2008 United States presidential election in Delaware

Last updated

2008 United States presidential election in Delaware
Flag of Delaware.svg
  2004 November 4, 2008 2012  
  Obama portrait crop.jpg John McCain 2009 Official.jpg
Nominee Barack Obama John McCain
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Illinois Arizona
Running mate Joe Biden Sarah Palin
Electoral vote30
Popular vote255,459152,374
Percentage61.94%36.92%

Delaware Presidential Election Results 2008.svg
DE President 2008.svg

President before election

George W. Bush
Republican

Elected President

Barack Obama
Democratic

The 2008 United States presidential election in Delaware took place on November 4, 2008, and was part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose three representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Contents

Delaware was won by Democratic nominee Barack Obama with a 25.0% margin of victory, the best-ever result for a Democratic presidential candidate in Delaware as of 2020. Obama's large margin of victory was aided by his running mate, Joe Biden, a longtime U.S. senator from the state and the first Delawarean to appear on a national presidential ticket. At the same time, Biden was also running for a seventh term in the Senate, being elected during the same time he was elected vice president. During the campaign, Delaware was considered a safe blue state, and in the end only one county of Delaware's three counties, Sussex County, went for McCain, by a margin of approximately 7,000 votes or 8.58%.

Delaware was one of three states, along with rapidly left-trending Vermont and Obama's home state of Illinois, in which Obama outperformed Franklin D. Roosevelt in all four of his runs and Lyndon B. Johnson in his 1964 landslide.

The Socialist Workers Party appeared on the ballot making it the first time that a Marxist political party appeared on the presidential ballot since the Socialist Labor Party had appeared on it in the 1976 election. [1]

Primaries

Democratic primary

The Democratic Primary was held on Super Tuesday, February 5, 2008, and had a total of 15 delegates at stake. [2] The winner in each of Delaware's subdivisions was awarded those subdivisions' delegates, totaling 10. Another 5 delegates were awarded to the statewide winner, Barack Obama. The 15 delegates represented Delaware at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. 8 other unpledged delegates, known as superdelegates, also attended the convention and cast their votes as well.

Polls

Results

2008 Delaware Democratic Presidential Primary Results
PartyCandidateVotesPercentageDelegates
Democratic Barack Obama 51,14853.07%9
Democratic Hillary Clinton 40,76042.29%6
Democratic Joe Biden 2,8632.97%0
Democratic John Edwards 1,2411.29%0
Democratic Dennis Kucinich 1920.20%0
Democratic Christopher Dodd 1700.18%0
Democratic Joe Biden 4400.12%0
Totals96,374100.00%15
Voter turnout %

Analysis

Barack Obama's win in the Delaware Democratic Primary can be traced to a number of factors. According to the exit polls, 64% of voters in the Delaware Democratic Primary were Caucasian and they favored Clinton by a margin of 56-40 compared to the 28% of African American voters who backed Obama by a margin of 86-9. Obama won all age groups except senior citizens ages 65 and over who strongly backed Clinton by a margin of 56-38. Obama also won middle class and more affluent voters making over $30,000 while Clinton won lower middle class and less affluent voters making less than $30,000. Obama also won higher-educated voters (college graduates 60-35; postgraduate studies 66-32) while high school graduates backed Clinton 51-44; both candidates evenly split voters who had some college and/or an associate degree 47-47. Registered Democrats favored Obama 54-42 while Independents also backed him by a margin of 50-44; he also won all ideological groups. Regarding religion, Obama won all major denominations except Roman Catholics who backed Clinton with a 60-35 margin – Obama won Protestants 51-47, other Christians 71-24, and atheists/agnostics 60-35.

Obama performed best in New Castle County, the most populous and urban part of the state which contains Wilmington as well as several African Americans, which he won by a 56.49-39.69 margin of victory. He also narrowly won neighboring Kent County to the south, which contains the state capital of Dover, with 51.76% of the vote. Clinton won Sussex County in Southern Delaware, the more rural and conservative part of the state, with 52.73% of the vote.

Republican primary

The Republican primary was held on February 5 (Super Tuesday). A total of 18 delegates were selected. The Delaware Republican Party rallied behind John McCain, and was the declared winner of the primary election after successfully taking all 3 Delaware counties. McCain was followed by Mitt Romney in second and then by Mike Huckabee in third.

Candidates

Candidates Rudy Giuliani, Duncan Hunter, Fred Thompson, and Tom Tancredo had dropped out of the presidential race before the Delaware primary.

Results

100% of precincts reporting [3] [4]
CandidateVotesPercentageDelegates
John McCain 22,62845.04%18
Mitt Romney 16,34432.53%0
Mike Huckabee 7,70615.34%0
Ron Paul 2,1314.24%0
Rudy Giuliani*1,2552.5%0
Tom Tancredo*1750.35%0
Total50,237100%18

*Candidate withdrew before primary

Campaign

Predictions

There were 16 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day:

SourceRanking
D.C. Political Report [5] Likely D
Cook Political Report [6] Solid D
The Takeaway [7] Solid D
Electoral-vote.com [8] Solid D
Washington Post [9] Solid D
Politico [10] Solid D
RealClearPolitics [11] Solid D
FiveThirtyEight [9] Solid D
CQ Politics [12] Solid D
The New York Times [13] Solid D
CNN [14] Safe D
NPR [9] Solid D
MSNBC [9] Solid D
Fox News [15] Likely D
Associated Press [16] Likely D
Rasmussen Reports [17] Safe D

Polling

Obama won every single pre-election poll taken in the state, and each one by a double-digit margin of victory. He won the last poll by a 30-point margin.

Fundraising

John McCain raised a total of $340,736. Barack Obama raised $1,010,740. [18]

Advertising and visits

No advertising was spent by either campaign. [19] Delaware native Joe Biden campaigned here 6 times. [20]

Results

2008 United States presidential election in Delaware [21]
PartyCandidateRunning mateVotesPercentageElectoral votes
Democratic Barack Obama Joe Biden 255,45961.94%3
Republican John McCain Sarah Palin 152,37436.92%0
Independent Ralph Nader Matt Gonzalez 2,4010.58%0
Libertarian Bob Barr Wayne Allyn Root 1,1090.27%0
Constitution Chuck Baldwin Darrell Castle6260.15%0
Green Cynthia McKinney Rosa Clemente 3850.09%0
Socialist Workers Róger Calero Alyson Kennedy 580.01%0
Totals412,398100.00%3
Voter turnout68.00%

By county

CountyBarack Obama
Democratic
John McCain
Republican
Various candidates
Other parties
MarginTotal votes cast
# %# %# %# %
Kent 36,39254.38%29,82744.57%7061.06%6,5659.81%66,925
New Castle 178,76869.66%74,60829.07%3,2451.26%104,16040.59%256,621
Sussex 40,29945.24%47,93953.82%8320.93%-7,640-8.58%89,070
Totals255,45961.91%152,37436.93%4,7831.16%103,08524.98%412,616
County Flips:
Democratic
Hold
Gain from Republican
Republican
Hold Delaware County Flips 2008.svg
County Flips:

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

By congressional district

Due to the state's low population, only one congressional district is allocated. This district is called the At-Large district, because it covers the entire state, and thus is equivalent to the statewide election results.

DistrictMcCainObamaRepresentative
At-large 36.9%61.9% Mike Castle

Electors

Technically the voters of Delaware cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Delaware is allocated 3 electors because it has one congressional district and two senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of three electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all three electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. [22] An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.

The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 15, 2008, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitals.

The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 3 were pledged to Barack Obama and Joe Biden: [23]

  1. James Johnson
  2. Ted Kaufman
  3. Harriet Smith Windsor

See also

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References

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