2016 United States presidential election in South Carolina explained

See main article: article and 2016 United States presidential election.

Election Name:	2016 United States presidential election in South Carolina
Country:	South Carolina
Type:	presidential
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	2012 United States presidential election in South Carolina
Previous Year:	2012
Election Date:	November 8, 2016
Next Election:	2020 United States presidential election in South Carolina
Next Year:	2020
Turnout:	67.86%^[1]
Image1:	Donald Trump official portrait (cropped).jpg
Nominee1:	Donald Trump
Party1:	Republican Party (United States)
Home State1:	New York
Running Mate1:	Mike Pence
Electoral Vote1:	9
Popular Vote1:	1,155,389
Percentage1:
Nominee2:	Hillary Clinton
Party2:	Democratic Party (United States)
Home State2:	New York
Running Mate2:	Tim Kaine
Electoral Vote2:	0
Popular Vote2:	855,373
President
Before Election:	Barack Obama
Before Party:	Democratic Party (United States)
After Election:	Donald Trump
After Party:	Republican Party (United States)

The 2016 United States presidential election was held on November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 General Election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. South Carolina voters chose 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.

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, underperforming Barack Obama's 2012 performance by about 4%.^[2] Trump became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Charleston County since Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.

Primary elections

On February 20 and 27, 2016, in the presidential primaries, South Carolina voters expressed their preferences for the Republican and Democratic 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.

Democratic primary

Election Name:	South Carolina Democratic primary, 2016
Country:	South Carolina
Type:	presidential
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	South Carolina Democratic primary, 2012
Previous Year:	2012
Next Election:	2020 South Carolina Democratic primary
Next Year:	2020
Image1:	Hillary Clinton by Gage Skidmore 2.jpg
Candidate1:	Hillary Clinton
Home State1:	New York
Delegate Count1:	39
Popular Vote1:	272,379
Percentage1:	73.44%
Map Size:	250px
Color1:	d4aa00
Candidate2:	Bernie Sanders
Color2:	228b22
Home State2:	Vermont
Delegate Count2:	14
Popular Vote2:	96,498
Percentage2:	26.02%

See main article: article and 2016 South Carolina Democratic primary. The 59 delegates for the Democratic National Convention from South Carolina are allocated in this way. There are 53 pledged delegates and 6 unpledged delegates. For the pledged delegates, each district gets 5 delegates that are allocated proportionally. There are then 18 at-large delegates awarded proportionally.^[3]

Republican primary

Election Name:	South Carolina Republican primary, 2016
Country:	South Carolina
Type:	presidential
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	South Carolina Republican primary, 2012
Previous Year:	2012
Next Election:	South Carolina Republican primary, 2020
Next Year:	2020
Image1:	Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore 10 (cropped).jpg
Candidate1:	Donald Trump
Home State1:	New York
Delegate Count1:	50
Popular Vote1:	240,882
Percentage1:	32.51%
Map Size:	250px
Color1:	283681
Candidate2:	Marco Rubio
Color2:	c60e3b
Home State2:	Florida
Delegate Count2:	0
Popular Vote2:	166,565
Percentage2:	22.48%
Image3:	Ted Cruz by Gage Skidmore 10 (cropped).jpg
Candidate3:	Ted Cruz
Color3:	d4aa00
Home State3:	Texas
Delegate Count3:	0
Popular Vote3:	165,417
Percentage3:	22.33%
Image4:	Jeb Bush by Gage Skidmore 2 (cropped).jpg
Candidate4:	Jeb Bush
Color4:	8622ff
Home State4:	Florida
Delegate Count4:	0
Popular Vote4:	58,056
Percentage4:	7.84%
Image5:	John Kasich (24618295175) (cropped).jpg
Candidate5:	John Kasich
Color5:	29ab87
Home State5:	Ohio
Delegate Count5:	0
Popular Vote5:	56,410
Percentage5:	7.61%
Image6:	Ben Carson by Skidmore with lighting correction (cropped).jpg
Candidate6:	Ben Carson
Color6:	98d5e9
Home State6:	Virginia
Delegate Count6:	0
Popular Vote6:	53,551
Percentage6:	7.23%

See main article: article and 2016 South Carolina Republican primary. Delegates from South Carolina to the Republican 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.^[4]

Green state convention

On April 30, the Green Party of South Carolina held its state convention. The public was welcome, but only members and delegates were eligible to vote.^[5]

On April 30, it was announced that William Kreml had won the primary.

South Carolina Green Party presidential convention, April 17, 2016

Candidate	Votes	Percentage	National delegates
William Kreml	-	-	5
Jill Stein	-	-	3
Sedinam Kinamo Christin Moyowasifza Curry	-	-	-
Darryl Cherney	-	-	-
Kent Mesplay	-	-	-
Total	-	100.00%	8

General election

Voting History

See main article: article and Political party strength in South Carolina. South Carolina has generally been reckoned to be a solidly red state ever since it voted for Barry Goldwater in 1964. From 1964 on, the Republican ticket has carried South Carolina in every election apart from 1976, when the state voted for Jimmy Carter, from neighboring Georgia. The state even spurned Southern Democrat Bill Clinton in both his elections, in each of which he carried several other Southern states. The state has not had a Democratic Senator since Ernest Hollings retired in 2005, and it has had a Republican majority in its Congressional delegation since the so-called "Republican Revolution" of 1994. Four years prior to the 2016 election, in 2012, Republican Mitt Romney defeated Barack 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).^[6] A poll released on August 10 by Public Policy Polling had Trump leading Clinton by a margin of only 2 points, and an internal poll commissioned for the South Carolina Democratic Party had the race tied.^[7] This led Larry Sabato's political prediction website Sabato's Crystal Ball to move the rating of the South Carolina contest from "Safe Republican" to "Likely Republican" on August 18.^[8] In the end, however, Trump carried the state by a comfortable 14.3% margin.

Predictions

Source	Ranking	As of
Los Angeles Times^[9]		November 6, 2016
CNN^[10]		November 4, 2016
Cook Political Report^[11]		November 7, 2016
Electoral-vote.com^[12]		November 8, 2016
align=left	Rothenberg Political Report^[13]		November 7, 2016
Sabato's Crystal Ball^[14]		November 7, 2016
RealClearPolitics^[15]		November 8, 2016
NBC^[16]		November 7, 2016

^Highest rating given

Polling

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%.^[17]

Results

United States presidential election in South Carolina, 2016

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		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 Castle	Scott Bradley	5,765	0.27%	0
	American (South Carolina)^[18]	Peter Skewes	Michael Lacy	3,246	0.15%	0
Totals				2,103,027	100.00%	9

By congressional district

Trump won 6 of 7 congressional districts.

District	Trump	Clinton	Representative
		53%	41%		Mark Sanford
		57%	38%		Joe Wilson
		67%	29%		Jeff Duncan
		60%	34%		Trey Gowdy
		57%	39%		Mick Mulvaney
		30%	67%		Jim Clyburn
		58%	39%		Tom Rice

By county

County	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		-27.76%		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

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Barnwell (largest city: Barnwell)
• Calhoun (largest town: St. Matthews)
• Chester (largest city: Chester)
• Colleton (largest city: Walterboro)
• Darlington (largest city: Hartsville)
• McCormick (largest town: McCormick)

Electors

See main article: List of 2016 United States presidential electors.

Technically the voters of South Carolina cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. South Carolina is allocated 9 electors because it has 7 congressional districts and 2 senators. 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 a faithless elector.

The electors of each state and the District 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.

• Glenn McCall
• Matt Moore
• Terry Hardesty
• Jim Ulmer
• Brenda Bedenbaugh
• Bill Conley
• Shery Smith
• Moye Graham
• Jerry Rovner^[19]

External links

• RNC 2016 Republican Nominating Process
• Green papers for 2016 primaries, caucuses, and conventions

Notes and References

1. Web site: South Carolina Voter Registration Demographics . . scvotes.org . 13 June 2017 . 20 December 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161220102612/https://www.scvotes.org/cgi-bin/scsec/96vr?countykey=ALL&D1=ALL . dead .
2. News: South Carolina Results . . August 2017 . 30 September 2020.
3. Web site: South Carolina Democratic Delegation 2016. www.thegreenpapers.com. 2017-02-22.
4. News: Is The South Carolina Primary Winner Take All? There's A Lot At Stake In The Palmetto State. Carrejo. Cate. 2017-02-22.
5. Web site: 2016 South Carolina Green Party state convention. South Carolina Green Party . 2016-03-10. 2016-03-12.
6. Web site: Clinton/Trump Race Tight in South Carolina. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160815062335/http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2016/08/clintontrump-race-tight-in-south-carolina.html. 15 August 2016. 24 August 2016. Public Policy Polling. Public Policy Polling.
7. Web site: Master. Cyra. 23 August 2016. Poll: Clinton tied with Trump in SC. 24 August 2016. The Hill. Capitol Hill Publishing Corp..
8. Web site: Kondik. Kyle. Sabato. Larry. Skelley. Geoffrey. Clinton Rises to 348 Electoral Votes, Trump Drops to 190. 24 August 2016. Sabato's Crystal Ball. University of Virginia Center for Politics.
9. News: Our final map has Clinton winning with 352 electoral votes. Compare your picks with ours. . 10 February 2019 . . 6 November 2016.
10. News: Chalian . David . David Chalian . Road to 270: CNN's new election map . 10 February 2019 . . 4 November 2016.
11. Web site: 2016 Electoral Scorecard . . 10 February 2019 . en . 7 November 2016 . February 7, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190207225032/https://www.cookpolitical.com/presidential/charts/scorecard . dead .
12. Web site: 2016 Predicted Electoral Map . . 10 February 2019.
13. Web site: Presidential Ratings . The Rothenberg Political Report . August 16, 2021.
14. Web site: Sabato . Larry . 7 November 2016 . Larry Sabato . The Crystal Ball's 2016 Electoral College ratings . . 10 February 2019.
15. Web site: 2016 Election Maps - Battle for White House . . 10 February 2019.
16. News: Todd . Chuck . Chuck Todd. NBC's final battleground map shows a lead for Clinton . 10 February 2019 . . 7 November 2016 . en.
17. Web site: RealClearPolitics - Election 2016 - South Carolina: Trump vs. Clinton.
18. Web site: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
19. Web site: Press Release: SCGOP selects Electoral College Members. 23 August 2016. 13 September 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20161111061337/https://www.scgop.com/2016/08/23/press-release-scgop-selects-electoral-college-members/. 11 November 2016. dead. dmy-all.