--- description: She has a wider margin in the popular vote than 10 presidents had. title: Clinton's Lead Over Trump Surpasses 2.5 Million Votes image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2ac056937eb55fe/6988b033cd1bba097c703412/hillary-clinton-lead-over-donald-trump-popular-vote.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [2016 Election](/tag/2016-election/) ## 2016 Election Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Hillary Clinton Now Leads Donald Trump by Over 2.5 Million Votes ## Video: This Video Is No Longer Available [Watch (HLS stream): This Video Is No Longer Available](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8) (0:10)  _Published 2026-06-23. She has a wider margin in the popular vote than 10 presidents had._  by [Julia Zorthian](/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 1, 2016 1:46 PM CUT  by [Julia Zorthian](/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 1, 2016 1:46 PM CUT Hillary Clinton’s lead in total votes over President-elect Donald Trump [has reached](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/133Eb4qQmOxNvtesw2hdVns073R68EZx4SfCnP4IGQf8/htmlview?sle=true#gid=19 "undefined") 2,526,184 as ballots continue to be tallied. As Clinton’s popular lead surpasses 2.5 million votes, it grows larger than the lead with which 10 presidents have won the general election, the [New York ](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/01/us/politics/donald-trump-transition.html "undefined")[_Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/01/us/politics/donald-trump-transition.html "undefined")reports. That means Clinton is up by 1.9 percentage points overall in the popular vote — approaching the lead that [polls predicted](http://time.com/4558183/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-national-poll-tracking/ "undefined") in the [final days](http://time.com/4560399/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-final-day-polls/ "undefined") before the election, the [_Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/01/us/politics/donald-trump-transition.html "undefined") notes. The disparity between the general election results and Trump’s [electoral college lead](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hillary-clintons-popular-vote-lead-donald-trump-now/story?id=43888531 "undefined") of 306 over Clinton’s 232 shows how the electoral college system currently disadvantages Democratic voters because of their concentration in certain cities and regions. Clinton’s popular vote win continues to grow as the absentee and mail-in ballots for states including New York and California [are tallied](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-popular-vote-23m-electoral-college-faithless-electors-a7447506.html "undefined"). \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/01/us/politics/donald-trump-transition.html "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4587158/clinton-leads-trump-2-5-million-votes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4587158/clinton-leads-trump-2-5-million-votes/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Now Leads Donald Trump by Over 2.5 Million Votes","datePublished":"2016-12-01T13:46:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-06-24T06:57:00.247Z","description":"She has a wider margin in the popular vote than 10 presidents had.","url":"https://time.com/4587158/clinton-leads-trump-2-5-million-votes/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2ac056937eb55fe/6988b033cd1bba097c703412/hillary-clinton-lead-over-donald-trump-popular-vote.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2ac056937eb55fe/6988b033cd1bba097c703412/hillary-clinton-lead-over-donald-trump-popular-vote.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"hillary clinton lead over donald trump popular vote","caption":"hillary clinton lead over donald trump popular vote","creditText":"Jason Kempin—Getty Images for UNICEF","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4587158/clinton-leads-trump-2-5-million-votes/","name":"Hillary Clinton Now Leads Donald Trump by Over 2.5 Million Votes"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Video Is No Longer Available","description":"She has a wider margin in the popular vote than 10 presidents had.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fKodeUO6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-06-23T15:00:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4587158/clinton-leads-trump-2-5-million-votes/","duration":"PT10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4587158/clinton-leads-trump-2-5-million-votes/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```