2004 United States presidential election in Oklahoma

Last updated

2004 United States presidential election in Oklahoma
Flag of Oklahoma (1988-2006).svg
  2000 November 2, 2004 2008  
Turnout68.3% (of registered voters)
55.6% (of voting age population)
  George-W-Bush.jpeg John F. Kerry.jpg
Nominee George W. Bush John Kerry
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Texas Massachusetts
Running mate Dick Cheney John Edwards
Electoral vote70
Popular vote959,792503,966
Percentage65.57%34.43%

2004 United States presidential election in Oklahoma results map by precinct.svg
Oklahoma Presidential Election Results 2004.svg

President before election

George W. Bush
Republican

Elected President

George W. Bush
Republican

The 2004 United States presidential election in Oklahoma took place on November 2, 2004, and was part of the 2004 United States presidential election. Voters chose seven representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Contents

Oklahoma was won by incumbent President George W. Bush by a 31.14% margin of victory. Prior to the election, all 12 news organizations considered this a state Bush would win, or otherwise considered a safe red state. Bush won this state, every single county, and congressional district. Giving Bush 65.57% of the vote, it was the most Republican state in the south and Bush's fifth best performance in the country after Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Nebraska. [1]

Oklahoma has been a Republican-leaning state since 1952 and a Republican stronghold since 1980. This was the first of six consecutive elections to date in which every county in the state was won by the Republican candidate.

Primaries

Campaign

Predictions

There were 12 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day. [2]

SourceRanking
D.C. Political ReportSolid R
Cook Political ReportSolid R
Research 2000Solid R
Zogby InternationalLikely R
Washington PostLikely R
Washington DispatchLikely R
Washington TimesSolid R
The New York TimesSolid R
CNNLikely R
NewsweekSolid R
Associated PressSolid R
Rasmussen ReportsLikely R

Polling

Bush won every single pre-election poll, each with a double-digit margin and with at least 53% of the vote, except for the first poll. Many polls had Bush winning with a 30% margin or even higher. The final 3 poll average had Bush leading 63% to 32%. [3]

Fundraising

Bush raised $1,194,549. [4] Kerry raised $357,038. [5]

Advertising and visits

Neither campaign advertised or visited this state during the fall campaign. [6] [7]

Analysis

By 2000, Oklahoma had long been one of the more Republican-leaning states in the South, having been one of only two Southern states to have voted for Gerald Ford over Jimmy Carter in 1976, and having been one of a handful of Southern states never to vote for Bill Clinton. In 2000, George W. Bush, then the governor of the neighboring state of Texas, carried Oklahoma with a little over 60% of the vote, making it his sixth-best state nationally and his best state in the South that year. However, Al Gore did manage to carry a cluster of traditionally Democratic rural counties in the eastern part of the state.

In 2004, Bush improved his percentage in Oklahoma by a little over 5% and carried every county in the state, the first of six consecutive elections (as of 2024) in which the Republican has swept the state's counties. He performed strongly in both the state's rural areas, and in its two main population centers, getting 64% of the vote in both Oklahoma and Tulsa Counties. Only in six counties was Kerry so much as able to hold Bush to a single-digit margin: Cherokee, Choctaw, Coal, McIntosh, Muskogee, and Okmulgee. None of these cast over 30,000 votes. However, in McIntosh County, John Kerry held Bush to a margin of just 2%, which would be the closest any Democrat since Gore came to carrying any Oklahoma county until Joe Biden came within 1.5% of carrying Oklahoma County in 2020.

The third-party vote, which had amounted to 1.26% of the total state vote in 2000, disappeared in 2004, as no independent obtained ballot access in the state in 2004. Oklahoma has the toughest laws regarding third-party ballot access, [8] and 2004 was the first of three elections in a row in which only the Democrat and the Republican appeared on the ballot (with write-in votes not allowed).

Results

2004 United States presidential election in Oklahoma [9]
PartyCandidateRunning mateVotesPercentageElectoral votes
Republican George W. Bush (incumbent) Dick Cheney (incumbent)959,79265.57%7
Democratic John Kerry John Edwards 503,96634.43%0
Voter turnout (Voting age population)55.6%

By county

CountyGeorge W. Bush
Republican
John Kerry
Democratic
MarginTotal
#%#%#%
Adair 4,97165.99%2,56234.01%2,40931.98%7,533
Alfalfa 2,20182.40%47017.60%1,73164.80%2,671
Atoka 3,14261.75%1,94638.25%1,19623.50%5,088
Beaver 2,27288.44%29711.56%1,97576.88%2,569
Beckham 5,45473.85%1,93126.15%3,52347.70%7,385
Blaine 3,19972.36%1,22227.64%1,97744.72%4,421
Bryan 8,61559.99%5,74540.01%2,87019.98%14,360
Caddo 6,49162.37%3,91637.63%2,57524.74%10,407
Canadian 33,29777.42%9,71222.58%23,58554.84%43,009
Carter 12,17865.32%6,46634.68%5,71230.64%18,644
Cherokee 9,56952.60%8,62347.40%9465.20%18,192
Choctaw 3,16854.55%2,63945.45%5299.10%5,807
Cimarron 1,24287.10%18412.90%1,05874.20%1,426
Cleveland 65,72065.90%34,00734.10%31,71331.80%99,727
Coal 1,39653.71%1,20346.29%1937.42%2,599
Comanche 21,17063.78%12,02236.22%9,14827.56%33,192
Cotton 1,74265.98%89834.02%84431.96%2,640
Craig 3,89460.86%2,50439.14%1,39021.72%6,398
Creek 18,84865.50%9,92934.50%8,91931.00%28,777
Custer 7,83973.67%2,80126.33%5,03847.34%10,640
Delaware 10,01764.18%5,59135.82%4,42628.36%15,608
Dewey 1,84381.87%40818.13%1,43563.74%2,251
Ellis 1,68581.01%39518.99%1,29062.02%2,080
Garfield 17,68576.00%5,58624.00%12,09952.00%23,271
Garvin 7,61067.24%3,70732.76%3,90334.48%11,317
Grady 14,13670.31%5,97029.69%8,16640.62%20,106
Grant 1,95077.35%57122.65%1,37954.70%2,521
Greer 1,52968.02%71931.98%81036.04%2,248
Harmon 83870.30%35429.70%48440.60%1,192
Harper 1,39783.90%26816.10%1,12967.80%1,665
Haskell 2,94655.33%2,37844.67%56810.66%5,324
Hughes 3,06657.32%2,28342.68%78314.64%5,349
Jackson 7,02475.89%2,23224.11%4,79251.78%9,256
Jefferson 1,54659.39%1,05740.61%48918.78%2,603
Johnston 2,63560.60%1,71339.40%92221.20%4,348
Kay 14,12170.33%5,95729.67%8,16440.66%20,078
Kingfisher 5,63084.64%1,02215.36%4,60869.28%6,652
Kiowa 2,61064.88%1,41335.12%1,19729.76%4,023
Latimer 2,53556.58%1,94543.42%59013.16%4,480
LeFlore 10,68361.31%6,74138.69%3,94222.62%17,424
Lincoln 10,14971.52%4,04128.48%6,10843.04%14,190
Logan 11,47470.21%4,86929.79%6,60540.42%16,343
Love 2,29559.87%1,53840.13%75719.74%3,833
Major 3,12285.32%53714.68%2,58570.64%3,659
Marshall 3,36361.70%2,08838.30%1,27523.40%5,451
Mayes 9,94658.93%6,93341.07%3,01317.86%16,879
McClain 10,04172.85%3,74227.15%6,29945.70%13,783
McCurtain 7,47266.98%3,68433.02%3,78833.96%11,156
McIntosh 4,69251.11%4,48848.89%2042.22%9,180
Murray 3,66563.24%2,13036.76%1,53526.48%5,795
Muskogee 15,12454.58%12,58545.42%2,5399.16%27,709
Noble 3,99374.94%1,33525.06%2,65849.88%5,328
Nowata 2,80562.82%1,66037.18%1,14525.64%4,465
Okfuskee 2,54259.32%1,74340.68%79918.64%4,285
Oklahoma 174,74164.23%97,29835.77%77,44328.46%272,039
Okmulgee 8,36353.17%7,36746.83%9966.34%15,730
Osage 11,46758.70%8,06841.30%3,39917.40%19,535
Ottawa 7,44359.41%5,08640.59%2,35718.82%12,529
Pawnee 4,41263.25%2,56436.75%1,84826.50%6,976
Payne 19,56065.95%10,10134.05%9,45931.90%29,661
Pittsburg 11,13459.91%7,45240.09%3,68219.82%18,586
Pontotoc 9,64765.13%5,16534.87%4,48230.26%14,812
Pottawatomie 17,21566.59%8,63833.41%8,57733.18%25,853
Pushmataha 2,86359.68%1,93440.32%92919.36%4,797
Roger Mills 1,38878.42%38221.58%1,00656.84%1,770
Rogers 24,97667.70%11,91832.30%13,05835.40%36,894
Seminole 5,62460.66%3,64839.34%1,97621.32%9,272
Sequoyah 8,86560.00%5,91040.00%2,95520.00%14,775
Stephens 13,64671.22%5,51528.78%8,13142.44%19,161
Texas 5,45084.29%1,01615.71%4,43468.58%6,466
Tillman 2,27365.92%1,17534.08%1,09831.84%3,448
Tulsa 163,45264.43%90,22035.57%73,23228.86%253,672
Wagoner 19,08167.57%9,15732.43%9,92435.14%28,238
Washington 16,55170.69%6,86229.31%9,68941.38%23,413
Washita 3,70573.44%1,34026.56%2,36546.88%5,045
Woods 3,16677.26%93222.74%2,23454.52%4,098
Woodward 6,19380.94%1,45819.06%4,73561.88%7,651
Totals959,79265.57%503,96634.43%455,82631.14%1,463,758
County Flips:
Republican
Hold
Gain from Democratic Oklahoma County Flips 2004.svg
County Flips:
Republican
  Hold
  Gain from Democratic
  1. "2004 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  2. http://www.dcpoliticalreport.com/members/2004/Pred2.htm#NW [ permanent dead link ]
  3. "2004 Presidential Election Polls". uselectionatlas.org.
  4. "George W Bush - $374,659,453 raised, '04 election cycle, Republican Party, President".
  5. "John F Kerry - $345,826,176 raised, '04 election cycle, Democrat Party, President".
  6. "America votes 2004: Candidate tracker". CNN . Retrieved May 27, 2022.
  7. "America votes 2004: Campaign ad buys". CNN. Archived from the original on April 22, 2021. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
  8. "Third-party Oklahoma voters seek easier ballot access". Oklahoman.com. October 9, 2012. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
  9. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections".
  10. "Presidential Results by Congressional District, 2000-2008 – Swing State Project".
  11. "PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on January 25, 2020.