Hillary Clinton‘s campaign would lose in multiple states where Barack Obama had triumphed. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Hillary Clinton: After losing the Democratic nomination in 2008 to Barack Obama and subsequently serving as his secretary of State, this was supposed to be the year Hillary Clinton would have nothing short of a coronation. With no young insurgent competitors to challenge her, the entire Democratic leadership lined up behind her, from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid to Obama.

Instead, the former New York senator and first lady was faced with a tougher-than-expected primary challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. The self-proclaimed democratic socialist would give her a tough run in Iowa and beat her in New Hampshire. He would drag out the contest until June, when it was all but clear Clinton would be the nominee.

Clinton also faced enormous headwinds in the questions about her use of a private email server that dogged her from when that was revealed in March of 2015 through Election Day. Initially, it looked like the coast was clear after FBI Director James Comey said in July that he would not recommend prosecution despite the fact he said the actions were “extremely careless.” But Comey would roil the contest 10 days before the election when he notified Congress that relevant emails had been discovered in an unrelated case.

Clinton’s campaign and Democrats all but ignored rural areas that had been friendly to the party. In the end, despite winning the popular vote, Clinton would wind up losing states once considered Democratic safe havens like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin to Trump.