Just the facts: the 2016 Presidential election

As we draw towards the finish line of the 2016 campaign, I wanted to take a few moments to reflect on some of the interesting facts and details of this election. There is an obvious historical precedent, which I will get to momentarily, but let’s look at some facts and possibilities you may not have known or considered.

Tuesday’s election will be the 58^th time that Americans have chosen a President. It is also the 40^th contest between Democratic and Republican nominees for the office.

The two major party nominees hail from the state of New York. The last time both nominees came from the same state was 1944, between Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Thomas Dewey. Incidentally, they were also both from New York.

If Hillary Clinton wins, she will be the first former Secretary of State to win the Presidency since James Buchanan. Another Clinton-Buchanan connection is the fact that if she wins it will be the first peaceful (aka not death-assisted) transition from one Democratic administration to another since Buchanan was elected to replace Franklin Pierce in 1856.

Since the beginning of the Republic, every person elected President has had experience serving in either a civic governmental post, or the military, or a combination of the two. If Donald Trump were to be elected, he would be the first President to bring neither to the table.

There is an outside chance that Evan McMullin (I) may be able to carry Utah. If that were to happen, it would set a precedent in that there has been no third-party candidate to win electoral votes on Election Day since 1968, when George Wallace won five states as a member of the American Independent Party.

Last, but not least, there is the greatest precedent that Hillary Clinton could set this Tuesday. Many women have run for President over the years, from Victoria Woodhull to Margaret Chase Smith, from Angela Davis to Shirley Chisolm, from Carol Moseley Braun to Carly Fiorina, and even Gracie Allen. None has ever gotten this far on so public a stage. If Mrs Clinton wins, it will truly be history; regardless the 2016 election may well go down as one of the most meaningful in American history.