Hillary Clinton won Orange County, California, in the 2016 presidential election.

Posted by The NPR Politics Podcast, Aug 28, 2026Checked Nov 2, 2026

Polygraph verdictTrue

Sources: 7 support
Said: 1 time·
Confidence: 92%

The NPR Politics PodcastAug 28, 2026

Multiple independent sources, including the official 2016 Orange County results (609,961 Clinton vs. 507,148 Trump) and contemporaneous AP/LA Times/Voice of OC reporting, confirm Clinton won Orange County in the 2016 presidential election, the first Democrat to do so since FDR in 1936.

A guest makes this claim. Listeners heard it, so it counts against the post, and on the guest's own record.

What was said

… that they have their eyes on, I mean, Mark Elias told me, essentially, that he is looking at places, A, where races could be close or vote counting could be particularly slow. It came to mind to me that's a place a lot like Orange County, California. This is a historically red area that had not gone blue in a presidential election for a very long time until Hillary Clinton won the area in 2016, and because of lots of different reasons, their vote counting is quite slow in the state. It's also a place that the president has focused a lot of attention on, right? …

The NPR Politics Podcast · Aug 28, 2026· from the transcriptPost →

What we found

Supports. The official Orange County 2016 Presidential General Election results show Hillary Clinton receiving 609,961 votes (50.9%) to Trump's 507,148 (42.3%).[1]

Supports. Contemporaneous reporting from the Los Angeles Times and Voice of OC states Clinton won Orange County, the first Democrat to win a majority there since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936.[2][3]

Supports. Later coverage (The Conversation, UPI, Seattle Times, Daily News) confirms Clinton carried Orange County in 2016, ending a Republican streak dating to 1936.[4][5][6][7]

Context. The official tally (50.9% vs 42.3%) and the earlier LA Times/Voice of OC counts differ in precision because of the count timing, but all agree Clinton won the county.[1][2][3]

Sources

7 sources: 1 primary, 6 not rated

12016 Presidential General Election - OC Voteocvote.gov · primary source · cited for: supports, context
2Hillary Clinton turned Orange County blue. Minorities and ...latimes.com · not rated · cited for: supports, context
3Trump Takes Presidency, But Clinton Takes OCvoiceofoc.org · not rated · cited for: supports, context
4Orange County: how Trump killed off Reaganism and changed the face of the US righttheconversation.com · not rated · cited for: supports
5Trump-Clinton race a study in strategic Electoral College winsseattletimes.com · not rated · cited for: supports
6November's presidential election broke records in Californiadailynews.com · not rated · cited for: supports
7Orange County: how Trump killed off Reaganism and changed the face of the US right - UPI.comupi.com · not rated · cited for: supports

Where this claim was made

Said in 1 published post

The NPR Politics Podcast · Aug 28, 2026Post →

How Polygraph checks a claim

What was said

What we found

Sources

Where this claim was made

Related claims

The Readout