by WorldTribune Staff, December 18, 2016

Democratic analysts never miss an opportunity to point out how Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election by 2.8 million votes. What they never mention, however, is that Clinton’s entire popular vote lead, and then some, comes entirely from California.

“If you take California out of the popular vote equation, then Trump wins the rest of the country by 1.4 million votes,” columnist John Merline wrote for Investor’s Business Daily on Dec. 16.

“And if California voted like every other Democratic state — where Clinton averaged 53.5 percent in her wins — Clinton and Trump end up in a virtual popular vote tie. (This was not the case in 2012. Obama beat Romney by 2 million votes that year, not counting California.)”

California, in which Clinton received 4.3 million more votes than President-elect Donald Trump “is the exception that proves the true genius of the Electoral College — which was designed to prevent regional candidates from dominating national elections,” Merline wrote.

In all other measures, Merline noted, “Trump was the clear and decisive winner.”

Trump won 30 states compared to Clinton’s 20. Trump won 306 electoral votes to Clinton’s 232. Trump’s average margin of victory in states he won was 56 percent compared to Clinton’s 53.5 percent.

“In recent years, California has been turning into what amounts to a one-party state,” Merline wrote, noting that the number of registered Democrats in the state grew by 1.1 million between 2008 and 2016 while the number of registered Republicans dropped by almost 400,000 in the same time period.

“What’s more, many Republicans in the state had nobody to vote for in November,” Merline wrote.

“There were two Democrats — and zero Republicans — running to replace Sen. Barbara Boxer. There were no Republicans on the ballot for House seats in nine of California’s congressional districts.

“At the state level, six districts had no Republicans running for the state senate, and 16 districts had no Republicans running for state assembly seats.

“Plus, since Republicans knew Clinton was going to win the state — and its entire 55 electoral votes — casting a ballot for Trump was virtually meaningless, since no matter what her margin of victory, Clinton was getting all 55 votes.

“Is it any wonder then, that Trump got 11 percent fewer California votes than John McCain did in 2008? (Clinton got 6 percent more votes than Obama did eight years ago, but the number of registered Democrats in the state climbed by 13 percent over those years.)”