2008 Indiana gubernatorial election

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2008 Indiana gubernatorial election
Flag of Indiana.svg
←  2004 November 4, 2008 2012  →
  Mitch Daniels.jpg Jill Long.jpg
Nominee Mitch Daniels Jill Long Thompson
Party Republican Democratic
Running mate Becky Skillman Dennie Oxley
Popular vote1,563,8851,082,463
Percentage57.8%40.1%
2008 Indiana gubernatorial election results map by county.svg
County results
Daniels:      40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%
Thompson:      40–50%     50–60%     60–70%
Governor before election

Mitch Daniels
Republican

Elected Governor

Mitch Daniels
Republican

The 2008 Indiana gubernatorial election was held on November 4, 2008. Incumbent Republican nominee Mitch Daniels was challenged by Democratic nominee Jill Long Thompson and Libertarian nominee Andy Horning. Daniels easily won reelection, defeating Long Thompson by over 17 points. Despite Daniels' landslide victory, Barack Obama narrowly carried Indiana in the concurrent presidential election; the only Democratic candidate to do so since 1964. As of 2024, this is the last election Marion County (containing the state's largest city, Indianapolis) would vote Republican for governor and a statewide race.

Contents

Primaries

May 6, 2008 – Democratic and Republican primary elections.

October 6, 2008 – Deadline for voter registration for the general election.

Democratic

On the Democratic side, Indianapolis businessman Jim Schellinger and former U.S. Representative Jill Long Thompson announced their candidacies. Indiana Senate Minority Leader Richard Young also ran early, but dropped out of the race well before the primary. Schellinger raised over $1 million in campaign funds, with support of key Democratic officials such as former Indiana House Speaker John R. Gregg, former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson and U.S. Representative Julia Carson. [1] Long Thompson's support came from Democrats such as popular former U.S. Representative Andrew Jacobs, Jr. and former Indiana First Lady Maggie Kernan. [2]

The contest was very close. The difference between the two was 13,769 votes out of over 1.1 million cast, a difference of 1.1%. Both Long Thompson and Schellinger won various counties from many different political geographies of the state. Schellinger narrowly beat Long Thompson in heavily populated Marion County, home of Indianapolis. Long Thompson trounced Schellinger in Allen County, home of Fort Wayne, the second most populous city in the state. Many attribute her very narrow statewide victory to her strong performance in Allen County. Schellinger also did well in Evansville and the Indianapolis suburbs. Long Thompson and Schellinger basically split the rural vote. It was one of the closest statewide primaries in state history, and also had the highest turnout of any Indiana non-presidential primary. Schellinger called Long Thompson around 5 a.m. the day after the election to concede. He pledged her his full support.

County results: Long Thompson .mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{} 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% Schellinger 50-60% 60-70% 2008 Indiana gubernatorial Democratic primary results map by county.svg
County results:
Long Thompson
  •   50–60%
  •   60–70%
  •   70–80%
Schellinger
  •   50–60%
  •   60–70%
Democratic primary results [3]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Jill Long Thompson 582,860 50.60
Democratic Jim Schellinger569,09149.40
Total votes1,151,951 100.00

On June 16, Long Thompson announced that her running mate and the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor would be longtime State Representative Dennie Oxley. [4]

Republican

On June 16, 2007, incumbent Governor Mitch Daniels announced he was running for reelection with his Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman. He was unopposed in the Republican primary.

Republican primary results [3]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Mitch Daniels (Incumbent) 350,390 100.00
Total votes350,390 100.00

Libertarian

Andy Horning, an engineer, Libertarian Party activist and frequent candidate, ran unopposed for his party's nomination. He appeared on the November ballot with Lisa Kelly as running mate.

General election

Debates

Three debates organized by the Indiana Debate Commission were held: [5]

Predictions

SourceRankingAs of
The Cook Political Report [7] Lean ROctober 16, 2008
Rothenberg Political Report [8] Likely RNovember 2, 2008
Sabato's Crystal Ball [9] Lean RNovember 3, 2008
Real Clear Politics [10] Lean RNovember 4, 2008

Polling

Polling had largely shown Daniels with a slight lead over both Long Thompson and Schellinger. Long Thompson later slipped further behind Daniels in most polls. In the last polls before the election, conducted by Public Policy Polling (November 2, 2008), Daniels led Long Thompson 60% to 37%.

Statewide results

2008 Indiana gubernatorial election [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Republican Mitch Daniels/Becky Skillman (incumbent) 1,563,885 57.8% +4.6
Democratic Jill Long Thompson/Dennie Oxley 1,082,46340.1%−5.4
Libertarian Andy Horning57,3762.1%+0.8
No party Write-Ins 270.0%—
Majority481,422
Turnout 2,703,75162%
Republican hold Swing

County results

Daniels won 79 of Indiana's counties compared to 13 for Long Thompson. [12]

CountyDanielsVotesLong ThompsonVotesOthersVotesTotal
Adams 61.3%8,29136.5%4,9382.2%29413,523
Allen 61.0%89,93837.3%55,0271.7%2,449147,414
Bartholomew 70.6%21,54727.7%8,4471.7%53330,527
Benton 62.8%2,39834.3%1,3082.9%1093,815
Blackford 57.2%3,09841.0%2,2211.8%975,416
Boone 80.5%21,35217.5%4,6332.0%54026,525
Brown 61.3%4,96735.6%2,8803.1%2508,097
Carroll 63.8%5,58633.4%2,9252.8%2418,752
Cass 56.3%8,83140.9%6,4182.8%43315,682
Clark 60.7%28,62237.9%17,8211.4%68247,125
Clay 52.7%5,98644.6%5,0552.7%31211,353
Clinton 67.7%8,32229.8%3,6582.5%30612,286
Crawford 38.9%1,86959.7%2,8691.4%684,806
Daviess 58.5%6,04338.5%3,9783.0%31010,331
Dearborn 67.3%14,53630.3%6,5402.4%51921,595
Decatur 72.8%7,48624.6%2,5342.6%27010,290
DeKalb 57.1%9,56240.4%6,7522.5%42416,738
Delaware 56.5%27,87641.7%20,5881.8%89549,359
Dubois 54.3%9,94643.3%7,9382.4%44518,329
Elkhart 57.8%40,98339.7%28,1142.5%1,74070,837
Fayette 58.2%5,37339.8%3,6702.0%1809,223
Floyd 62.3%22,47136.1%13,0201.6%57636,067
Fountain 58.5%4,35037.9%2,8163.6%2697,435
Franklin 61.6%6,44335.2%3,6743.2%33710,454
Fulton 58.7%5,30938.6%3,4932.7%2479,049
Gibson 60.1%9,08738.1%5,7571.8%27015,114
Grant 61.8%16,00636.4%9,4311.8%46225,899
Greene 50.1%6,75646.5%6,2613.4%46413,481
Hamilton 83.3%106,57415.2%19,4421.5%1,863127,879
Hancock 77.1%26,39520.6%7,0532.0%80034,248
Harrison 56.9%10,27741.2%7,4471.9%34218,066
Hendricks 77.1%49,49020.9%13,3812.0%1,30164,172
Henry 57.1%12,14240.1%8,5192.8%58921,250
Howard 61.6%23,85236.5%14,1431.9%75538,750
Huntington 65.7%10,55532.0%5,1392.3%37716,071
Jackson 56.0%9,72941.5%7,2182.5%43317,380
Jasper 54.1%6,73743.5%5,4192.4%29612,452
Jay 57.0%4,76340.8%3,4042.2%1808,347
Jefferson 51.1%6,67147.0%6,1271.9%24213,040
Jennings 51.1%6,01645.7%5,3733.2%38111,770
Johnson 77.4%44,74320.4%11,8132.2%1,27957,835
Knox 46.0%7,11952.8%8,1651.2%37615,464
Kosciusko 67.5%19,90130.0%8,8252.5%75129,477
LaGrange 57.3%5,44139.3%3,7273.4%3229,490
Lake 34.6%66,14564.0%122,1111.4%2,748191,004
LaPorte 33.9%15,49563.4%28,9222.7%1,24145,658
Lawrence 57.5%10,50439.8%7,2812.7%49518,280
Madison 59.7%34,02838.3%21,7762.0%1,12056,924
Marion 55.5%209,95542.5%160,3182.0%7,377377,650
Marshall 56.8%10,31441.0%7,4472.2%39418,155
Martin 55.4%2,71441.5%2,0303.1%1534,897
Miami 58.1%7,81638.4%5,1743.5%46913,459
Monroe 47.3%28,48249.8%30,0262.9%1,76460,272
Montgomery 74.2%11,30423.7%3,6052.1%31715,226
Morgan 70.0%19,81826.8%7,5703.2%90828,296
Newton 49.9%2,99947.0%2,8223.1%1866,007
Noble 56.0%9,40841.3%6,9512.7%45316,812
Ohio 55.4%1,59041.8%1,1972.8%802,867
Orange 50.6%4,04647.0%3,7602.4%1927,998
Owen 57.9%4,71737.8%3,0744.3%3478,138
Parke 50.6%3,55346.1%3,2403.3%2357,028
Perry 37.7%3,16961.1%5,1331.2%988,400
Pike 48.1%2,85049.3%2,9242.6%1575,931
Porter 43.1%31,38854.4%39,5192.5%1,80272,709
Posey 62.7%7,98336.0%4,5921.3%16412,739
Pulaski 53.6%3,09643.7%2,5242.7%1535,773
Putnam 65.6%9,44332.0%4,5972.4%34614,386
Randolph 59.5%6,26837.8%3,9872.7%28010,535
Ripley 60.8%7,34735.9%4,3423.3%40212,091
Rush 66.6%5,07130.3%2,3113.1%2377,619
Saint Joseph 47.8%56,17650.5%59,2591.7%1,978117,413
Scott 49.5%4,41448.5%4,3302.0%1808,924
Shelby 67.2%11,77430.0%5,2592.8%48917,522
Spencer 54.8%5,52743.9%4,4181.3%13410,079
Starke 47.0%4,33951.3%4,7261.7%1619,226
Steuben 55.9%7,89641.3%5,8222.8%40214,120
Sullivan 40.5%3,46355.9%4,7793.6%3118,553
Switzerland 47.6%1,73048.9%1,7763.5%1263,632
Tippecanoe 61.9%41,74035.6%23,9802.5%1,71067,430
Tipton 67.0%5,24430.4%2,3762.6%2047,824
Union 53.1%1,75642.7%1,4124.2%1383,306
Vanderburgh 62.3%48,03336.4%28,0901.3%99477,117
Vermillion 38.7%2,76958.2%4,1643.1%2237,156
Vigo 50.6%21,94147.1%20,4482.3%1,01143,400
Wabash 64.4%8,57833.3%4,4342.3%30813,320
Warren 51.7%2,05745.3%1,8043.0%1193,980
Warrick 65.1%18,49833.5%9,5311.4%38628,415
Washington 54.4%6,14143.4%4,8942.2%24911,284
Wayne 52.4%14,83243.2%12,2034.2%1,19828,233
Wells 65.4%8,41832.3%4,1532.3%29212,863
White 61.2%6,62035.6%3,8453.2%34310,808
Whitley 60.4%8,99737.4%5,5662.2%32014,883

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

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References

  1. ↑ "Schellinger for Governor: Endorsements". JimSchellinger.com. Archived from the original on April 7, 2008. Retrieved April 26, 2008.
  2. ↑ "Hoosiers for Jill: News". HoosiersforJill.com. Retrieved April 26, 2008.
  3. 1 2 Democratic primary results in.gov Archived December 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ "Oxley Joins Long Thompson on Democratic Ticket". HoosiersforJill.com. June 16, 2008. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
  5. ↑ "Gubernatorial Debates". Indiana Debate Commission. October 1, 2008. Retrieved October 23, 2008.
  6. ↑ "Final Indiana Gubernatorial Debate Tuesday Night". Associated Press. October 14, 2008. Retrieved October 23, 2008.[ permanent dead link ]
  7. ↑ "2008 Governor Race ratings". The Cook Political Report. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  8. ↑ "2008 Gubernatorial Ratings". Gubernatorial Ratings. The Rothenberg Political Report. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  9. ↑ "THE LAST LAST WORD The Crystal Ball's Final Projections for the 2008 Election". Sabato's Crystal Ball. Retrieved December 25, 2021.
  10. ↑ "2008 Indiana Governor Race". RealClearPolitics. November 4, 2008. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  11. ↑ "Indiana General Election November 4, 2008, Statewide". Indiana Secretary of State. November 4, 2008. Retrieved November 7, 2008.
  12. ↑ "Indiana General Election November 4, 2008, by County". Indiana Secretary of State. November 4, 2008. Retrieved November 9, 2008.
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