The reason Trump won was because he was not a politician, and he was as anti establishment as you could possibly get. He was elected to train wreck Washington, not to "work with" anyone. In fact, if you look at the other 16 that ran against him, most were political retreads. Including Trump himself.
Granted Hillary was bad, but with the exception of Trump, everyone else, including Hillary were all canned politicians that everyone was sick and tired of. Trump's brash, insulting statements actually worked to his benefit. But if you look at everyone else on that stage with the exception of Trump, no one wanted any of them. Even Cruz came up way short.