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2012 United States presidential election

January 27, 2023

"Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney" redirects here. For the video, see Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney (video).
For related races, see 2012 United States elections.

The 2012 United States presidential election was the 57th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. Incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, incumbent Vice President Joe Biden, were re-elected to a second term. They defeated the Republican ticket of businessman and former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

2012 United States presidential election
← 2008 November 6, 2012 2016 →
538 members of the Electoral College
270 electoral votes needed to win
Opinion polls
Turnout54.9%[1] 3.3 pp
 
Nominee Barack Obama Mitt Romney
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Illinois Massachusetts
Running mate Joe Biden Paul Ryan
Electoral vote 332 206
States carried 26 + DC 24
Popular vote 65,915,795[1] 60,933,504[1]
Percentage 51.1% 47.2%
2012 United States presidential election in California2012 United States presidential election in Oregon2012 United States presidential election in Washington (state)2012 United States presidential election in Idaho2012 United States presidential election in Nevada2012 United States presidential election in Utah2012 United States presidential election in Arizona2012 United States presidential election in Montana2012 United States presidential election in Wyoming2012 United States presidential election in Colorado2012 United States presidential election in New Mexico2012 United States presidential election in North Dakota2012 United States presidential election in South Dakota2012 United States presidential election in Nebraska2012 United States presidential election in Kansas2012 United States presidential election in Oklahoma2012 United States presidential election in Texas2012 United States presidential election in Minnesota2012 United States presidential election in Iowa2012 United States presidential election in Missouri2012 United States presidential election in Arkansas2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana2012 United States presidential election in Wisconsin2012 United States presidential election in Illinois2012 United States presidential election in Michigan2012 United States presidential election in Indiana2012 United States presidential election in Ohio2012 United States presidential election in Kentucky2012 United States presidential election in Tennessee2012 United States presidential election in Mississippi2012 United States presidential election in Alabama2012 United States presidential election in Georgia2012 United States presidential election in Florida2012 United States presidential election in South Carolina2012 United States presidential election in North Carolina2012 United States presidential election in Virginia2012 United States presidential election in West Virginia2012 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia2012 United States presidential election in Maryland2012 United States presidential election in Delaware2012 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania2012 United States presidential election in New Jersey2012 United States presidential election in New York2012 United States presidential election in Connecticut2012 United States presidential election in Rhode Island2012 United States presidential election in Vermont2012 United States presidential election in New Hampshire2012 United States presidential election in Maine2012 United States presidential election in Massachusetts2012 United States presidential election in Hawaii2012 United States presidential election in Alaska2012 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia2012 United States presidential election in Maryland2012 United States presidential election in Delaware2012 United States presidential election in New Jersey2012 United States presidential election in Connecticut2012 United States presidential election in Rhode Island2012 United States presidential election in Massachusetts2012 United States presidential election in Vermont2012 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Obama/Biden and red denotes those won by Romney/Ryan. Numbers indicate electoral votes cast by each state and the District of Columbia.
President before election

Barack Obama
Democratic

Elected President

Barack Obama
Democratic

As the incumbent president, Obama secured the Democratic nomination without serious opposition. The Republicans experienced a competitive primary. Romney was consistently competitive in the polls and won the support of many party leaders, but he faced challenges from a number of more conservative contenders. Romney secured his party's nomination in May, defeating former Senator Rick Santorum, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and Texas congressman Ron Paul, among other candidates.

The campaigns focused heavily on domestic issues, and debate centered largely around sound responses to the Great Recession. Other issues included long-term federal budget issues, the future of social insurance programs, and the Affordable Care Act, Obama's marquee legislative program. Foreign policy was also discussed, including the end of the Iraq War in 2011, military spending, the Iranian nuclear program, and appropriate counteractions to terrorism. Romney attacked Obama's domestic policies as ineffective and financially insolvent while Obama's campaign sought to characterize Romney as a plutocratic businessman who was out of touch with the average American.[2][3] The campaign was marked by a sharp rise in fundraising, including from nominally independent Super PACs.

Obama defeated Romney, winning a majority of both the Electoral College and the popular vote. Obama won 332 electoral votes and 51.1% of the popular vote compared to Romney's 206 electoral votes and 47.2%. Obama was the first president ever to win a second term with fewer electoral votes and a smaller popular vote percentage, and he was the first incumbent since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 to accomplish this. On the other hand, Obama was the first two-term president since Ronald Reagan to win both his presidential bids with a majority of the nationwide popular vote (50% or more), and the first Democrat to do so since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Obama did not hold onto Indiana, North Carolina, or Nebraska's 2nd congressional district, but crucially won all 18 "blue wall" states and defeated Romney in other swing states the Republicans had won in 2000 and 2004, most notably Colorado, Florida, Ohio, and Virginia. Ultimately, of the nine swing states identified by The Washington Post in the 2012 election, Obama won eight, losing only North Carolina.[4] This is the most recent presidential election in which the Democratic candidate won the states of Iowa, Ohio, and Florida, along with Maine's 2nd congressional district as well as the most recent presidential election in which the incumbent president won reelection. The Democrats would not again increase their share of the popular vote until 2020.

All four major candidates for president and vice president went on to hold significant public office after this election. Obama served his second term as president and was succeeded by Republican Donald Trump, who was elected president in 2016 while Biden also served his second term as vice president and initially retired from politics but was later elected president in 2020, defeating Trump. Romney initially retired from politics and moved to Utah in 2014 but was later elected to the Senate there in 2018, succeeding Orrin Hatch, while Ryan served three more terms in the House and eventually became Speaker from 2015 until his retirement from politics in 2019.

State changes to voter registration and electoral rules

In 2011, several state legislatures passed new voting laws, especially pertaining to voter identification, with the stated purpose of combating voter fraud; the laws were attacked, however, by the Democratic Party as attempts to suppress voting among its supporters and to improve the Republican Party's presidential prospects. Florida, Georgia, Ohio,[5] Tennessee, and West Virginia's state legislatures approved measures to shorten early voting periods. Florida and Iowa barred all felons from voting. Kansas, South Carolina,[6] Tennessee, Texas,[7] and Wisconsin[8] state legislatures passed laws requiring voters to have government-issued IDs before they could cast their ballots. This meant, typically, that people without driver's licenses or passports had to gain new forms of ID. Former President Bill Clinton denounced them, saying, "There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today".[9] He was referring to Jim Crow laws passed in southern states near the turn of the twentieth century that disenfranchised most blacks from voting and excluded them from the political process for more than six decades. Clinton said the moves would effectively disenfranchise core voter blocs that trend liberal, including college students, Blacks, and Latinos.[10][11] The Obama campaign fought against the Ohio law, pushing for a petition and statewide referendum to repeal it in time for the 2012 election.[12]

In addition, the Pennsylvania legislature proposed a plan to change its representation in the electoral college from the traditional winner-take-all model to a district-by-district model.[13] As the governorship and both houses of its legislature were Republican-controlled, the move was viewed by some as an attempt to reduce Democratic chances.[14][15][16] Ultimately they did not do it, leaving their winner take all format intact as of 2020.

Nominations

Democratic Party nomination

Main article: 2012 Democratic Party presidential primaries

Primaries

With an incumbent president running for re-election against token opposition, the race for the Democratic nomination was largely uneventful. The nomination process consisted of primaries and caucuses, held by the 50 states, as well as Guam, Puerto Rico, Washington, D.C., U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Democrats Abroad. Additionally, high-ranking party members known as superdelegates each received one vote in the convention. A few of the primary challengers surpassed the president's vote total in individual counties in several of the seven contested primaries, though none made a significant impact in the delegate count. Running unopposed everywhere else, Obama cemented his status as the Democratic presumptive nominee on April 3, 2012, by securing the minimum number of pledged delegates needed to obtain the nomination.[17][18]

Candidate

Main article: 2012 Democratic Party presidential candidates
 
2012 Democratic Party ticket
Barack Obama Joe Biden
for President for Vice President
 
 
44th
President of the United States
(2009–2017) 		47th
Vice President of the United States
(2009–2017)
Campaign
 

Republican Party nomination

Main article: 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries

Primaries

Candidates with considerable name recognition who entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination in the early stages of the primary campaign included U.S. Representative and former Libertarian nominee Ron Paul, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who co-chaired John McCain's campaign in 2008, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the runner-up for the nomination in the 2008 cycle, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

The first debate took place on May 5, 2011, in Greenville, South Carolina, with businessman Herman Cain, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum participating. Another debate took place a month later, with Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann participating, and Gary Johnson excluded. A total of thirteen debates were held before the Iowa caucuses.

The first major event of the campaign was the Ames Straw Poll, which took place in Iowa on August 13, 2011. Michele Bachmann won the straw poll (this ultimately proved to be the acme of her campaign).[19] Pawlenty withdrew from the race after a poor showing in the straw poll, as did Thaddeus McCotter, the only candidate among those who qualified for the ballot who was refused entrance into the debate.[20]

It became clear at around this point in the nomination process that while Romney was considered to be the likely nominee by the Republican establishment, a large segment of the conservative primary electorate found him to be too moderate for their political views. As a result, a number of potential "anti-Romney" candidates were put forward,[21][22] including future President Donald Trump,[23] former Alaska Governor and 2008 vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin,[24] New Jersey Governor Chris Christie,[25] and Texas Governor Rick Perry,[26] the last of whom decided to run in August 2011. Perry did poorly in the debates, however, and Herman Cain and then Newt Gingrich came to the fore in October and November.

Due to a number of scandals, Cain withdrew just before the end of the year, after having gotten on the ballot in several states.[27] Around the same time, Johnson, who had been able to get into only one other debate, withdrew to seek the Libertarian Party nomination.[28]

For the first time in modern Republican Party history, three different candidates won the first three state contests in January (the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire primary, and the South Carolina primary).[29] Although Romney had been expected to win in at least Iowa and New Hampshire, Rick Santorum won the non-binding poll at caucus sites in Iowa by 34 votes, as near as could be determined from the incomplete tally, earning him a declaration as winner by state party leaders, although vote totals were missing from eight precincts.[30][31] The election of county delegates at the caucuses would eventually lead to Ron Paul earning 22 of the 28 Iowa delegates to the Republican National Convention.[32] Newt Gingrich won South Carolina by a surprisingly large margin,[33] and Romney won only in New Hampshire.

A number of candidates dropped out at this point in the nomination process. Bachmann withdrew after finishing sixth in the Iowa caucuses,[34] Huntsman withdrew after coming in third in New Hampshire, and Perry withdrew when polls showed him drawing low numbers in South Carolina.[35]

 
Mitt Romney on the campaign trail

Santorum, who had previously run an essentially one-state campaign in Iowa, was able to organize a national campaign after his surprising victory there. He unexpectedly carried three states in a row on February 7 and overtook Romney in nationwide opinion polls, becoming the only candidate in the race to effectively challenge the notion that Romney was the inevitable nominee.[36] However, Romney won all of the other contests between South Carolina and the Super Tuesday primaries, and regained his first-place status in nationwide opinion polls by the end of February.

The Super Tuesday primaries took place on March 6. Romney carried six states, Santorum carried three, and Gingrich won only in his home state of Georgia.[37] Throughout the rest of March, 266 delegates were allocated in 12 events, including the territorial contests and the first local conventions that allocated delegates (Wyoming's county conventions). Santorum won Kansas and three Southern primaries, but he was unable to make any substantial gain on Romney, who became a formidable frontrunner after securing more than half of the delegates allocated in March.

On April 10, Santorum suspended his campaign due to a variety of reasons, such as a low delegate count, unfavorable polls in his home state of Pennsylvania, and his daughter's health, leaving Mitt Romney as the undisputed front-runner for the presidential nomination and allowing Gingrich to claim that he was "the last conservative standing" in the campaign for the nomination.[38] After disappointing results in the April 24 primaries (finishing second in one state, third in three, and fourth in one), Gingrich dropped out on May 2 in a move that was seen as an effective end to the contest for the nomination.[39] After Gingrich's spokesman announced his upcoming withdrawal, the Republican National Committee declared Romney the party's presumptive nominee.[40] Ron Paul officially remained in the race, but he stopped campaigning on May 14 to focus on state conventions.

On May 29, after winning the Texas primary, Romney had received a sufficient number of delegates to clinch the party's nomination with the inclusion of unpledged delegates. After winning the June 5 primaries in California and several other states, Romney had received more than enough pledged delegates to clinch the nomination without counting unpledged delegates, making the June 26 Utah Primary, the last contest of the cycle, purely symbolic. CNN's final delegate estimate, released on July 27, 2012, put Romney at 1,462 pledged delegates and 62 unpledged delegates, for a total estimate of 1,524 delegates. No other candidate had unpledged delegates. The delegate estimates for the other candidates were Santorum at 261 delegates, Paul at 154, Gingrich at 142, Bachmann at 1, Huntsman at 1, and all others at 0.[41]

On August 28, 2012, delegates at the Republican National Convention officially named Romney the party's presidential nominee.[42] Romney formally accepted the delegates' nomination on August 30, 2012.[43]

Candidate

Main article: 2012 Republican Party presidential candidates
 
2012 Republican Party ticket
Mitt Romney Paul Ryan
for President for Vice President
 
 
70th
Governor of Massachusetts
(2003–2007) 		U.S. Representative
from Wisconsin
(1999–2019)
Campaign
 
[44][45]

Withdrawn candidates

Candidates in this section are sorted by reverse date of withdrawal from the primaries
Ron Paul Newt Gingrich Rick Santorum Buddy Roemer Rick Perry Jon Huntsman Jr.
 
 
 
 
 
 
U.S. Representative
from Texas
(1997–2013) 		50th
Speaker
of the United States
House of Representatives
(1995–1999) 		U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania  
(1995–2007) 		52nd
Governor of
Louisiana
(1988–1992) 		47th
Governor of
Texas
(2000–2015) 		U.S. Ambassador
to China
(2009-2011)
 
 
 
 
 
Campaign Campaign Campaign Campaign Campaign Campaign
W: N/A
2,017,957 votes 		W: May 2
2,737,442 votes 		W: April 10
3,816,110 votes 		W: Feb 22
33,212 votes 		W: Jan 19
42,251 votes 		W: Jan 16
83,173 votes
[46] [47][48] [49][50][51] [52][53] [54][55] [56][57]
Michele Bachmann Gary Johnson Herman Cain Thaddeus McCotter Tim Pawlenty Fred Karger
 
 
 
 
 
 
U.S. Representative
from Minnesota
(2007–2013) 		29th
Governor of
New Mexico
(1995–2003) 		Chair of the
Federal Reserve
Bank of Kansas City
(1995–1996) 		U.S. Representative
from Michigan
(2003–2012) 		39th
Governor of
Minnesota
(2003–2011) 		Political
Consultant
 
 
 
 
 
 
Campaign Campaign Campaign Campaign Campaign Campaign
W: Jan 4
35,089 votes 		W: Dec 28, 2011
4,286 votes 		W: Dec 3, 2011
13,538 votes 		W: Sep 22, 2011
0 votes 		W: Aug 14, 2011
0 votes 		W: June 29, 2012

12,776 votes

[58][59][60] [61][62] [63][64] [65][66] [67][68] [69]

Third party and other nominations

Main article: Third-party and independent candidates for the 2012 United States presidential election

Four other parties nominated candidates that had ballot access or write-in access to at least 270 electoral votes, the minimum number of votes needed in the 2012 election to win the presidency through a majority of the electoral college.

Libertarian Party

Main articles: Libertarian Party (United States), 2012 Libertarian National Convention, and Gary Johnson 2012 presidential campaign

Green Party

Main articles: Green Party of the United States, 2012 Green National Convention, and Jill Stein 2012 presidential campaign

Constitution Party

Main articles: Constitution Party (United States), 2012 Constitution Party National Convention, and Virgil Goode 2012 presidential campaign
  • Virgil Goode, former Representative from Virginia.[75] Vice-presidential nominee: Jim Clymer from Pennsylvania[76]

Justice Party

Main articles: Justice Party (United States) and Rocky Anderson

Candidates gallery

Campaigns

See also: Barack Obama 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaign, Gary Johnson 2012 presidential campaign, Jill Stein 2012 presidential campaign, and Virgil Goode 2012 presidential campaign

Ballot access

Presidential ticket Party Ballot access[79] Votes Percentage
States Electors % of voters
Obama / Biden Democratic 50 + DC 538 100% 65,915,795 51.1%
Romney / Ryan Republican 50 + DC 538 100% 60,933,504 47.2%
Johnson / Gray Libertarian 48 + DC 515 95.1% 1,275,971 1.0%
Stein / Honkala Green 36 + DC 436 83.1% 469,627 0.4%
Goode / Clymer Constitution 26 257 49.9% 122,388 0.1%
Anderson / Rodriguez Justice 15 145 28.1% 43,018 nil
Lindsay / Osorio Socialism & Liberation 13 115 28.6% 7,791 nil

Candidates in bold were on ballots representing 270 electoral votes.

All other candidates were on the ballots of fewer than 10 states, 100 electors, and less than 20% of voters nationwide.

Financing and advertising

The United States presidential election of 2012 broke new records in financing, fundraising, and negative campaigning. Through grassroots campaign contributions, online donations, and Super PACs, Obama and Romney raised a combined total of more than $2 billion.[80] Super PACs constituted nearly one-fourth of the total financing, with most coming from pro-Romney PACs.[81] Obama raised $690 million through online channels, beating his record of $500 million in 2008.[82] Most of the advertising in the 2012 presidential campaign was decidedly negative—80% of Obama's ads and 84% of Romney's ads were negative.[83] The tax-exempt non-profit Americans for Prosperity, a so-called "outside group", that is, a political advocacy group that is not a political action committee or super-PAC, ran a television advertising campaign opposing Obama described by The Washington Post as "early and relentless".[84][85] Americans for Prosperity spent $8.4 million in swing states on television advertisements denouncing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 loan guarantee to Solyndra, a manufacturer of solar panels that went bankrupt,[86] an advertising campaign described by The Wall Street Journal in November 2011 as "perhaps the biggest attack on Mr. Obama so far".[87][88]

Party conventions

 
 
Charlotte
 
Tampa
 
Nashville
 
Las Vegas
 
Baltimore
class=notpageimage|
Sites of the 2012 national party conventions.

Presidential debates

Main article: 2012 United States presidential debates

The Commission on Presidential Debates held four debates during the last weeks of the campaign: three presidential and one vice-presidential. The major issues debated were the economy and jobs, the federal budget deficit, taxation and spending, the future of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, healthcare reform, education, social issues, immigration, and foreign policy.

Debate schedule:[95][96]

Debates among candidates for the 2012 U.S. presidential election
No. Date Host City Moderator Participants
Viewership
(million)
P1 Wednesday, October 3, 2012 University of Denver Denver, Colorado Jim Lehrer
67.2[97]
VP Thursday, October 11, 2012 Centre College Danville, Kentucky Martha Raddatz
51.4[97]
P2 Tuesday, October 16, 2012 Hofstra University Hempstead, New York Candy Crowley
65.6[97]
P3 Monday, October 22, 2012 Lynn University Boca Raton, Florida Bob Schieffer
59.2[97]
 
President Obama talks with Ron Klain during presidential debate preparations. Senator John Kerry, at podium, played the role of Mitt Romney during the preparatory sessions.

An independent presidential debate featuring minor party candidates took place on Tuesday, October 23 at the Hilton Hotel in Chicago, Illinois.[98][99] The debate was moderated by Larry King[100] and organized by the Free & Equal Elections Foundation.[99] The participants were Gary Johnson (Libertarian), Jill Stein (Green), Virgil Goode (Constitution), and Rocky Anderson (Justice).[99][100] A second debate between Stein and Johnson took place on Sunday, November 4, and was moderated by Ralph Nader.[101]

Notable expressions, phrases, and statements

  • Severely conservative – In a speech he made at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2012, Romney claimed that he had been a "severely conservative Republican governor". Romney's description of his record as "severely conservative" was widely criticized by political commentators as both rhetorically clumsy and factually inaccurate.[102][103][104] Later, the phrase "severely conservative" was frequently brought up by Democrats to make fun of Romney's willingness to associate himself with the far-right of the Republican Party as well as his apparent lack of sincerity while doing so.[105] Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who played the clip on his radio show, said: "I have never heard anybody say, 'I'm severely conservative.' "[106]
  • You didn't build that – A portion of a statement that Obama made in a July 2012 campaign speech in Roanoke, Virginia. Obama said that businesses depend on government-provided infrastructure to succeed, but critics of his remarks argued that he was underplaying the work of entrepreneurs and giving the government credit for individuals' success. The Romney campaign immediately used the statement in an effort to contrast Romney's economic policies with Obama's and to appeal to small business owners/employees. A major theme of the 2012 Republican National Convention was "We Built It".
  • 47 percent – An expression Romney used at a private campaign fundraising event, which was secretly recorded and publicly released. At the private event, Romney said that 47 percent of the people would vote for Barack Obama no matter what Romney said or did because those people "...are dependent upon government... I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." Ironically, Romney received almost exactly 47% of the vote.
  • The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back – A portion of a statement that Obama made in an October 2012 debate. In the debate, Obama was deriding an earlier Romney statement in the campaign that Russia is “without question, our No. 1 geopolitical foe.”[107]
  • Binders full of women – A phrase that Romney used in the second presidential debate to refer to the long list of female candidates that he considered when choosing his cabinet members as Governor of Massachusetts.
  • Horses and bayonets – After Romney said in the third presidential debate that the U.S. Navy was smaller than at any time since 1917, Obama replied, "We have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military's changed."[108]
  • Shovel-ready jobs – a phrase used to describe some stimulus projects promoted by the administration. During the debate on September 23, 2011, Gary Johnson quipped, "My next-door neighbor's two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than this president."[109]
  • Romnesia – A term coined by a blogger in April 2011 and used by Obama late in the campaign to describe Romney's alleged inability to take responsibility for his past statements.[110][111]
  • $10,000 bet – During a Republican debate, Romney facetiously bet Texas governor Rick Perry $10,000 that he (Perry) was wrong about Romney's position on the individual mandate under the Affordable Healthcare Act. The statement was vilified by Democrats as exemplary of Romney being out of touch with working-class and middle-class Americans.
  • Romneyshambles – a word used by the British press after Romney criticized British preparations for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The word is a play on omnishambles, and it became a popular hashtag on Twitter. It was subsequently chosen as one of Collins English Dictionary's words of the year.[112][113]
  • Malarkey – a word used by Joe Biden in his debate with Paul Ryan to mean bullshit. Biden later used the word in his own campaign in 2020.[114]

Results

Electoral results

On the day of the election, spread betting firm Spreadex were offering an Obama Electoral College Votes spread of 296–300 to Romney's 239–243.[115] In reality Obama's victory over Romney was far greater, winning 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206. Romney lost all but one of nine battleground states, and received 47 percent of the nationwide popular vote to Obama's 51 percent.[116][117]

Popular vote totals are from the Federal Election Commission report.[1] The results of the electoral vote were certified by Congress on January 4, 2013.[118]

Electoral results
Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote Electoral
vote 		Running mate
Count Percentage Vice-presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote
Barack Hussein Obama II Democratic Illinois 65,915,795 51.06% 332 Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. Delaware 332
Willard Mitt Romney Republican Massachusetts 60,933,504 47.20% 206 Paul Davis Ryan Jr. Wisconsin 206
Gary Earl Johnson Libertarian New Mexico 1,275,971 0.99% 0 James Polin Gray California 0
Jill Ellen Stein Green Massachusetts 469,627 0.36% 0 Cheri Lynn Honkala Minnesota 0
Virgil Hamlin Goode Jr. Constitution Virginia 122,389 0.11% 0 James N. Clymer Pennsylvania 0
Roseanne Cherrie Barr Peace and Freedom Utah 67,326 0.05% 0 Cindy Lee Miller Sheehan California 0
Ross Carl "Rocky" Anderson Justice Utah 43,018 0.03% 0 Luis Javier Rodriguez Texas 0
Thomas Conrad Hoefling America's Nebraska 40,628 0.03% 0 J.D. Ellis Tennessee 0
Other 217,152 0.17% — Other —
Total 129,085,410 100% 538 538
Needed to win 270 270
 
President Obama casts his ballot at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Chicago.
Popular vote
Obama
 
 51.1%
Romney
 
 47.2%
Johnson
 
 1.0%
Stein
 
 0.4%
Others
 
 0.4%
Electoral vote
Obama
 
 61.7%
Romney
 
 38.3%

Results by state

The table below displays the official vote tallies by each state's Electoral College voting method. The source for the results of all states, except those that amended their official results, is the official Federal Election Commission report.[1] The column labeled "Margin" shows Obama's margin of victory over Romney (the margin is negative for every state that Romney won).

Legend
States/districts won by Obama/Biden
States/districts won by Romney/Ryan
† At-large results (for states that split electoral votes)
Barack Obama
Democratic 		Mitt Romney
Republican 		Gary Johnson
Libertarian 		Jill Stein
Green 		Others Margin Total
State/District # % EV # % EV # % EV # % EV # % EV # % #

  Alabama 795,696 38.4% – 1,255,925 60.6% 9 12,328 0.6% – 3,397 0.2% – 6,992 0.3% – −460,229 −22.2% 2,074,338 AL
  Alaska 122,640 40.8% – 164,676 54.8% 3 7,392 2.5% – 2,917 1.0% – 2,870 1.0% – −42,036 −14.0% 300,495 AK
  Arizona 1,025,232 44.6% – 1,233,654 53.7% 11 32,100 1.4% – 7,816 0.3% – 452 nil – −208,422 −9.1% 2,299,254 AZ
  Arkansas 394,409 36.9% – 647,744 60.6% 6 16,276 1.5% – 9,305 0.9% – 1,734 0.2% – −253,335 −23.7% 1,069,468 AR
  California 7,854,285 60.2% 55 4,839,958 37.1% – 143,221 1.1% – 85,638 0.7% – 115,445 0.9% – 3,014,327 23.1% 13,038,547 CA
  Colorado 1,323,101 51.5% 9 1,185,243 46.1% – 35,545 1.4% – 7,508 0.3% – 18,121 0.7% – 137,858 5.4% 2,569,518 CO
  Connecticut 905,083 58.1% 7 634,892 40.7% – 12,580 0.8% – 863 0.1% – 5,542 0.4% – 270,191 17.3% 1,558,960 CT
  Delaware 242,584 58.6% 3 165,484 40.0% – 3,882 0.9% – 1,940 0.5% – 31 nil – 77,100 18.6% 413,921 DE
  District of ColumbiaDistrict of Columbia 267,070 90.9% 3 21,381 7.3% – 2,083 0.7% – 2,458 0.8% – 772 0.3% – 245,689 83.6% 293,764 DC
  Florida 4,237,756 50.0% 29 4,163,447 49.1% – 44,726 0.5% – 8,947 0.1% – 19,303 0.2% – 74,309 0.9% 8,474,179 FL
  Georgia 1,773,827 45.5% – 2,078,688 53.3% 16 45,324 1.2% – 1,516 nil – 695 nil – −304,861 −7.8% 3,900,050 GA
  Hawaii 306,658 70.6% 4 121,015 27.8% – 3,840 0.9% – 3,184 0.7% – – – – 185,643 42.7% 434,697 HI
  Idaho 212,787 32.6% – 420,911 64.5% 4 9,453 1.5% – 4,402 0.7% – 4,721 0.7% – −208,124 −31.9% 652,274 ID
  Illinois 3,019,512 57.6% 20 2,135,216 40.7% – 56,229 1.1% – 30,222 0.6% – 835 nil – 884,296 16.9% 5,242,014 IL
  Indiana 1,152,887 43.9% – 1,420,543 54.1% 11 50,111 1.9% – 625 nil – 368 nil – −267,656 −10.2% 2,624,534 IN
  Iowa 822,544 52.0% 6 730,617 46.2% – 12,926 0.8% – 3,769 0.2% – 12,324 0.8% – 91,927 5.8% 1,582,180 IA
  Kansas 440,726 38.0% – 692,634 59.7% 6 20,456 1.8% – 714 0.1% – 5,441 0.5% – −251,908 −21.7% 1,159,971 KS
  Kentucky 679,370 37.8% – 1,087,190 60.5% 8 17,063 1.0% – 6,337 0.4% – 7,252 0.4% – −407,820 −22.7% 1,797,212 KY
  Louisiana 809,141 40.6% – 1,152,262 57.8% 8 18,157 0.9% – 6,978 0.4% – 7,527 0.4% – −343,121 −17.2% 1,994,065 LA
  Maine† 401,306 56.3% 2 292,276 41.0% – 9,352 1.3% – 8,119 1.1% – 2,127 0.3% – 109,030 15.3% 713,180 ME–AL
  ME-1 223,035 59.6% 1 142,937 38.2% – 4,501 1.2% – 3,946 1.1% – – – – 80,098 21.4% 374,149 ME1
  ME-2 177,998 52.9% 1 149,215 44.4% – 4,843 1.4% – 4,170 1.2% – – – – 28,783 8.6% 336,226 ME2
  Maryland 1,677,844 62.0% 10 971,869 35.9% – 30,195 1.1% – 17,110 0.6% – 10,309 0.4% – 705,975 26.1% 2,707,327 MD
  Massachusetts 1,921,290 60.7% 11 1,188,314 37.5% – 30,920 1.0% – 20,691 0.7% – 6,552 0.2% – 732,976 23.1% 3,167,767 MA
  Michigan 2,564,569 54.2% 16 2,115,256 44.7% – 7,774 0.2% – 21,897 0.5% – 21,465 0.5% – 449,313 9.5% 4,730,961 MI
  Minnesota 1,546,167 52.7% 10 1,320,225 45.0% – 35,098 1.2% – 13,023 0.4% – 22,048 0.8% – 225,942 7.7% 2,936,561 MN
  Mississippi 562,949 43.8% – 710,746 55.3% 6 6,676 0.5% – 1,588 0.1% – 3,625 0.3% – −147,797 −11.5% 1,285,584 MS
  Missouri 1,223,796 44.4% – 1,482,440 53.8% 10 43,151 1.6% – – – – 7,936 0.3% – −258,644 −9.4% 2,757,323 MO
  Montana 201,839 41.7% – 267,928 55.4% 3 14,165 2.9% – – – – 116 nil – −66,089 −13.7% 484,048 MT
  Nebraska† 302,081 38.0% – 475,064 59.8% 2 11,109 1.4% – – – – 6,125 0.8% – −172,983 −21.8% 794,379 NE–AL
  NE-1 108,082 40.8% – 152,021 57.4% 1 3,847 1.2% – – – – 762 0.3% – -43,949 -16.6% 264,712 NE1
  NE-2 121,889 45.7% – 140,976 52.9% 1 3,393 1.3% – – – – 469 0.2% – -19,087 -7.2% 266,727 NE2
  NE-3 72,110 27.8% – 182,067 70.2% 1 3,869 1.5% – – – – 1,177 0.5% – −109,957 −42.4% 259,223 NE3
  Nevada 531,373 52.4% 6 463,567 45.7% – 10,968 1.1% – – – – 9,010 0.9% – 67,806 6.7% 1,014,918 NV
  New Hampshire 369,561 52.0% 4 329,918 46.4% – 8,212 1.2% – 324 0.1% – 2,957 0.4% – 39,643 5.6% 710,972 NH
  New Jersey[119] 2,125,101 58.4% 14 1,477,568 40.6% – 21,045 0.6% – 9,888 0.3% – 6,690 0.2% – 647,533 17.8% 3,640,292 NJ
  New Mexico 415,335 53.% 5 335,788 42.8% – 27,788 3.6% – 2,691 0.3% – 2,156 0.3% – 79,547 10.2% 783,758 NM
  New York[120] 4,485,741 63.4% 29 2,490,431 35.2% – 47,256 0.7% – 39,982 0.6% – 17,749 0.3% – 1,995,310 28.2% 7,081,159 NY
  North Carolina 2,178,391 48.4% – 2,270,395 50.4% 15 44,515 1.0% – – – – 12,071 0.3% – −92,004 −2.0% 4,505,372 NC
  North Dakota 124,827 38.7% – 188,163 58.3% 3 5,231 1.6% – 1,361 0.4% – 3,045 0.9% – −63,336 −19.6% 322,627 ND
  Ohio[121] 2,827,709 50.7% 18 2,661,437 47.7% – 49,493 0.9% – 18,573 0.3% – 23,635 0.4% – 166,272 3.0% 5,580,847 OH
  Oklahoma 443,547 33.2% – 891,325 66.8% 7 – – – – – – – – – −447,778 −33.5% 1,334,872 OK
  Oregon 970,488 54.2% 7 754,175 42.2% – 24,089 1.4% – 19,427 1.1% – 21,091 1.2% – 216,313 12.1% 1,789,270 OR
  Pennsylvania 2,990,274 52.0% 20 2,680,434 46.6% – 49,991 0.9% – 21,341 0.4% – 11,630 0.2% – 309,840 5.4% 5,753,670 PA
  Rhode Island 279,677 62.7% 4 157,204 35.2% – 4,388 1.0% – 2,421 0.5% – 2,359 0.5% – 122,473 27.5% 446,049 RI
  South Carolina 865,941 44.1% – 1,071,645 54.6% 9 16,321 0.8% – 5,446 0.3% – 4,765 0.2% – −205,704 −10.5% 1,964,118 SC
  South Dakota 145,039 39.9% – 210,610 57.9% 3 5,795 1.6% – – – – 2,371 0.7% – −65,571 −18.0% 363,815 SD
  Tennessee 960,709 39.1% – 1,462,330 59.5% 11 18,623 0.8% – 6,515 0.3% – 10,400 0.4% – −501,621 −20.4% 2,458,577 TN
  Texas 3,308,124 41.4% – 4,569,843 57.2% 38 88,580 1.1% – 24,657 0.3% – 2,647 nil – −1,261,719 −15.8% 7,993,851 TX
  Utah 251,813 24.8% – 740,600 72.8% 6 12,572 1.2% – 3,817 0.4% – 8,638 0.9% – −488,787 −48.0% 1,017,440 UT
  Vermont 199,239 66.6% 3 92,698 31.0% – 3,487 1.2% – 594 0.2% – 3,272 1.1% – 106,541 35.6% 299,290 VT
  Virginia 1,971,820 51.2% 13 1,822,522 47.3% – 31,216 0.8% – 8,627 0.2% – 20,304 0.5% – 149,298 3.9% 3,854,489 VA
  Washington 1,755,396 56.2% 12 1,290,670 41.3% – 42,202 1.4% – 20,928 0.7% – 16,320 0.5% – 464,726 14.9% 3,125,516 WA
  West Virginia 238,269 35.5% – 417,655 62.3% 5 6,302 0.9% – 4,406 0.7% – 3,806 0.6% – −179,386 −26.8% 670,438 WV
  Wisconsin[122] 1,620,985 52.8% 10 1,407,966 45.9% – 20,439 0.7% – 7,665 0.3% – 11,379 0.4% – 213,019 6.9% 3,068,434 WI
  Wyoming 69,286 27.8% – 170,962 68.6% 3 5,326 2.1% – – – – 3,487 1.4% – −101,676 −40.8% 249,061 WY
U.S. Total 65,915,795 51.1% 332 60,933,504 47.2% 206 1,275,971 1.0% – 469,627 0.4% – 490,510 0.4% – 4,982,291 3.9% 129,085,410 US

Maine and Nebraska each allow for their election results votes to be split between candidates. The winner within each congressional district gets one electoral vote for the district. The winner of the statewide vote gets two additional electoral votes. In the 2012 election, all four of Maine's electoral votes were won by Obama and all five of Nebraska's electoral votes were won by Romney.[123][124]

Close states

 
Swing from 2008 to 2012 in each state. Only six states swung more Democratic in 2012: Alaska, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, and New York. The arrows to the right represent how many places up or down on the list the state moved since 2008. States are listed by (increasing) percentage of Democratic votes.

Red denotes states (or congressional districts that contribute an electoral vote) won by Republican Mitt Romney; blue denotes those won by Democrat Barack Obama.

State where the margin of victory was under 1% (29 electoral votes):

  1. Florida, 0.9% (74,309 votes)

States where the margin of victory was under 5% (46 electoral votes):

  1. North Carolina, 2.0% (92,004 votes)
  2. Ohio, 3.0% (166,272 votes)
  3. Virginia, 3.9% (149,298 votes)

States/districts where the margin of victory was between 5% and 10% (120 electoral votes):

  1. Colorado, 5.4% (137,858 votes) (tipping point state)
  2. Pennsylvania, 5.4% (309,840 votes)
  3. New Hampshire, 5.6% (39,643 votes)
  4. Iowa, 5.8% (91,927 votes)
  5. Nevada, 6.7% (67,806 votes)
  6. Wisconsin, 6.9% (213,019 votes)
  7. Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, 7.2% (19,087 votes)
  8. Minnesota, 7.7% (225,942 votes)
  9. Georgia, 7.8% (304,861 votes)
  10. Maine's 2nd Congressional District, 8.6% (28,783 votes)
  11. Arizona, 9.1% (208,422 votes)
  12. Missouri, 9.4% (258,644 votes)
  13. Michigan, 9.5% (449,313 votes)

Statistics

[125]

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Democratic)

  1. Shannon County, South Dakota 93.4%
  2. Kalawao County, Hawaii 92.6%
  3. Bronx County, New York 91.5%
  4. Washington, D.C. 90.9%
  5. Petersburg, Virginia 89.8%

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Republican)

  1. King County, Texas 95.9%
  2. Madison County, Idaho 93.3%
  3. Sterling County, Texas 92.9%
  4. Franklin County, Idaho 92.8%
  5. Roberts County, Texas 92.1%

Romney's concession

 
Obama takes a phone call from Romney conceding the election early Wednesday morning in Chicago.

After the networks called Ohio (the state that was arguably the most critical for Romney, as no Republican had ever won the Presidency without carrying it) for Obama at around 11:15 PM EST on Election Day, Romney was ready to concede the race, but hesitated when Karl Rove strenuously objected on Fox News to the network's decision to make that call.[126][127] However, after Colorado and Nevada were called for the President (giving Obama enough electoral votes to win even if Ohio were to leave his column), in tandem with Obama's apparent lead in Florida and Virginia (both were eventually called for Obama), Romney acknowledged that he had lost and conceded at around 1:00 AM EST on November 7.

Despite public polling showing Romney behind Obama in the swing states of Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, and New Hampshire, tied with Obama in Virginia, and just barely ahead of Obama in Florida, the Romney campaign said they were genuinely surprised by the loss, having believed that public polling was oversampling Democrats.[128] The Romney campaign had already set up a transition website, and had scheduled and purchased a fireworks display to celebrate in case he won the election.[129][130]

On November 30, 2012, it was revealed that shortly before the election, internal polling done by the Romney campaign had shown Romney ahead in Colorado and New Hampshire, tied in Iowa, and within a few points of Obama in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Ohio.[131] In addition, the Romney campaign had assumed that they would win Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.[132] The polls had made Romney and his campaign team so confident of their victory that Romney did not write a concession speech until Obama's victory was announced.[133][134]

Reactions

Further information: International reactions to the 2012 United States presidential election

Foreign leaders reacted with both positive and mixed messages. Most world leaders congratulated and praised Barack Obama on his re-election victory. However, Venezuela and some other states had tempered reactions. Pakistan commented that Romney's defeat had made Pakistan-United States relations safer. Stock markets fell noticeably after Obama's re-election, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ, and the S&P 500 each declining over two percent the day after the election.[135]

Voter demographics

2012 presidential election by demographic subgroup
Demographic subgroup Obama Romney Other % of
total vote
Total vote 51 47 2 100
Ideology
Liberals 86 11 3 25
Moderates 56 41 3 41
Conservatives 17 82 1 35
Party
Democrats 92 7 1 38
Republicans 6 93 1 32
Independents 45 50 5 29
Gender
Men 45 52 3 47
Women 55 44 1 53
Marital status
Married 42 56 2 60
Unmarried 62 35 3 40
Sex by marital status
Married men 38 60 2 29
Married women 46 53 1 31
Single men 56 40 4 18
Single women 67 31 2 23
Race/ethnicity
White 39 59 2 72
Black 93 6 1 13
Asian 73 26 1 3
Other 58 38 4 2
Hispanic 71 27 2 10
Religion
Protestant or other Christian 42 57 1 53
Catholic 50 48 2 25
Mormon 21 78 1 2
Jewish 69 30 1 2
Other 74 23 3 7
None 70 26 4 12
Religious service attendance
More than once a week 36 63 1 14
Once a week 41 58 1 28
A few times a month 55 44 1 13
A few times a year 56 42 2 27
Never 62 34 4 17
White evangelical or born-again Christian?
White evangelical or born-again Christian 21 78 1 26
Everyone else 60 37 3 74
Age
18–24 years old 60 36 4 11
25–29 years old 60 38 2 8
30–39 years old 55 42 3 17
40–49 years old 48 50 2 20
50–64 years old 47 52 1 28
65 and older 44 56 0 16
Age by race
Whites 18–29 years old 44 51 5 11
Whites 30–44 years old 38 59 3 18
Whites 45–64 years old 38 61 1 29
Whites 65 and older 39 61 n/a 14
Blacks 18–29 years old 91 8 1 3
Blacks 30–44 years old 94 5 1 4
Blacks 45–64 years old 93 7 n/a 4
Blacks 65 and older 93 6 1 1
Latinos 18–29 years old 74 23 3 4
Latinos 30–44 years old 71 28 1 3
Latinos 45–64 years old 68 31 1 3
Latinos 65 and older 65 35 n/a 1
Others 67 31 2 5
LGBT
Yes 76 22 2 5
No 49 49 2 95
Education
Not a high school graduate 64 35 1 3
High school graduate 51 48 1 21
Some college education 49 48 3 29
College graduate 47 51 2 29
Postgraduate education 55 42 3 18
Family income
Under $30,000 63 35 2 20
$30,000–49,999 57 42 1 21
$50,000–99,999 46 52 2 31
$100,000–199,999 44 54 2 21
$200,000–249,999 47 52 1 3
Over $250,000 42 55 3 4
Union households
Union 58 40 2 18
Non-union 49 48 3 82
Issue regarded as most important
Economy 47 51 2 59
Federal budget deficit 32 66 2 15
Foreign policy 56 33 11 5
Health care 75 24 1 18
Region
Northeast 59 40 1 18
Midwest 50 48 2 24
South 46 53 1 36
West 54 43 3 22
Community size
Big cities (population over 500,000) 69 29 2 11
Mid-sized cities (population 50,000 to 500,000) 58 40 2 21
Suburbs 48 50 2 47
Towns (population 10,000 to 50,000) 42 56 2 8
Rural areas 37 61 2 14

Hispanic vote

The United States has a population of 50 million Hispanic and Latino Americans, 27 million of whom are citizens eligible to vote (13% of total eligible voters). Traditionally, only half of eligible Hispanic voters vote (around 7% of voters); of them, 71% voted for Barack Obama (increasing his percentage of the vote by 5%); therefore, the Hispanic vote was an important factor in Obama's re-election, since the vote difference between the two main parties was only 3.9%[136][137][138][139]

Exit polls were conducted by Edison Research of Somerville, New Jersey, for the National Election Pool, a consortium of ABC News, Associated Press, CBS News, CNN,[140] Fox News,[141] and NBC News.[142]

Analysis

Combined with the re-elections of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Obama's victory in the 2012 election marked only the second time in American history that three consecutive presidents were each elected to two or more full terms after the consecutive two-term presidencies of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe ending in 1820, which is the only other time any two-term president succeeded another.[143] This was also the first election since 1944 in which neither of the major candidates had any military experience.[144]

The 2012 election marked the first time since Franklin D. Roosevelt's last two re-elections in 1940 and 1944 that a Democratic presidential candidate won a majority of the popular vote in two consecutive elections.[145] Obama was also the first president of either party to secure a majority of the popular vote in two elections since Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984.[146] Obama is the third Democratic president to secure at least 51% of the vote twice, after Andrew Jackson and Franklin D. Roosevelt.[147] Romney won the popular vote in 226 congressional districts making this the first time since 1960 that the winner of the election did not win the popular vote in a majority of the congressional districts.[148] Romney also became the first Republican since Gerald Ford's narrow defeat to Jimmy Carter in 1976 to fail to win a presidential election while earning a minimum of 200 electoral votes. The same feat would also later repeat itself when Donald Trump lost the 2020 Presidential Election to Joe Biden with earning at least that number of electoral votes.

Romney lost his home state of Massachusetts, becoming the first major party presidential candidate to lose his home state since Democrat Al Gore lost his home state of Tennessee to Republican George W. Bush in the 2000 election.[149] Romney lost his home state by more than 23%, the worst losing margin for a major party candidate since John Frémont in 1856.[150] Even worse than Frémont, Romney failed to win a single county in his home state, something last seen by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.[151][152] This was the first a Republican lost his home state since Richard Nixon in 1968. In addition, since Obama carried Ryan's home state of Wisconsin, the Romney–Ryan ticket was the first major party ticket since the 1972 election to have both of its nominees lose their home states.[153] Romney won the popular vote in every county of three states: Utah, Oklahoma, and West Virginia; Obama did so in four states: Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Hawaii.[154]

Romney's loss prompted the Republican National Committee to try to appeal to the American Latino population by concentrating on different approaches to immigration. These were short-lived due to activity and anger from the Republican base and may have contributed to the selection of Donald Trump as their presidential candidate four years later.[155]

Gary Johnson's popular vote total set a Libertarian Party record, and his popular vote percentage was the second-best showing for a Libertarian in a presidential election, trailing only Ed Clark's in 1980.[156] Johnson would go on to beat this record in the 2016 presidential election, winning the most votes for the Libertarian ticket in history. At the time, Green Party candidate Jill Stein's popular vote total made her the most successful female presidential candidate in a general election in United States history.[157][158] This was later surpassed by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

Obama's vote total was the fourth most votes received in the history of presidential elections (behind Obama's 2008 victory and both major candidates in 2020) and the most ever for a reelected president. The 2012 election marked the first time since 1988 in which no state was won by a candidate with a plurality of the state's popular vote. Furthermore, it is the only post-World War II presidential election in which no states were won by margins smaller than 30,000 votes. Obama's narrowest victories were in New Hampshire by 39,643 votes, followed by Florida by 74,309 votes. Every other presidential election in modern history has seen states narrowly won by several thousand votes. So far, this is the only presidential election in history where both the Republican and Democratic vice presidential candidates are practicing Roman Catholics. It is also the only presidential election where there are no white Protestants on either major party ticket.

Obama was the fourth of just four presidents in United States history to win re-election with a lower percentage of the electoral vote than in their prior elections, the other three were James Madison in 1812, Woodrow Wilson in 1916 and Franklin Roosevelt in 1940 and 1944. Additionally, Obama was the fifth of only five presidents to win re-election with a smaller percentage of the popular vote than in prior elections, the other four are James Madison in 1812, Andrew Jackson in 1832, Grover Cleveland in 1892, and Franklin Roosevelt in 1940 and 1944.

Maps

  •  

    Results by state, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote.

  •  

    Results by county. Blue denotes counties that went to Obama; red denotes counties that went to Romney. Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont had all counties go to Obama. Oklahoma, Utah, and West Virginia had all counties go to Romney.

  •  

    Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote.

  •  

    Popular vote by county shaded on a scale from red/Republican to blue/Democratic.

  •  

    Results by state and the District of Columbia, scaled by number of Electors per state.

  •  

    Cartogram of popular vote by county shaded on a scale from red/Republican to blue/Democratic where each county has been rescaled in proportion to its population.

  •  

    Cartogram of the electoral vote results, with each square representing one electoral vote.

  •  

    Results by congressional district.

  •  

    Change in popular vote margins at the county level from the 2008 election to the 2012 election. Blue denotes counties that voted more Democratic. Red denotes counties that voted more Republican. Romney's strongest improvements over McCain were in Utah and Appalachia, while Obama's strongest gains were in Alaska, the New York area, and the Gulf states.

  •  

    Treemap of the popular vote by county, state, and locally predominant recipient

Gallery

  •  

    The Empire State Building in New York City was lit blue when CNN called Ohio for Obama, projecting him the winner of the election. Likewise, red would have been used if Romney won.[159]

  •  

    The Obamas and the Bidens embrace following the television announcement of their victory.

  •  

    The Obamas and the Bidens walk on stage at the election night victory celebration at McCormick Place in Chicago.

  •  

    Former Governor Mitt Romney meets with President Barack Obama at the White House after the 2012 presidential election.

See also

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Further reading

  • Gardner, Liz, et al. "Press Coverage of the 2012 US Presidential Election: A Multinational, Cross-Language Comparison". in Die US-Präsidentschaftswahl 2012 (Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2016). pp 241–267.
  • Hansen, Wendy L., Michael S. Rocca, and Brittany Leigh Ortiz. "The effects of Citizens United on corporate spending in the 2012 presidential election". Journal of Politics 77.2 (2015): 535–545. in JSTOR
  • Heilemann, John; Halperin, Mark (2013). Double Down: Game Change 2012. New York: Penguin Press. ISBN 978-1594204401.
  • Masket, Seth, John Sides, and Lynn Vavreck. "The Ground Game in the 2012 Presidential Election". Political Communication (2015) 33#2 pp: 1-19.
  • Mayer, William G.; Bernstein, Jonathan, eds. (2012). The Making of the Presidential Candidates, 2012. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-1170-4. Scholars explore nominations in the post-public-funding era, digital media and campaigns, television coverage, and the Tea Party.
  • Miller, William J., ed. The 2012 Nomination and the Future of the Republican Party: The Internal Battle (Lexington Books; 2013) 265 pages; essays by experts on Romney and each of his main rivals
  • Nelson, Michael, ed. The Elections of 2012 (2013) excerpt and text search; topical essays by experts
  • Sides, John, and Lynn Vavreck. The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Presidential Election (Princeton U.P. 2013) excerpt and text search
  • Stempel III, Guido H. and Thomas K. Hargrove, eds. The 21st-Century Voter: Who Votes, How They Vote, and Why They Vote (2 vol. 2015).

External links

  • The 9 Swing States of 2012
  • at the Federal Election Commission (FEC)
  • Election 2012 Presidential Primaries, Caucuses, and Conventions
  • 2012 United States presidential election at Curlie
  • Election of 2012 in Counting the Votes August 28, 2019, at the Wayback Machine

January 27, 2023
2012, united, states, presidential, election, barack, obama, mitt, romney, redirects, here, video, barack, obama, mitt, romney, video, related, races, 2012, united, states, elections, 57th, quadrennial, presidential, election, held, tuesday, november, 2012, in. Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney redirects here For the video see Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney video For related races see 2012 United States elections The 2012 United States presidential election was the 57th quadrennial presidential election held on Tuesday November 6 2012 Incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate incumbent Vice President Joe Biden were re elected to a second term They defeated the Republican ticket of businessman and former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin 2012 United States presidential election 2008 November 6 2012 2016 538 members of the Electoral College270 electoral votes needed to winOpinion pollsTurnout54 9 1 3 3 pp Nominee Barack Obama Mitt RomneyParty Democratic RepublicanHome state Illinois MassachusettsRunning mate Joe Biden Paul RyanElectoral vote 332 206States carried 26 DC 24Popular vote 65 915 795 1 60 933 504 1 Percentage 51 1 47 2 Presidential election results map Blue denotes states won by Obama Biden and red denotes those won by Romney Ryan Numbers indicate electoral votes cast by each state and the District of Columbia President before electionBarack ObamaDemocratic Elected President Barack ObamaDemocraticAs the incumbent president Obama secured the Democratic nomination without serious opposition The Republicans experienced a competitive primary Romney was consistently competitive in the polls and won the support of many party leaders but he faced challenges from a number of more conservative contenders Romney secured his party s nomination in May defeating former Senator Rick Santorum former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Texas congressman Ron Paul among other candidates The campaigns focused heavily on domestic issues and debate centered largely around sound responses to the Great Recession Other issues included long term federal budget issues the future of social insurance programs and the Affordable Care Act Obama s marquee legislative program Foreign policy was also discussed including the end of the Iraq War in 2011 military spending the Iranian nuclear program and appropriate counteractions to terrorism Romney attacked Obama s domestic policies as ineffective and financially insolvent while Obama s campaign sought to characterize Romney as a plutocratic businessman who was out of touch with the average American 2 3 The campaign was marked by a sharp rise in fundraising including from nominally independent Super PACs Obama defeated Romney winning a majority of both the Electoral College and the popular vote Obama won 332 electoral votes and 51 1 of the popular vote compared to Romney s 206 electoral votes and 47 2 Obama was the first president ever to win a second term with fewer electoral votes and a smaller popular vote percentage and he was the first incumbent since Franklin D Roosevelt in 1944 to accomplish this On the other hand Obama was the first two term president since Ronald Reagan to win both his presidential bids with a majority of the nationwide popular vote 50 or more and the first Democrat to do so since Franklin D Roosevelt Obama did not hold onto Indiana North Carolina or Nebraska s 2nd congressional district but crucially won all 18 blue wall states and defeated Romney in other swing states the Republicans had won in 2000 and 2004 most notably Colorado Florida Ohio and Virginia Ultimately of the nine swing states identified by The Washington Post in the 2012 election Obama won eight losing only North Carolina 4 This is the most recent presidential election in which the Democratic candidate won the states of Iowa Ohio and Florida along with Maine s 2nd congressional district as well as the most recent presidential election in which the incumbent president won reelection The Democrats would not again increase their share of the popular vote until 2020 All four major candidates for president and vice president went on to hold significant public office after this election Obama served his second term as president and was succeeded by Republican Donald Trump who was elected president in 2016 while Biden also served his second term as vice president and initially retired from politics but was later elected president in 2020 defeating Trump Romney initially retired from politics and moved to Utah in 2014 but was later elected to the Senate there in 2018 succeeding Orrin Hatch while Ryan served three more terms in the House and eventually became Speaker from 2015 until his retirement from politics in 2019 Contents 1 State changes to voter registration and electoral rules 2 Nominations 2 1 Democratic Party nomination 2 1 1 Primaries 2 1 2 Candidate 2 2 Republican Party nomination 2 2 1 Primaries 2 2 2 Candidate 2 2 3 Withdrawn candidates 2 3 Third party and other nominations 2 3 1 Libertarian Party 2 3 2 Green Party 2 3 3 Constitution Party 2 3 4 Justice Party 2 3 5 Candidates gallery 3 Campaigns 3 1 Ballot access 3 2 Financing and advertising 3 3 Party conventions 3 4 Presidential debates 3 5 Notable expressions phrases and statements 4 Results 4 1 Electoral results 4 2 Results by state 4 3 Close states 4 3 1 Statistics 4 4 Romney s concession 4 5 Reactions 5 Voter demographics 5 1 Hispanic vote 6 Analysis 7 Maps 8 Gallery 9 See also 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External linksState changes to voter registration and electoral rules EditIn 2011 several state legislatures passed new voting laws especially pertaining to voter identification with the stated purpose of combating voter fraud the laws were attacked however by the Democratic Party as attempts to suppress voting among its supporters and to improve the Republican Party s presidential prospects Florida Georgia Ohio 5 Tennessee and West Virginia s state legislatures approved measures to shorten early voting periods Florida and Iowa barred all felons from voting Kansas South Carolina 6 Tennessee Texas 7 and Wisconsin 8 state legislatures passed laws requiring voters to have government issued IDs before they could cast their ballots This meant typically that people without driver s licenses or passports had to gain new forms of ID Former President Bill Clinton denounced them saying There has never been in my lifetime since we got rid of the poll tax and all the Jim Crow burdens on voting the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today 9 He was referring to Jim Crow laws passed in southern states near the turn of the twentieth century that disenfranchised most blacks from voting and excluded them from the political process for more than six decades Clinton said the moves would effectively disenfranchise core voter blocs that trend liberal including college students Blacks and Latinos 10 11 The Obama campaign fought against the Ohio law pushing for a petition and statewide referendum to repeal it in time for the 2012 election 12 In addition the Pennsylvania legislature proposed a plan to change its representation in the electoral college from the traditional winner take all model to a district by district model 13 As the governorship and both houses of its legislature were Republican controlled the move was viewed by some as an attempt to reduce Democratic chances 14 15 16 Ultimately they did not do it leaving their winner take all format intact as of 2020 Nominations EditDemocratic Party nomination Edit Main article 2012 Democratic Party presidential primaries Primaries Edit With an incumbent president running for re election against token opposition the race for the Democratic nomination was largely uneventful The nomination process consisted of primaries and caucuses held by the 50 states as well as Guam Puerto Rico Washington D C U S Virgin Islands American Samoa and Democrats Abroad Additionally high ranking party members known as superdelegates each received one vote in the convention A few of the primary challengers surpassed the president s vote total in individual counties in several of the seven contested primaries though none made a significant impact in the delegate count Running unopposed everywhere else Obama cemented his status as the Democratic presumptive nominee on April 3 2012 by securing the minimum number of pledged delegates needed to obtain the nomination 17 18 Candidate Edit Main article 2012 Democratic Party presidential candidates 2012 Democratic Party ticketBarack Obama Joe Bidenfor President for Vice President 44thPresident of the United States 2009 2017 47thVice President of the United States 2009 2017 Campaign Republican Party nomination Edit Main article 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries Primaries Edit Candidates with considerable name recognition who entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination in the early stages of the primary campaign included U S Representative and former Libertarian nominee Ron Paul former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty who co chaired John McCain s campaign in 2008 former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney the runner up for the nomination in the 2008 cycle and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich The first debate took place on May 5 2011 in Greenville South Carolina with businessman Herman Cain former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson Ron Paul Tim Pawlenty and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum participating Another debate took place a month later with Newt Gingrich Mitt Romney former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann participating and Gary Johnson excluded A total of thirteen debates were held before the Iowa caucuses The first major event of the campaign was the Ames Straw Poll which took place in Iowa on August 13 2011 Michele Bachmann won the straw poll this ultimately proved to be the acme of her campaign 19 Pawlenty withdrew from the race after a poor showing in the straw poll as did Thaddeus McCotter the only candidate among those who qualified for the ballot who was refused entrance into the debate 20 It became clear at around this point in the nomination process that while Romney was considered to be the likely nominee by the Republican establishment a large segment of the conservative primary electorate found him to be too moderate for their political views As a result a number of potential anti Romney candidates were put forward 21 22 including future President Donald Trump 23 former Alaska Governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin 24 New Jersey Governor Chris Christie 25 and Texas Governor Rick Perry 26 the last of whom decided to run in August 2011 Perry did poorly in the debates however and Herman Cain and then Newt Gingrich came to the fore in October and November Due to a number of scandals Cain withdrew just before the end of the year after having gotten on the ballot in several states 27 Around the same time Johnson who had been able to get into only one other debate withdrew to seek the Libertarian Party nomination 28 For the first time in modern Republican Party history three different candidates won the first three state contests in January the Iowa caucuses the New Hampshire primary and the South Carolina primary 29 Although Romney had been expected to win in at least Iowa and New Hampshire Rick Santorum won the non binding poll at caucus sites in Iowa by 34 votes as near as could be determined from the incomplete tally earning him a declaration as winner by state party leaders although vote totals were missing from eight precincts 30 31 The election of county delegates at the caucuses would eventually lead to Ron Paul earning 22 of the 28 Iowa delegates to the Republican National Convention 32 Newt Gingrich won South Carolina by a surprisingly large margin 33 and Romney won only in New Hampshire A number of candidates dropped out at this point in the nomination process Bachmann withdrew after finishing sixth in the Iowa caucuses 34 Huntsman withdrew after coming in third in New Hampshire and Perry withdrew when polls showed him drawing low numbers in South Carolina 35 Mitt Romney on the campaign trail Santorum who had previously run an essentially one state campaign in Iowa was able to organize a national campaign after his surprising victory there He unexpectedly carried three states in a row on February 7 and overtook Romney in nationwide opinion polls becoming the only candidate in the race to effectively challenge the notion that Romney was the inevitable nominee 36 However Romney won all of the other contests between South Carolina and the Super Tuesday primaries and regained his first place status in nationwide opinion polls by the end of February The Super Tuesday primaries took place on March 6 Romney carried six states Santorum carried three and Gingrich won only in his home state of Georgia 37 Throughout the rest of March 266 delegates were allocated in 12 events including the territorial contests and the first local conventions that allocated delegates Wyoming s county conventions Santorum won Kansas and three Southern primaries but he was unable to make any substantial gain on Romney who became a formidable frontrunner after securing more than half of the delegates allocated in March On April 10 Santorum suspended his campaign due to a variety of reasons such as a low delegate count unfavorable polls in his home state of Pennsylvania and his daughter s health leaving Mitt Romney as the undisputed front runner for the presidential nomination and allowing Gingrich to claim that he was the last conservative standing in the campaign for the nomination 38 After disappointing results in the April 24 primaries finishing second in one state third in three and fourth in one Gingrich dropped out on May 2 in a move that was seen as an effective end to the contest for the nomination 39 After Gingrich s spokesman announced his upcoming withdrawal the Republican National Committee declared Romney the party s presumptive nominee 40 Ron Paul officially remained in the race but he stopped campaigning on May 14 to focus on state conventions On May 29 after winning the Texas primary Romney had received a sufficient number of delegates to clinch the party s nomination with the inclusion of unpledged delegates After winning the June 5 primaries in California and several other states Romney had received more than enough pledged delegates to clinch the nomination without counting unpledged delegates making the June 26 Utah Primary the last contest of the cycle purely symbolic CNN s final delegate estimate released on July 27 2012 put Romney at 1 462 pledged delegates and 62 unpledged delegates for a total estimate of 1 524 delegates No other candidate had unpledged delegates The delegate estimates for the other candidates were Santorum at 261 delegates Paul at 154 Gingrich at 142 Bachmann at 1 Huntsman at 1 and all others at 0 41 On August 28 2012 delegates at the Republican National Convention officially named Romney the party s presidential nominee 42 Romney formally accepted the delegates nomination on August 30 2012 43 Candidate Edit Main article 2012 Republican Party presidential candidates 2012 Republican Party ticketMitt Romney Paul Ryanfor President for Vice President 70thGovernor of Massachusetts 2003 2007 U S Representativefrom Wisconsin 1999 2019 Campaign 44 45 Withdrawn candidates Edit Candidates in this section are sorted by reverse date of withdrawal from the primariesRon Paul Newt Gingrich Rick Santorum Buddy Roemer Rick Perry Jon Huntsman Jr U S Representativefrom Texas 1997 2013 50thSpeakerof the United StatesHouse of Representatives 1995 1999 U S Senator from Pennsylvania 1995 2007 52ndGovernor ofLouisiana 1988 1992 47thGovernor ofTexas 2000 2015 U S Ambassadorto China 2009 2011 Campaign Campaign Campaign Campaign Campaign CampaignW N A2 017 957 votes W May 22 737 442 votes W April 103 816 110 votes W Feb 2233 212 votes W Jan 1942 251 votes W Jan 1683 173 votes 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 Michele Bachmann Gary Johnson Herman Cain Thaddeus McCotter Tim Pawlenty Fred Karger U S Representativefrom Minnesota 2007 2013 29thGovernor ofNew Mexico 1995 2003 Chair of theFederal ReserveBank of Kansas City 1995 1996 U S Representativefrom Michigan 2003 2012 39thGovernor ofMinnesota 2003 2011 PoliticalConsultant Campaign Campaign Campaign Campaign Campaign CampaignW Jan 435 089 votes W Dec 28 20114 286 votes W Dec 3 201113 538 votes W Sep 22 20110 votes W Aug 14 20110 votes W June 29 201212 776 votes 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 Third party and other nominations Edit Main article Third party and independent candidates for the 2012 United States presidential election Four other parties nominated candidates that had ballot access or write in access to at least 270 electoral votes the minimum number of votes needed in the 2012 election to win the presidency through a majority of the electoral college Libertarian Party Edit Main articles Libertarian Party United States 2012 Libertarian National Convention and Gary Johnson 2012 presidential campaign Gary Johnson former governor of New Mexico 70 Vice presidential nominee Jim Gray retired state court judge from California 71 Green Party Edit Main articles Green Party of the United States 2012 Green National Convention and Jill Stein 2012 presidential campaign Jill Stein medical doctor from Massachusetts 72 73 Vice presidential nominee Cheri Honkala social organizer from Pennsylvania 74 Constitution Party Edit Main articles Constitution Party United States 2012 Constitution Party National Convention and Virgil Goode 2012 presidential campaign Virgil Goode former Representative from Virginia 75 Vice presidential nominee Jim Clymer from Pennsylvania 76 Justice Party Edit Main articles Justice Party United States and Rocky Anderson Rocky Anderson former mayor of Salt Lake City and founding member of the Justice Party from Utah Vice presidential nominee Luis J Rodriguez from California 77 78 Candidates gallery Edit Gary Johnson campaign Jill Stein campaign Virgil Goode campaign Rocky AndersonCampaigns EditSee also Barack Obama 2012 presidential campaign Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaign Gary Johnson 2012 presidential campaign Jill Stein 2012 presidential campaign and Virgil Goode 2012 presidential campaign Ballot access Edit Presidential ticket Party Ballot access 79 Votes PercentageStates Electors of votersObama Biden Democratic 50 DC 538 100 65 915 795 51 1 Romney Ryan Republican 50 DC 538 100 60 933 504 47 2 Johnson Gray Libertarian 48 DC 515 95 1 1 275 971 1 0 Stein Honkala Green 36 DC 436 83 1 469 627 0 4 Goode Clymer Constitution 26 257 49 9 122 388 0 1 Anderson Rodriguez Justice 15 145 28 1 43 018 nilLindsay Osorio Socialism amp Liberation 13 115 28 6 7 791 nilCandidates in bold were on ballots representing 270 electoral votes All other candidates were on the ballots of fewer than 10 states 100 electors and less than 20 of voters nationwide Financing and advertising Edit The United States presidential election of 2012 broke new records in financing fundraising and negative campaigning Through grassroots campaign contributions online donations and Super PACs Obama and Romney raised a combined total of more than 2 billion 80 Super PACs constituted nearly one fourth of the total financing with most coming from pro Romney PACs 81 Obama raised 690 million through online channels beating his record of 500 million in 2008 82 Most of the advertising in the 2012 presidential campaign was decidedly negative 80 of Obama s ads and 84 of Romney s ads were negative 83 The tax exempt non profit Americans for Prosperity a so called outside group that is a political advocacy group that is not a political action committee or super PAC ran a television advertising campaign opposing Obama described by The Washington Post as early and relentless 84 85 Americans for Prosperity spent 8 4 million in swing states on television advertisements denouncing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 loan guarantee to Solyndra a manufacturer of solar panels that went bankrupt 86 an advertising campaign described by The Wall Street Journal in November 2011 as perhaps the biggest attack on Mr Obama so far 87 88 Party conventions Edit Charlotte Tampa Nashville Las Vegas Baltimoreclass notpageimage Sites of the 2012 national party conventions April 18 21 2012 2012 Constitution Party National Convention held in Nashville Tennessee 89 Virgil Goode won the nomination May 3 6 2012 2012 Libertarian National Convention held in Las Vegas Nevada 90 Gary Johnson won the nomination 91 July 13 15 2012 2012 Green National Convention held in Baltimore Maryland 92 Jill Stein won the nomination 72 August 27 30 2012 2012 Republican National Convention held in Tampa Florida 93 Mitt Romney won the nomination September 3 6 2012 2012 Democratic National Convention held in Charlotte North Carolina 94 Barack Obama won the nomination Presidential debates Edit Main article 2012 United States presidential debates The Commission on Presidential Debates held four debates during the last weeks of the campaign three presidential and one vice presidential The major issues debated were the economy and jobs the federal budget deficit taxation and spending the future of Social Security Medicare and Medicaid healthcare reform education social issues immigration and foreign policy Debate schedule 95 96 Debates among candidates for the 2012 U S presidential election No Date Host City Moderator Participants Viewership million P1 Wednesday October 3 2012 University of Denver Denver Colorado Jim Lehrer Barack ObamaMitt Romney 67 2 97 VP Thursday October 11 2012 Centre College Danville Kentucky Martha Raddatz Joe BidenPaul Ryan 51 4 97 P2 Tuesday October 16 2012 Hofstra University Hempstead New York Candy Crowley Barack ObamaMitt Romney 65 6 97 P3 Monday October 22 2012 Lynn University Boca Raton Florida Bob Schieffer Barack ObamaMitt Romney 59 2 97 President Obama talks with Ron Klain during presidential debate preparations Senator John Kerry at podium played the role of Mitt Romney during the preparatory sessions An independent presidential debate featuring minor party candidates took place on Tuesday October 23 at the Hilton Hotel in Chicago Illinois 98 99 The debate was moderated by Larry King 100 and organized by the Free amp Equal Elections Foundation 99 The participants were Gary Johnson Libertarian Jill Stein Green Virgil Goode Constitution and Rocky Anderson Justice 99 100 A second debate between Stein and Johnson took place on Sunday November 4 and was moderated by Ralph Nader 101 Notable expressions phrases and statements Edit Severely conservative In a speech he made at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February 2012 Romney claimed that he had been a severely conservative Republican governor Romney s description of his record as severely conservative was widely criticized by political commentators as both rhetorically clumsy and factually inaccurate 102 103 104 Later the phrase severely conservative was frequently brought up by Democrats to make fun of Romney s willingness to associate himself with the far right of the Republican Party as well as his apparent lack of sincerity while doing so 105 Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh who played the clip on his radio show said I have never heard anybody say I m severely conservative 106 You didn t build that A portion of a statement that Obama made in a July 2012 campaign speech in Roanoke Virginia Obama said that businesses depend on government provided infrastructure to succeed but critics of his remarks argued that he was underplaying the work of entrepreneurs and giving the government credit for individuals success The Romney campaign immediately used the statement in an effort to contrast Romney s economic policies with Obama s and to appeal to small business owners employees A major theme of the 2012 Republican National Convention was We Built It 47 percent An expression Romney used at a private campaign fundraising event which was secretly recorded and publicly released At the private event Romney said that 47 percent of the people would vote for Barack Obama no matter what Romney said or did because those people are dependent upon government I ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives Ironically Romney received almost exactly 47 of the vote The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back A portion of a statement that Obama made in an October 2012 debate In the debate Obama was deriding an earlier Romney statement in the campaign that Russia is without question our No 1 geopolitical foe 107 Binders full of women A phrase that Romney used in the second presidential debate to refer to the long list of female candidates that he considered when choosing his cabinet members as Governor of Massachusetts Horses and bayonets After Romney said in the third presidential debate that the U S Navy was smaller than at any time since 1917 Obama replied We have fewer ships than we did in 1916 Well governor we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military s changed 108 Shovel ready jobs a phrase used to describe some stimulus projects promoted by the administration During the debate on September 23 2011 Gary Johnson quipped My next door neighbor s two dogs have created more shovel ready jobs than this president 109 Romnesia A term coined by a blogger in April 2011 and used by Obama late in the campaign to describe Romney s alleged inability to take responsibility for his past statements 110 111 10 000 bet During a Republican debate Romney facetiously bet Texas governor Rick Perry 10 000 that he Perry was wrong about Romney s position on the individual mandate under the Affordable Healthcare Act The statement was vilified by Democrats as exemplary of Romney being out of touch with working class and middle class Americans Romneyshambles a word used by the British press after Romney criticized British preparations for the 2012 Summer Olympics The word is a play on omnishambles and it became a popular hashtag on Twitter It was subsequently chosen as one of Collins English Dictionary s words of the year 112 113 Malarkey a word used by Joe Biden in his debate with Paul Ryan to mean bullshit Biden later used the word in his own campaign in 2020 114 Results EditElectoral results Edit On the day of the election spread betting firm Spreadex were offering an Obama Electoral College Votes spread of 296 300 to Romney s 239 243 115 In reality Obama s victory over Romney was far greater winning 332 electoral votes to Romney s 206 Romney lost all but one of nine battleground states and received 47 percent of the nationwide popular vote to Obama s 51 percent 116 117 Popular vote totals are from the Federal Election Commission report 1 The results of the electoral vote were certified by Congress on January 4 2013 118 Electoral results Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote Electoralvote Running mateCount Percentage Vice presidential candidate Home state Electoral voteBarack Hussein Obama II Democratic Illinois 65 915 795 51 06 332 Joseph Robinette Biden Jr Delaware 332Willard Mitt Romney Republican Massachusetts 60 933 504 47 20 206 Paul Davis Ryan Jr Wisconsin 206Gary Earl Johnson Libertarian New Mexico 1 275 971 0 99 0 James Polin Gray California 0Jill Ellen Stein Green Massachusetts 469 627 0 36 0 Cheri Lynn Honkala Minnesota 0Virgil Hamlin Goode Jr Constitution Virginia 122 389 0 11 0 James N Clymer Pennsylvania 0Roseanne Cherrie Barr Peace and Freedom Utah 67 326 0 05 0 Cindy Lee Miller Sheehan California 0Ross Carl Rocky Anderson Justice Utah 43 018 0 03 0 Luis Javier Rodriguez Texas 0Thomas Conrad Hoefling America s Nebraska 40 628 0 03 0 J D Ellis Tennessee 0Other 217 152 0 17 Other Total 129 085 410 100 538 538Needed to win 270 270 President Obama casts his ballot at the Martin Luther King Jr Community Center in Chicago Popular voteObama 51 1 Romney 47 2 Johnson 1 0 Stein 0 4 Others 0 4 Electoral voteObama 61 7 Romney 38 3 Results by state Edit The table below displays the official vote tallies by each state s Electoral College voting method The source for the results of all states except those that amended their official results is the official Federal Election Commission report 1 The column labeled Margin shows Obama s margin of victory over Romney the margin is negative for every state that Romney won Legend States districts won by Obama BidenStates districts won by Romney Ryan At large results for states that split electoral votes Barack ObamaDemocratic Mitt RomneyRepublican Gary JohnsonLibertarian Jill SteinGreen Others Margin TotalState District EV EV EV EV EV Alabama 795 696 38 4 1 255 925 60 6 9 12 328 0 6 3 397 0 2 6 992 0 3 460 229 22 2 2 074 338 AL Alaska 122 640 40 8 164 676 54 8 3 7 392 2 5 2 917 1 0 2 870 1 0 42 036 14 0 300 495 AK Arizona 1 025 232 44 6 1 233 654 53 7 11 32 100 1 4 7 816 0 3 452 nil 208 422 9 1 2 299 254 AZ Arkansas 394 409 36 9 647 744 60 6 6 16 276 1 5 9 305 0 9 1 734 0 2 253 335 23 7 1 069 468 AR California 7 854 285 60 2 55 4 839 958 37 1 143 221 1 1 85 638 0 7 115 445 0 9 3 014 327 23 1 13 038 547 CA Colorado 1 323 101 51 5 9 1 185 243 46 1 35 545 1 4 7 508 0 3 18 121 0 7 137 858 5 4 2 569 518 CO Connecticut 905 083 58 1 7 634 892 40 7 12 580 0 8 863 0 1 5 542 0 4 270 191 17 3 1 558 960 CT Delaware 242 584 58 6 3 165 484 40 0 3 882 0 9 1 940 0 5 31 nil 77 100 18 6 413 921 DE District of Columbia District of Columbia 267 070 90 9 3 21 381 7 3 2 083 0 7 2 458 0 8 772 0 3 245 689 83 6 293 764 DC Florida 4 237 756 50 0 29 4 163 447 49 1 44 726 0 5 8 947 0 1 19 303 0 2 74 309 0 9 8 474 179 FL Georgia 1 773 827 45 5 2 078 688 53 3 16 45 324 1 2 1 516 nil 695 nil 304 861 7 8 3 900 050 GA Hawaii 306 658 70 6 4 121 015 27 8 3 840 0 9 3 184 0 7 185 643 42 7 434 697 HI Idaho 212 787 32 6 420 911 64 5 4 9 453 1 5 4 402 0 7 4 721 0 7 208 124 31 9 652 274 ID Illinois 3 019 512 57 6 20 2 135 216 40 7 56 229 1 1 30 222 0 6 835 nil 884 296 16 9 5 242 014 IL Indiana 1 152 887 43 9 1 420 543 54 1 11 50 111 1 9 625 nil 368 nil 267 656 10 2 2 624 534 IN Iowa 822 544 52 0 6 730 617 46 2 12 926 0 8 3 769 0 2 12 324 0 8 91 927 5 8 1 582 180 IA Kansas 440 726 38 0 692 634 59 7 6 20 456 1 8 714 0 1 5 441 0 5 251 908 21 7 1 159 971 KS Kentucky 679 370 37 8 1 087 190 60 5 8 17 063 1 0 6 337 0 4 7 252 0 4 407 820 22 7 1 797 212 KY Louisiana 809 141 40 6 1 152 262 57 8 8 18 157 0 9 6 978 0 4 7 527 0 4 343 121 17 2 1 994 065 LA Maine 401 306 56 3 2 292 276 41 0 9 352 1 3 8 119 1 1 2 127 0 3 109 030 15 3 713 180 ME AL ME 1 223 035 59 6 1 142 937 38 2 4 501 1 2 3 946 1 1 80 098 21 4 374 149 ME1 ME 2 177 998 52 9 1 149 215 44 4 4 843 1 4 4 170 1 2 28 783 8 6 336 226 ME2 Maryland 1 677 844 62 0 10 971 869 35 9 30 195 1 1 17 110 0 6 10 309 0 4 705 975 26 1 2 707 327 MD Massachusetts 1 921 290 60 7 11 1 188 314 37 5 30 920 1 0 20 691 0 7 6 552 0 2 732 976 23 1 3 167 767 MA Michigan 2 564 569 54 2 16 2 115 256 44 7 7 774 0 2 21 897 0 5 21 465 0 5 449 313 9 5 4 730 961 MI Minnesota 1 546 167 52 7 10 1 320 225 45 0 35 098 1 2 13 023 0 4 22 048 0 8 225 942 7 7 2 936 561 MN Mississippi 562 949 43 8 710 746 55 3 6 6 676 0 5 1 588 0 1 3 625 0 3 147 797 11 5 1 285 584 MS Missouri 1 223 796 44 4 1 482 440 53 8 10 43 151 1 6 7 936 0 3 258 644 9 4 2 757 323 MO Montana 201 839 41 7 267 928 55 4 3 14 165 2 9 116 nil 66 089 13 7 484 048 MT Nebraska 302 081 38 0 475 064 59 8 2 11 109 1 4 6 125 0 8 172 983 21 8 794 379 NE AL NE 1 108 082 40 8 152 021 57 4 1 3 847 1 2 762 0 3 43 949 16 6 264 712 NE1 NE 2 121 889 45 7 140 976 52 9 1 3 393 1 3 469 0 2 19 087 7 2 266 727 NE2 NE 3 72 110 27 8 182 067 70 2 1 3 869 1 5 1 177 0 5 109 957 42 4 259 223 NE3 Nevada 531 373 52 4 6 463 567 45 7 10 968 1 1 9 010 0 9 67 806 6 7 1 014 918 NV New Hampshire 369 561 52 0 4 329 918 46 4 8 212 1 2 324 0 1 2 957 0 4 39 643 5 6 710 972 NH New Jersey 119 2 125 101 58 4 14 1 477 568 40 6 21 045 0 6 9 888 0 3 6 690 0 2 647 533 17 8 3 640 292 NJ New Mexico 415 335 53 5 335 788 42 8 27 788 3 6 2 691 0 3 2 156 0 3 79 547 10 2 783 758 NM New York 120 4 485 741 63 4 29 2 490 431 35 2 47 256 0 7 39 982 0 6 17 749 0 3 1 995 310 28 2 7 081 159 NY North Carolina 2 178 391 48 4 2 270 395 50 4 15 44 515 1 0 12 071 0 3 92 004 2 0 4 505 372 NC North Dakota 124 827 38 7 188 163 58 3 3 5 231 1 6 1 361 0 4 3 045 0 9 63 336 19 6 322 627 ND Ohio 121 2 827 709 50 7 18 2 661 437 47 7 49 493 0 9 18 573 0 3 23 635 0 4 166 272 3 0 5 580 847 OH Oklahoma 443 547 33 2 891 325 66 8 7 447 778 33 5 1 334 872 OK Oregon 970 488 54 2 7 754 175 42 2 24 089 1 4 19 427 1 1 21 091 1 2 216 313 12 1 1 789 270 OR Pennsylvania 2 990 274 52 0 20 2 680 434 46 6 49 991 0 9 21 341 0 4 11 630 0 2 309 840 5 4 5 753 670 PA Rhode Island 279 677 62 7 4 157 204 35 2 4 388 1 0 2 421 0 5 2 359 0 5 122 473 27 5 446 049 RI South Carolina 865 941 44 1 1 071 645 54 6 9 16 321 0 8 5 446 0 3 4 765 0 2 205 704 10 5 1 964 118 SC South Dakota 145 039 39 9 210 610 57 9 3 5 795 1 6 2 371 0 7 65 571 18 0 363 815 SD Tennessee 960 709 39 1 1 462 330 59 5 11 18 623 0 8 6 515 0 3 10 400 0 4 501 621 20 4 2 458 577 TN Texas 3 308 124 41 4 4 569 843 57 2 38 88 580 1 1 24 657 0 3 2 647 nil 1 261 719 15 8 7 993 851 TX Utah 251 813 24 8 740 600 72 8 6 12 572 1 2 3 817 0 4 8 638 0 9 488 787 48 0 1 017 440 UT Vermont 199 239 66 6 3 92 698 31 0 3 487 1 2 594 0 2 3 272 1 1 106 541 35 6 299 290 VT Virginia 1 971 820 51 2 13 1 822 522 47 3 31 216 0 8 8 627 0 2 20 304 0 5 149 298 3 9 3 854 489 VA Washington 1 755 396 56 2 12 1 290 670 41 3 42 202 1 4 20 928 0 7 16 320 0 5 464 726 14 9 3 125 516 WA West Virginia 238 269 35 5 417 655 62 3 5 6 302 0 9 4 406 0 7 3 806 0 6 179 386 26 8 670 438 WV Wisconsin 122 1 620 985 52 8 10 1 407 966 45 9 20 439 0 7 7 665 0 3 11 379 0 4 213 019 6 9 3 068 434 WI Wyoming 69 286 27 8 170 962 68 6 3 5 326 2 1 3 487 1 4 101 676 40 8 249 061 WYU S Total 65 915 795 51 1 332 60 933 504 47 2 206 1 275 971 1 0 469 627 0 4 490 510 0 4 4 982 291 3 9 129 085 410 US Maine and Nebraska each allow for their election results votes to be split between candidates The winner within each congressional district gets one electoral vote for the district The winner of the statewide vote gets two additional electoral votes In the 2012 election all four of Maine s electoral votes were won by Obama and all five of Nebraska s electoral votes were won by Romney 123 124 Close states Edit Swing from 2008 to 2012 in each state Only six states swung more Democratic in 2012 Alaska Louisiana Maryland Mississippi New Jersey and New York The arrows to the right represent how many places up or down on the list the state moved since 2008 States are listed by increasing percentage of Democratic votes Red denotes states or congressional districts that contribute an electoral vote won by Republican Mitt Romney blue denotes those won by Democrat Barack Obama State where the margin of victory was under 1 29 electoral votes Florida 0 9 74 309 votes States where the margin of victory was under 5 46 electoral votes North Carolina 2 0 92 004 votes Ohio 3 0 166 272 votes Virginia 3 9 149 298 votes States districts where the margin of victory was between 5 and 10 120 electoral votes Colorado 5 4 137 858 votes tipping point state Pennsylvania 5 4 309 840 votes New Hampshire 5 6 39 643 votes Iowa 5 8 91 927 votes Nevada 6 7 67 806 votes Wisconsin 6 9 213 019 votes Nebraska s 2nd Congressional District 7 2 19 087 votes Minnesota 7 7 225 942 votes Georgia 7 8 304 861 votes Maine s 2nd Congressional District 8 6 28 783 votes Arizona 9 1 208 422 votes Missouri 9 4 258 644 votes Michigan 9 5 449 313 votes Statistics Edit 125 Counties with Highest Percent of Vote Democratic Shannon County South Dakota 93 4 Kalawao County Hawaii 92 6 Bronx County New York 91 5 Washington D C 90 9 Petersburg Virginia 89 8 Counties with Highest Percent of Vote Republican King County Texas 95 9 Madison County Idaho 93 3 Sterling County Texas 92 9 Franklin County Idaho 92 8 Roberts County Texas 92 1 Romney s concession Edit Obama takes a phone call from Romney conceding the election early Wednesday morning in Chicago After the networks called Ohio the state that was arguably the most critical for Romney as no Republican had ever won the Presidency without carrying it for Obama at around 11 15 PM EST on Election Day Romney was ready to concede the race but hesitated when Karl Rove strenuously objected on Fox News to the network s decision to make that call 126 127 However after Colorado and Nevada were called for the President giving Obama enough electoral votes to win even if Ohio were to leave his column in tandem with Obama s apparent lead in Florida and Virginia both were eventually called for Obama Romney acknowledged that he had lost and conceded at around 1 00 AM EST on November 7 Despite public polling showing Romney behind Obama in the swing states of Nevada Colorado Iowa Wisconsin Ohio and New Hampshire tied with Obama in Virginia and just barely ahead of Obama in Florida the Romney campaign said they were genuinely surprised by the loss having believed that public polling was oversampling Democrats 128 The Romney campaign had already set up a transition website and had scheduled and purchased a fireworks display to celebrate in case he won the election 129 130 On November 30 2012 it was revealed that shortly before the election internal polling done by the Romney campaign had shown Romney ahead in Colorado and New Hampshire tied in Iowa and within a few points of Obama in Wisconsin Pennsylvania Minnesota and Ohio 131 In addition the Romney campaign had assumed that they would win Florida North Carolina and Virginia 132 The polls had made Romney and his campaign team so confident of their victory that Romney did not write a concession speech until Obama s victory was announced 133 134 Reactions Edit Further information International reactions to the 2012 United States presidential election Foreign leaders reacted with both positive and mixed messages Most world leaders congratulated and praised Barack Obama on his re election victory However Venezuela and some other states had tempered reactions Pakistan commented that Romney s defeat had made Pakistan United States relations safer Stock markets fell noticeably after Obama s re election with the Dow Jones Industrial Average NASDAQ and the S amp P 500 each declining over two percent the day after the election 135 Voter demographics Edit2012 presidential election by demographic subgroupDemographic subgroup Obama Romney Other oftotal voteTotal vote 51 47 2 100IdeologyLiberals 86 11 3 25Moderates 56 41 3 41Conservatives 17 82 1 35PartyDemocrats 92 7 1 38Republicans 6 93 1 32Independents 45 50 5 29GenderMen 45 52 3 47Women 55 44 1 53Marital statusMarried 42 56 2 60Unmarried 62 35 3 40Sex by marital statusMarried men 38 60 2 29Married women 46 53 1 31Single men 56 40 4 18Single women 67 31 2 23Race ethnicityWhite 39 59 2 72Black 93 6 1 13Asian 73 26 1 3Other 58 38 4 2Hispanic 71 27 2 10ReligionProtestant or other Christian 42 57 1 53Catholic 50 48 2 25Mormon 21 78 1 2Jewish 69 30 1 2Other 74 23 3 7None 70 26 4 12Religious service attendanceMore than once a week 36 63 1 14Once a week 41 58 1 28A few times a month 55 44 1 13A few times a year 56 42 2 27Never 62 34 4 17White evangelical or born again Christian White evangelical or born again Christian 21 78 1 26Everyone else 60 37 3 74Age18 24 years old 60 36 4 1125 29 years old 60 38 2 830 39 years old 55 42 3 1740 49 years old 48 50 2 2050 64 years old 47 52 1 2865 and older 44 56 0 16Age by raceWhites 18 29 years old 44 51 5 11Whites 30 44 years old 38 59 3 18Whites 45 64 years old 38 61 1 29Whites 65 and older 39 61 n a 14Blacks 18 29 years old 91 8 1 3Blacks 30 44 years old 94 5 1 4Blacks 45 64 years old 93 7 n a 4Blacks 65 and older 93 6 1 1Latinos 18 29 years old 74 23 3 4Latinos 30 44 years old 71 28 1 3Latinos 45 64 years old 68 31 1 3Latinos 65 and older 65 35 n a 1Others 67 31 2 5LGBTYes 76 22 2 5No 49 49 2 95EducationNot a high school graduate 64 35 1 3High school graduate 51 48 1 21Some college education 49 48 3 29College graduate 47 51 2 29Postgraduate education 55 42 3 18Family incomeUnder 30 000 63 35 2 20 30 000 49 999 57 42 1 21 50 000 99 999 46 52 2 31 100 000 199 999 44 54 2 21 200 000 249 999 47 52 1 3Over 250 000 42 55 3 4Union householdsUnion 58 40 2 18Non union 49 48 3 82Issue regarded as most importantEconomy 47 51 2 59Federal budget deficit 32 66 2 15Foreign policy 56 33 11 5Health care 75 24 1 18RegionNortheast 59 40 1 18Midwest 50 48 2 24South 46 53 1 36West 54 43 3 22Community sizeBig cities population over 500 000 69 29 2 11Mid sized cities population 50 000 to 500 000 58 40 2 21Suburbs 48 50 2 47Towns population 10 000 to 50 000 42 56 2 8Rural areas 37 61 2 14Hispanic vote Edit The United States has a population of 50 million Hispanic and Latino Americans 27 million of whom are citizens eligible to vote 13 of total eligible voters Traditionally only half of eligible Hispanic voters vote around 7 of voters of them 71 voted for Barack Obama increasing his percentage of the vote by 5 therefore the Hispanic vote was an important factor in Obama s re election since the vote difference between the two main parties was only 3 9 136 137 138 139 Exit polls were conducted by Edison Research of Somerville New Jersey for the National Election Pool a consortium of ABC News Associated Press CBS News CNN 140 Fox News 141 and NBC News 142 Analysis EditCombined with the re elections of Bill Clinton and George W Bush Obama s victory in the 2012 election marked only the second time in American history that three consecutive presidents were each elected to two or more full terms after the consecutive two term presidencies of Thomas Jefferson James Madison and James Monroe ending in 1820 which is the only other time any two term president succeeded another 143 This was also the first election since 1944 in which neither of the major candidates had any military experience 144 The 2012 election marked the first time since Franklin D Roosevelt s last two re elections in 1940 and 1944 that a Democratic presidential candidate won a majority of the popular vote in two consecutive elections 145 Obama was also the first president of either party to secure a majority of the popular vote in two elections since Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 146 Obama is the third Democratic president to secure at least 51 of the vote twice after Andrew Jackson and Franklin D Roosevelt 147 Romney won the popular vote in 226 congressional districts making this the first time since 1960 that the winner of the election did not win the popular vote in a majority of the congressional districts 148 Romney also became the first Republican since Gerald Ford s narrow defeat to Jimmy Carter in 1976 to fail to win a presidential election while earning a minimum of 200 electoral votes The same feat would also later repeat itself when Donald Trump lost the 2020 Presidential Election to Joe Biden with earning at least that number of electoral votes Romney lost his home state of Massachusetts becoming the first major party presidential candidate to lose his home state since Democrat Al Gore lost his home state of Tennessee to Republican George W Bush in the 2000 election 149 Romney lost his home state by more than 23 the worst losing margin for a major party candidate since John Fremont in 1856 150 Even worse than Fremont Romney failed to win a single county in his home state something last seen by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 151 152 This was the first a Republican lost his home state since Richard Nixon in 1968 In addition since Obama carried Ryan s home state of Wisconsin the Romney Ryan ticket was the first major party ticket since the 1972 election to have both of its nominees lose their home states 153 Romney won the popular vote in every county of three states Utah Oklahoma and West Virginia Obama did so in four states Vermont Massachusetts Rhode Island and Hawaii 154 Romney s loss prompted the Republican National Committee to try to appeal to the American Latino population by concentrating on different approaches to immigration These were short lived due to activity and anger from the Republican base and may have contributed to the selection of Donald Trump as their presidential candidate four years later 155 Gary Johnson s popular vote total set a Libertarian Party record and his popular vote percentage was the second best showing for a Libertarian in a presidential election trailing only Ed Clark s in 1980 156 Johnson would go on to beat this record in the 2016 presidential election winning the most votes for the Libertarian ticket in history At the time Green Party candidate Jill Stein s popular vote total made her the most successful female presidential candidate in a general election in United States history 157 158 This was later surpassed by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election Obama s vote total was the fourth most votes received in the history of presidential elections behind Obama s 2008 victory and both major candidates in 2020 and the most ever for a reelected president The 2012 election marked the first time since 1988 in which no state was won by a candidate with a plurality of the state s popular vote Furthermore it is the only post World War II presidential election in which no states were won by margins smaller than 30 000 votes Obama s narrowest victories were in New Hampshire by 39 643 votes followed by Florida by 74 309 votes Every other presidential election in modern history has seen states narrowly won by several thousand votes So far this is the only presidential election in history where both the Republican and Democratic vice presidential candidates are practicing Roman Catholics It is also the only presidential election where there are no white Protestants on either major party ticket Obama was the fourth of just four presidents in United States history to win re election with a lower percentage of the electoral vote than in their prior elections the other three were James Madison in 1812 Woodrow Wilson in 1916 and Franklin Roosevelt in 1940 and 1944 Additionally Obama was the fifth of only five presidents to win re election with a smaller percentage of the popular vote than in prior elections the other four are James Madison in 1812 Andrew Jackson in 1832 Grover Cleveland in 1892 and Franklin Roosevelt in 1940 and 1944 Maps Edit Results by state shaded according to winning candidate s percentage of the vote Results by county Blue denotes counties that went to Obama red denotes counties that went to Romney Hawaii Massachusetts Rhode Island and Vermont had all counties go to Obama Oklahoma Utah and West Virginia had all counties go to Romney Results by county shaded according to winning candidate s percentage of the vote Popular vote by county shaded on a scale from red Republican to blue Democratic Results by state and the District of Columbia scaled by number of Electors per state Cartogram of popular vote by county shaded on a scale from red Republican to blue Democratic where each county has been rescaled in proportion to its population Cartogram of the electoral vote results with each square representing one electoral vote Results by congressional district Change in popular vote margins at the county level from the 2008 election to the 2012 election Blue denotes counties that voted more Democratic Red denotes counties that voted more Republican Romney s strongest improvements over McCain were in Utah and Appalachia while Obama s strongest gains were in Alaska the New York area and the Gulf states Treemap of the popular vote by county state and locally predominant recipientGallery Edit The Empire State Building in New York City was lit blue when CNN called Ohio for Obama projecting him the winner of the election Likewise red would have been used if Romney won 159 The Obamas and the Bidens embrace following the television announcement of their victory The Obamas and the Bidens walk on stage at the election night victory celebration at McCormick Place in Chicago Former Governor Mitt Romney meets with President Barack Obama at the White House after the 2012 presidential election See also Edit United States portal Politics portal 2010s portalPlanned presidential transition of Mitt Romney 2012 United States Senate elections 2012 United States House of Representatives elections 2012 United States gubernatorial elections Nationwide opinion polling for the 2012 United States presidential election Statewide opinion polling for the 2012 United States presidential election Timeline of the 2012 United States presidential election Second inauguration of Barack ObamaReferences Edit a b c d e Federal Elections 2012 PDF Federal Election Commission Washington D C Federal Election Commission 2013 Retrieved January 20 2021 Obama Romney is out of touch The Christian Science Monitor September 20 2012 Retrieved December 11 2022 Romney hits Obama on deficit Politico May 16 2012 Retrieved December 11 2022 Cillizza Chris April 16 2012 The 9 swing states of 2012 Washington Post Retrieved May 19 2021 David Callahan Ohio s Voter ID Law and the 2012 Election Huffington Post Politics blog March 25 2011 Retrieved October 20 2011 New SC voter ID requirements clears Senate Charleston WCBD TV 2 Archived from the original on September 9 2011 Retrieved October 20 2011 Rick Perry s agenda may signal run for W H Andy Barr Politico Com Retrieved October 20 2011 The Next Election The Surprising Reality by Andrew Hacker The New York Review of Books Retrieved October 20 2011 Bill Clinton likens GOP effort to Jim Crow laws Darren Samuelsohn Politico Com Retrieved October 20 2011 Sonmez Felicia May 23 2011 Republicans rewriting state election laws in ways that could how hurt Democrat The Washington Post Retrieved October 20 2011 Jackson Jesse 38 states rigging voting rules for GOP Chicago Sun Times Archived from the original on October 9 2011 Retrieved October 20 2011 Provance Jim Obama campaign fighting Ohio voting law Toledo Blade Retrieved October 20 2011 Pennsylvania s Democrat screwing 2012 genius plan The Week New York September 15 2011 Retrieved October 20 2011 Olson Laura September 13 2011 Change proposed for state s electoral vote process Pittsburgh Post Gazette Retrieved October 20 2011 Rosenbaum Ron September 13 2011 Pennsylvania Ponders Bold Democrat Screwing Electoral Plan Slate Retrieved October 20 2011 Pennsylvania GOP looks to split electoral votes The Washington Times September 15 2011 Retrieved October 20 2011 Jackson David April 4 2012 It s official Obama clinches Democratic nomination USA Today Retrieved April 10 2012 April 4 2012 Obama Clinches Democratic Nomination CNN Retrieved April 12 2012 Goldman Russell July 5 2012 Michele Bachmann Drops Out of Presidential Race ABC News Summers Juana August 11 2011 Barred hopefuls make debate plans Politico Retrieved July 5 2012 Reid Tim January 9 2012 Romney s rivals running out of time to stop him Reuters Retrieved July 5 2012 Norington Brad Romney has money but lacks conviction The Australian Retrieved July 12 2012 Cohn Alicia M December 9 2011 Trump says Romney lacks the courage to participate in Newsmax debate The Hill Retrieved July 12 2012 Stanley Timothy March 30 2012 If only Sarah Palin had run CNN Retrieved July 12 2012 Avlon John August 31 2011 Chris Christie s 2012 Tease The Daily Beast Cohen Tom Silverleib Alan September 1 2011 Seeking the anti Romney in the Republican presidential race CNN Archived from the original on July 12 2012 Retrieved July 12 2012 Herman Cain suspends presidential campaign Newsday December 3 2011 Retrieved July 5 2012 Stewart Rebecca December 28 2011 Liberated Gary Johnson seeks Libertarian nomination CNN Retrieved December 28 2011 Knickerbocker Brad January 21 2012 Newt Gingrich wins South Carolina Can he do the same in Florida The Christian Science Monitor Retrieved July 10 2012 Rick Santorum Is Declared Winner of Iowa Caucuses by State Party Leaders January 21 2012 Bloomberg News Archived October 20 2012 at the Wayback Machine 2012 GOP caucus count unresolved Iowa Caucuses Archived from the original on January 20 2012 Retrieved November 29 2015 Yes Ron Paul won the Iowa caucuses The Des Moines Register Retrieved November 29 2015 dead link Begala Paul January 21 2012 Newt Gingrich s Surprise Win in South Carolina Panics Republicans Wheaton Sarah January 4 2012 Bachmann Says She Will Not Continue in the Race The New York Times Zeleny Jeff Shear Michael D January 19 2012 Perry to End Bid for Presidency The New York Times Retrieved July 10 2012 Madison Lucy February 8 2012 Santorum hopes to build momentum from 3 state sweep CBS News Retrieved August 27 2012 Results March 6 2012 Super Tuesday CNN Retrieved July 12 2012 Gabriel Trip April 10 2012 Gingrich Says He s in the Race to the End The New York Times Overheard on CNN com What brought down Gingrich s campaign What s next CNN April 25 2012 Shear Michael D April 25 2012 Republican National Committee Backs Romney The New York Times Retrieved May 2 2012 Holland Steve May 30 2012 Romney clinches Republican 2012 nomination in Texas Reuters Retrieved May 30 2012 Caldwell Leigh Ann August 28 2012 Republican delegates nominate Mitt Romney CBS News Retrieved August 28 2012 O Brien Michael August 30 2012 Romney accepts nomination says The time has come to turn the page NBC News Retrieved August 31 2012 Mitt Romney announces bid to be US president in 2012 BBC June 2 2011 Elliott Philip June 2 2011 Romney opens presidential bid he s got company Deseret News Retrieved October 5 2012 Good Chris May 14 2012 Ron Paul to Stop Campaigning in New States ABC News Retrieved October 8 2012 Marr Kendra May 11 2011 Newt Gingrich running for president Politico Archived from the original on May 13 2011 Retrieved May 11 2011 O Brien Michael April 25 2012 Gingrich to leave campaign but not the national spotlight MSNBC Archived from the original on April 25 2012 Retrieved April 25 2012 George Stephanopoulos June 6 2011 Rick Santorum Will Run for President We re In It to Win ABC News Retrieved June 6 2011 Salant Jonathan D June 6 2011 Ex Pennsylvania Senator Santorum Announces 12 Republican Presidential Bid Bloomberg News Retrieved June 6 2011 Republican Rick Santorum announces presidential run The Patriot News Associated Press June 6 2011 Retrieved June 6 2011 Roemer kicks off 2012 presidential bid KRQE July 21 2011 Archived from the original on December 6 2012 Retrieved October 5 2012 McKinnon Mark July 21 2011 Listen to Candidate Roemer The Daily Beast Retrieved July 21 2011 Hamby Peter January 19 2012 Perry drops out endorses Gingrich CNN Retrieved January 25 2012 Reston Maeve August 13 2011 Texas Gov Rick Perry declares GOP presidential bid Los Angeles Times Retrieved August 18 2011 Huntsman s sly web strategy The Hill May 11 2011 Jon Huntsman My Mormonism is tough to define 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Retrieved November 18 2012 Giroux Greg January 4 2013 Final Tally Shows Obama First Since 56 to Win 51 Twice Bloomberg Retrieved February 12 2013 Frank Steve January 7 2014 Obama first presidential candidate since Eisenhower to top 51 twice MSNBC com Retrieved December 11 2014 Bensen Clark April 4 2013 Presidential Results By Congressional Districts Obama is reelected but Romney carries a majority of districts PDF Cookpolitical com Retrieved June 25 2017 Gabbatt Adam October 19 2012 Romney poised to lose home state by wider margin than any other candidate The Guardian London Retrieved February 12 2013 Ostermeier Eric November 14 2012 20 Presidential Tickets That Lost Both Home States Smart Politics University of Minnesota blog Archived from the original on November 15 2012 Retrieved February 12 2013 2012 Presidential General Election Data Massachusetts by County Dave Leip s U S Election Atlas Retrieved March 8 2013 Presidential Election of 1856 Map by counties Atlas of U S Presidential Elections Retrieved March 9 2013 Ostermeier Eric November 14 2012 20 Presidential Tickets That Lost Both Home States Smart Politics Blow Charles M November 9 2012 Election Data Dive The New York Times Retrieved December 11 2014 Harwood John Donald Trump Takes Advantage of a Republican Party Pitted Against Itself New York Times October 6 2016 October 6 2016 Harrington Gerry November 8 2012 Libertarian Party buoyant Greens hopeful United Press International Retrieved February 12 2013 Wood Daniel November 30 2015 Harvard Grad Jill Stein Faces Uphill Battle for Presidency The Harvard Crimson Herzog Katie March 14 2016 Meet the presidential candidate who makes Bernie Sanders look conservative Grist Magazine Wells Charlie November 6 2012 Empire State Building lights up to broadcast election results Daily News New York Further reading EditGardner Liz et al Press Coverage of the 2012 US Presidential Election A Multinational Cross Language Comparison in Die US Prasidentschaftswahl 2012 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2016 pp 241 267 Hansen Wendy L Michael S Rocca and Brittany Leigh Ortiz The effects of Citizens United on corporate spending in the 2012 presidential election Journal of Politics 77 2 2015 535 545 in JSTOR Heilemann John Halperin Mark 2013 Double Down Game Change 2012 New York Penguin Press ISBN 978 1594204401 Masket Seth John Sides and Lynn Vavreck The Ground Game in the 2012 Presidential Election Political Communication 2015 33 2 pp 1 19 Mayer William G Bernstein Jonathan eds 2012 The Making of the Presidential Candidates 2012 Rowman amp Littlefield ISBN 978 1 4422 1170 4 Scholars explore nominations in the post public funding era digital media and campaigns television coverage and the Tea Party Miller William J ed The 2012 Nomination and the Future of the Republican Party The Internal Battle Lexington Books 2013 265 pages essays by experts on Romney and each of his main rivals Nelson Michael ed The Elections of 2012 2013 excerpt and text search topical essays by experts Sides John and Lynn Vavreck The Gamble Choice and Chance in the 2012 Presidential Election Princeton U P 2013 excerpt and text search Stempel III Guido H and Thomas K Hargrove eds The 21st Century Voter Who Votes How They Vote and Why They Vote 2 vol 2015 External links Edit2012 U S presidential election at Wikipedia s sister projects Media from Commons News from Wikinews The 9 Swing States of 2012 2012 Presidential Form 2 Filers at the Federal Election Commission FEC Election 2012 Presidential Primaries Caucuses and Conventions 2012 United States presidential election at Curlie 2012 Interactive Electoral Map Election of 2012 in Counting the Votes Archived August 28 2019 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title 2012 United States presidential election amp oldid 1135342519, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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