Electoral history of Barack Obama
Barack Obama on the presidential campaign trail in 2007 during his first presidential campaign .This is the electoral history of Barack Obama . Barack Obama served as the 44th president of the United States (2009–2017) and as a United States senator from Illinois (2005–2008).
A member of the Democratic Party , Obama was first elected to the Illinois Senate in 1997 representing the 13th district, which covered much of the Chicago South Side . In 2000, Obama ran an unsuccessful campaign for Illinois's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives against four-term incumbent Bobby Rush . In 2004, Obama campaigned for the U.S. Senate, participating in the first Senate election in which both major party candidates were African American , with Alan Keyes running as the Republican candidate. Obama won the election, gaining a seat previously represented by Republican Peter Fitzgerald .
In 2008, Obama entered the Democratic primaries for the U.S. presidential election . Numerous candidates entered initially, but over time the field narrowed down to Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton from New York . The contest was highly competitive between the two, with neither being able to reach a majority of delegates without the addition of unpledged delegates. Eventually, Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama for the nomination, prompting his victory. He went on to face Senator John McCain from Arizona as the Republican nominee, defeating him with 365 electoral votes to McCain's 173.
Obama sought re-election for a second term in 2012, running virtually unopposed in the Democratic primaries . His opponent in the general election was former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney . Obama won 332 electoral votes, defeating Romney who gained 206. After this election, he became the first president since Dwight D. Eisenhower to receive over 51% of the popular vote twice .[ a]
1997
1998
2002
Primary election
Primary election
General election
County results of the 2004 senatorial election
2008 Presidential election
Democratic presidential primaries
Popular vote
First-instance vote by state and territory Barack Obama (33)
Hillary Clinton (23)
First-instance vote by county Barack Obama
Hillary Clinton
John Edwards
Tie
No results
Excluding penalized contests,[ b]
2008 Democratic presidential primaries
Candidate
Votes
%
Barack Obama
16,706,853
49.04%
Hillary Clinton
16,239,821
47.67%
John Edwards
742,010
2.18%
Bill Richardson
89,054
0.26%
Uncommitted
82,660
0.24%
Dennis Kucinich
68,482
0.20%
Joe Biden
64,041
0.19%
Mike Gravel
27,662
0.08%
Christopher Dodd
25,300
0.07%
Others
22,556
0.07%
Total votes
34,068,439
100.00%
Including penalized contests:
2008 Democratic presidential primaries
Candidate
Votes
%
Hillary Clinton
18,225,175
48.03%
Barack Obama
17,988,182
47.41%
John Edwards
1,006,275
2.65%
Uncommitted
299,610
2.79%
Bill Richardson
106,073
0.28%
Dennis Kucinich
103,994
0.27%
Joe Biden
81,641
0.22%
Scattering
44,348
0.12%
Mike Gravel
40,251
0.11%
Christopher Dodd
35,281
0.09%
Total votes
37,980,830
100.00%
Delegate counts
2008 Democratic National Convention (Presidential tally )
Barack Obama - chosen by acclamationUnfinished roll call (13 states, D.C. Guam , American Samoa and Democrats Abroad):
Other results
General election
Electoral College map of the 2008 presidential election2008 United States presidential election Candidate Running mate Party Popular vote Electoral vote Votes % Votes % Barack Obama Joe Biden Democratic 69,498,516 52.91 365 67.84 John McCain Sarah Palin Republican 59,948,323 45.64 173 32.16 Ralph Nader Matt Gonzalez Independent 739,034 0.56 Bob Barr Wayne Allyn Root Libertarian 523,715 0.40 Chuck Baldwin Darrell Castle Constitution 199,750 0.15 Cynthia McKinney Rosa Clemente Green 161,797 0.12 Others 290,626 0.22 Total 131,361,761 100.00 538 100.00
2012 Presidential election
2012 Democratic Presidential primaries
2012 Democratic Party presidential primaries
Pledged
Contest
Candidates and results
Total votes cast
Ref
Barack Obama
John Wolfe Jr.
KJ Keith Judd
Darcy Richardson
BE Bob Ely
Randall Terry
JR
Totals votes earned
4,761
60 contests
91.0% 4,780 delegates 8,106,369 votes
1.3% 23 delegates 116,639 votes
0.8% 15 delegates 73,138 votes
0.5% 0 delegates 41,730 votes
0.3% 0 delegates 29,947 votes
0.3% 7 delegates 22,858 votes
0.2% 3 delegates 15,535 votes
5.6% 79 delegates 500,240 votes
8,903,722 votes
Convention roll call
100% 5,556 delegates
0%
General election
Electoral College map of the 2012 presidential election2012 United States presidential election Candidate Running mate Party Popular vote Electoral vote Votes % Votes % Barack Obama (inc.) Joe Biden (inc.)Democratic 65,915,795 51.06 332 61.71 Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Republican 60,933,504 47.20 206 38.29 Gary Johnson Jim Gray Libertarian 1,275,971 0.99 Jill Stein Cheri Honkala Green 469,627 0.36 Others 490,513 0.38 Total 129,085,410 100.00 538 100.00
See also
Notes
