2008 United States presidential election in Virginia

Main article: 2008 United States presidential election

The 2008 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 4, 2008, which was part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

2008 United States presidential election in Virginia

← 2004 November 4, 2008 2012 →
Turnout	74.0% 3.2^[1]
Nominee Barack Obama John McCain Party Democratic Republican Home state Illinois Arizona Running mate Joe Biden Sarah Palin Electoral vote 13 0 Popular vote 1,959,532 1,725,005 Percentage 52.6% 46.3%
County and Independent City Results Obama   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%   80-90% McCain   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%
President before election George W. Bush Republican Elected President Barack Obama Democratic

Virginia was won by Democratic nominee Barack Obama by a 6.3% margin of victory. Prior to the election, 16 of 17 news organizations considered this a state Obama would win, or otherwise a likely blue state, despite the fact that Virginia had not voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since Lyndon B. Johnson's 44-state landslide in 1964. The financial meltdown, changing demographics, and population increases in voter-rich Northern Virginia helped make the state more competitive for Obama. His victory marked a powerful shift in the political climate in Virginia, as the state would go on to vote for the Democratic presidential nominee in every election thereafter.

This also marked the first presidential election since 1924 in which Virginia voted for the Democratic presidential candidate whilst neighboring West Virginia voted for the Republican candidate; in every election since, both states have voted for those respective parties. As of 2020, this is also the last time Virginia voted more Republican than the nation as a whole.

Primaries

• 2008 Virginia Democratic presidential primary
• 2008 Virginia Republican presidential primary

Campaign

Virginia was one of the first Southern states to break away from its traditional Democratic roots. It voted for Dwight Eisenhower by a convincing margin in 1952, and voted for every Republican nominee since then save for Johnson's massive landslide in 1964.

However, the Democrats had made big gains in recent years with winning two gubernatorial races in a row, regaining control of the Virginia Senate, and electing Democrat Jim Webb to the U.S. Senate over incumbent Republican George Allen in 2006. Democrats made such gains in part due to the ever-expanding Northern Virginia, particularly the suburbs surrounding Washington, D.C. Historically, this area was strongly Republican. However, in recent years it has been dominated by white liberals who tend to vote Democratic.^[2] It was, ultimately, this rapid demographic change that provided a huge new influx of Democratic voters to Virginia.^[3]

Both presidential campaigns and the mainstream media treated Virginia as a swing state for most of the campaign. Obama campaigned extensively in Virginia and counted on the booming northern parts of the state for a Democratic victory. Victory in the presidential election for McCain would have been extremely difficult without Virginia; he would have had to win every swing state as well as at least one Democratic-leaning state.

Predictions

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

Source	Ranking
D.C. Political Report^[4]	Lean D (flip)
Cook Political Report^[5]	Lean D (flip)
The Takeaway^[6]	Lean D (flip)
Electoral-vote.com^[7]	Lean D (flip)
Washington Post^[8]	Lean D (flip)
Politico^[9]	Lean D (flip)
RealClearPolitics^[10]	Toss-up
FiveThirtyEight^[8]	Lean D (flip)
CQ Politics^[11]	Lean D (flip)
The New York Times^[12]	Lean D (flip)
CNN^[13]	Lean D (flip)
NPR^[8]	Lean D (flip)
MSNBC^[8]	Lean D (flip)
Fox News^[14]	Likely D (flip)
Associated Press^[15]	Likely D (flip)
Rasmussen Reports^[16]	Lean D (flip)

Polling

Main article: Statewide opinion polling for the United States presidential election, 2008: Virginia

After McCain clinched the Republican Party nomination in early March, he took a wide lead in polls against Obama, averaging almost 50%. But through the summer, polling was nearly dead even, with McCain only slightly leading Obama. After the Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, Obama took a wide lead in the polls. In October, Obama won every single poll taken but one, and reached over 50% in most of them. The final three polls averaged Obama leading 51% to 46%.^[17][18]

Fundraising

Obama raised $17,035,784. McCain raised $16,130,194.^[19]

Spending and visits

Obama spent over $26 million to McCain spending just $14 million.^[20] The Obama-Biden ticket visited the state 19 times compared to just 10 times for McCain-Palin.^[21]

Analysis

 

Voters wait in queue at a polling station on the campus of George Mason University

On Election Day, early returns showed McCain ahead.^[22] This was due in large part to the fact that many of the rural areas began to report first. However, Obama swamped McCain by scoring a near-sweep in Northern Virginia, which reported its returns last.

Obama did extremely well throughout the most populous regions of the state. Northern Virginia overwhelmingly supported Obama.^[23] In Arlington County and the independent city of Alexandria, the most traditionally Democratic jurisdictions in the region, Obama got over 70% of the vote, improving on Kerry by between 4% and 5% in both. In Fairfax County—the largest county in the state, and a then-traditionally Republican county that Kerry had become the first Democrat in 40 years to carry in 2004—Obama exceeded 60%, improving on Kerry's percentage by just shy of 7%. Just beyond Fairfax, to its south and west, Obama flipped the large counties of Loudoun and Prince William, becoming the first Democrat to carry either since 1964.

The two other major metropolitan areas in the eastern part of the state, Richmond and Hampton Roads, are somewhat less Democratic than Northern Virginia. In both areas, Obama improved significantly on John Kerry's performance.^[23] While Obama easily won Richmond itself (which is 57% African American), he also made significant inroads into Richmond's traditionally heavily Republican suburbs. He carried Henrico County with 57% of the vote; that county last supported a Democrat with Harry S. Truman in 1948.^[24] In Chesterfield County, Obama did almost 20 points better than Kerry.^[25] Both counties had historically been strongly Republican at the national level; Chesterfield had given George W. Bush his largest raw vote margin in Virginia in both 2000 and 2004.

Obama also did very well in Hampton Roads. The four Democratic-leaning cities along the harbor - Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, and Portsmouth - gave him margins exceeding 60%. Obama also split the Republican-leaning cities of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach; he barely won the former and barely lost the latter. Obama's strong performance in the area likely contributed to Democrat Glenn Nye unseating two-term Republican incumbent Thelma Drake in the 2nd Congressional District, a heavy military district which includes all of Virginia Beach and large portions of Norfolk and Hampton.

Outside Virginia's three major metropolitan areas, Obama also significantly outperformed Kerry in Albemarle and Montgomery Counties and in a series of independent cities around the state, most significantly Roanoke. Albemarle County surrounds Charlottesville, home to the University of Virginia, and Montgomery County is home to Virginia Tech.

Elsewhere in rural Virginia, however, McCain did well.^[25] In the Shenandoah Valley and Southside Virginia, both traditional bases for the Republican Party in Virginia,^[26] Obama ran roughly evenly with Kerry; but in southwestern Virginia—at the time one of the more traditionally Democratic regions of the state—McCain outperformed Bush in 2004, even flipping two counties (Buchanan and Dickenson), both of which last voted Republican in 1972; Obama thus became the first Democrat to win the White House without carrying the aforementioned two counties since Woodrow Wilson in 1916. However, without the support of suburban voters in the eastern metropolitan areas of the commonwealth, McCain was ultimately unable to hold the Old Dominion.

During the same election, former Democratic Governor Mark Warner solidly defeated former Governor (and his predecessor) Republican Jim Gilmore by a two-to-one margin for the open U.S. Senate seat vacated by incumbent Republican John Warner (no relation to Mark Warner). Warner received 65.03% of the vote while Gilmore took in 33.73%. Warner won all but five counties in the state. Democrats also picked up three seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. At the state level, Democrats picked up one seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Despite Obama's victory, Virginia's margin was 0.97% more Republican than the national average, though it would be the last time Virginia voted more Republican than the nation. As of the 2020 presidential election^[update], this is the last election in which King and Queen County voted for the Democratic candidate.

Results

United States presidential election in Virginia, 2008^[27]
Party		Candidate	Running mate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Democratic	Barack Obama	Joe Biden	1,959,532	52.63%	13
	Republican	John McCain	Sarah Palin	1,725,005	46.33%	0
	Independent	Ralph Nader	Matt Gonzalez	11,483	0.31%	0
	Libertarian	Bob Barr	Wayne Allyn Root	11,067	0.30%	0
	Constitution	Chuck Baldwin	Darrell Castle	7,474	0.20%	0
	Green	Cynthia McKinney	Rosa Clemente	2,344	0.06%	0
	Write-ins	Write-ins		6,355	0.17%	0
Totals				3,723,260	100.00%	13
Voter turnout (Voting age population)						65.1%

By city/county

City/County	Obama%	Obama#	McCain%	McCain#	Others%	Others#	Total
Accomack County	48.69%	7,607	50.14%	7,833	1.17%	183	15,623
Albemarle County	58.43%	29,792	40.36%	20,576	1.21%	616	50,984
Alleghany County	48.22%	3,553	50.41%	3,715	1.37%	101	7,369
Amelia County	38.11%	2,488	60.81%	3,970	1.09%	71	6,529
Amherst County	41.46%	6,094	57.62%	8,470	0.93%	136	14,700
Appomattox County	34.61%	2,641	64.26%	4,903	1.13%	86	7,630
Arlington County	71.71%	78,994	27.12%	29,876	1.16%	1,283	110,153
Augusta County	29.47%	9,825	69.35%	23,120	1.18%	393	33,338
Bath County	42.89%	1,043	55.47%	1,349	1.64%	40	2,432
Bedford County	30.75%	11,017	68.16%	24,420	1.10%	393	35,830
Bland County	29.20%	864	68.64%	2,031	2.16%	64	2,959
Botetourt County	32.71%	5,693	65.90%	11,471	1.39%	242	17,406
Brunswick County	62.84%	4,973	36.35%	2,877	0.81%	64	7,914
Buchanan County	46.52%	4,063	51.99%	4,541	1.49%	130	8,734
Buckingham County	49.89%	3,489	49.01%	3,428	1.10%	77	6,994
Campbell County	31.34%	8,091	67.58%	17,444	1.08%	279	25,814
Caroline County	55.45%	7,163	43.48%	5,617	1.08%	139	12,919
Carroll County	32.66%	4,108	65.09%	8,187	2.25%	283	12,578
Charles City County	68.34%	2,838	31.01%	1,288	0.65%	27	4,153
Charlotte County	43.93%	2,705	54.77%	3,372	1.30%	80	6,157
Chesterfield County	45.85%	74,310	53.31%	86,413	0.84%	1,365	162,088
Clarke County	46.52%	3,457	51.68%	3,840	1.80%	134	7,431
Craig County	33.44%	876	64.69%	1,695	1.87%	49	2,620
Culpeper County	44.59%	8,802	54.26%	10,711	1.15%	228	19,741
Cumberland County	47.73%	2,255	51.19%	2,418	1.08%	51	4,724
Dickenson County	48.54%	3,278	49.22%	3,324	2.24%	151	6,753
Dinwiddie County	48.45%	6,246	50.62%	6,526	0.93%	120	12,892
Essex County	54.70%	2,934	44.35%	2,379	0.95%	51	5,364
Fairfax County	60.12%	310,359	38.93%	200,994	0.95%	4,901	516,254
Fauquier County	42.71%	14,616	56.19%	19,227	1.10%	376	34,219
Floyd County	39.08%	2,937	59.09%	4,441	1.84%	138	7,516
Fluvanna County	48.57%	6,185	50.41%	6,420	1.02%	130	12,735
Franklin County	37.86%	9,618	60.68%	15,414	1.45%	369	25,401
Frederick County	38.56%	12,961	59.95%	20,149	1.49%	502	33,612
Giles County	40.95%	3,192	57.24%	4,462	1.81%	141	7,795
Gloucester County	35.98%	6,916	62.89%	12,089	1.13%	217	19,222
Goochland County	38.31%	4,813	60.84%	7,643	0.84%	106	12,562
Grayson County	34.35%	2,480	62.88%	4,540	2.77%	200	7,220
Greene County	38.43%	3,174	60.29%	4,980	1.28%	106	8,260
Greensville County	63.88%	3,122	35.38%	1,729	0.74%	36	4,887
Halifax County	48.23%	8,126	51.04%	8,600	0.74%	124	16,850
Hanover County	32.80%	18,447	66.39%	37,344	0.81%	457	56,248
Henrico County	55.70%	86,323	43.48%	67,381	0.81%	1,262	154,966
Henry County	44.09%	11,118	54.56%	13,758	1.34%	339	25,215
Highland County	37.97%	590	59.85%	930	2.19%	34	1,554
Isle of Wight County	42.87%	8,573	56.30%	11,258	0.83%	166	19,997
James City County	44.95%	17,352	54.17%	20,912	0.88%	339	38,603
King and Queen County	51.77%	1,918	47.58%	1,763	0.65%	24	3,705
King George County	42.71%	4,473	56.22%	5,888	1.08%	113	10,474
King William County	39.87%	3,344	59.20%	4,966	0.93%	78	8,388
Lancaster County	46.63%	3,235	52.57%	3,647	0.81%	56	6,938
Lee County	34.89%	3,219	63.13%	5,825	1.98%	183	9,227
Loudoun County	53.67%	74,845	45.42%	63,336	0.92%	1,278	139,459
Louisa County	45.45%	6,978	53.29%	8,182	1.26%	193	15,353
Lunenburg County	47.84%	2,703	51.33%	2,900	0.83%	47	5,650
Madison County	42.72%	2,862	56.10%	3,758	1.18%	79	6,699
Mathews County	35.66%	1,943	63.42%	3,456	0.92%	50	5,449
Mecklenburg County	47.26%	7,127	51.83%	7,817	0.91%	138	15,082
Middlesex County	39.81%	2,391	59.02%	3,545	1.17%	70	6,006
Montgomery County	51.73%	21,031	46.81%	19,028	1.46%	594	40,653
Nelson County	53.99%	4,391	44.84%	3,647	1.17%	95	8,133
New Kent County	34.96%	3,493	63.91%	6,385	1.13%	113	9,991
Northampton County	57.70%	3,800	41.19%	2,713	1.11%	73	6,586
Northumberland County	44.72%	3,312	54.56%	4,041	0.72%	53	7,406
Nottoway County	48.84%	3,413	50.07%	3,499	1.09%	76	6,988
Orange County	44.98%	7,107	53.83%	8,506	1.19%	188	15,801
Page County	40.76%	4,235	58.15%	6,041	1.09%	113	10,389
Patrick County	33.75%	2,879	64.37%	5,491	1.89%	161	8,531
Pittsylvania County	37.51%	11,415	61.55%	18,730	0.95%	288	30,433
Powhatan County	29.31%	4,237	69.78%	10,088	0.91%	131	14,456
Prince Edward County	54.34%	5,101	44.46%	4,174	1.20%	113	9,388
Prince George County	44.55%	7,130	54.68%	8,752	0.77%	124	16,006
Prince William County	57.52%	93,435	41.63%	67,621	0.86%	1,390	162,446
Pulaski County	39.32%	5,918	58.85%	8,857	1.83%	275	15,050
Rappahannock County	47.79%	2,105	50.56%	2,227	1.66%	73	4,405
Richmond County	43.20%	1,618	55.86%	2,092	0.93%	35	3,745
Roanoke County	38.87%	19,812	59.97%	30,571	1.16%	592	50,975
Rockbridge County	42.64%	4,347	56.22%	5,732	1.14%	116	10,195
Rockingham County	31.36%	10,453	67.40%	22,468	1.24%	413	33,334
Russell County	42.90%	4,931	55.59%	6,389	1.51%	173	11,493
Scott County	27.59%	2,725	70.68%	6,980	1.72%	170	9,875
Shenandoah County	35.96%	6,912	62.45%	12,005	1.59%	306	19,223
Smyth County	34.46%	4,239	63.54%	7,817	2.00%	246	12,302
Southampton County	48.55%	4,402	50.55%	4,583	0.90%	82	9,067
Spotsylvania County	46.05%	24,897	52.91%	28,610	1.04%	562	54,069
Stafford County	46.37%	25,716	52.69%	29,221	0.93%	518	55,455
Surry County	60.72%	2,626	38.45%	1,663	0.83%	36	4,325
Sussex County	61.55%	3,301	37.78%	2,026	0.67%	36	5,363
Tazewell County	32.80%	5,596	65.65%	11,201	1.55%	264	17,061
Warren County	43.39%	6,997	55.06%	8,879	1.55%	250	16,126
Washington County	32.91%	8,063	65.62%	16,077	1.47%	360	24,500
Westmoreland County	54.64%	4,577	44.40%	3,719	0.97%	81	8,377
Wise County	35.33%	4,995	63.05%	8,914	1.62%	229	14,138
Wythe County	32.88%	4,107	65.70%	8,207	1.42%	177	12,491
York County	40.42%	13,700	58.51%	19,833	1.07%	364	33,897
Alexandria	71.73%	50,473	27.26%	19,181	1.01%	710	70,364
Bristol	36.21%	2,665	62.22%	4,579	1.56%	115	7,359
Buena Vista	45.73%	1,108	52.91%	1,282	1.36%	33	2,423
Charlottesville	78.35%	15,705	20.35%	4,078	1.30%	261	20,044
Chesapeake	50.22%	53,994	48.94%	52,625	0.84%	902	107,521
Colonial Heights	28.95%	2,562	69.62%	6,161	1.42%	126	8,849
Covington	55.40%	1,304	43.33%	1,020	1.27%	30	2,354
Danville	59.13%	12,352	40.02%	8,361	0.85%	177	20,890
Emporia	65.04%	1,702	34.28%	897	0.69%	18	2,617
Fairfax	57.69%	6,575	41.16%	4,691	1.16%	132	11,398
Falls Church	69.56%	4,695	29.19%	1,970	1.26%	85	6,750
Franklin	63.68%	2,819	35.60%	1,576	0.72%	32	4,427
Fredericksburg	63.60%	6,155	35.27%	3,413	1.13%	109	9,677
Galax	43.80%	1,052	54.83%	1,317	1.37%	33	2,402
Hampton	69.05%	46,917	30.14%	20,476	0.81%	550	67,943
Harrisonburg	57.54%	8,444	41.21%	6,048	1.25%	183	14,675
Hopewell	55.49%	5,285	43.56%	4,149	0.94%	90	9,524
Lexington	62.24%	1,543	36.87%	914	0.89%	22	2,479
Lynchburg	47.37%	16,269	51.36%	17,638	1.26%	434	34,341
Manassas	55.17%	7,518	43.85%	5,975	0.98%	134	13,627
Manassas Park	59.49%	2,463	39.47%	1,634	1.04%	43	4,140
Martinsville	63.48%	4,139	35.44%	2,311	1.07%	70	6,520
Newport News	63.93%	51,972	35.26%	28,667	0.81%	656	81,295
Norfolk	71.03%	62,819	28.06%	24,814	0.92%	813	88,446
Norton	49.14%	743	49.21%	744	1.65%	25	1,512
Petersburg	88.64%	13,774	10.19%	1,583	1.18%	183	15,540
Poquoson	24.74%	1,748	74.01%	5,229	1.25%	88	7,065
Portsmouth	69.27%	32,327	29.97%	13,984	0.76%	354	46,665
Radford	53.97%	2,930	44.54%	2,418	1.49%	81	5,429
Richmond	79.09%	73,623	20.03%	18,649	0.87%	813	93,085
Roanoke	61.15%	24,934	37.76%	15,394	1.09%	444	40,772
Salem	41.63%	5,164	57.13%	7,088	1.24%	154	12,406
Staunton	50.56%	5,569	48.39%	5,330	1.05%	116	11,015
Suffolk	56.24%	22,446	43.01%	17,165	0.74%	297	39,908
Virginia Beach	49.14%	98,885	49.85%	100,319	1.02%	2,045	201,249
Waynesboro	44.09%	3,906	54.35%	4,815	1.57%	139	8,860
Williamsburg	63.77%	4,328	34.67%	2,353	1.56%	106	6,787
Winchester	52.02%	5,268	46.66%	4,725	1.31%	133	10,126

Counties and independent cities that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Buchanan (largest city: Grundy)
• Dickenson (largest borough: Clintwood)

Counties and independent cities that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Buckingham (largest borough: Buckingham)
• Caroline (largest borough: Bowling Green)
• Chesapeake
• Essex (largest borough: Tappahannock)
• Harrisonburg
• Henrico (largest borough: Richmond)
• Hopewell
• King and Queen (largest borough: King and Queen Courthouse)
• Loudoun (largest borough: Leesburg)
• Manassas
• Manassas Park
• Montgomery (largest borough: Blacksburg)
• Prince William (largest borough: Manassas)
• Radford
• Staunton
• Suffolk
• Westmoreland (largest borough: Montross)
• Winchester

By congressional district

Barack Obama carried 6 of the state's 11 congressional districts, including two districts won by Republicans. McCain carried 5 districts, two of which were won by Democrats.

 

District	McCain	Obama	Representative
1st	51.35%	47.67%	Jo Ann Davis (110th Congress)
			Robert J. Wittman (111th Congress)
2nd	48.48%	50.45%	Thelma Drake (110th Congress)
			Glenn Nye (111th Congress)
3rd	23.74%	75.52%	Robert C. Scott
4th	48.80%	50.33%	Randy Forbes
5th	50.59%	48.29%	Virgil Goode (110th Congress)
			Tom Perriello (111th Congress)
6th	56.93%	41.85%	Bob Goodlatte
7th	53.16%	45.89%	Eric Cantor
8th	29.65%	69.28%	Jim Moran
9th	58.71%	39.60%	Rick Boucher
10th	46.06%	52.90%	Frank Wolf
11th	42.06%	57.01%	Thomas M. Davis (110th Congress)
			Gerry Connolly (111th Congress)

Electors

Main article: List of 2008 United States presidential electors

Technically the voters of Virginia cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Virginia is allocated 13 electors because it has 11 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 13 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 13 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.^[28] 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 capitols.

The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 13 were pledged to Barack Obama and Joe Biden:^[29]

1. Christia Rey
2. Sandra Brandt
3. Betty Squire
4. Susan Johnston Rowland
5. Marc Finney
6. Dorothy Blackwell
7. James Harold Allen Boyd
8. Marian Van Landingham
9. Robert Edgar Childress
10. Rolland Winter
11. Janet Carver
12. Michael Jon
13. Sophie Ann Salley

References

1. . Virginia Department of Elections. Archived from the original on 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2018-09-18.
2. . 12 July 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-07-12.
3. Continetti, Matthew (October 2, 2006). "George Allen Monkeys Around". The Weekly Standard. Vol. 12, no. 3. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
4. . 2009-01-01. Archived from the original on 2009-01-01. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
5. . 2015-05-05. Archived from the original on 2015-05-05. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
6. . 2009-04-22. Archived from the original on 2009-04-22. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
7. "Electoral-vote.com: President, Senate, House Updated Daily". electoral-vote.com. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
8. Based on Takeaway
9. "POLITICO's 2008 Swing State Map - POLITICO.com". www.politico.com. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
10. . Archived from the original on 2008-06-05.
11. . CQ Politics. Archived from the original on June 14, 2009. Retrieved December 20, 2009.
12. Nagourney, Adam; Zeleny, Jeff; Carter, Shan (2008-11-04). "The Electoral Map: Key States". The New York Times. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
13. "October – 2008 – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs". CNN. 2008-10-31. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
14. "Winning The Electoral College". Fox News. April 27, 2010.
15. "roadto270". hosted.ap.org. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
16. "Election 2008: Electoral College Update - Rasmussen Reports™". www.rasmussenreports.com. Retrieved 2016-09-22.
17. "2008 - Virginia: McCain vs. Obama - RealClearPolitics". www.realclearpolitics.com.
18. . Archived from the original on 2008-10-23.
19. . Archived from the original on 2009-03-24. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
20. "Map: Campaign Ad Spending - Election Center 2008 from CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
21. "Map: Campaign Candidate Visits - Election Center 2008 from CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
22. "Election 2008: Time lapse of U.S. counties". USA Today. 4 July 2008. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
23. Leip, David. "2008 Presidential General Election Results". David Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
24. Todd, Chuck and Gawiser, Sheldon. How Barack Obama Won. New York City: Vintage, 2009.
25. . New York Times. Archived from the original on November 3, 2004. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
26. Trende, Sean (19 February 2009). "Virginia Governor's Preview". RealClearPolitics. Retrieved 2009-05-31. The question in Virginia is always whether the Republican Party can hold together its somewhat unwieldy three-legged coalition of historically Republican Virginians in the mountainous Appalachian western portion of the state, social conservatives in the rural areas east of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and suburbanites in Northern Virginia and in the Richmond/Hampton Roads areas. Why this coalition is having troubles recently could fill a book. For our purposes, we will oversimplify somewhat and observe the following.
27. Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 4, 2008" (PDF). pp. 63 & 64.
28. . California Secretary of State. Archived from the original on October 30, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
29. (PDF). Commonwealth of Virginia State Board of Elections. September 9, 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 4, 2011. Retrieved March 18, 2011.