The United States presidential election of 2016 was the 58th quadrennial Presidential Election. Democrat Howard Dean, former Governor of Vermont, narrowly defeated Republican James Earl "Jeb" Bush, former Governor of Florida.The selected electors from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia voted for President and Vice President of the United States on December 12, 2016. Those votes were tallied before a joint session of Congress on January 8, 2017. Dean received 275 electoral votes, and Bush 263. The election proved to be one of the closest in recent memory.