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| Turnout | 67.86%[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 County results Congressional district results Precinct results
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The2016 United States presidential election was held on November 8, 2016, as part of the2016 General Election in which all 50 states plus theDistrict of Columbia participated.South Carolina voters chose electors to represent them in theElectoral College via a popular vote pitting theRepublican nominee, businessmanDonald Trump, and running mateIndiana GovernorMike Pence againstDemocratic nominee, formerSecretary of StateHillary Clinton and her running mate, VirginiaSenatorTim Kaine.
Out of 3.12 million registered voters, 2.10 million voted, a turnout of 67.86%.[1] Trump continued the Republican tradition in South Carolina, carrying the state with 54.9% of the vote. Clinton received 40.7% of the vote, underperformingBarack Obama's2012 performance by about 4%.[2] Trump became the first Republican to win the White House without carryingCharleston County sinceDwight Eisenhower in1956.
As of 2024, this is the last time the Democratic candidate wonClarendon andDillon counties.
On February 20 and 27, 2016, in thepresidential primaries,South Carolina voters expressed their preferences for theRepublican andDemocratic parties' respective nominees for president. Registered members of each party could only vote in their party's primary, while voters who were unaffiliated could choose any one primary in which to vote.
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 South Carolina results by county Hillary Clinton | |||||||||||||||||||
The 59 delegates for theDemocratic National Convention from South Carolina are allocated in this way. There are 53pledged delegates and 6unpledged delegates. For the pledged delegates, each district gets 5 delegates that are allocated proportionally. There are then 18 at-large delegates awarded proportionally.[3]
| South Carolina Democratic primary, February 27, 2016 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Popular vote | Estimated delegates | |||
| Count | Percentage | Pledged | Unpledged | Total | |
| Hillary Clinton | 272,379 | 73.44% | 39 | 5 | 44 |
| Bernie Sanders | 96,498 | 26.02% | 14 | 0 | 14 |
| Willie Wilson | 1,314 | 0.35% | |||
| Martin O'Malley(withdrawn) | 713 | 0.19% | |||
| Uncommitted | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Total votes | 370,904 | 100% | 53 | 6 | 59 |
| Sources:[4][5] | |||||
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 South Carolina results by county Donald Trump Marco Rubio | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Delegates from South Carolina to theRepublican National Convention are awarded in this way. 29 delegates are awarded to the candidate that wins the plurality of the vote in the South Carolina primary. The remaining 21 delegates are allocated by giving the winner of each of the seven congressional districts 3 delegates.[6]
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Actual delegate count | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bound | Unbound | Total | |||
| Donald Trump | 240,882 | 32.51% | 50 | 0 | 50 |
| Marco Rubio | 166,565 | 22.48% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ted Cruz | 165,417 | 22.33% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jeb Bush | 58,056 | 7.84% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| John Kasich | 56,410 | 7.61% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ben Carson | 53,551 | 7.23% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Chris Christie(withdrawn) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Carly Fiorina(withdrawn) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Rand Paul(withdrawn) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Mike Huckabee(withdrawn) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Rick Santorum(withdrawn) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Jim Gilmore(withdrawn) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| George Pataki(withdrawn) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Lindsey Graham(withdrawn) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Unprojected delegates: | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Total: | 740,881 | 100.00% | 50 | 0 | 50 |
| Source:The Green Papers | |||||
On April 30, theGreen Party of South Carolina held its state convention. The public was welcome, but only members and delegates were eligible to vote.[7]
On April 30, it was announced that William Kreml had won the primary.
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage | National delegates |
|---|---|---|---|
| William Kreml | - | - | 5 |
| Jill Stein | - | - | 3 |
| Sedinam Kinamo Christin Moyowasifza Curry | - | - | - |
| Darryl Cherney | - | - | - |
| Kent Mesplay | - | - | - |
| Total | - | 100.00% | 8 |
South Carolina has generally been reckoned to be a solidlyred state ever since it voted forBarry Goldwater in1964. From 1964 on, the Republican ticket has carried South Carolina in every election apart from1976, when the state voted forJimmy Carter, from neighboringGeorgia. The state even spurned Southern DemocratBill Clinton in both his elections, in each of which he carried several other Southern states. The state has not had a DemocraticSenator sinceErnest Hollings retired in 2005, and it has had a Republican majority in itsCongressional delegation since the so-called "Republican Revolution" of1994. Four years prior to the 2016 election, in2012, RepublicanMitt Romney defeatedBarack Obama by 10.5%.
However, in 2016 some commentators suggested that South Carolina might become a battleground state due to polling suggesting Republican dissatisfaction with Trump, as well as the growing effects of in-migration from other states (as in formerly solidly red Virginia and North Carolina).[8] A poll released on August 10 byPublic Policy Polling had Trump leading Clinton by a margin of only 2 points,[8] and an internal poll commissioned for theSouth Carolina Democratic Party had the race tied.[9] This ledLarry Sabato's political prediction websiteSabato's Crystal Ball to move the rating of the South Carolina contest from "Safe Republican" to "Likely Republican" on August 18.[10] In the end, however, Trump carried the state by a comfortable 14.3% margin.
| Source | Ranking | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Times[11] | Safe R | November 6, 2016 |
| CNN[12] | Safe R | November 4, 2016 |
| Cook Political Report[13] | Likely R | November 7, 2016 |
| Electoral-vote.com[14] | Lean R | November 8, 2016 |
| Rothenberg Political Report[15] | Safe R | November 7, 2016 |
| Sabato's Crystal Ball[16] | Safe R | November 7, 2016 |
| RealClearPolitics[17] | Lean R | November 8, 2016 |
| NBC[18] | Lean R | November 7, 2016 |
^Highest rating given
Republican Donald Trump won every pre-election poll, but by varying margins. The last pre-election poll showed Donald Trump leading Clinton 47% to 36%. The average of all polls showed Trump leading 46.2% to 38%.[19]
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Donald Trump | Mike Pence | 1,155,389 | 54.94% | 9 | |
| Democratic | Hillary Clinton | Tim Kaine | 855,373 | 40.67% | 0 | |
| Libertarian | Gary Johnson | Bill Weld | 49,204 | 2.34% | 0 | |
| Independence | Evan McMullin | Nathan Johnson | 21,016 | 1.00% | 0 | |
| Green | Jill Stein | Ajamu Baraka | 13,034 | 0.62% | 0 | |
| Constitution | Darrell L. Castle | Scott N. Bradley | 5,765 | 0.27% | 0 | |
| American (South Carolina)[21] | Peter Skewes | Michael Lacy | 3,246 | 0.15% | 0 | |
| Totals | 2,103,027 | 100.00% | 9 | |||
| County[20] | Donald Trump Republican | Hillary Clinton Democratic | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Abbeville | 6,763 | 62.77% | 3,741 | 34.72% | 271 | 2.51% | 3,022 | 28.05% | 10,775 |
| Aiken | 46,025 | 61.49% | 25,455 | 34.01% | 3,371 | 4.50% | 20,570 | 27.48% | 74,851 |
| Allendale | 789 | 21.97% | 2,735 | 76.14% | 68 | 1.89% | -1,946 | -54.17% | 3,592 |
| Anderson | 56,232 | 69.87% | 21,097 | 26.21% | 3,154 | 3.92% | 35,135 | 43.66% | 80,483 |
| Bamberg | 2,204 | 35.47% | 3,898 | 62.73% | 112 | 1.80% | -1,694 | -27.26% | 6,214 |
| Barnwell | 4,889 | 51.54% | 4,400 | 46.39% | 196 | 2.07% | 489 | 5.15% | 9,485 |
| Beaufort | 42,922 | 54.66% | 32,138 | 40.93% | 3,464 | 4.41% | 10,784 | 13.73% | 78,524 |
| Berkeley | 44,587 | 56.07% | 30,705 | 38.61% | 4,225 | 5.32% | 13,882 | 17.46% | 79,517 |
| Calhoun | 3,787 | 50.17% | 3,573 | 47.33% | 189 | 2.50% | 214 | 2.84% | 7,549 |
| Charleston | 75,443 | 42.78% | 89,299 | 50.64% | 11,603 | 6.58% | -13,856 | -7.86% | 176,345 |
| Cherokee | 15,167 | 69.70% | 6,092 | 28.00% | 500 | 2.30% | 9,075 | 41.70% | 21,759 |
| Chester | 7,265 | 51.19% | 6,579 | 46.36% | 348 | 2.45% | 686 | 4.83% | 14,192 |
| Chesterfield | 9,312 | 56.16% | 6,858 | 41.36% | 411 | 2.48% | 2,454 | 14.80% | 16,581 |
| Clarendon | 7,386 | 47.98% | 7,732 | 50.22% | 277 | 1.80% | -346 | -2.24% | 15,395 |
| Colleton | 9,091 | 52.70% | 7,627 | 44.21% | 533 | 3.09% | 1,464 | 8.49% | 17,251 |
| Darlington | 14,989 | 50.51% | 13,888 | 46.80% | 797 | 2.69% | 1,101 | 3.71% | 29,674 |
| Dillon | 5,637 | 48.19% | 5,834 | 49.87% | 227 | 1.94% | -197 | -1.68% | 11,698 |
| Dorchester | 34,987 | 55.92% | 24,055 | 38.45% | 3,525 | 5.63% | 10,932 | 17.47% | 62,567 |
| Edgefield | 6,842 | 58.76% | 4,491 | 38.57% | 311 | 2.67% | 2,351 | 20.19% | 11,644 |
| Fairfield | 4,027 | 35.74% | 6,945 | 61.64% | 295 | 2.62% | -2,918 | -25.90% | 11,267 |
| Florence | 29,573 | 51.05% | 26,710 | 46.11% | 1,648 | 2.84% | 2,863 | 4.94% | 57,931 |
| Georgetown | 17,389 | 54.93% | 13,310 | 42.04% | 958 | 3.03% | 4,079 | 12.89% | 31,657 |
| Greenville | 127,832 | 59.41% | 74,483 | 34.62% | 12,850 | 5.97% | 53,349 | 24.79% | 215,165 |
| Greenwood | 16,961 | 58.97% | 10,711 | 37.24% | 1,091 | 3.69% | 6,250 | 22.63% | 28,763 |
| Hampton | 3,488 | 39.61% | 5,170 | 58.71% | 148 | 1.68% | -1,682 | -19.10% | 8,806 |
| Horry | 89,288 | 67.17% | 39,410 | 29.65% | 4,222 | 3.18% | 49,878 | 37.52% | 132,920 |
| Jasper | 5,187 | 45.39% | 5,956 | 52.12% | 284 | 2.49% | -769 | -6.73% | 11,427 |
| Kershaw | 17,542 | 60.50% | 10,330 | 35.63% | 1,123 | 3.87% | 7,212 | 24.87% | 28,995 |
| Lancaster | 23,719 | 60.91% | 13,812 | 35.47% | 1,407 | 3.62% | 9,907 | 25.44% | 38,938 |
| Laurens | 16,816 | 63.30% | 8,889 | 33.46% | 861 | 3.24% | 7,927 | 29.84% | 26,566 |
| Lee | 2,803 | 34.37% | 5,199 | 63.74% | 154 | 1.89% | -2,396 | -29.37% | 8,156 |
| Lexington | 80,026 | 65.55% | 35,230 | 28.86% | 6,837 | 5.59% | 44,796 | 36.69% | 122,093 |
| Marion | 5,444 | 38.13% | 8,569 | 60.02% | 263 | 1.85% | -3,125 | -21.88% | 14,276 |
| Marlboro | 4,267 | 41.07% | 5,954 | 57.31% | 168 | 1.62% | -1,687 | -16.24% | 10,389 |
| McCormick | 2,652 | 50.84% | 2,479 | 47.53% | 85 | 1.63% | 173 | 3.31% | 5,216 |
| Newberry | 10,017 | 59.60% | 6,217 | 36.99% | 573 | 3.41% | 3,800 | 22.61% | 16,807 |
| Oconee | 24,178 | 71.88% | 7,998 | 23.78% | 1,459 | 4.34% | 16,180 | 48.10% | 33,635 |
| Orangeburg | 11,931 | 30.66% | 26,318 | 67.64% | 661 | 1.70% | -14,387 | -36.98% | 38,910 |
| Pickens | 36,236 | 73.88% | 10,354 | 21.11% | 2,459 | 5.01% | 25,882 | 52.77% | 49,049 |
| Richland | 52,469 | 31.10% | 108,000 | 64.01% | 8,253 | 4.89% | -55,531 | -32.91% | 168,722 |
| Saluda | 5,526 | 64.53% | 2,813 | 32.85% | 225 | 2.62% | 2,713 | 31.68% | 8,564 |
| Spartanburg | 76,277 | 62.99% | 39,997 | 33.03% | 4,816 | 3.98% | 36,280 | 29.96% | 121,090 |
| Sumter | 18,745 | 42.52% | 24,047 | 54.55% | 1,294 | 2.93% | -5,302 | -12.03% | 44,086 |
| Union | 7,061 | 58.39% | 4,729 | 39.11% | 302 | 2.50% | 2,332 | 19.28% | 12,092 |
| Williamsburg | 4,864 | 32.31% | 9,953 | 66.12% | 237 | 1.57% | -5,089 | -33.81% | 15,054 |
| York | 66,754 | 58.37% | 41,593 | 36.37% | 1,533 | 1.53% | 25,161 | 22.00% | 114,357 |
| Totals | 1,155,389 | 54.94% | 855,373 | 40.67% | 92,265 | 4.39% | 300,016 | 14.27% | 2,103,027 |
| Democratic Hold | Republican Hold Gain from Democratic |
Trump won six of seven congressional districts.[22]
| District | Trump | Clinton | Representative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 53% | 40% | Mark Sanford |
| 2nd | 56% | 38% | Joe Wilson |
| 3rd | 67% | 29% | Jeff Duncan |
| 4th | 60% | 34% | Trey Gowdy |
| 5th | 57% | 39% | Mick Mulvaney |
| 6th | 30% | 67% | Jim Clyburn |
| 7th | 58% | 39% | Tom Rice |
Technically the voters of South Carolina cast their ballots for electors: representatives to theElectoral College. South Carolina is allocated 9 electors because it has 7congressional districts and 2senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 9 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 9 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as afaithless elector.
The electors of each state and theDistrict of Columbia met on December 19, 2016, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.
The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 9 were pledged for Trump/Pence.
State and district results of the2016 United States presidential election | ||
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