On the eve of the 2016 presidential election, I’ve tallied up the partisan state legislative endorsements of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Clinton as far as I can tell has 1,359 endorsements from sitting Democratic state legislators, which represents 43% of the 3,163 Democratic state legislators in the country. Democrats are clearly unified in support of their candidate.
Trump as far as I can tell has only 230 endorsements from incumbent Republican state legislators, which represent 5.6% of the 4,119 Republican state legislators. The Republican party is unified at the state legislator level — in not endorsing Donald Trump. While I don’t have the numbers for previous elections to back it up, my subjective memory and interpretation is that this number is pretty much unprecedented.
The thing to remember is that state legislators represent the farm team for future members of Congress, governors, or even the President. A post-2016 future for the Republican party doesn’t look like it has much room for a candidate like Trump, at least going by these numbers.
2016 Endorsements 