United States presidential election in California, 2016



The 2016 United States presidential election in California was held on November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 United States presidential election. California voters chose fifty-five electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice-President.

California voted for the Democratic candidate, incumbent President William C. Rutherford of Texas, in a landslide over Republican challenger, Arizona Senator Thomas P. Leach, carrying every county and 66.95% of the vote to Leach's 31.70%. Rutherford's percentage of the vote is the highest of any presidential candidate in California history, beating Warren G. Harding's 66.2% in 1920. While his 35.25% margin of victory over Leach is the largest for any Democratic candidate, it is the second largest overall behind Harding's 41.92% in 1920, and ahead of Theodore Roosevelt's 34.9% in 1904.

Rutherford was the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 to carry Orange County in a presidential election, and the first since John Glenn in 1984 to carry Riverside County. Riverside County was not to vote Democratic in a presidential election again until Joseph P. Kennedy III in 2044.