2016 North Carolina General Election Story

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

Donald Trump received 2,362,631 (50%) votes beating Hillary Clinton who gained 2,189,316 (46%) by  177, 529 votes in North Carolina.

Donald Trump won 76 counties whereas Hillary Clinton won 24 counties in the total of the 100 counties in the state of North Carolina.

2016 North Carolina (NC) Primary vs. General Elections Counties Won

In the Primary, Clinton won 44 counties in the 4-way match up. Trump tied with Clinton winning also 44 counties. Sanders won 8 counties with Cruz winning 4 in North Carolina Primary.

2016 North Carolina 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 9% increment for Donald Trump in the Presidential Elections as opposed to a 9% decrease for Hillary Clinton. These margins are represented as 1,904,480 vote increment for Donald Trump and  1,572,933 vote increment for Hillary Clinton at the General Elections.

2016 General Election Hillary Clinton Popular Vote Count Contributed by North Carolina

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). Her 2,189,316 votes at North Carolina represents a 2.8% of her overall popular votes count. The remaining 49 states contributed to the remaining  76,438,192 (97.2%) 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 (Wake, Mecklenburg and Gullford), 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

Wake, Mecklenburg, Guilford which are the biggest counties voted on ratio 2:1 for Hillary Clinton. Trump’s win over Union, Gaston, New Hanover, Johnston and Cabarrus gave him a vote advantage of 111,250. Other counties such as Catawba, Randolph, Davidson and Iredell voted 48K, 49K, 52K and 54K for Trump. This made Donald Trump gain an upper hand on North Carolina.

Wake and Mecklenburg, two of the larger counties voted in favor of Clinton, giving her over 245k vote advantage over Trump in just those two counties. Clinton's steady win in the more dense counties contributed to the vote advantage that helped her gain an upper hand in the State of North Carolina

Related References: 2016 North Carolina Primary Election Story, 2020 North Carolina Primary Election Story