2016 United States presidential election

=== Beliefs and policies of candidates ===
{{Main|Political positions of Donald Trump|Political positions of Hillary Clinton}}
Hillary Clinton focused her candidacy on several themes, including raising middle class incomes, expanding women's rights, instituting campaign finance reform, and improving the [[Affordable Care Act]]. In March 2016, she laid out a detailed economic plan basing her economic philosophy on [[inclusive capitalism]], which proposed a "clawback" that rescinds [[tax cut]]s and other benefits for companies that move jobs overseas; with provision of incentives for companies that share profits with employees, communities and the environment, rather than focusing on short-term profits to increase stock value and rewarding shareholders; as well as increasing [[collective bargaining]] rights; and placing an "exit tax" on companies that move their headquarters out of the U.S. in order to pay a lower tax rate overseas.<ref name="offersecplan">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/05/us/politics/hillary-clinton-offers-economic-plan-focused-on-jobs.html |title=Clinton Offers Economic Plan Focused on Jobs |first=Amy |last=Chozick |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 4, 2016}}</ref> Clinton promoted [[equal pay for equal work]] to address current alleged shortfalls in how much women are paid to do the same jobs men do,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hillary-clinton-equal-pay-problem-solving-would-be-top-priorities/ |title=Hillary Clinton: Equal pay, problem-solving would be top priorities |date=February 24, 2015 |work=[[CBS News]]}}</ref> promoted explicitly focus on family issues and support of [[universal preschool]],<ref name="AP outset">{{cite news |url=http://bigstory.ap.org/article/130dda61f1e24e05ba2233b3e80fa638/clinton-patches-relations-liberals-campaigns-outset |title=Clinton patches relations with liberals at campaign's outset |work=The Big Story |agency=Associated Press |first=Lisa |last=Lerder |date=April 19, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150623162718/http://bigstory.ap.org/article/130dda61f1e24e05ba2233b3e80fa638/clinton-patches-relations-liberals-campaigns-outset |archive-date=June 23, 2015}}</ref> expressed support for the right to [[Same-sex marriage in the United States|same-sex marriage]],<ref name="AP outset" /> and proposed allowing [[Illegal immigration to the United States|undocumented immigrants]] to have a path to [[Citizenship of the United States|citizenship]] stating that it "{{bracket|i}}s at its heart a family issue."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Chozick |first1=Amy |title=A Path to Citizenship, Clinton Says, 'Is at Its Heart a Family Issue' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/05/05/a-path-to-citizenship-clinton-says-is-at-its-heart-a-family-issue/ |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=May 5, 2015}}</ref>

Donald Trump's campaign drew heavily on his personal image, enhanced by his previous media exposure.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://fortune.com/2016/04/28/donald-trump-branding-power/ |title=Explaining Donald Trump's Massive Branding Power |author=Geoff, Colvin |date=April 28, 2016 |access-date=July 16, 2016 |work=[[Fortune_(magazine) | Fortune]]}}</ref> The primary slogan of the Trump campaign, extensively used on campaign merchandise, was [[Make America Great Again]]. The red baseball cap with the slogan emblazoned on the front became a symbol of the campaign and has been frequently donned by Trump and his supporters.<ref name="trumphats">{{cite web |last1=Mai-Duc |first1=Christine |title=Inside the Southern California factory that makes the Donald Trump hats |url=https://latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-trump-hats-cali-fame-carson-20151124-story.html |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=July 17, 2016 |date=November 12, 2015}}</ref> Trump's [[Right-wing populism|right-wing populist]] positions—reported by ''[[The New Yorker]]'' to be [[Nativism (politics)|nativist]], [[Protectionism|protectionist]], and semi-[[Isolationism|isolationist]]—differ in many ways from [[Conservatism in the United States|traditional U.S. conservatism]].<ref name="Cassidy">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/donald-trump-is-transforming-the-g-o-p-into-a-populist-nativist-party |title=Donald Trump Is Transforming the G.O.P. Into a Populist, Nativist Party |last=Cassidy |first=John |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=February 29, 2016 |access-date=March 5, 2016 |quote=What is perhaps more surprising, at least to Washington-based conservatives, is how many Republicans are also embracing Trump's populist lines on ending free trade, protecting Social Security, and providing basic health care.}}</ref> He opposed many [[Free trade area|free trade deals]] and [[Peacekeeping|military interventionist policies]] that conservatives generally support, and opposed cuts in [[Medicare (United States)|Medicare]] and [[Social Security (United States)|Social Security benefits]]. Moreover, he has insisted that Washington is "broken" and can be fixed only by an outsider.<ref name="Politico915">{{cite web |url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/trump-tea-party-populist-exposed-213111 |title=How Trump Exposed the Tea Party |work=[[Politico]] Magazine |date=September 3, 2015 |quote=For years the Republican elite has gotten away with promoting policies about trade and entitlements that are the exact opposites of the policies favored by much of their electoral base. Populist conservatives who want to end illegal immigration, tax the rich, protect Social Security and Medicare, and fight fewer foreign wars have been there all along. It's just that mainstream pundits and journalists, searching for a libertarian right more to their liking (and comprehension), refused to see them before the Summer of Trump.}}</ref><ref name="NYT032816">{{cite news |author1=Nicholas Confessore |title=How the G.O.P. Elite Lost Its Voters to Donald Trump |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/us/politics/donald-trump-republican-voters.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 28, 2016 |access-date=March 28, 2016 |quote=While wages declined and workers grew anxious about retirement, Republicans offered an economic program still centered on tax cuts for the affluent and the curtailing of popular entitlements like Medicare and Social Security.}}</ref><ref name="WP032816a">{{cite news |author1=Greg Sargent |title=This one anecdote perfectly explains how Donald Trump is hijacking the GOP |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/03/28/this-one-anecdote-perfectly-explains-how-donald-trump-is-hijacking-the-gop/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=March 28, 2016 |access-date=March 29, 2016}}</ref> Support for Trump was high among working and middle-class white male voters with annual incomes of less than $50,000 and no [[Academic degree|college degree]].<ref name="NYT033016">{{cite news |author1=Thomas B. Edsall |title=Who Are the Angriest Republicans? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/opinion/campaign-stops/who-are-the-angriest-republicans.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 30, 2016 |access-date=March 30, 2016}}</ref> This group, particularly those without a [[High school diploma|high-school diploma]], suffered a decline in their income in recent years.<ref name="MJ01816">{{cite news |author1=Steve Rattner |author-link1=Steven Rattner |title=White, working class men back Trump, charts show |url=https://msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/white--working-class-men-back-trump--charts-show-598331459704 |access-date=March 25, 2016 |work=Morning Joe MNSBC |date=January 8, 2016 |format=video |quote=Steve Rattner breaks down the demographics of who is supporting Donald Trump and how these supporters are doing financially. Duration: 2:25}}</ref> According to ''The Washington Post'', support for Trump is higher in areas with a higher mortality rate for middle-aged white people.<ref name="WP03416">{{cite news |author1=Jeff Guo |title=Death predicts whether people vote for Donald Trump |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/04/death-predicts-whether-people-vote-for-donald-trump/ |access-date=March 18, 2016 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=March 4, 2016 |quote=Even after controlling for these other factors, the middle-aged white death rate in a county was still a significant predictor of the share of votes that went to Trump}}</ref> A sample of interviews with more than 11,000 Republican-leaning respondents from August to December 2015 found that Trump at that time found his strongest support among Republicans in [[West Virginia]], followed by [[New York (state)|New York]], and then followed by six Southern states.<ref>Nate Cohn, [https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/upshot/donald-trumps-strongest-supporters-a-certain-kind-of-democrat.html Donald Trump's Strongest Supporters: A Certain Kind of Democrat], ''[[The New York Times]]'' (December 31, 2015).</ref>