Trump's win in 2016 [View all]
How many times have we heard that "Trump won in 2016 due to 77,000 votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin." We have heard that so often that we take it as the gospel truth. However, it's not entirely true, IMO. Let's dig in:
Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes.
Trump won Wisconsin by 22,748 votes
Trump won Pennsylvania by 44,284 votes
In those three states, he won by 77,736 votes. I've seen it stated as 77,000 or 78,000 or 80,000. However, to make a statement like that, it implies that he would have lost without all THREE states. Trump got 306 Electoral votes, but only 270 are needed to win. Therefore, even if he had lost Pennsylvania (20 votes) and Michigan (16 votes), he still would have had 270 votes. He didn't need to win those two states to get to 270 Electoral votes.
Therefore, it was ONLY Wisconsin that put him over the top. We should say that Trump won because of 23,000 votes in Wisconsin.
Please tell me if there's a flaw in the above statement!
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