Lioret wrote:When I first heard about Trump running for president, I thought it was a joke. I have no idea who would vote for someone who seems to openly attack so many different types of people and I was really surprised he seemed to be winning before.
Well, he was never exactly winning...He's always had a ceiling between 30 and 40% of voters.
So only a tiny portion of voters actually vote in the primaries. The people who do are the base, the people you can count on to vote for you in the general election. Traditionally, if you're a candidate you spend the primary building your base and the period right before the convention to unite the party behind your candidacy. Then during the summer you try to expand that base by appealing to voters who didn't vote in the primary and who don't traditionally fall into your wheelhouse, you know, swing voters etc. The fall is supposed to be about the debates, last minute cage fights, and making sure your voters actually get to the polls come the big day.
Trump didn't win the primary with a majority of votes. Less than half of the Republican primary voters actually voted for him, but because the primary field was so large no other candidate was able to get as many votes as they needed to push them over the top. In the end, I think only 4.5% of eligible voters actually voted for Trump.
And Clinton got more votes in the primary than Trump did.
Here's a great and simple graphic from the New York Times titled Only 9% ofAmerica Chose Trump And Clinton as the Nominees:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016 ... inton.html