United States presidential election, 2016 (A New American Century)

The United States presidential election of 2016 was the 58th quadrennial U.S. presidential election. It was held on November 8, 2016. Incumbent President Barack Obama was inelligible to run for a third term.

Republican nominee, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and his running mate Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina, soundly defeated the Democratic ticket of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Hillary Clinton announced her run in April 2015, and immediately became the frontrunner to the nomination, as most prominent Democratic politicians declined to run. She was opposed by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who ran on a highly progressive platform of universal healthcare, free college, and taxing the wealthy. Clinton ran on a platform of inclusive capitalism. What started out as the coronation of HIllary Clinton as the first female presidential nominee turned into a bitter primary season that climaxed at the Democratic National Convention, where a brokered convention narrowly declared Hillary Clinton the Democratic nominee. She chose Senator Elizabeth Warren as her running mate in an attempt to bridge the divide between the two factions of her party,

In contrast to the Democratic field, Marco Rubio was one of 15 Republican candidates, the largest field for a major party of any American political machine. His main rivals were Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. After the first few primary contests, Paul started to fade and soon suspended his campaign, endorsing Rubio. After the Indiana primary on May 3, where Rubio edged out Cruz despite an endorsement from Indiana Governor Mike Pence, Rubio had enough delegates to secure the nomination. Cruz suspended his campaign that night and immediately endorsed Rubio.

For the first time, both tickets comprised of a majority of women, including the first all-female ticket (Clinton and Warren), as well as the first Indian American (Haley) and Latino-American (Rubio) to appear on a presidential ticket. This election also guaranteed that a woman would be either President or Vice President.

Rubio and Haley secured the Presidency on November 8 after Minnesota was called at 10:30 PM EST for them. In total, Rubio and Haley won 342 electoral votes to Clinton and Warren's 196. Rubio and Haley also captured 52% of the popular vote, compared to 47% going to Clinton and Warren. This was the first time since 1988 that Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maine, and Wisconsin all went Republican. It was also the first time since 2004 where New Mexico, New Hampshire, and Colorado had voted Republican. Notably, it was also the first time since 1972 that Minnesota had voted Republican, having survived both Reagan and Bush landslides.