On Tuesday, November 8th, history was made in the United States. Election day 2016 marked one of the the biggest political upsets of all time when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
Heading into the election, Clinton was heavily favored in nearly every poll. Trump was
unpopular because of his controversial commentary; however, Clinton’s actions proved more harmful to her in the actual election.
One reason why Trump was able to win the presidency was because of Clinton’s deleted emails. The FBI re-opened an investigation on Clinton about two weeks before the election and in turn, Trump gained some ground on Clinton in the polls. However, during the three days leading up to the election, Clinton re-gained her lead and Trump supporters were very doubtful when they woke up on the morning of the election. After all, they should have been more confident because people across the country realized they did not want a president under FBI investigation. Clinton lost several states that she was believed to be heavily favored in such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan partly due to the investigation.
Another way Trump won the election was the outcome of minority votes. In 2012, Republican candidate Mitt Romney was defeated by Barack Obama in this category. Romney received just seven percent of the black vote while Trump received 13 percent of the black vote this year. Clinton was expected to defeat Trump in the Latino vote, but Trump received a surprising 29 percent of Latino votes. Overall, fewer minorities showed up to the polls than in 2012 and this hurt Clinton greatly.
NAHS senior and republican Andrew Blanchette said, “I’ve been a Trump supporter since day one and I was nervous heading into the election. I was preparing myself for Hillary to be in office, but it’s a great feeling to see Trump win.”
These were the thoughts of most people prior to the election and it goes to show why this may be considered one of the was the biggest political upsets in U.S. history.
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