The 2016 U.S. presidential election resulted in former Governor Jon
Huntsman, Jr. (R-UT) winning in a three-way race against Democratic
nominee Kathleen Sebelius and Conservative Party candidate Michele
Bachmann. This election saw the formation of the Conservative Party, a
brief major party that died out within a decade. Although many political
pundits predicted that the Conservative Party would split the
Republican vote, Huntsman managed to use his moderate views and
opposition to partisanship to win over centrists and independents, as
well as many Democrats and Republicans. Sebelius was defeated due to her
support of the Obama administration, which was criticized for its
inability to compromise with the Republicans. Bachmann represented the
dying Tea Party movement, which was steadily becoming dominated by the
more centrist and establishment factions of the Republican Party.
The Republican candidates were divided into three groups: Moderates,
conservatives, and libertarians. Jon Huntsman was the leader of the
moderate faction, and by the time the primaries began, all others had
dropped out and endorsed him instead. With the new moderate movement
behind him, Huntsman had enormous amounts of support. The conservatives,
however, were divided due to having many candidates: Bachmann, Rubio,
Paul, Roemer, Barbour, and Santorum. The conservative vote was so
divided that Huntsman won many states by plurality, which really helped
him in winner-take-all states. By this point, the libertarian faction
was very small, with many members voting for either moderates or
conservatives, so Gary Johnson got very few votes.
Hillary Clinton declined to run. Sebelius did not want to run
originally, however, at Obama's urging, she decided to throw her hat in
the ring. Schweitzer was banking on Huntsman losing the nomination, and
that he would be able to win the moderate vote. When it became clear
that Huntsman would be the Republican nominee, Schweitzer dropped out.
Alan Grayson served primarily to draw progressive voters away from
Kucinich. Sewell was not in the race to win it; she ran to be noticed as
a potential cabinet pick or as a future presidential nominee. Rice ran
on a campaign for D.C. Statehood, while Greene ran to earn votes from
Black Nationalists. Due to Obama's support, Sebelius was victorious in
the nomination.
Results
| Name | Party | Votes | % | Electoral | Running Mate |
| Jon Huntsman | Republican | 63,128,916 | 45.16 | 278 | Scott Brown |
| Kathleen Sebelius | Democratic | 41,866,940 | 29.95 | 215 | Gary Locke |
| Michele Bachmann | Conservative | 30,865,510 | 22.08 | 45 | Buddy Roemer |
| Lou Dobbs | Independent | 1,509,726 | 1.08 | 0 | Peter Jones |
| Ben Meiklejohn | Green | 1,328,000 | 0.95 | 0 | Sarah Lee |
| Tamara Millay | Libertarian | 629,053 | 0.45 | 0 | Penn Jilette |
Other candidates recieved 461,305 votes, .33%.
How did you come upon Ben Meiklejohn as the Green nominee?
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