Election 2016: Relive the Fun (or Horror) Quiz

Answer: Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval

The media speculated that Brian Sandoval would run, but ultimately he did not do so. The final Republican field consisted of 17 major candidates. Others not mentioned in the question include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Neurosurgeon Ben Carson, HP CEO Carly Fiorina and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.

The Democratic side only had 5 major candidates: former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Sen. and Gov. Lincoln Chaffee.

Answer: Young voters

Sanders dominated the primary with younger voters during the primary season. He was also particularly strong with white voters, particularly white men, and independents in states where the unaffiliated could vote in the Democratic primary. Clinton was strong with African-Americans and older voters.

This allowed her to rack up early wins in Southern states with large African-American and older populations, since Southern states voted early in the primary.

Answer: He called Bill Clinton a rapist

Trump's opponents claimed that his "bad hombres" comment was offensive to the Latino community who already were offended by many of his statements. Some also took offence at his "nasty woman" comment, claiming it was sexist and out of place in regards to what Hillary Clinton was talking about. But perhaps the the biggest headline and shocker of the night was when moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump if he would accept the outcome of the election. Trump would not answer and was asked the question again, to which he answered that he would "keep you in suspense". This broke a long tradition relating to the peaceful transfer of power. Trump had made several claims that the election was rigged against him, although election officials from both parties denied this. At a campaign rally the next week, Trump joked that he would accept the results, if he won.

The second debate also generated a lot of controversy. After an "Access Hollywood" video was released in which Trump appeared to brag about sexually assaulting women, Trump invited some of Bill Clinton's accusers to be his debate guests. Also at that debate which was in a town hall format, Trump would stand behind Hillary Clinton as she spoke to people asking questions. His opponents alleged that this was sexist as it appeared that Trump was stalking her by lurking behind her.

Answer: Wisconsin

Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan were three states of Hillary's "blue wall" that would have delivered the win had she won them, as all Democratic candidates had since 1988 (for Wisconsin) or 1992 (for Pennsylvania and Michigan). Hillary was also predicted to win swing state Florida and have a decent shot at North Carolina, but she needed neither state as long as she won those three Great Lake states. Trump narrowly defeated her in all three states by less than a percentage point in each.

Montana was a safe Republican state. Indiana was a strong Republican state and the home of Trump's running mate Gov. Mike Pence. Colorado was a swing state but one in which Hillary Clinton had a comfortable lead for most of the campaign.

Answer: 0

Not a single state voted one way for President and the other for Senator; the first time this had happened in a US election. Members of the media speculated that there could be an unprecedented large number of split ticket voting since both Trump and Clinton were unpopular.

Indeed, Republican Senate candidates tended to do better than Trump nationwide but it was not enough for a single state to split tickets. There were dozens of House districts that split tickets but that is not unusual.

Answer: False

In 2000, Democrats gained 5 Senate seats and 1 House seat but lost the presidency. Ironically, the Democratic candidate for President won the popular vote in both 2000 and 2016 but lost the crucial electoral vote. In both years, Democrats also won the popular vote in the Senate while Republicans narrowly won the popular vote for the House.

In 2016, only one incumbent Congressional Democrat lost (Rep. Brad Ashford from Nebraska's 2nd District). Republicans lost 6 House seats and 2 Senate seats belonging to Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Mark Kirk of Illinois. Republicans did gain open seats from Democratic control in the House and for state governors. Democrats also only lost open seats for Governor and defeated one Republican incumbent in North Carolina.

Typically, the winning candidate for president produces a coattail effect, causing his or her Congressional candidates to win tough races when they might not have otherwise.

Answer: Michigan

Donald Trump won Michigan by just .22% or just over 10,000 votes. New Hampshire was the closest state by total votes. Clinton won New Hampshire by just under 3,000 votes or .37%.

Answer: The unpopularity of President Obama

President Obama saw record high approval numbers in the last year of his final term. Traditionally, the incumbent president's approval rating has a huge effect on the election but was not the case this time around.

Pre-election polling was way off in states like Michigan and Florida but were generally correct in nationwide polling which revealed a 1-3 point race. It was speculated by many television pundits that polling firms under sampled white voters without a college degree who turned out in unusually high numbers for Trump. This caused the polling to look as if Clinton was a long way ahead (sometimes by double digits), when she likely was not. Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, speculated that polling firms using a "likely voter" sample would be off because many of Trump's voters had not voted before or in a long time. Statistics guru Nate Silver noted that Hillary Clinton likely traded white voters without a college degree for white voters with a college degree (some exit polls show Clinton actually won white voters with a degree, a first for a Democrat in decades). However, Silver noted that whites with degrees tended to live in states that Clinton either was always going to win or still wasn't going to win while whites without degrees tended to live in swing states.

Third party candidates, Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party's Jill Stein, took a significantly large amount of votes away from Hillary Clinton, exit polling showed. Young people, who largely trend Democratic and who backed Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Primary, voted for Johnson and Stein in large enough numbers to give Trump the win in key states. Obama won 60% of voters age 18-24 in 2012 while Clinton only won 56%, despite 2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney and Donald Trump in 2016 both earning 35%. Jill Stein's vote total in Michigan alone was larger than the gap between Trump and Clinton, and that was not counting Johnson's voters whom exiting polling also showed took more votes from Clinton than Trump.

After the campaign, Clinton's team blamed her loss on the last minute surprise that FBI Director James Comey was reopening an investigation into Clinton's use of a private server while Secretary of State. Earlier in the year, Comey said he would not recommend charges against Clinton but called her careless in handling classified material. Eleven days before the election, it was revealed that Comey had reopened the investigation and then quietly closed it again a few days later with nothing changing the decision not to charge Clinton. The letter revealing Comey's intentions caused controversy since it broke protocol about announcing such things close to an election. It also happened during the early voting period in many states. Clinton's team said that Comey's decision flipped many Republicans who disliked Trump and intended to vote Clinton back to Trump or caused many people who disliked both candidates (but disliked Clinton slightly less) to just stay home and not vote.

Answer: Faith Spotted Eagle

High discontent for both Clinton and Trump caused millions of people to sign petitions asking the Electoral College to reject Trump, the ultimate winner. Democratic electors, some of whom said they would not cast their vote for Clinton prior to the election, urged Republican electors to reject Trump and come up with a compromise Republican candidate whom the Democrats would support. However when the votes were cast, only two Republican electors rejected Trump. Both were from Texas. One voted for former Rep. Ron Paul and the other voted for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who was considered to be the main compromise candidate.

Three faithless Democratic electors in Washington state voted for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican who backed both Obama and Hillary Clinton. Another voted for Native American activist Faith Spotted Eagle. Another faithless elector from Hawaii who was supposed to vote for Clinton voted for Bernie Sanders. Other Democratic electors tried to cast votes for someone other than Clinton but were prevented by state law. Similar laws may have prevented Republican electors from rejecting Trump as well.

Answer: District of Columbia for Clinton and Nebraska's 3rd District for Trump

The District of Columbia had never voted for the Republican candidate for president prior to the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton won 90.48% of the vote while Trump won just 4.07%.

Nebraska and Maine were the only states who awarded electoral votes by congressional district. Nebraska's 3rd District was by far and away the most Republican and rural in the state. It gave Trump 73.92% of the vote and Clinton just 19.73%.