Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton: How Polk County Voted

LAKELAND, FL — Many Polk County voters who managed to stay up to hear Donald Trump’s early Wednesday morning victory speech were likely quite pleased with the results. The Republican nominee soundly won over the county’s voters, delivering a landslide blow to Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Polk County had a total of 286,485 of its 408,983 registered voters cast ballots in the Tuesday, Nov. 8 general election. The county had a slight Democratic majority of voters going into Tuesday's election with 150,156 to the Republican Party’s 146,673. Those registered with no party affiliation or minor party affiliation numbered at 112,154, according the Polk County Supervisor of Elections Office.

According to unofficial election results from the Polk elections office, the numbers from Tuesday were as follows:

• Clinton – 117,182 votes, or 40.90 percent
• Trump – 157,216 votes, or 54.88 percent
• Gary Johnson – 6,798 votes, or 2.37 percent

Most counties in the Tampa Bay area went red in Tuesday’s election. The same cannot be said for Hillsborough County where voters favored Clinton 51.49 percent to Trump’s 44.69 percent.

Polk voters also went red in the 2012 election. In that race, they favored Republican Mitt Romney by 131,577 votes to President Barack Obama’s 114,622, according to records from the Polk elections office.

Trump took the Sunshine State’s 29 electoral votes with a 49 percent victory to Clinton’s 47.79 percent, according to unofficial results from the Florida Division of Elections.

Results from Tuesday’s election are considered unofficial until they are certified by the state.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons