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| Turnout | 65.3% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Ward results Precinct resultsClinton 70–80% 80–90% 90–100%
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| Elections in the District of Columbia | ||||||||||||||
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The2016 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia was held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016, as part of the2016 United States presidential election in which all fifty states and theDistrict of Columbia participated. District of Columbia voters chose electors to represent them in theElectoral College via a popular vote, pitting theRepublican Party's nominee, businessmanDonald Trump, and running mateIndiana GovernorMike Pence againstDemocratic Party nominee, formerSecretary of StateHillary Clinton, and her running mate VirginiaSenatorTim Kaine. The District of Columbia has three electoral votes in the Electoral College.[1] Prior to the election, Clinton was considered to be virtually certain to win Washington DC.
Clinton won the election with 282,830 votes, or 90.9%, thereby becoming the first presidential candidate to win over 95% of the district's two-party vote. Trump received 12,723 votes, or 4.1%,[2] which is both the lowest popular vote total and the lowest share of the vote received by any Republican candidate since voters in the District were granted presidential electors under theTwenty-third Amendment.
Notably, Clinton's 86.77-point margin of victory also represented the largest secured by any major-party presidential candidate, in any jurisdiction, sinceFranklin D. Roosevelt's landslide re-election in1944 in Mississippi. It is the largest ever in the district. Trump's 4.1% is the lowest vote share for a major party nominee sinceAlf Landon in the1936 United States presidential election, and the lowest ever in the district. Along with 11 other states, the District of Columbia shifted towards the Democrats in this election.[3]
The incumbentPresident of the United States,Barack Obama, aDemocrat and formerU.S. Senator from Illinois, was first elected president in the2008 election, running with former SenatorJoe Biden of Delaware. Defeating theRepublican nominee, SenatorJohn McCain of Arizona, with 52.9% of the popular vote and 68% of the electoral vote,[4][5] Obama succeeded two-term Republican PresidentGeorge W. Bush, the formerGovernor of Texas. Obama and Biden were reelected in the2012 presidential election, defeating former Massachusetts GovernorMitt Romney with 51.1% of the popular vote and 61.7% of electoral votes.[6] Although Barack Obama's approval rating in theRealClearPolitics poll tracking average remained between 40 and 50 percent for most of his second term, it experienced a surge in early 2016 and reached its highest point since 2012 during June of that year.[7][8] Analyst Nate Cohn noted that a strong approval rating for President Obama would equate to a strong performance for the Democratic candidate, and vice versa.[9]
Following his second term, President Obama was not eligible for another reelection. In October 2015, his running-mate and two-termVice President Biden decided not to enter the race for the Democratic presidential nomination either.[10] With their term expiring on January 20, 2017, the electorate was asked to elect a new president, the 45th president and 48th vice president of the United States, respectively.
Due to the small geographical size of the District of Columbia and the very small number of Republicans in the District, the local Republican party decided go directly to a "state convention", which took place at the Loews Madison Hotel at 1177 15th St NW from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The Convention/Caucus method was chosen because the June 14th primary was deemed too late, and DC would be penalized and only get 16 delegates.[11]
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Actual delegate count | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bound | Unbound | Total | |||
| Marco Rubio | 1,059 | 37.3% | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| John Kasich | 1,009 | 35.54% | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| Donald Trump | 391 | 13.77% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ted Cruz | 351 | 12.36% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jeb Bush(withdrawn) | 14 | 0.49% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rand Paul(withdrawn) | 12 | 0.42% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ben Carson(withdrawn) | 3 | 0.11% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unprojected delegates: | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Total: | 2,839 | 100% | 19 | 0 | 19 |
| Source:The Green Papers | |||||
The Democratic primary was held June 14. The date was chosen because it was thought that by then the race would be over and the voters could then concentrate on local races.
| Candidate | Popular vote | Estimated delegates | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Percentage | Pledged | Unpledged | Total | |
| Hillary Clinton | 76,704 | 77.95% | 16 | 23 | 39 |
| Bernie Sanders | 20,361 | 20.69% | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente | 213 | 0.22% | |||
| Under votes | 611 | 0.62% | |||
| Write-in | 485 | 0.49% | |||
| Over votes | 24 | 0.02% | |||
| Uncommitted | — | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 98,398 | 100% | 20 | 25 | 45 |
| Source:[12][13] | |||||
| County[14] | Clinton | Votes | Sanders | Votes | Totals | TO% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ward 1 | 73.8% | 9,893 | 25.3% | 3,181 | 12,563 | 24.34% |
| Ward 2 | 79.6% | 7,294 | 19.4% | 1,777 | 9,164 | 25.29% |
| Ward 3 | 77.1% | 10,893 | 21.8% | 3,087 | 14,135 | 32.00% |
| Ward 4 | 77.9% | 12,863 | 20.7% | 3,421 | 16,516 | 29.46% |
| Ward 5 | 78.2% | 9,214 | 20.5% | 2,419 | 11,779 | 19.89% |
| Ward 6 | 77.9% | 11,898 | 20.9% | 3,198 | 15,275 | 24.89% |
| Ward 7 | 82.1% | 8,657 | 16.2% | 1,707 | 10,548 | 18.82% |
| Ward 8 | 78.6% | 6,612 | 18.7% | 1,571 | 8,418 | 15.17% |
| Total | 78.0% | 76,704 | 20.7% | 20,361 | 98,398 | 23.42% |
On March 30, ten weeks ahead of the Washington D.C. primary,NBC affiliateNews 4 reported that the Democratic Party'sD.C. State Committee had submitted registration paperwork for listing presidential candidateBernie Sanders on the primary ballots a day late, even though the Sanders campaign had correctly and timely registered with the state party. After a voter filed a challenge, this would possibly lead to Sanders' name being missing on the ballots.[15] As the D.C. Council announced it would hold an emergency vote to put Sanders back on the ballots,[16] and with Clinton's campaign chairmanJohn Podesta asking to make sure an administrative error wouldn't exclude a candidate, D.C. Democratic Party chairwomanAnita Bonds toldCNN that "Bernie will be on the ballot." She further explained that the party has always notified the D.C. board of elections a day after the deadline, with the only difference being that this time, someone challenged the inclusion of Sanders.[17]
TheTwenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961, grants the District of Columbia the right to choose presidential electors equal to the number from the least populous state (currentlyWyoming's three). Since the amendment's ratification, the District of Columbia has cast its electoral votes for the Democratic candidate in every election. A Republican has never been the District'sMayor, and the currentCouncil has 10 Democrats and twoIndependents.
| Source | Ranking | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Times[18] | Safe D | November 6, 2016 |
| CNN[19] | Safe D | November 4, 2016 |
| Cook Political Report[20] | Safe D | November 7, 2016 |
| Electoral-vote.com[21] | Safe D | November 8, 2016 |
| Sabato's Crystal Ball[22] | Safe D | November 7, 2016 |
| Fox News[23] | Safe D | November 7, 2016 |
| 2016 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia[24] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Popular vote | Electoral vote | Swing | ||||
| Count | % | Count | % | ||||||
| Democratic | Hillary Clinton ofNew York | Tim Kaine ofVirginia | 282,830 | 90.86% | 3 | 100.00% |  0.05% | ||
| Republican | Donald Trump ofNew York | Mike Pence ofIndiana | 12,723 | 4.09% | 0 | 0.00% | 3.19% | ||
| Write-in | 6,551 | 2.10% | 0 | 0.00% | |||||
| Libertarian | Gary Johnson ofNew Mexico | Bill Weld ofMassachusetts | 4,906 | 1.58% | 0 | 0.00% | 0.87% | ||
| Green | Jill Stein ofMassachusetts | Ajamu Baraka ofIllinois | 4,258 | 1.37% | 0 | 0.00% | 0.53% | ||
| Total | 311,268 | 100.00% | 3 | 100.00% | |||||
| Ward[25] | Hillary Clinton Democratic | Donald Trump Republican | Various Candidates Other Parties[a] | Margin | Total Votes Cast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Ward 1 | 37,490 | 92.50% | 1,066 | 2.63% | 1,973 | 4.87% | 35,517 | 87.63% | 40,529 |
| Ward 2 | 28,714 | 86.59% | 2,304 | 6.95% | 2,143 | 6.46% | 26,410 | 79.64% | 33,161 |
| Ward 3 | 36,475 | 85.66% | 3,323 | 7.80% | 2,784 | 6.54% | 33,152 | 77.86% | 42,582 |
| Ward 4 | 37,962 | 92.60% | 1,358 | 3.31% | 1,677 | 4.09% | 36,285 | 88.51% | 40,997 |
| Ward 5 | 37,021 | 92.72% | 1,141 | 2.86% | 1,766 | 4.42% | 35,255 | 88.30% | 39,928 |
| Ward 6 | 45,540 | 88.11% | 2,506 | 4.85% | 3,641 | 7.04% | 41,899 | 81.07% | 51,687 |
| Ward 7 | 31,784 | 95.47% | 547 | 1.64% | 961 | 2.89% | 30,823 | 92.58% | 33,292 |
| Ward 8 | 27,844 | 95.71% | 478 | 1.64% | 770 | 2.65% | 27,074 | 93.06% | 29,092 |
| Total | 282,830 | 90.86% | 12,723 | 4.09% | 15,715 | 5.05% | 267,115 | 85.81% | 311,268 |
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