So we have finally ended the primary season for 2016 – thank goodness! We can all go back to our daily lives now at least until the conventions, maybe even until November rolls around.

So what have we learned from the primary season?  Given Trump’s ‘unexpected’ rise to become the GOP’s presumptive presidential candidate, we can safely assume this is an anti-establishment election.  Plus, with the defections of so many ‘conservative’ elites from the GOP tent because of Trump, it is clear the ‘establishment’ is ignorant of the low esteem the voters hold them in. Or they are perfect examples of those “nose-in-the-air” elites who created the voter backlash that Trump embodies (and to some extent Sanders).

So, is this a close race between the establishment elites represented by ” the Queen of the Establishment” Hillary Clinton, and the fed-up voters represented by the trash talking Donald?

I don’t think so.  The energy has been on the anti-elite side from day one. It has only continued to tip towards them as we end the primary phase of this election cycle.

I present two data points to support my claim.  Data Point 1 – Trump’s historic voter turnout and vote total:

Trump received 13,406,108 votes to date in the elections according to www.thegreenpapers.com.

As a result Trump has more votes than any candidate in Republican history.

Trump shattered the previous record by 1.4 million votes — and that was with 17 candidates in the race

…

The Republican Party also set a party record this year in pre-convention state election turnout with over 28 million votes to date, which is 139% of the record high voter turnout in 2008. This increase in votes can be attributed to Donald Trump.

Clearly Trump had some serious momentum even to the end, as his voters kept turning out well after he locked up the GOP nomination.

So how is Hillary doing? She struggled down to the wire to vanquish Sanders in an intense battle, so you would think she too is seeing serious momentum.

You would think, Data Point 2:

Hillary Clinton’s base of support appears to have hit its high watermark eight years ago.

With 94.4% of precincts reporting, Clinton won 1,841,285 votes in California on Tuesday, compared to Bernie Sanders’s 1,416,742, Politico reports.

That’s nearly a 30% drop in total support from 2008

Tags: 2016 Elections, Clinton, Trump