2008 United States presidential election

The 2008 United States presidential election happened on November 4, 2008. Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate and junior U.S. Senator from Illinois, won the election. He defeated John McCain, the Republican candidate, who was the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama's victory in this election made him the first African-American president.

2008 United States presidential election
November 4, 2008
All 538 electoral votes of the Electoral College
270 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout58.2%[1] Increase 1.5 pp
 
Nominee Barack Obama John McCain
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Illinois Arizona
Running mate Joe Biden Sarah Palin
Electoral vote 365 173
States carried 28 + DC + NE-02 22
Popular vote 69,498,516 59,948,323
Percentage 52.9% 45.7%
Presidential election results map. Blue denotes those won by Obama/Biden, red denotes states won by McCain/Palin. Numbers indicate electoral votes allotted to the winner of each state.
President before election

George W. Bush
Republican

 Elected President

Barack Obama
Democratic

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Incumbent Republican President George W. Bush was not eligible to serve a third term by law. McCain secured the Republican nomination by March 2008, defeating former governors Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and other challengers. Obama secured the Democratic nomination in June 2008, after facing strong competition against former First Lady and Senator from New York Hillary Clinton. Clinton's victory in the New Hampshire primary made her the first woman to win a major party's presidential primary.

Obama won a decisive victory over McCain. He won states that had not voted for the Democratic presidential candidate since 1964 (Indiana and Virginia) and 1976 (North Carolina). Obama won nine states that had voted Republican in 2004: Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia, as well as Nebraska's 2nd congressional district. He received the largest share of the popular vote won by a Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and was the first Democrat to win an outright majority of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter in 1976. Obama won 69.5 million votes, the most ever won by a presidential candidate; this total would be surpassed in 2020 by both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Background

Article Two of the United States Constitution provides that for a person to be elected and serve as President of the United States, the individual must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the United States for a period of no less than 14 years.

Candidates for the presidency typically seek the nomination of one of the various political parties of the United States, in which case each party devises a method (such as a primary election) to choose the candidate the party deems best suited to run for the position. The party's delegates then officially nominate a candidate to run on the party's behalf.

President George W. Bush was unable to seek re-election for a third term because of the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that a president may only serve up to two terms. His term as president ended at noon eastern standard time on January 20, 2009.

Democratic Primaries

The candidates running for the nomination of the Democratic Party were Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Chris Dodd, and Bill Richardson.

The main contest during the Democratic primaries was between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, which was a very close race. Clinton won the popular vote, but ultimately Obama won more unpledged delegates and therefore the nomination.

All candidates except Mike Gravel, who switched to the Libertarian Party during the election, supported Barack Obama.

Barack Obama chose Joe Biden as the vice-presidential candidate on August 23, 2008.

Nominees
Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party Ticket, 2008
Barack Obama Joe Biden
for President for Vice President
U.S. Senator from Illinois
(2005–incumbent)		 U.S. Senator from Delaware
(1973–incumbent)
Campaign

Withdrawn candidates
  • Hillary Clinton, retired lawyer and wife of Bill Clinton
  • John Edwards, retired U.S. Senator from North Carolina (withdrew on January 30, 2008, and endorsed Barack Obama)
  • Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico (withdrew on January 10, 2008, and endorsed Barack Obama)
  • Dennis Kucinich, U.S. Representative from Ohio (withdrew on January 24, 2008, and endorsed Barack Obama)
  • Joe Biden, U.S. Senator from Delaware (withdrew on January 3, 2008 and endorsed Barack Obama)
  • Mike Gravel, former U.S. Senator from Alaska (withdrew on March 25, 2008, to run for the Libertarian Party nomination. After losing the nomination, he endorsed Jesse Johnson)
  • Christopher Dodd, U.S. Senator from Connecticut (withdrew on January 3, 2008, and endorsed Barack Obama)
  • Evan Bayh, U.S. Senator from Indiana (withdrew on December 15, 2006, and endorsed Hillary Clinton. He later endorsed Barack Obama)
  • Tom Vilsack, former Governor of Iowa (withdrew on February 23, 2007, and endorsed Hillary Clinton. He later endorsed Barack Obama)

Republican Primaries

The candidates running for the nomination of the Republican Party were John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Tom Tancredo, Alan Keyes, Jim Gilmore, Sam Brownback, and Duncan Hunter.

Republican President George W. Bush was unable to run for re-election since a president is only able to be elected twice. Vice president Dick Cheney chose not to run.

Most of the candidates withdrew early. As a result, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney emerged as the three people most likely to win the nomination. Ron Paul became popular among libertarians.

John McCain was nominated by the Republican Party (by a decisive victory).

He chose Sarah Palin as the vice-presidential candidate.

Nominees
Republican Party (United States)
Republican Party (United States)
Republican Party Ticket, 2008
John McCain Sarah Palin
for President for Vice President
U.S. Senator from Arizona
(1987–2018)		 9th
Governor of Alaska
(2006–2009)
Campaign

Withdrawn candidates

The Campaign

The biggest issue during the campaign was the bad economy. Other issues included health care, the Iraq War, the war on terrorism, and energy independence.

The president during the election, George W. Bush (who eventually supported John McCain), was very unpopular due to the 2007-09 Great Recession, and because of that, the Obama campaign compared McCain to Bush several times.

There were four television debates during the campaign: three of them were between the two presidential candidates, and one of them was between the two vice-presidential candidates.

Results
CandidateVotes%States ledNational ECV
Barack Obama (Democrat) 69,498,516 52.9% 28+DC+NE-02* 365
John McCain (Republican) 59,948,323 45.7% 22 173
Ralph Nader (Independent) 739,034 0.56% 0 0
Bob Barr (Libertarian) 523,715 0.40% 0 0
Chuck Baldwin (Constitution) 199,750 0.15% 0 0
Cynthia McKinney (Green) 161,797 0.12% 0 0
Alan Keyes (Independent) 47,746 0.04% 0 0
Roger Calero (Socalist Workers) 7,575 0.01% 0 0
Gloria La Riva (Socialism and Liberation) 6,808 0.01% 0 0
Brian Moore (USA Socialist) 6,528 0.01% 0 0
Charles Jay (Boston Tea) 2,422 0.00% 0 0
Frank McCenulty (New American Indpendent) 828 0.00% 0 0
Tom Stevens (Objectivist) 755 0.00% 0 0
Gene Amondson (Prohibition) 653 0.00% 0 0
Ted Weill (Reform) 481 0.00% 0 0
Total 131,313,820 100.00% 50 + DC 538

*NE-02 is Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District.

Results by state
State Obama Popular Vote Obama % McCain Popular Vote McCain % Electoral Vote
Alabama 813,479 38.74% 1,266,546 60.32% 9
Alaska 123,594 37.89% 193,841 59.42% 3
Arizona 1,034,707 45.12% 1,230,111 53.64% 10
Arkansas 422,310 38.86% 638,017 58.72% 6
California 8,274,473 61.01% 5,011,781 36.95% 55
Colorado 1,288,633 53.66% 1,073,629 44.71% 9
Connecticut 997,772 60.59% 629,428 38.22% 7
Delaware 255,429 61.94% 152,374 36.95% 3
District of Columbia 245,800 92.46% 17,367 6.53% 3
Florida 4,282,074 51.03% 4,045,624 48.22% 27
Georgia 1,844,123 46.99% 2,048,759 52.20% 15
Hawaii 325,871 71.85% 120,566 26.58% 4
Idaho 236,440 36.09% 403,012 61.52% 4
Illinois 3,419,308 61.92% 2,031,179 36.78% 21
Indiana 1,374,039 49.95% 1,345,648 48.91% 11
Iowa 828,940 53.93% 682,379 44.39% 7
Kansas 514,765 41.95% 699,655 56.61% 6
Kentucky 751,985 41.17% 1,048,462 57.40% 8
Louisiana 782,989 39.93% 1,148,275 58.56% 9
Maine 421,923 57.71% 295,273 40.38% 4
Maryland 1,629,467 61.92% 959,862 36.47% 10
Massachusetts 1,904,097 61.80% 1,108,854 35.99% 12
Michigan 2,872,579 57.43% 2,048,639 40.96% 17
Minnesota 1,573,354 54.06% 1,275,409 43.82% 10
Mississippi 554,662 43.00% 724,597 56.18% 6
Missouri 1,441,911 49.29% 1,445,814 49.43% 11
Montana 231,667 47.25% 242,763 49.51% 3
Nebraska 333,319 41.60% 452,479 56.53% 5**
Nevada 533,736 55.15% 412,827 42.65% 5
New Hampshire 384,826 54.13% 316,534 44.52% 4
New Jersey 2,215,422 57.27% 1,613,207 41.70% 15
New Mexico 472,422 56.91% 346,832 41.78% 5
New York 4,804,945 62.88% 2,752,771 36.03% 31
North Carolina 2,142,651 49.70% 2,128,474 49.38% 15
North Dakota 141,278 44.62% 168,601 53.25% 3
Ohio 2,940,044 51.50% 2,677,820 46.91% 20
Oklahoma 502,496 34.35% 960,165 65.65% 7
Oregon 1,037,291 56.75% 738,475 40.40% 7
Pennsylvania 3,276,363 54.49% 2,655,885 44.17% 21
Rhode Island 296,571 62.86% 165,391 35.06% 4
South Carolina 862,449 44.90% 1,034,896 53.87% 8
South Dakota 170,924 44.75% 203,054 53.16% 3
Tennessee 1,087,437 41.83% 1,479,178 56.90% 11
Texas 3,528,633 43.68% 4,479,328 55.45% 34
Utah 327,670 34.41% 596,030 62.58% 5
Vermont 219,262 67.46% 98,974 30.45% 3
Virginia 1,959,532 52.63% 1,725,005 46.33% 13
Washington 1,750,848 57.65% 1,229,216 40.48% 11
West Virginia 303,857 42.59% 397,466 55.71% 5
Wisconsin 1,677,211 56.22% 1,262,393 42.31% 10
Wyoming 82,868 32.54% 164,958 64.78% 3

**Nebraska cast 4 ECVs for McCain and 1 for Obama.

References
  1. "Official 2008 Presidential General Election Results" (PDF). fec.gov. Retrieved 2017-03-31.

Other websites



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