2016 United States presidential election in Rhode Island

Main article: 2016 United States presidential election

The 2016 United States presidential election in Rhode Island took place on November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Rhode Island voters chose four electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote.

2016 United States presidential election in Rhode Island

← 2012 November 8, 2016 2020 →
Turnout	60.2%[1] 0.6 pp
Nominee Hillary Clinton Donald Trump Party Democratic Republican Home state New York New York Running mate Tim Kaine Mike Pence Electoral vote 4 0 Popular vote 252,525 180,543 Percentage 54.41% 38.90%
County results Municipality results Congressional district results Clinton   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90% Trump   40–50%   50–60%
President before election Barack Obama Democratic Elected President Donald Trump Republican

Treemap of the popular vote by county.

Prior to the election, Rhode Island was considered to be a state Clinton would win or a safe blue state. Rhode Island, like most of New England, is strongly Democratic. Its voters tend to be liberal on social issues, most of its population lives in urban cities, its voting age population skews younger, and the Democratic Party has been regarded as the state's dominant party since the 1930's.^[2][3][4]

Although Clinton easily won Rhode Island, her 15.5% margin was significantly weaker than Obama's 27% margin 4 years earlier. Trump notably became the first Republican nominee for president to win a county since Reagan won the state in 1984.

Primaries

Democratic primary

Main article: 2016 Rhode Island Democratic presidential primary

Four candidates appeared on the Democratic presidential primary ballot:^[5]

• Bernie Sanders
• Hillary Clinton
• Rocky De La Fuente
• Mark Stewart

Rhode Island Democratic primary, April 26, 2016
Candidate	Popular vote		Estimated delegates
	Count	Percentage	Pledged	Unpledged	Total
Bernie Sanders	66,993	54.71%	13	0	13
Hillary Clinton	52,749	43.08%	11	9	20
Mark Stewart	236	0.19%	0	0	0
Rocky De La Fuente	145	0.12%	0	0	0
Write-in	673	0.55%	0	0	0
Uncommitted	1,662	1.36%	0	0	0
Total	122,458	100%	24	9	33
Source: [6][7][8]

Republican primary

Republican primary results by county(left) and municipality(right).

  Donald Trump

•   50–60%
•   60–70%
•   70–80%

  John Kasich

•   40–50%

Main article: 2016 Rhode Island Republican presidential primary

Three candidates appeared on the Republican presidential primary ballot:^[5]

• Ted Cruz
• John Kasich
• Donald Trump

Rhode Island Republican primary, April 26, 2016

Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Actual delegate count
			Bound	Unbound	Total
Donald Trump	39,221	63.7%	12	0	12
John Kasich	14,963	24.3%	5	0	5
Ted Cruz	6,416	10.4%	2	0	2
Uncommitted	417	0.7%	0	0	0
Marco Rubio (withdrawn)	382	0.6%	0	0	0
Write-in	215	0.3%	0	0	0
Unprojected delegates:			0	0	0
Total:	61,614	100.00%	19	0	19
Source: Rhode Island Board of Elections

General election

Predictions

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

Results

2016 United States presidential election in Rhode Island ^[17][18]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Hillary Clinton	252,525	54.41%
	Republican	Donald Trump	180,543	38.90%
	Libertarian	Gary Johnson	14,746	3.18%
	Green	Jill Stein	6,220	1.34%
	Write-in	Evan McMullin	759	0.16%
	American Delta	Rocky De La Fuente	671	0.14%
	Write-in	Mike Maturen	46	0.01%
	Write-in	Darrell Castle	30	0.01%
	Write-in	Other write-ins	8,604	1.85%
Total votes			464,144	100.00%

By county

County	Hillary Clinton Democratic		Donald Trump Republican		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Bristol	14,609	57.35%	8,965	35.19%	1,901	7.46%	5,644	22.16%	25,475
Kent	37,788	46.05%	38,336	46.72%	5,929	7.23%	-548	-0.67%	82,053
Newport	22,851	55.67%	15,077	36.73%	3,117	7.60%	7,774	18.94%	41,045
Providence	142,899	57.51%	90,882	36.58%	14,693	5.91%	52,017	20.93%	248,474
Washington	33,741	50.84%	27,230	41.03%	5,398	8.13%	6,511	9.81%	66,369
Totals	252,525	54.41%	180,543	38.90%	31,076	6.69%	71,982	15.51%	464,144

County Flips:

Democratic   Hold

Republican   Gain from Democratic

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Kent (largest city: Warwick) ^[19]

By congressional district

Clinton won both congressional districts.^[20]

District	Clinton	Trump	Representative
1st	59%	34%	David Cicilline
2nd	50%	43%	James Langevin

By municipality

The pink municipalities voted for Barack Obama in 2012 and flipped to Donald Trump in 2016. Only East Greenwich voted for Mitt Romney in 2012 but flipped to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Dark blue and dark red municipalities did not flip from 2012 to 2016.

Analysis

Donald Trump flipped several municipalities that had not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since the 1980s including Burrillville, Coventry, Exeter, Foster, Glocester, Hopkinton, Johnston, Lincoln, North Smithfield, Richmond, Smithfield, and West Warwick. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton was able to flip East Greenwich which voted for Mitt Romney in 2012. This was the worst Democratic performance in Burrillville since 1920 and the worst Democratic performance in Johnston since 1924.

As of the 2024 United States presidential election, this is the solitary election since 1984 where any county in Rhode Island voted Republican (Kent County narrowly voted for Trump), and the most recent election where Lincoln voted Republican.

See also

• United States presidential elections in Rhode Island
• 2016 Democratic Party presidential debates and forums
• 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries
• 2016 Republican Party presidential debates and forums
• 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries