On November 7, 1916, incumbent President Woodrow Wilson was re-elected, narrowly defeating Republican nominee Charles Evans Hughes. Wilson secured 277 electoral votes to Hughes’s 254, with the popular vote margin being approximately 3.1%.

A pivotal factor in Wilson’s victory was his success in California, where he won by a slim margin of just 3,773 votes. This narrow win in California’s 13 electoral votes was decisive in the overall outcome of the election.

Wilson’s re-election made him the first Democratic president since Andrew Jackson to serve two consecutive terms.

The 1916 election was notably close, with the outcome remaining uncertain for several days due to tight vote counts in key states. Wilson’s campaign emphasized his efforts to keep the United States out of World War I, encapsulated in the slogan “He kept us out of war,” which resonated with many voters seeking continued neutrality.

However, despite this campaign stance, the United States entered World War I in April 1917, just months after Wilson’s second term commenced.