinton campaigns held their end of election parties in Manhattan. And in Illinois, the state where Clinton was born, she won.
From the start of this lengthy election, Americans were not thrilled with either candidate. Both were polling under 50 per cent in popularity with voters by early November.
The first results of the night to be reported came from Kentucky, that showed to no surprise, that Trump would take the 8 electoral vote state. Trump campaigned hard in support of laid off coal miners in the usually Republican red state. In Indiana, a state with 11 electoral votes, also came out to vote Trump.
In New Hampshire, Clinton won the important, tiny, Dixville Notch precinct, taking four votes to Donald Trump’s 2 votes while Libertarian Gary Johnson gained one vote. The last vote was for Republican Mitt Romney, who lost the 2012 presidential election to Barack Obama. The precinct, always the first to report, has predicted three of the last four presidential elections. In 2016, the state was leaning Republican.
In former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders home state of Vermont, Clinton handily won.
Georgia, where more than 60 per cent of the electorate is white and 16 electoral votes were at stake, Trump held firm. Romney won the state in 2012.
In Virginia, a Democratic stronghold under Obama in 2012 and holder of 13 electoral votes, the Clinton team was optimistic but early on, the race was tight. Clinton eventually won there. The state is normally split in who it votes for — the Washington, D.C. suburbs are heavily democratic but the state becomes more Republican the further south you go.
North Carolina, a classic swing state of 15 electoral votes, went back and forward on Tuesday before settling with Trump. Democratic vicepresidential candidate Tim Kaine, has called it the “checkmate state.” In the last election, Romney held it but Clinton did well in the polls leading up to the election.
Electoral unrest was predicted even before the polls officially closed on Tuesday when a Nevada judge refused a request from the Trump campaign to separate and segregate ballots gathered from four voting machines that were open early in Clark County. Record numbers of Latino voters had shown up to vote early. The Trump campaign staff argued the polling stations were kept open for an extra two hours and should not have been.
The Nevada court challenge may be the first in a long line of “rigged election” claims by the Trump camp, said Dade.
“If your voter base isn’t growing, you try and lessen the other guys too,” said Dade, who is based in Calgary at the Canada West Foundation.