2016 Iowa General Election Story

A head to head comparison of the Iowa 2016 General Election gives an idea of the breakdown of the voters.

Presidential Election    

Iowa Win

Donald Trump received 800,983 (51%) votes beating Hillary Clinton who gained 653,669 (42%) by 147,314 votes in Iowa.

Donald Trump won 93 counties whereas Hillary Clinton won 6 counties in the total of the 99  counties in the state of Iowa.

2016 Iowa (IA) Primary vs. General Elections Counties Won

Primary Counties won by each of the 3 major candidates

In the Primary, Clinton won 37 counties in the 5-way match up. Trump (winning 12 counties) trailed behind Cruz (winning 21 counties). Sanders won 28 counties whereas Rubio only 1 county in Iowa Primary.

2016 Iowa Primary vs. General Elections with regards to Percentage (%) votes and Total Votes Won

On a head to head count with the total votes between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the Primary and General Elections, percentage (%) vote shift difference is a 43% increase for Hillary Clinton in the Presidential Elections as opposed to a 43% decrease for Donald Trump. These margins are represented as 652,968 vote increment for Hillary Clinton and 755,556 vote increment for Donald Trump at the General Elections.                                                                                                                                  

2016 General Election Hillary Clinton Popular Vote Count Contributed by Iowa

In the 2016 General Elections, 153,177,325 total number of votes were casted.  Hillary Clinton got 78,627,508 (78.6 Million) over Donald Trump’s 74,549,817 (74.6 Million). She won the popular vote by 4,077,691 (4 Million). Even though she lost at Iowa, her 653,669 votes represents a 0.8% of her overall popular votes count. The remaining 49 states contributed to her remaining 77,973,839 (99.2%) popular votes victory.                                                                                                                                    

Top 15 Counties in Primary vs. General Elections

These 15 counties play an important role in these Primary Elections. If a candidate can get a sizable majority in the larger counties (Polkn Linn, Scott), it becomes very difficult to win majorities in the smaller counties without voter outreach and increased voter participation in them.

Top 15 Vote Comparisons in Primary vs. General Elections

In this closely contested State, Polk, Black Hawk, Johnson and Linn voted in favour of Clinton giving her over 70k vote advantage out of those counties. However, Trump’s steady but minimal wins in many other counties made him gain an upper hand in the State of Iowa.

Related References: 2016 Iowa Primary Election Story, 2020 Iowa Primary Election Story