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Both major?party candidates focused primarily on domestic issues, such as the budget, tax relief, and reforms for federal social insurance programs, although foreign policy was not ignored, with Romney calling for a tougher line towards China and Russia. Romney highlighted his executive experience as Governor of Massachusetts, adopted a moderate tone on divisive social issues such as gay rights and abortion, and sought to frame himself as a compassionate conservative, who could work across the aisle with Democrats and independents to get things done. Kucinich, on his part, called for universal healthcare, the elimination of student loan debt, and the creation of extensive new jobs and subsidy programs, geared at blue?collar workers and minority communities. Ultimately, Romney was able to capitalize on the countrys desire for change, and Kucinich did not actively campaign with President Gore, with whom he had ideological disagreements, and who had opposed his nomination bid.
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Both major?party candidates focused primarily on domestic issues, such as the budget, tax relief, and reforms for federal social insurance programs, although foreign policy was not ignored, with Romney calling for a tougher line towards China and Russia.
Romney highlighted his executive experience as Governor of Massachusetts, adopted a moderate tone on divisive social issues such as gay rights and abortion, and sought to frame himself as a compassionate conservative, who could work across the aisle with Democrats and independents to get things done. Kucinich, on his part, called for universal healthcare, the elimination of student loan debt, and the creation of extensive new jobs and subsidy programs, geared at blue?collar workers and minority communities. Ultimately, Romney was able to capitalize on the countrys desire for change, and Kucinich did not actively campaign with President Gore, with whom he had ideological disagreements, and who had opposed his nomination bid.
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Romney won a decisive victory, winning the Electoral College and popular vote by landslide margins. He carried 47 of the 50 states. Kucinich won just four states and the District of Columbia. Romneys total popular vote count (75.8 million votes) and margin of victory (21.1 million votes) stood as the largest ever won by a presidential candidate until [[United States presidential election, 2016 (Ferguson Scenario)|2016]]. Republicans
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Romney won a decisive victory, winning the Electoral College and popular vote by landslide margins.
He carried 47 of the 50 states. Kucinich won just four states and the District of Columbia. Romneys total popular vote count (75.8 million votes) and margin of victory (21.1 million votes) stood as the largest ever won by a presidential candidate until [[United States presidential election, 2016 (Ferguson Scenario)|2016]]. Republicans their majority in the U.S. and won control of the U.S. .
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===Results===
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===Results===
Latest revision as of 00:42, 17 June 2024
The 2008 United States presidential election was the 56th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. The Republican ticket of Mitt Romney, the Governor of Massachusetts, and John Sununu, the junior U.S. Senator from New Hampshire, defeated the Democratic ticket of Dennis Kucinich, U.S. Representative from Ohio and former Mayor of Cleveland, and Howard Dean, the former Governor of Vermont. Romneys victory ended a string of Democratic presidential wins that extended back to 1996.
Incumbent Democratic President Al Gore was ineligible to pursue a third term due to term limits established by the 22nd Amendment. Romney secured the Republican nomination by March 2008, defeating former Governors Mike Hucakbee and Jim Gilmore, former Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani, and former Senator Fred Thompson, among other challengers.
With Vice?President Joe Lieberman declining to pursue the nomination, the Democratic primaries were marked by a sharp contest between Kucinich and Dean, each of whom considered themselves the standard?bearer of the liberal cause within the Party. After a long primary season, Kucinich secured the Democratic presidential nomination in June 2008, and in a bid to heal tensions from the primaries, selected Dean as his running mate.
Both major?party candidates focused primarily on domestic issues, such as the budget, tax relief, and reforms for federal social insurance programs, although foreign policy was not ignored, with Romney calling for a tougher line towards China and Russia. Romney highlighted his executive experience as Governor of Massachusetts, adopted a moderate tone on divisive social issues such as gay rights and abortion, and sought to frame himself as a compassionate conservative, who could work across the aisle with Democrats and independents to get things done. Kucinich, on his part, called for universal healthcare, the elimination of student loan debt, and the creation of extensive new jobs and subsidy programs, geared at blue?collar workers and minority communities. Ultimately, Romney was able to capitalize on the countrys desire for change, and Kucinich did not actively campaign with President Gore, with whom he had ideological disagreements, and who had opposed his nomination bid.
Romney won a decisive victory, winning the Electoral College and popular vote by landslide margins. He carried 47 of the 50 states. Kucinich won just four states and the District of Columbia. Romneys total popular vote count (75.8 million votes) and margin of victory (21.1 million votes) stood as the largest ever won by a presidential candidate until
[2016](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2016_(Ferguson_Scenario)). Republicans expanded their majority in the U.S. Senate and won control of the U.S. House.
Results
The total vote exceeded that of
[2004](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2004_(Ferguson_Scenario)) by nine million, which was an increase of 35 million over the vote cast in [1996](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1996_(Ferguson_Scenario)) and 50 million more than that of 1976. Every section in the Union increased its vote, with the fast?growing Sun Belt states of California, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, and Georgia recording the most significant increases. California, in fact, experienced an increase of more than one million votes.
Romney won the election by a landslide margin, carrying 47 states and winning an overwhelming 500 electoral votes.
The 75,827,496 votes cast for Romney was the greatest number of votes ever won by a presidential candidate until then and constituted an increase of more than 27,025,926 over the Smith vote four years earlier. Romneys margin of victory – 21,192,470 – was the largest margin of victory for any presidential candidate in history. Kucinich carried three states and the District of Columbia with 38 electoral votes.
Romneys top 10 states were an interesting set of geographic disparities. They included Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming in the Mountain West; Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida in the Deep South; and Nebraska, North Dakota, and Kansas on the Great Plains. Kucinichs top 10 included the traditionally Democratic states of Hawaii, West Virginia, and Rhode Island. They also contained his triumphs in the Midwestern states of Illinois and Minnesota; Oregon on the West Coast; the populous state of New York in the Northeast; and three other Midwestern states – Michigan, Missouri, and Wisconsin.
Kucinichs victory in Illinois made him the first losing Democrat to carry that state since Lewis Cass in 1848, and the first to do so against a Republican. He continued the Democratic winning streaks in Hawaii and Minnesota extending back to 1996.
However, Romney became the first Republican to win Rhode Island since George H.W. Bush in 1992.
There was a nearly universal Republican trend throughout the country. Romney carried 1,445 counties that had gone for Gore in 2004. He flipped at least one county in every state. In eleven states, the Kucinich?Dean ticket failed to carry a single county.
[[lower-alpha 1]](#cite_note-1) Not one county shifted from Smith in 2004 to Kucinich in 2008, although Kucinich did run ahead of Gore in a number of counties he failed to carry. Kucinich carried 326 counties (10.37%), the fewest number of counties carried by a major?party presidential candidate since George McGovern in 1972. [[lower-alpha 2]](#cite_note-2) The Republican total leaped to 2,817 counties (89.63%), the largest number of counties carried by a presidential candidate since that election. Romney won a majority of votes in 2,802 counties, while Kucinich won a majority in 311. Romney became the first Republican presidential candidate since George H.W. Bush in 1992 to win at least one county in every state. [[lower-alpha 3]](#cite_note-3) He carried all 26 counties which had voted for Donald Trump in 2000, and he won Trumps 2004 voters by a ratio of 3?1 over Kucinich.
In the nations 23 most populous counties (metropolitan America), Romney narrowly edged out Kucinich, amassing 11,128,638 votes (49.84%) to Kucinichs 11,011,468 (49.31%). Romneys margin of victory in these counties was 117,170 votes, or 0.53%. This was the first time a Republican had won the metropolitan vote since Ronald Reagan in 1984. Third parties received 190,105 votes (0.85%). In the remainder of the country, Romney routed Kucinich, amassing 64,698,858 votes (59.37%) to Kucinichs 43,623,558 (40.02%). Third parties received 661,193 votes (0.61%). Romneys margin of victory in non?metropolitan America was 21,075,300 votes, or 19.35%.
With two?time Reform Party nominee Donald Trump declining to mount a third presidential bid, third?party support sank almost to the vanishing point, as the election of 2008 proved to be the first genuinely two?party contest since Mario Cuomos election in 1996. All Other votes totaled only 0.65% of the national vote, and in nineteen states and the District of Columbia, there was no third?party vote.
[[lower-alpha 4]](#cite_note-4)
|Presidential candidate||Party||Home state||Popular vote||Electoral
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vote
|Running mate|
|Count||Percentage||Vice-presidential candidate||Home state||Electoral vote|
|Willard Mitt Romney||Republican||Massachusetts||75,827,496||57.
75%||500||John Edward Sununu||New Hampshire||500|
|Dennis John Kucinich||Democratic||Ohio||54,635,026||41.60%||38||Howard Brush Dean III||Vermont||38|
|Robert Laurence Bob Barr Jr.||Libertarian||Georgia||414,401||0.32%||0||Wayne Allyn Root||Nevada||0|
|Cynthia Ann McKinney||Green||Georgia||389,596||0.30%||0||Rosa Alicia Clemente||New York||0|
|Other||47,301||0.03%||—||Other||—|
|Total||131,313,820||100%||538||538|
|Needed to win||270||270|
|57.75%||41.60%||0.32%||0.30%||0.03%|
|Romney||Kucinich||Barr||McKinney||Others|
|Popular vote|
|Romney||57.75%|
|Kucinich||41.60%|
|Others||0.65%|
|500||38|
|Romney||Kucinich|
|Electoral vote—President|
|Romney||92.94%|
|Kucinich||7.06%|
|Electoral vote—Vice President|
|Sununu||92.94%|
|Dean||7.06%|
Geography of results
Cartographic gallery
Results by state
The following table records the official vote tallies for each state for those presidential candidates who were listed on ballots in enough states to have a theoretical chance for a majority in the Electoral College. State popular vote results are from the Federal Election Commission report. The column labeled Margin shows Romneys margin of victory over Kucinich (the margin is negative for states and districts won by Kucinich).
|States/districts won by Romney/Sununu|
|States/districts won by Kucinich/Dean|
|Mitt Romney
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Republican
|Dennis Kucinich
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Democratic
|Bob Barr
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Libertarian
|Cynthia McKinney
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Green
|Others||Margin||Total votes|
|State/district||EV||#||%||EV||#||%||EV||#||%||EV||#||%||EV||#||%||EV||#||%||#|
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|[Alaska](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Alaska,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Arizona](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Arizona,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Arkansas](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Arkansas,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [California](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_California,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Colorado](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Colorado,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Connecticut](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Connecticut,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Delaware](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Delaware,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [D.C.](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_the_District_of_Columbia,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Florida](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Florida,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Georgia](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Georgia,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Hawaii](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Hawaii,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Idaho](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Idaho,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Illinois](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Illinois,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Indiana](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Indiana,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Iowa](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Iowa,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Kansas](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Kansas,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Kentucky](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Kentucky,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Louisiana](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Louisiana,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Maine](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Maine,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Maryland](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Maryland,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Massachusetts](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Massachusetts,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Michigan](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Michigan,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Minnesota](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Minnesota,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Mississippi](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Mississippi,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Missouri](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Missouri,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Montana](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Montana,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Nebraska](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Nebraska,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Nevada](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Nevada,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [New Hampshire](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_New_Hampshire,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [New Jersey](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_New_Jersey,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [New Mexico](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_New_Mexico,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [New York](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_New_York,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [North Carolina](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_North_Carolina,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [North Dakota](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_North_Dakota,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Ohio](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Ohio,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Oklahoma](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Oklahoma,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Oregon](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Oregon,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Pennsylvania](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Pennsylvania,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Rhode Island](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Rhode_Island,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [South Carolina](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_South_Carolina,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [South Dakota](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_South_Dakota,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Tennessee](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Tennessee,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Texas](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Texas,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Utah](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Utah,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Vermont](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Vermont,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Virginia](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Virginia,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Washington](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Washington,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [West Virginia](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_West_Virginia,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Wisconsin](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Wisconsin,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [Wyoming](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Wyoming,_2008_(Ferguson_Scenario))
Close states
Margin of victory less than 5% (143 electoral votes):
- Minnesota 1.
37% (39,872 votes)
- Rhode Island 1.78% (8,398 votes)
- West Virginia 3.84% (27,397 votes)
- Hawaii 3.88% (17,598 votes)
- Illinois 3.98% (219,791 votes)
- New York 4.10% (313,279 votes)
- Michigan 4.62% (231,081 votes)
Margin of victory over 5%, but less than 10% (87 electoral votes):
- Oregon 5.24% (95,780 votes)
- Missouri 6.60% (193,063 votes)
- Pennsylvania 7.35% (441,975 votes)
- Maryland 8.50% (233,686 votes)
- Wisconsin 9.27% (276,474 votes)
- Washington 9.64% (292,755 votes)
Tipping point:
- Tennessee 15.85% (412,061 votes)
Statistics
Counties with highest percent of vote (Republican)
Garfield County, Utah96.53% Pierce County, Georgia94.00% Madison County, Idaho93.97% Dawson County, Georgia93.90% Banks County, Georgia93.62%
Counties with highest percent of vote (Democratic)
District of Columbia, DC84.64% Shannon County, South Dakota83.68% St. Louis City, Missouri80.78% Duval County, Texas80.04% Macon County, Alabama79.43% Jefferson County, Mississippi79.35%
Ballot access
|Presidential ticket||Party||Ballot access||Votes|
|Romney / Sununu||Republican||50+DC||75,734,763|
|Kucinich / Dean||Democratic||50+DC||54,727,759|
|Barr / Root||Libertarian||28||414,401|
|McKinney / Clemente||Green||23||389,596|
Voter demographics
|The 2008 presidential vote by demographic subgroup|
|Demographic subgroup||Romney||Kucinich||% of|
total vote
|Total vote||58||42||100|
|Ideology|
|Liberals||13||87||22|
|Moderates||59||41||44|
|Conservatives||84||16||34|
|Party|
|Democrats||23||77||39|
|Republicans||95||5||32|
|Independents||62||38||29|
|Gender|
|Men||59||41||47|
|Women||56||44||53|
|Marital status|
|Married||62||38||66|
|Non?married||48||52||34|
|Race|
|White||67||33||74|
|Black||11||89||12|
|Asian||41||59||2|
|Other||41||59||2|
|Hispanic||36||64||10|
|Religion|
|Protestant||66||34||54|
|Catholic||58||42||27|
|Jewish||39||61||2|
|Other||34||66||6|
|None||29||71||12|
|Religious service attendance|
|Weekly or more||67||33||39|
|Monthly||57||43||15|
|A few times a year||51||49||28|
|Never||46||54||16|
|White evangelical or born?again Christian?|
|White evangelical or born?again Christian||86||14||26|
|Everyone else||47||53||74|
|Age|
|18–29 years old||50||50||18|
|30?44 years old||57||43||35|
|45?64 years old||61||39||31|
|65 and older||59||41||16|
|Age by race|
|Whites 18–29 years old||58||42||11|
|Whites 30–44 years old||69||31||20|
|Whites 45–64 years old||68||32||30|
|Whites 65 and older||70||30||13|
|Blacks 18–29 years old||13||87||3|
|Blacks 30–44 years old||10||90||4|
|Blacks 45–64 years old||10||90||4|
|Blacks 65 and older||13||87||1|
|Others||46||54||14|
|First time voter?|
|First time voter||49||51||11|
|Everyone else||58||42||89|
|Sexual orientation|
|Gay, lesbian, or bisexual||40||60||4|
|Heterosexual||58||42||96|
|Education|
|High school or less||60||40||24|
|Some college education||59||41||31|
|College graduate||62||38||28|
|Postgraduate education||51||49||17|
|Family income|
|Under $50,000||51||49||37|
|$50,000–100,000||59||41||36|
|Over $100,000||64||36||26|
|Union households|
|Union||45||55||21|
|Non?union||61||39||79|
|Military service|
|Veterans||63||37||15|
|Non?veterans||56||44||85|
|Region|
|Northeast||56||44||21|
|Midwest||54||46||24|
|South||62||38||32|
|West||58||42||23|
|Community size|
|Urban||49||51||30|
|Suburban||61||39||49|
|Rural||61||39||21|
Explanatory notes
[?](#cite_ref-1)Kucinich failed to carry a single county in Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Nevada, Oklahoma, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming [?](#cite_ref-2)Donald Trump had carried 26 counties as the Reform Party nominee in [2000](/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2000_(Ferguson_Scenario)) [?](#cite_ref-3)2008 was the first election since 1992 in which any of the counties in Hawaii or Rhode Island voted Republican in a presidential election [?](#cite_ref-4)There were no third-party candidates on the ballot in Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming
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