The 2016 United States presidential election in Illinois was held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016, as part of the

2016 United States presidential election United States presidential election, Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 8, 2016. The Republican Party (United States), Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana Governor, Indiana governor Mike P ...

in which all 50 states plus the

District of Columbia Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

participated.

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

voters chose electors to represent them in the

Electoral College An electoral college is a body whose task is to elect a candidate to a particular office. It is mostly used in the political context for a constitutional body that appoints the head of state or government, and sometimes the upper parliament ...

via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominee, businessman

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

, and running mate Indiana Governor

Mike Pence Michael Richard Pence (born June 7, 1959) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 48th vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 under President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...

against Democratic Party nominee, former Secretary of State

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

, and her running mate Virginia

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

Tim Kaine Timothy Michael Kaine ( ; born February 26, 1958) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States senator from Virginia since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party (United States ...

. Illinois had 20 votes in the Electoral College. Illinois was won by Clinton, who garnered 55.24% of the votes cast against Trump's 38.35%, thus winning the state by a margin of 16.89%. Prior to the election, news organizations accurately predicted that the state would be carried by Clinton, who was born in Illinois. Clinton won by a slightly wider margin than

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

(by 0.02%), making it one of eleven states (and the District of Columbia) in which she outperformed Obama's

margin; however, due to an increase in third-party voting, her overall percentage of the vote was lower than Obama's in both his runs. Trump flipped eleven counties red, although all of them have small populations; the most populous of them, Whiteside County, has under 60,000 residents. He also became the first Republican ever to win the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

without carrying DeKalb, DuPage, Kane,

Lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

Will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

, or Winnebago Counties.

Primaries

Presidential

primary election Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pr ...

s for three parties were held in Illinois. From January 25 to February 17, 2016, the

Green Party of the United States The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) is a federation of Green state political parties in the United States. The party promotes green politics, specifically environmentalism; nonviolence; social justice; participatory democracy; anti-war; ...

held primaries and caucuses, as part of the Green Party presidential primaries, to elect delegates representing a candidate at the

2016 Green National Convention The 2016 Green National Convention, in which delegates of the Green Party of the United States chose the party's nominees for president and vice president in the national election, was held August 4–7, 2016 in Houston, Texas. In August 20 ...

. Physician and activist

Jill Stein Jill Ellen Stein (born May 14, 1950) is an American physician, activist, and perennial candidate who was the Green Party of the United States, Green Party's nominee for President of the United States in the Jill Stein 2012 presidential campaign ...

won a landslide of the popular vote, taking almost all of the state's 23 delegates. On March 15, 2016, both the Democratic and Republican parties held primaries in Illinois as part of a five-state contest being held on the day in both the Democratic and Republican presidential primaries. In the Democratic primaries, 156 pledged delegates to the

2016 Democratic National Convention The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the maj ...

were elected and awarded to candidates proportionally, according to countywide and statewide vote. In the Republican primaries, 69 delegates to the

2016 Republican National Convention The 2016 Republican National Convention, in which delegates of the United States Republican Party (United States), Republican Party chose the party's nominees for President of the United States, president and Vice President of the United Sta ...

were elected and awarded to the first place candidate, according to statewide vote.

Democratic

The 2016 Illinois Democratic presidential primary was held on March 15, 2016, in the U.S. state of Illinois as one of the Democratic Party's state primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Forum

March 14, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio, and Springfield, Illinois: The tenth forum was held at 6:00 pm EDT on March 14, 2016, at the campus of

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus (, ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Ohio, most populous city of the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 United States census, 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the List of United States ...

, and at the

Old State Capitol State Historic Site (Illinois) The Old State Capitol State Historic Site, in Springfield, Illinois, is a former capitol building for the U.S. state of Illinois, and one of two preserved former Illinois capitol buildings (the other is in Vandalia). It was built in the Greek R ...

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its population was 114,394 at the 2020 United States census, which makes it the state's List of cities in Illinois, seventh-most populous cit ...

. It aired on

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

. The first section of the town hall with Bernie Sanders was moderated by

Chuck Todd Charles David Todd (born April 8, 1972) is an American television journalist who was the 12th moderator of NBC's ''Meet the Press''. During his time at NBC News between 2007 and 2025, Todd also hosted ''Meet the Press Now'', its daily edition ...

; the second section of the town hall with Hillary Clinton was moderated by

Chris Matthews Christopher John Matthews (born December 17, 1945) is an American political commentator, retired talk show host, and author. Matthews hosted his weeknight hour-long talk show, ''Hardball with Chris Matthews'', on America's Talking and later on M ...

Results

Six candidates appeared on the Democratic presidential primary ballot:

Republican

The 2016 Illinois Republican presidential primary was held on March 15, 2016, in the U.S. state of Illinois as one of the Republican Party's state primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Ten candidates appeared on the Republican presidential primary ballot:

Green

The 2016 Illinois Green Party presidential primary was held from January 25 through February 17 in the U.S. state of Illinois as one of the Green Party's state primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election. It was run by the Green Party of Illinois. Illinois' primary was the first to be held of the series of presidential primaries held by the

. Registered Green party voters could participate in the primary through an online ballot or at select caucus sites in the state on various dates. 23 delegates to the

were up for election in this primary. Five candidates stood for election, including a sixth " uncommitted" option for the ballot. The candidates included activist and Green nominee in the 2012 presidential election,

, singer-songwriter Darryl Cherney, businesswoman Sedinam Moyowasifza-Curry,

perennial candidate A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for elected office and rarely, if ever, wins. Perennial candidates are most common where there is no limit on the number of times that a person can run for office and little cost ...

Kent Mesplay, and professor William "Bill" Kreml. By the end of the primary, 134 votes were cast, with Stein winning a landslide 89% of the vote. 20 delegates from Illinois to the convention were allocated to Stein following the primary, with 1 being allocated to William Kreml and 2 being sent as uncommitted delegates.

General election

Illinois 2016 presidential results by county

Predictions

Polling

Results

By county

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican
*

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

(largest city:

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

) * Carroll (largest city:

Savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

) * Fulton (largest city: Canton) * Henderson (largest village: Oquawka) *

Henry Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainmen ...

(largest city: Kewanee) * Jo Daviess (largest city:

Galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crysta ...

) * Knox (largest city: Galesburg) * Mercer (largest city: Aledo) * Putnam (largest village: Granville) * Warren (largest city:

Monmouth Monmouth ( or ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales, situated on where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. The population in the 2011 census was 10,508, rising from 8 ...

) * Whiteside (largest city: Sterling)

By congressional district

Clinton won 11 of 18 congressional districts, both candidates won a district held by the other party.

Turnout

For the state-run primaries (Democratic and Republican), turnout was 45.73%, with 3,505,795 votes cast. For the general election, turnout was 68.95%, with 5,536,424 votes cast.

Analysis

Clinton's win in Illinois was largely the result of a lopsided victory in

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40 percent of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. ...

, the state's most populous county and home of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, the city where Clinton was born and raised. Trump meanwhile won most of the downstate rural counties by large margins. Many of these counties had voted for Clinton's husband in both his

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

and

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

presidential runs. This is also the first presidential election in history where a Republican managed to win the

nationally while failing to carry any of Chicago's collar counties (winning only McHenry County). To put in perspective the political turnaround in the region, between the 1854 creation of the Republican party and

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

election, Democrats only won ''any'' of the collar counties in just five landslide elections. In

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

and

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House. * January 28 – Death and state funer ...

Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

carried Will County; In

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...

carried Will and

;

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

carried Will in

and added Lake to that in

. Illinois, along with Minnesota, was one of the only two Midwestern states not won by Donald Trump. The election marked the first time since 1988 in which Illinois did not vote the same as neighboring Wisconsin, and the first time since 1960 when the Democratic candidate won Illinois, while losing Wisconsin. Cook County, the collar counties, and the downstate counties of Champaign and McLean were the only ones to swing towards Clinton. Knowing these statistics, if one were to subtract Cook County's total votes from the rest of Illinois, Trump would have won the state with 1,692,728 votes to Clinton's 1,478,783 votes. This is the first time the Republicans have won Alexander County since

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

landslide, as well as the first time they have won Fulton, Henderson, Knox, Mercer, and Putnam Counties since

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

landslide. Whiteside County voted Republican for the first time since 1988.Sullivan, Robert David
‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’
''America Magazine'' in ''The National Catholic Review''; June 29, 2016, Peoria County matched the national popular vote this year, as it did in the 2012 election. Had Clinton won the election, she would have become the second president born in Illinois after

, although both politicians jump-started their political careers in elected office elsewhere. Reagan served as

Governor of California The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The Governor (United States), governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constit ...

while Clinton served as a United States Senator from New York. As of the 2024 election, this is the most recent election where Kendall County and McLean County have voted Republican.

References

External links

RNC 2016 Republican Nominating Process

Green papers for 2016 primaries, caucuses, and conventions

Decision Desk Headquarter Results for Illinois
{{U.S. presidential primaries IL

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Presidential

Primaries

Democratic

Forum

Results

Republican

Green

General election

Predictions

Polling

Results

By county

By congressional district

Turnout

Analysis

See also

References

External links