United States presidential election in California, 2016 (New Johannson Scenario)



The 2016 United States presidential election in California took place on November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 General Election in which all 50 states and the District of Columbia participated. California voters chose eighty-four electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting the Republican incumbent, President Edward H. Johannson of Minnesota and his running mate Vice-President Neel Kashkari of California, against their Democratic challengers, Governor John C. Dickenson of Georgia and Attorney General Chris Koster of Missouri.

By 2016, the United States was residing in a period of prosperity at home and peace abroad, involved in no major foreign wars and with significant growth occurring across all sectors of the American economy. President Johannson received the credit for this state of affairs and moreover, through his Contract with America, had embarked upon a series of popular policy initiatives, touching upon infrastructure investment, education reform, fiscal reform, tax reform, and criminal justice reform. In the weeks before the election, moreover, Johannson brought a peaceful solution to two separate foreign policy crises-the Syrian anthrax attacks and the Persian Gulf Affair. Enjoying high approval ratings, consequently, Johannson sailed to an easy reelection against Governor Dickenson of Georgia, obtaining 61.05 percent of the national popular vote and winning in 44 states, as well as the District of Columbia. Dickenson won only his home state of Georgia and the Deep Southern states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.

California was the home state of Vice-President Kashkari, and this factor, together with the state's bellwether status, enabled President Johannson to win a landslide here. All public opinion polls conducted in the state prior to the election showed him enjoying a two-to-one lead over Senator Dickenson. This was proved to be true on Election Day, as Johannson won California with 66.33 percent of the vote to Dickenson's 33.56 percent. Johannson's 32.77 percentage-point margin of victory was the largest for any candidate in either party within the state since Franklin D. Roosevelt's landslide reelection of 1936. Johannson also became only the third presidential candidate, following Warren G. Harding in 1920 and Roosevelt in 1936, to win all of California's counties.