New Hampshire’s and other swing state’s role in 2016 election
October 24, 2016
New Hampshire plays a pivotal role in this year’s general election as it is one of the “swing states” that make or break a candidate’s campaign. In order for a presidential candidate to win the election they need 270 of the total 538 electoral college votes. Of the 538 votes, 125 of them are swing states, or states who have not been classified as mostly Republican or mostly Democrat. New Hampshire has “always been a swing state”, according to John E. Sununu from the Boston Globe. Swing states are so widely talked about for the simple reason that the presidential nominees need swing states in order to win the general election.
The website 270towin.com has shown that there are 256 Democratic electoral college votes and 157 Republican electoral college votes. Swing states are crucial for a candidate to win because if a candidate loses all of the swing states then they most likely will lose the election. Donald Trump must win four of the largest swing states in terms of electoral college votes plus a different combination of the rest of the swing states in order to get to 270. Trump needs to win Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Georgia in order to have a shot of reaching the goal of 270. Along with these four states he needs to win a combination of the remaining eight swing states. New Hampshire is needed in 8 out of the 12 combinations for Trump to get to the 270 electoral college votes.
Hillary Clinton is less dependent on New Hampshire as she currently has 256 projected electoral college votes and only needs 14 from the swing states in order to win. However, even though New Hampshire isn’t needed as critically in Secretary Clinton’s path to 270, it is still important as she needs to win New Hampshire in 8 out of the 25 combinations. This is significant when you consider that Trump needs more votes from the swing states and 8 is the largest amount of combinations that a state is featured in for Hillary Clinton. Overall, New Hampshire is an important swing state and plays a big part in who will achieve 270 and win the election.