United States Presidential Election, 2016 (Ike Brits World)

The United States Presidential Election, 2016 was the 58th quadrennial Presidential Election in the United States. It was held on November 6th, 2016. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York easily defeated Republican nominee Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey. The outcome was 416 to 122 in the electoral college. Cuomo maintained a careful campaign, that connected him with Republicans. He gave a no nonsense message to congress, and made it clear he was only for cooperation, and that while he was President, he would only focus on fiscal policy. Christie on the other hand, campaigned non-aggressively, did not gain enough support from his party, and in the end was a failure of a candidate.

The Democratic Primary was of a large scale, with many candidates dropping out even before the primary. On the other hand, the Republican Primary learned from the mistake of last time and had only a small number of candidates running, and only three that won primaries (Christie, Pawlenty and Jindal).

This was the largest landslide since the George H. W. Bush vs Michael Dukakis election in 1988, and one of the three times since 1974 since a Democrat won Indiana (1974, 2008, 2016)

Overview
The Obama administration, while its approval on average was higher than it was in 2012-2014 era, was still unpopular. In 2014, most of the prominent political experts predicted that a Republican would easily win in 2016, with little to no hope for the Democrats. However, the Republican Congress established in 2014 was bombing in public polls.

The most prominent issue was the economy. Unemployment was at an all time high. Gas prices were up to $5.30 a gallon on average. The American publican were tired of politicians who wanted to impose their social agenda on everyone else, as it was a distraction to getting out of debt and restoring the economy.

Democratic Candidates
Candidates that won Primaries: Candidates that withdrew during Primaries: On March 14th John Hickenlooper entered. Hickenlooper did better in polls than Biden, but was behind several prospective candidates such as Hillary Clinton. In March 26th Jerry Brown announced his candidacy, but was unpopular in polls. Finally, in April 1st, former Senator Russ Feingold entered the race. He quickly went to the top of the polls and emerged as front runner. Mark Pryor announced in Little Rock his intention he would not for President on April 5th, contrary to rumors of an exploratory committee. He was fairly popular, ahead of Brown, but behind Hickenlooper and Feingold. On May 3rd, Maria Cantwell started her campaign, and was considered a serious opponent to Feingold, ranking second. Days later, on May 10th, House Minority Leader Xavier Becerra entered the race, and was third place, behind Cantwell and Feingold, but ahead of Begich, Pyror, Hickenlooper, and Brown. Then, on May 22nd, Governor Cuomo announced his candidacy. He quickly earned the number one spot in the polls. The race stayed silent until July 7th, when Deval Patrick announced his campaign. He quickly whiped Pyror from his place and was fairly popular.
 * Andrew Cuomo
 * Russ Feingold
 * Deval Patrick
 * John Hickenlooper
 * Maria Cantwell (Withdrew January 27th 2016 and endorsed Feingold)
 * Xavier Beccera (Withdrew January 17th 2016 and endosed Feingold)
 * Jerry Brown (Withdrew January 12th 2016 and endorsed Cuomo)

At the Iowa Caucus, Feingold Won, with Cuomo second, Patrick third, and Hickenlooper fifth. After this, Brown and Beccera dropped out. After the Iowa caucus, Cuomo won, and Hickenlooper did better. Maria Cantwell dropped out after this. Then, after the Nevada caucus, Hickenlooper just stayed in the race without much hope. The series of caucuses were long. By June, the same five remained, besides Hickenlooper, who finally dropped out. Feingold and Cuomo fought a lot, but not as much as Clinton and Obama in 2008. Patrick was in third place, and Hickenlooper last. Cuomo chose Governor of Missouri Jay Nixon as his running mate, coming above potential VP's such as Deval Patrick, Xavier Beccera, and Tim Kaine.

Candidate Gallery

Declined to Run

Governor Terry McAuliffe of Virginia

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of New York

Vice President Joseph Biden of Delaware

Republican Candidates
Candidates that won Primaries: Candidates that dropped out before Primaries: The Republican primary of 2016 was very basic. People like Bob McDonnell, Paul Ryan, and Marco Rubio did not run, so they could strengthen the party. Chris Christie made his expected run starting on March 6th 2015. Pawlenty started his campaign on March 30th. Governor Martinez ran on May 15th and became very popular quickly. Finally, Bobby Jindal started his campaign on July 7th. A month later, on August 3rd, A popular Martinez dropped her campaign, claiming she wanted to unite the party and then endorsed Christie, though it was revealed she just wanted a VP spot.
 * Chris Christie
 * Tim Pawlenty
 * Bobby Jindal
 * Susana Martinez (Withdrew August 3rd 2015)

Chris Christie won both the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire Primary. He lost the Nevada caucus to Pawlenty. He was considered the Romney of 2016, though he was much more popular. Jindal performed the best mainly in the south, and the only Northern state he won was Delaware with a handful of votes over Christie. Christie was a popular moderate, though Pawlenty was the more moderately conservative substitute, and both Jindal and Pawlenty were popular with the Tea Party. In the end, Christie easily won. He was going to choose Martinez as his running mate, though she made a series of embarrassing statements on TV about Native Americans ("Should just act like normal people" caused controversy when she said it on Hardball), so Christie chose fellow moderate Tim Pawlenty.

Other Candidates
Libertarian Party: Walt Minnick of Idaho, Vice President: Michael Bloomberg

Green Party: Gavin Newsom of California, Vice President: Cynthia McKinney 

Constitution Party: Randall Terry of West Virginia Vice President: Terry Jones