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Federal and municipal elections were held in theU.S. state ofVirginia on November 8, 2016. All of Virginia's House of Representatives seats were up for re-election.Primary elections for Congress were held on June 14, 2016, and primary elections for president were held on March 1, 2016.
All four major party candidates on the ballot won their state primaries. Hillary Clinton defeatedBernie Sanders in theDemocratic primary by 64–35 percent margin. Donald Trump defeatedMarco Rubio by a 34–31. Additionally, in the Republican primary,Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Ben Carson earned enough votes in Virginia's primary to receive delegates, although they all suspended their campaign before the2016 Republican National Convention. The Libertarian Party did not hold a primary in Virginia, where Gary Johnson received acclamation.Jill Stein defeated Kent Mesplay by a 76–6 percent margin in the state's Green Party primary. Mesplay and Stein were the only two candidates on the ballot to receive delegates to send to the2016 Green National Convention.
The Democratic Party candidate, former secretary of stateHillary Clinton ofNew York, carried Virginia with 49.8% of the popular vote against businessmanDonald Trump of New York, who carried 44.4%, a victory margin of 5.4%. Clinton seemed to benefit from having Tim Kaine on the ticket. Whereas the national popular vote swung 1.9% Republican from theprevious election, Virginia swung 1.37% Democratic.[1] Virginia was among the eleven states in which Hillary Clinton outperformed Barack Obama's margin in 2012.[1]
Trump became the first Republican candidate sinceCalvin Coolidge in 1924 to win the White House without carrying Virginia. It has not voted Republican in 12 years. Before2008, Virginia had not voted for a Democrat since1964. Virginia is appearing to become traditionally Democratic for the first time in nearly 70 years. This is due largely to migration into counties inNorthern Virginia close toWashington D.C., which has tilted those densely populated areas towards the Democratic Party. Virginia was the only state in the eleven former states that belonged to theConfederate States of America to vote Democratic. This is a reversal from1976, when it was the only state that had belonged to the CSA to vote Republican.
| United States presidential election in Virginia, 2016 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Democratic | Hillary Clinton | Tim Kaine | 1,981,473 | 49.75% | 13 | |
| Republican | Donald Trump | Mike Pence | 1,769,443 | 44.43% | 0 | |
| Libertarian | Gary Johnson | William Weld | 118,274 | 2.97% | 0 | |
| Independent | Evan McMullin | Mindy Finn | 54,054 | 1.36% | 0 | |
| Green | Jill Stein | Ajamu Baraka | 27,638 | 0.69% | 0 | |
| Independent (Write-in) | - | - | 31,870 | 0.80% | 0 | |
| Totals | 3,982,752 | 100.00% | 13 | |||
| Voter turnout (Voting age population) | 71.30% | |||||
| Source:Virginia Department of ElectionsArchived 2016-12-23 at theWayback Machine | ||||||
Voters rejected Question 1 to place a right-to-work provision in the state constitution, but passed Question 2 to grant a property tax exemption to a surviving spouse of an emergency service (police, firefighter, emergency medical services, or search and rescue) employee that was killed in action if the spouse uses the property as their primary residence and they have not remarried.
The cities of Richmond and Virginia Beach had municipal citywide elections for mayor and city council. Democratic candidate,Levar Stoney was elected as mayor of Richmond. Incumbent Republican,Will Sessoms was reelected as mayor of Virginia Beach. DemocratKenny Alexander won the election as mayor of Norfolk.
