US Elections 2016: The dawn of the Trump era and the fall of Democrats
Donald Trump
The presidential elections of 2016 in the United States were said to have delivered the most shocking results in modern political history when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.
A Republican presidential candidate, Trump in the most unexpected turn became the fifth US presidential candidate who had won the Electoral College but lost the overall popular vote.
This happened because opponent Hillary Clinton clinched some major victories in heavily-populated states like New York and California and Trump had won four states with a margin of 1.2 percentage points or less.
Soon after the results were out, Trump took to the stage to give his victory speech. “I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans. For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which there were a few people, I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so we can work together and unify our great country," he said in a conciliatory tone.
The experts had earlier predicted that he wouldn't run for elections but Trump did. It was then believed he wouldn't climb in the elections, which he again did. His wins in primaries and clinching of the Republican nomination were also predicted wrongly and so was his victory.
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Why did Hillary Clinton lose the 2016 elections?
According to experts, various reasons led to the defeat of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Hillary Clinton did have a major lead in the popular vote, however, the presidents were decided on the basis of the Electoral College which was in favour of Trump.
In the 2016 elections, the overall voter turnout was almost the same as that in the 2012 elections. 128.5 million voter turnout was recorded in 2016 and 129.2 million voter turnout in 2012.
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As per experts, a major part of the voters were not happy with the choice of candidates which led to Trump coming to the helm of power.
Clinton was also criticised for not failing to fire up the Obama Coalition which may have pushed some more votes in her favour.
The main reason behind Trump's victory was said to be his flipping big margins with working-class and white voters in the Midwest and Pennsylvania.
(With inputs from agencies)