United States presidential election in Michigan, 2016
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The 2016 United States presidential election in Michigan was held on November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 general election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participate. Michigan voters have chosen electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote.
On March 8, 2016, in the presidential primaries, voters expressed their preferences for the Democratic, and Republican parties' respective nominees for President. Michigan does not require voters to register with a party to vote in the primaries, allowing voters to select a candidate in either party, however voters only selected one candidate overall.
On November 24, 2016, Donald Trump was declared the winner by the Detroit Free Press in the slimmest margin of victory in the state's history. The votes were certified by each county and submitted to the Michigan Secretary of State.[2]
On Monday, November 28, 2016, the Michigan Board of Canvassers certified the result of the election in favor of Donald Trump by a margin of 10,704 votes.[3] The deadline to request a recount was then set at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, November 30.
Primary elections
Democratic primary
Results
Four candidates appeared on the Democratic presidential primary ballot:[4]
| Michigan Democratic primary, March 8, 2016 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Popular vote | Estimated delegates | |||
| Count | Percentage | Pledged | Unpledged | Total | |
| Bernie Sanders | 598,943 | 49.68% | 67 | 0 | 67 |
| Hillary Clinton | 581,775 | 48.26% | 63 | 10 | 73 |
| Uncommitted | 21,601 | 1.79% | 0 | 7 | 7 |
| Martin O'Malley (withdrawn) | 2,363 | 0.20% | |||
| Rocky De La Fuente | 870 | 0.07% | |||
| Total | 1,205,552 | 100% | 130 | 17 | 147 |
| Source: The Green Papers | |||||
Republican primary
Four candidates participated in the Republican primary.[5]
Debates and forums
Detroit, March 3
| Candidate | Airtime[6] | Polls[7] |
|---|---|---|
| Trump | 26:40 | 35.6% |
| Cruz | 19:23 | 19.8% |
| Rubio | 13:32 | 17.4% |
| Kasich | 15:20 | 8.8% |
The eleventh debate was held on March 3, 2016, at the Fox Theatre in downtown Detroit, Michigan.[8] It was the third debate to air on Fox News Channel.[9] Special Report anchor Bret Baier, The Kelly File anchor Megyn Kelly and Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace served as moderators.[10] It will lead into the Maine, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho, and Hawaii contests. Fox announced that in order for candidates to qualify, they must have at least 3 percent support in the five most recent national polls by March 1 at 5 pm.[11] Ben Carson said on March 2 he would not be attending the debate.[12][13][14] During the debate, Ted Cruz had a small speck of white material on his lip.[15] The speck became viral with thousands of web searches per minute during the debate on "Ted Cruz nose".[16][17][18][19][20][21] The debate also drew controversy for an allusion Trump made to his penis in response to Rubio's comment about the size of his hands.[22]
Results
Thirteen candidates appeared on the Republican presidential primary ballot:[4]
| Michigan Republican primary, March 8, 2016 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Actual delegate count | ||
| Bound | Unbound | Total | |||
 Donald Trump |
483,753 | 36.55% | 25 | 0 | 25 |
| Ted Cruz | 326,617 | 24.68% | 17 | 0 | 17 |
| John Kasich | 321,115 | 24.26% | 17 | 0 | 17 |
| Marco Rubio | 123,587 | 9.34% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ben Carson (withdrawn) | 21,349 | 1.61% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Uncommitted (withdrawn) | 22,824 | 1.72% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jeb Bush (withdrawn) | 10,685 | 0.81% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rand Paul (withdrawn) | 3,774 | 0.29% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Chris Christie (withdrawn) | 3,116 | 0.24% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mike Huckabee (withdrawn) | 2,603 | 0.20% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rick Santorum (withdrawn) | 1,722 | 0.13% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Carly Fiorina (withdrawn) | 1,415 | 0.11% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| George Pataki (withdrawn) | 591 | 0.04% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lindsey Graham (withdrawn) | 438 | 0.03% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unprojected delegates: | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Total: | 1,323,589 | 100.00% | 59 | 0 | 59 |
| Source: The Green Papers | |||||
General election
Although won by Democratic candidates in every election since 1992, sometimes by clear margins, in 2016 Michigan was considered a swing state and received much attention from the two major candidates.
Polling
Minor candidates
The following were given write-in status[23]
- Cherunda Fox
- Ben Hartnell
- Tom Hoefling
- Laurence Kotlikoff
- Evan McMullin
- Mike Maturen
- Monica Moorehead
