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United States presidential election, 2016
November 8, 2016
Nominee		Hillary Clinton	Jon Huntsman	Chris Christie
Party		Democratic	Conservative	Republican
Home state		New York	Utah	New Jersey
Running mate		Bill Richardson	Max Baucus	Marco Rubio
Electoral vote		347	168	23
States carried		26 + DC	19	5
Popular vote		48,531,456	32,543,787	19,985,344
Percentage		48%	32%
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Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Palin/Huckabee (4), Blue denotes Clintion/Richardson(24 + D.C.)Blue denotes Bayh/Baucus(22).
Incumbent President Barack Obama Democratic President-elect Hillary Clinton Democratic

BackgroundEdit

In 2014, the Democrats took a plurality over the Republicans in Congress and across the country. However, more notably was the rise of the Conservative party, which took a third of the seats and formed a coalition government with the Democrats. Once a small minority party, the Conservatives quickly became the de facto second major party as the Republicans dwindled in power. By 2015, the Blue Dog Coalition nominated Senator Evan Bayh as the Senate Minority Whip, even though the Democrats remained the majority party of both houses. The same result occurred in the House as the Blue Dogs defeated the Republicans, signaling the deep divide within the party. This in turn signaled the end for the Republican Party as a major party in America, and its temporary descent into a regional third party of the Midwest and South before eventually disbanding.

PrimariesEdit

Democratic

Following Hillary Clinton's declaration of her candidacy in 2015, she was virtually assured the nomination. She was briefly conteted by former Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, but when the Blue Dog faction of the Democrats split off and declared Bayh their nominee, Clinton coasted to the nomination. 

Blue Dogs

Due to their late emmergence in the race, the Blue Dog Party did not hold a primary, and instead nominated their candidate at the convention. Going into the convention, Bayh was concidered to be the leading candidate, although he was briefly challenged by John Gregg of Indiana and Marc Richards of Massachusetts. Bayh was eventually nominated on the 2nd ballot.

Republican

The Republican party, still realing from their defeat in the 2014 midterms, was further divided by a strenuous primary, with Congressman Paul Ryan and Senator Marco Rubio as the lead candidates. Although Ryan was initially the party favorite, Marco Rubio was able to out-compete him in the primaries to secure the nomination. At the Republican convention in Atlanta, Ryan endorsed Rubio, an action that temporarily united the split Republican party.

General Election

With President Obama's approval ratings at 63% toward the end of his administration, victory was almost assured for Hillary Clinton. However, following the split of the Blue Dogs into a separate party, and the candidacy announcement of Republican idol Paul Ryan, the race began to look shaky to some.

With the Democrats split between liberals and conservatives, Ryan's endorsement of Rubio was actually a godsend to the Democrats. It detracted most of the conservatives from voting for Bayh and defused the Blue Dogs as a major party. The conservative split would cause liberal candidates to surge in many states, including Green, and even a few Socialist candidates in the Northeast and the Pacific West. This split would also lead to the creation of the Populist Party from the Blue Dogs and moderate Republicans.