by louis nelson and daniel lippman 11/09/16 07:06 am est updated 11/09/16 02:22 pm est virginia sen. tim kaine on wednesday claimed a consolation prize of sorts for his running mate, declaring that hillary clinton had won the popular vote in the 2016 race <u+2014> a historical achievement, even if she fell short in her quest to become the first female president of the united states. "she has made history in a nation that is good at so many things but that has made it uniquely difficult for a woman to be elected to federal office," kaine said in an emotional introduction of his running mate before her formal concession speech. "she became the first major party nominee as a woman to be president and last night, won the popular vote of americans." story continued below the former secretary of state took a punch to the gut when donald trump clinched the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the presidency in the wee hours of wednesday morning, but she and trump were neck-and-neck in the popular vote, with each grabbing roughly 58.7 million votes. but by wednesday afternoon, clinton held a lead of more than 200,000 votes. it may take a while before the final vote tally is clear <u+2014> election officials will be counting absentee ballots for weeks, potentially keeping the popular vote as too-close-to-call for the foreseeable future. and while such a win could provide some solace to clinton, it could also further divide a country already badly splintered after perhaps the most vicious presidential campaign in modern history by offering her die-hard supporters an avenue to contest the legitimacy of a trump presidency. the former secretary of state herself implored her supporters to fall in line behind the president-elect, telling them in her concession speech that "we owe him an open mind." president barack obama offered a similar thought in his own address from the white house's rose garden, pronouncing that "we are now all rooting for his success in uniting and leading the country," despite a deep divide between the two men on matters of policy and personality. but getting clinton's fiercest supporters, and to a lesser degree, democrats in general, to accept trump as their president could become harder should the former secretary of state end up with more votes than the former reality tv star. although they have thus far given no indication that that would use it, a victory in the popular vote would give bitter democrats a powerful talking point to wield against talk that trump won a mandate with his unlikely romp through the electoral college. to wage such a campaign would be a mistake for the democrats, obama's former white house communications director anita dunn said. at the same time, she said there is a cautionary lesson to be learned for republicans should clinton end up the winner of the popular vote. "what is important for the republican party as they take stock of donald trump<u+2019>s victory is to realize that the democratic party has won the popular vote every election, except for one, since 1988," dunn said. "i don<u+2019>t think anybody should attempt to underestimate the mandate and his victory. he won, and he won by winning in states that republicans had not won before for a while and i think it would be a mistake for people in either party to try to downplay the reality of his victory." stephanie cutter, the deputy campaign manager for obama's successful 2012 reelection bid, disagreed with dunn on the existence of a mandate for the manhattan billionaire. "the only thing i think it does is trump doesn<u+2019>t have a mandate and democrats shouldn't be emboldened by that," she said when asked about clinton's possible popular vote victory. "both sides have to realize that voters were screaming from the roof tops that they want their elected officials to govern and they have to find a way to govern. the lesson out of this is neither party has a mandate and finding a way to compromise and govern is important." at his daily press briefing, white house press secretary josh earnest said that clinton's popular vote performance proved a testament to the strength of her campaign, despite the ultimate result of the election. "now winning the popular vote is not what gets you the keys to the oval office, you got to win the electoral vote <u+2014> i know that everybody knew the rules going into the contest <u+2014> but it does underscore the depth of support and enthusiasm for her message and for her campaign," he said. "and that is testament to her leadership and her ability to build support for a national campaign." should the former secretary of state end up besting trump, it would provoke flashbacks to the 2000 presidential election between george w. bush and al gore. bush won the presidency that year by virtue of a narrow, 537-vote win in the state of florida, one of a handful of states that also delivered trump to victory on wednesday morning. bush's victory in florida, and in the 2000 election overall, came only after a protracted, weeks-long legal battle that ended with a 5-4 supreme court decision in his favor. but while bush's florida win put him in the white house, it was gore who won the popular vote, besting the president by 540,000 votes. while the bush-gore election of 2000 is the only modern instance of a split between the electoral college and the popular vote, such a situation happened two other times in u.s. history, both in the 1800s. presidents benjamin harrison and rutherford b. hayes both won the electoral vote despite earning fewer overall votes than their opponents in the 1888 and 1876 elections, respectively. in 1824, john quincy adams won neither the electoral vote nor the popular vote, losing both to andrew jackson. but jackson failed to reach the 131 electoral votes needed at the time to win the presidency, so the decision went to the house of representatives, which elected adams. a popular vote win for clinton would largely serve as a footnote to her historic run. the former secretary of state led democrats to a trouncing, dashing hopes that the party could retake the senate and potentially even the house. instead, republicans will have control of the white house and both chambers of congress for the first time in a decade. jack quinn, a former white house counsel to president bill clinton said a popular vote win for his former boss's wife would mean "not a damn thing" in the long run, suggesting that "democrats have to do a lot of soul-searching about the campaign we ran, particularly given that we lost an election to an extraordinarily unpopular and bombastic candidate like donald trump." mike feldman, a senior adviser and traveling chief of staff to gore's ill-fated presidential bid, spoke from experience as he described the resignation that sets in on a campaign that won the popular vote but lost where it counted. "if it<u+2019>s a consolation prize, it<u+2019>s probably cold comfort and look, we have a system. we have a process. we have an electoral college and that<u+2019>s how presidential elections are decided," feldman said. "i can tell you from past experience, being the popular vote winner is an interesting footnote in history." by michael grunwald by bill scher by thomas wright by joshua zeitz
kaine: clinton won popular vote - politico
louis nelson daniel lippman michael grunwald