2016 United States presidential election

The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of Texan Senator Ted Cruz and businesswoman Carly Fiorina defeated the Democratic ticket of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. senator from Virginia Tim Kaine. Cruz took office as the 45th President, and Fiorina as the 48th Vice President (also becoming the first female Vice President in US history) on January 20, 2017.

Cruz emerged as his party's front-runner amidst a wide field of Republican primary candidates, while Clinton defeated Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and became the first female presidential nominee of a major American party. Cruz's campaign, which promised "Together, We Will Win" and that he would "stand for liberty" and create a Constitutional Government, garnered extensive free media coverage (due to being such an outsider during the Republican primaries). Clinton emphasized her extensive political experience and advocated the expansion of President Obama's policies; racial, LGBT, and women's rights; and inclusive capitalism. Clinton's campaign was undermined by concerns about her ethics and trustworthiness, and an FBI investigation of her improper use of a private email server, which received more media coverage than any other topic during the campaign.

Cruz received the majority in the Electoral College and won upset victories in the pivotal Rust Belt region, alongside winning the state of Florida. Ultimately, Cruz received 286 electoral votes and Clinton 252. Cruz became the first Hispanic President in US history.

Background
Article Two of the United States Constitution provides that the President and Vice President of the United States must be natural-born citizens of the United States, at least 35 years old, and residents of the United States for a period of at least 14 years. Candidates for the presidency typically seek the nomination of one of the political parties, in which case each party devises a method (such as a primary election) to choose the candidate the party deems best suited to run for the position. Traditionally, the primary elections are indirect elections where voters cast ballots for a slate of party delegates pledged to a particular candidate. The party's delegates then officially nominate a candidate to run on the party's behalf. The general election in November is also an indirect election, where voters cast ballots for a slate of members of the Electoral College; these electors in turn directly elect the president and vice president.

President Barack Obama, a Democrat and former U.S. Senator from Illinois, was ineligible to seek reelection to a third term due to the restrictions of the Twenty-second Amendment; in accordance with Section 1 of the Twentieth Amendment, his term expired at noon eastern standard time on January 20, 2017.

Likewise ineligible to run for additional terms as President were past two-term Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. While neither ran, former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, having each served only one term, were eligible to run for an additional term as President.

Primary process
The series of Presidential primary elections and caucuses took place between February and June 2016, staggered among the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. This nominating process was also an indirect election, where voters cast ballots for a slate of delegates to a political party's nominating convention, who in turn elected their party's presidential nominee.

Speculation about the 2016 campaign began almost immediately following the 2012 campaign, with New York magazine declaring that the race had begun in an article published on November 8, two days after the 2012 election. On the same day, Politico released an article predicting that the 2016 general election would be between Clinton and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, while a New York Times article named New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey as potential candidates.

Primaries
With seventeen major candidates entering the race, starting with Ted Cruz on March 23, 2015, this was the largest Presidential primary field for any political party in American history.

Prior to the Iowa caucuses on February 1, 2016, Perry, Walker, Jindal, Graham, and Pataki withdrew due to low polling numbers. Despite leading many polls in Iowa, Trump came in second to Cruz, after which Huckabee, Paul, and Santorum withdrew due to poor performances at the ballot box.

Between March 16 and May 3, 2016, only three candidates remained in the race: Trump, Cruz, and Bush. Cruz won the most delegates overall, after endorsements from other candidates that had dropped out, which blocked Trump's chances of winning the Republican nominations.

Primaries
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who also served in the U.S. Senate and was the First Lady of the United States, became the first Democrat in the field to formally launch a major candidacy for the presidency with an announcement on April 12, 2015, via a video message. While nationwide opinion polls in 2015 indicated that Clinton was the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, she faced strong challenges from Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who became the second major candidate when he formally announced on April 30, 2015, that he was running for the Democratic nomination. September 2015 polling numbers indicated a narrowing gap between Clinton and Sanders. On May 30, 2015, former Governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley was the third major candidate to enter the Democratic primary race, followed by former independent governor and Republican senator of Rhode Island Lincoln Chafee on June 3, 2015, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb on July 2, 2015, and former Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig on September 6, 2015.

On February 1, 2016, in an extremely close contest, Clinton won the Iowa caucuses. On February 9, Sanders bounced back to win the New Hampshire primary with 60% of the vote. In the remaining two February contests, Clinton won the Nevada caucuses with 53% of the vote and scored a decisive victory in the South Carolina primary with 73% of the vote. On March 1, 11 states participated in the first of four "Super Tuesday" primaries. Clinton won Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia and 504 pledged delegates, while Sanders won Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and his home state of Vermont and 340 delegates.

On June 4 and 5, Clinton won two victories in the Virgin Islands caucus and Puerto Rico primary. On June 6, 2016, the Associated Press and NBC News reported that Clinton had become the presumptive nominee after reaching the required number of delegates, including pledged delegates and superdelegates, to secure the nomination, becoming the first woman to ever clinch the presidential nomination of a major U.S. political party. At the conclusion of the primary process, Clinton had won.