Prior to the election, New York was considered to be a state that Clinton would win or a safe blue state. Despite Trump's association with the state, New York remained a Democratic stronghold with Clinton winning with 59.01% of the vote, while Trump received 36.52% of the vote, a 22.49% Democratic margin of victory. However, Trump won more counties, taking 45 counties statewide compared to Clinton's 17.[2] Trump also flipped 19 counties that had voted for Barack Obama in 2012, tied with Minnesota for the third-most counties flipped in any state; only Iowa and Wisconsin had more. Clinton received a smaller vote share than outgoing President Barack Obama had in 2012, while Trump improved on Mitt Romney's performance despite losing the state by a large margin.
New York was the home state of both major party nominees, though Clinton was born and raised in Chicago. Trump was born and raised in New York City and has been long associated with the state. Clinton has been a resident of Chappaqua in suburban Westchester County since 1999 and represented the state in the U.S. Senate from 2001 to 2009. Trump became the second consecutive major-party presidential nominee to lose his home state by over 20 points, after Mitt Romney, who lost his home state of Massachusetts by a similar margin in 2012. Before Romney, the last nominee this happened to was Herbert Hoover in his home state of California during 1932. Trump also became the fourth winning presidential candidate to lose his state of residence, after James K. Polk, Woodrow Wilson, and Richard Nixon. Trump and Polk are the only ones to have lost their state of birth as well (also New York in Trump's case).
The election also marks the most recent cycle in which Trump would be on the presidential ballot as a legal resident of New York state; according to court filings, he registered Palm Beach, Florida, as his "primary residence" in 2019.[3] Trump is also the first Republican presidential candidate to win the White House without carrying Dutchess County since Ulysses S. Grant in 1872. This is also the first time since 1988 in which New York did not vote for the same candidate as neighboring Pennsylvania. As of the 2024 election, this is the most recent election where Saratoga County and Rensselaer County have voted Republican.