2016 United States presidential election in Maine
The 2016 United States presidential election in Maine was held on November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Maine voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting the Republican Party's nominee, businessman Donald Trump, and running mate Indiana Governor Mike Pence against Democratic Party nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her running mate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine.
On March 5 and 6, 2016, in the caucuses, voters expressed their preferences for the Republican, Democratic, and Green parties' respective nominees for president. Registered members of each party only voted in their party's caucus, while voters who were unaffiliated chose any one primary in which to vote.
On election day, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton carried Maine's two at-large electoral votes with a plurality and won Maine's 1st congressional district while Republican nominee Donald Trump won Maine's 2nd congressional district, making him the first Republican to do so since George H. W. Bush in 1988 and making him the first Republican to win an electoral vote from a New England state since George W. Bush won New Hampshire in 2000.
Maine was once one of the most Republican states in the East. It voted Democratic only three times from 1856 to 1988, but a Democrat has won the state's popular vote in every election since then. Although regarded as a safe blue state, Maine shifted dramatically and unexpectedly towards the Republicans, with Hillary Clinton's 2.9% margin of victory the narrowest for a Democrat since 1988, when Republicans last won the state, and well down on Obama's 15.3% margin just 4 years earlier. As a measure of how Republican Maine once was at the presidential level, Trump is only the second Republican to win the White House without winning the popular vote in Maine. George W. Bush lost the state in both of his campaigns.
This was the first time since the 1828 presidential election of Democratic nominee Andrew Jackson that an electoral vote split occurred in Maine and the first time that a split occurred after Maine began awarding electoral votes based on congressional districts in 1972. This was also the first time that a state without the use of a faithless elector split its electoral college vote since 2008 in Nebraska.
Primary elections
Democratic caucuses
swept all of Maine's counties and also won a large share of the democratic caucus votes in New England.Republican caucuses
, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, and John Kasich were all on the ballot for the 2016 Maine state Republican caucuses. The caucuses were held on March 5, 2016, in the following counties in Maine: Cumberland, Franklin, Piscataquis, Somerset, Aroostook, Androscoggin, Sagadahoc, Kennebec, Lincoln, Knox, Hancock, Waldo, Washington, York, Oxford, and Penobscot.Ted Cruz won the caucus with 45.9% of the vote and was awarded 12 delegates, with Donald Trump in second, receiving 32.59% of the votes and 9 delegates.
Green caucuses
Maine held a series of caucuses throughout the state between February 27 and March 19. The Maine Green Independent Party didn't compile the results until the state convention on May 7, during which it then assigned delegates based on the results.On March 13, 2016, it was announced that Jill Stein had won the Maine Green Independent Party caucuses.
Libertarian convention
The Libertarian Party nominated its ticket, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson for president and former Massachusetts Governor William Weld for vice president, at its national convention in Orlando, Florida, on May 29, 2016.Until July 13, 2016, the Libertarian Party was not a legally recognized party in Maine. A 2013 change in the ballot access law permitted a party to gain recognition if they enroll 5,000 Maine voters in the party. The Libertarian Party of Maine turned approximately 6,500 signatures in to the Maine Secretary of State's office in 2015, but Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap invalidated 2,000 of them, bringing the total below the threshold required. The party then sued Dunlap, claiming Maine's ballot access requirements were unconstitutionally unreasonable. While losing an initial ruling by U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock, Woodcock later ordered that they be given until July 12 to collect the necessary signatures. On July 13, Dunlap certified that 5,150 signatures had been validated, surpassing the threshold required to allow their candidates on the ballot. Maintenance of the status required obtaining 10,000 presidential votes in the general election.
General election
Maine distributes 2 EVs based on the statewide vote and 1 EV for each congressional district's vote.Polling
1st congressional district
Polls
Four-way race| Poll source | Date administered | Hillary Clinton | Donald Trump | Gary Johnson | Jill Stein | Lead margin | Sample size | Margin of error |
| Maine People's Resource Center | November 2–3, 2016 | 49% | 35% | 7% | 4% | 6 | 450 | ± 3.4% |
| Maine People's Resource Center | October 24–26, 2016 | 45% | 33% | 9% | 4% | 12 | 429 | ± 4.7% |
| Maine People's Resource Center | October 14–15, 2016 | 45.5% | 35.5% | 7.9% | 4% | 10 | 469 | ± 4.5% |
| Maine People's Resource Center | October 7–9, 2016 | 48.7% | 32.3% | 7.3% | 3.4% | 16.4 | 468 | ± 4.5% |
| Maine People's Resource Center | September 15–17, 2016 | 41% | 30% | 12% | 5% | 11 | 440 | ± 4.7% |
| Colby College/Boston Globe | September 4–10, 2016 | 49% | 31% | 9% | 5% | 18 | 382 | ± 5.3% |
| Emerson College | September 2–5, 2016 | 52% | 30% | 9% | 2% | 22 | 404 |
2nd congressional district
Polls
Four-way race| Poll source | Date administered | Hillary Clinton | Donald Trump | Gary Johnson | Jill Stein | Lead margin | Sample size | Margin of error |
| Maine People's Resource Center | November 2–3, 2016 | 41% | 43% | 8% | 3% | 2 | 405 | ± 4.9% |
| Maine People's Resource Center | October 24–26, 2016 | 38% | 41% | 8% | 3% | 3 | 382 | ± 5% |
| Maine People's Resource Center | October 14–15, 2016 | 38% | 37% | 11% | 4% | 1 | 420 | ± 4.8% |
| Maine People's Resource Center | October 7–9, 2016 | 39% | 40% | 10% | 2% | 1 | 424 | ± 4.8% |
| Maine People's Resource Center | September 15–17, 2016 | 33% | 44% | 10% | 4% | 11 | 396 | ± 4.9% |
| Colby College/Boston Globe | September 4–10, 2016 | 37% | 47% | 8% | 5% | 10 | 397 | ± 5.0% |
| Emerson College | September 2–5, 2016 | 36% | 41% | 14% | 1% | 5 | 399 |
Statewide results
County results
Congressional district
Clinton took the southern 1st district while Trump carried the more rural 2nd district.| District | Trump | Clinton | Representative |
| 39.15% | 53.96% | Chellie Pingree | |
| 51.26% | 40.97% | Bruce Poliquin |