Eleven out of 17 ain’t bad. At least, not for Jim Gilmore.
The former governor of Virginia was seen as perhaps the least competitive major candidate during the heat of the Republican primary process. Gilmore almost consistently placed last in polling and qualified to appear in only two (undercard) debates until he ended his campaign in February.
However, in terms of total votes, Gilmore beat out the likes of former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, along with four other rivals.
According to a tally compiled by the Green Papers, Gilmore scored a total 16,864 votes, or .05 percent of the popular vote through every primary and caucus contest. That puts Gilmore just over 200 votes ahead of former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (16,625), who placed second to Mitt Romney in the 2012 GOP nomination race. Both candidates dropped out in February.
He also beat Graham (5,663) by over 10,000 votes, former New York Gov. George Pataki (2,036) by 14,000 votes and Jindal (222) by more than 16,000. (Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker dropped out the race in September, 2015, while Jindal, Pataki and Graham also ended their campaigns before the Iowa primary in February.)
Gilmore received his biggest boost in the final primary of the season, California on June 7, where he received just over 14,000 vote by the Green Papers’ count. It helped too that Gilmore was one of just five Republicans listed on the ballot in a state where over 2 million Republicans voted.
It is notable too that while Gilmore did beat out “No Preference” (16,710), he did trail “Uncommitted” (72,667) and “(others)” (33,962).
Gilmore’s numbers pale in comparison to that of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump (13,786,631), who scored 44.67 percent of the total vote and is now that only remaining candidate left before the Republican convention in July.
Courtesy of The Green Papers
