2016 United States presidential election in Kentucky


The 2016 United States presidential election in Kentucky was held on November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 General Election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Kentucky voters chose 8 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.
On March 5 and May 17, 2016, in the presidential primaries, Kentucky voters expressed their preferences for the Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian parties' respective nominees for president. Registered members of each party only voted in their party's primary, while voters who were unaffiliated were unable to vote.
Although Kentucky was won twice by southern Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, Donald Trump easily carried Kentucky with 62.52% of the vote, to 32.68% of the vote for Hillary Clinton, a margin of 29.84%. Trump won Kentucky by the largest margin of any Republican since Richard Nixon in 1972, and swept counties across the state. Clinton only carried the state's two most urban and populous counties, Jefferson County, home to Louisville, and Fayette County, home to Lexington, both of which traditionally vote Democratic. The Bluegrass State had also been one of eleven states to have voted twice for Bill Clinton, but only for Hillary Clinton to lose in 2016.
In the nearly 150-year history of Elliott County, it had voted Democratic in every presidential election. Trump ended that tradition and won Elliott County handily with 2,000 votes to Clinton's 740, or 70%–26%.
Trump's victory in Kentucky made it his fifth strongest state in the 2016 election after West Virginia, Wyoming, Oklahoma and North Dakota.

Primary elections

Republican caucus

In order to avoid a local law forbidding one candidate to run for two offices in the same primary, Rand Paul paid to have a presidential caucus, which took place on March 5. Paul dropped out prior to this.

Democratic primary

Four candidates appeared on the Democratic presidential primary ballot:

Predictions

The following are final 2016 predictions from various organizations for Kentucky as of Election Day.
  1. Los Angeles Times: Strongly Trump
  2. CNN: Solid Trump
  3. Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Trump
  4. NBC: Likely Trump
  5. RealClearPolitics: Solid Trump
  6. Fox News: Solid Republican
  7. ABC: Solid Trump

    Results

By county

By congressional district

Trump won 5 of 6 congressional districts.
DistrictTrumpClintonRepresentative
72%24%Ed Whitfield
72%24%James Comer
68%28%Brett Guthrie
40%55%John Yarmuth
65%29%Thomas Massie
80%18%Hal Rogers
55%39%Andy Barr

Counties that swung from Democratic to Republican