The 2008 United States presidential election was the 56th quadrennial presidential election, held on November 4, 2008. The Democratic ticket of Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, and Joe Biden, the senior senator from Delaware, defeated the Republican ticket of John McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, and Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska. Obama became the first African American to be elected to the presidency, as well as being only the third sitting United States senator elected president, joining Warren G. Harding and John F. Kennedy. Meanwhile, this was only the second successful all-senator ticket since the 1960 election and is the only election where both major party nominees were sitting senators. This was the first election since 1952 in which neither the incumbent president nor vice president was on the ballot.
James Grubbs Martin is an American chemist and politician who served as the 70th governor of North Carolina from 1985 to 1993. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the U.S. Representative for North Carolina's 9th congressional district from 1973 to 1985.
Margaret Ellen Noonan, known as Peggy Noonan, is a weekly columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and contributor to NBC News and ABC News. She was a primary speechwriter and Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan from 1984 to 1986 and has maintained a center-right leaning in her writings since leaving the Reagan administration. Five of Noonan's books have been New York Times bestsellers.
Jack Cafferty is a former CNN commentator and occasional host of specials. In the summer of 2005, Cafferty joined The Situation Room. He left CNN after November 15, 2012.
Leonard John Lance is an American politician and attorney who served as the U.S. representative for New Jersey's 7th congressional district, from 2009 to 2019. He ran for re-election in 2018, but was defeated by Democrat Tom Malinowski. He is a member of the Republican Party who previously served in the New Jersey Senate from 2002 to 2009 and the New Jersey General Assembly from 1991 to 2002.
Matthew Scully is an American author, journalist, and political writer who has also written on animal welfare.
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator, author, and reality television personality who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee alongside U.S. Senator John McCain.
Shady Side Academy is an independent preparatory school located in the Borough of Fox Chapel, and in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1883 as an all-male night school in the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh, the academy now offers a secular coeducational PK–12 program on four campuses in the city and its suburbs, including a boarding program in the Croft and Morewood Houses of its Senior School Campus.
Angela McGlowan is an American Republican political commentator, best-selling author, and CEO of Political Strategies & Insights (PSI), a government affairs, political strategy, public relations, and advocacy consulting firm based in Oxford, Mississippi, and Washington, D.C. She is a contributor on Fox News, covering politics, special interest groups, and lobbies.
The 2008 presidential campaign of John McCain, the longtime senior U.S. Senator from Arizona, was launched with an informal announcement on February 28, 2007, during a live taping of the Late Show with David Letterman, and formally launched at an event on April 25, 2007. His second candidacy for the Presidency of the United States, he had previously run for his party's nomination in the 2000 primaries and was considered as a potential running mate for his party's nominee, then-Governor George W. Bush of Texas. After winning a majority of delegates in the Republican primaries of 2008, on August 29, leading up to the convention, McCain selected Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate for Vice President. Five days later, at the 2008 Republican National Convention, McCain was formally selected as the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 2008 presidential election.
Eric Thomas Bolling is an American television personality, conservative political commentator, author, and financial commentator. He has occupied numerous roles as a commentator on financial issues for television, most notably for Fox News. He hosted Fox Business Channel's Cashin' In and Fox News Channel's The Five before leaving in May 2017. An outspoken supporter of Donald Trump, Bolling has published two books: Wake Up America (2016) and The Swamp: Washington's Murky Pool of Corruption and Cronyism and How Trump Can Drain It (2017).
Ada M. Fisher was an American physician from Salisbury, North Carolina, and a frequent Republican candidate for office. She challenged incumbent Mel Watt in North Carolina's 12th Congressional district in 2004 and 2006. Fisher said that she would like to be the first black Republican female elected to Congress; however, Mia Love actually became the first black Republican female elected to Congress.
The 2008 United States presidential election in Nebraska took place on November 4, 2008, as part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose five electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. However, Nebraska is one of the two states of the U.S. that, instead of giving all of its electors to the winner based on its statewide results, allocates just two electoral votes to the winner of the statewide popular vote. The other three electors vote based on their individual congressional district results.
Timothy Richard Burns is an American businessman from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He ran as a Republican in the 2010 special election to represent Western Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Burns won the party nomination but lost the November general election to Democratic incumbent Mark Critz. From mid-October 2011 until ending his campaign in early February 2012, Burns was a candidate for the Republican nomination for United States Senate to challenge incumbent Senator Bob Casey, Jr. in the 2012 election.
William Gregory Steube is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 17th congressional district since 2019. His district is based in Sarasota. A member of the Republican Party, Steube served three terms in the Florida House of Representatives, representing the Sarasota-Manatee area from 2010 to 2016, as well as two years in the Florida Senate until 2018, representing Sarasota County and the western part of Charlotte County.
A special election for Louisiana's 5th congressional district was held on November 16, 2013, to elect a member of the United States House of Representatives. Incumbent Republican Congressman Rodney Alexander resigned on September 26, 2013, to become the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs under Governor Bobby Jindal.
Katrina Lanette Pierson is an American activist and communications consultant. She was the national spokesperson for Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
Theodore Paul Budd is an American businessman and politician serving as the junior United States senator for North Carolina since 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he was the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 13th congressional district from 2017 to 2023.
Austin Davis is an American politician who is the 35th lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, since 2023. Prior to that, he served as a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing the 35th District from 2018 to 2022. He is both the first African-American lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania and the youngest person to be elected lieutenant governor in the United States.
The 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania were held on November 8, 2022, to elect representatives for the seventeen seats in Pennsylvania.
