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2008 United States presidential election in Delaware

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Main article: 2008 United States presidential election

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

2008 United States presidential election in Delaware
← 2004 November 4, 2008 2012 →
 
Nominee Barack Obama John McCain
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Illinois Arizona
Running mate Joe Biden Sarah Palin
Electoral vote 3 0
Popular vote 255,459 152,374
Percentage 61.94% 36.92%
President before election

George W. Bush
Republican

Elected President

Barack Obama
Democratic

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

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

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

Primaries

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Democratic primary

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Main article: 2008 Delaware Democratic presidential primary

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

Polls

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Main article: Statewide opinion polling for the 2008 Super Tuesday Democratic Party presidential primaries § Delaware

Results

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See also: Results of the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries
2008 Delaware Democratic Presidential Primary Results
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Delegates
Democratic Barack Obama 51,148 53.07% 9
Democratic Hillary Clinton 40,760 42.29% 6
Democratic Joe Biden 2,863 2.97% 0
Democratic John Edwards 1,241 1.29% 0
Democratic Dennis Kucinich 192 0.20% 0
Democratic Christopher Dodd 170 0.18% 0
Democratic Joe Biden 440 0.12% 0
Totals 96,374 100.00% 15
Voter turnout % —

Analysis

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

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

Republican primary

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Main article: 2008 Delaware Republican presidential primary

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

Candidates

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

Results

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100% of precincts reporting[3][4]
Candidate Votes Percentage Delegates
John McCain 22,628 45.04% 18
Mitt Romney 16,344 32.53% 0
Mike Huckabee 7,706 15.34% 0
Ron Paul 2,131 4.24% 0
Rudy Giuliani* 1,255 2.5% 0
Tom Tancredo* 175 0.35% 0
Total 50,237 100% 18

*Candidate withdrew before primary

Campaign

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Predictions

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

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

Polling

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

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

Fundraising

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

Advertising and visits

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

Results

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2008 United States presidential election in Delaware[21]
Party Candidate Running mate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Barack Obama Joe Biden 255,459 61.94% 3
Republican John McCain Sarah Palin 152,374 36.92% 0
Independent Ralph Nader Matt Gonzalez 2,401 0.58% 0
Libertarian Bob Barr Wayne Allyn Root 1,109 0.27% 0
Constitution Chuck Baldwin Darrell Castle 626 0.15% 0
Green Cynthia McKinney Rosa Clemente 385 0.09% 0
Socialist Workers Róger Calero Alyson Kennedy 58 0.01% 0
Totals 412,398 100.00% 3
Voter turnout 68.00%

By county

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County Barack Obama
Democratic 		John McCain
Republican 		Various candidates
Other parties 		Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # %
Kent 36,392 54.38% 29,827 44.57% 706 1.06% 6,565 9.81% 66,925
New Castle 178,768 69.66% 74,608 29.07% 3,245 1.26% 104,160 40.59% 256,621
Sussex 40,299 45.24% 47,939 53.82% 832 0.93% -7,640 -8.58% 89,070
Totals 255,459 61.91% 152,374 36.93% 4,783 1.16% 103,085 24.98% 412,616
 
County Flips:

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

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By congressional district

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

District McCain Obama Representative
At-large 36.9% 61.9% Mike Castle

Electors

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Main article: List of 2008 United States presidential electors

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

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

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

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

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Socialist Workers On in Delaware for First Time Ever". Ballot Access News. July 10, 2008. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020.
  2. ^ "A Super Guide for Super Tuesday". CNN. February 2, 2008. Retrieved February 2, 2008.
  3. ^ "Election Center 2008: Primary Results for Delaware". CNN. Retrieved February 5, 2008.
  4. ^ "RESULTS: Delaware". CNN. February 2, 2008. Retrieved February 2, 2008.
  5. ^ "D.C.'s Political Report: The complete source for campaign summaries". January 1, 2009. Archived from the original on January 1, 2009. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  6. ^ "Presidential". May 5, 2015. Archived from the original on May 5, 2015. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  7. ^ "Vote 2008 - The Takeaway - Track the Electoral College vote predictions". April 22, 2009. Archived from the original on April 22, 2009. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  8. ^ "Electoral-vote.com: President, Senate, House Updated Daily". electoral-vote.com. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  9. ^ a b c d Based on Takeaway
  10. ^ "POLITICO's 2008 Swing State Map - POLITICO.com". www.politico.com. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  11. ^ "RealClearPolitics - Electoral Map". Archived from the original on June 5, 2008.
  12. ^ "CQ Presidential Election Maps, 2008". CQ Politics. Archived from the original on June 14, 2009. Retrieved December 20, 2009.
  13. ^ Nagourney, Adam; Zeleny, Jeff; Carter, Shan (November 4, 2008). "The Electoral Map: Key States". The New York Times. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
  14. ^ "October – 2008 – CNN Political Ticker". CNN. October 31, 2008. Archived from the original on June 19, 2010. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
  15. ^ "Winning The Electoral College". Fox News. April 27, 2010.
  16. ^ "roadto270". hosted.ap.org. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  17. ^ "Election 2008: Electoral College Update - Rasmussen Reports". www.rasmussenreports.com. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  18. ^ "Presidential Campaign Finance". Archived from the original on March 24, 2009. Retrieved August 3, 2009.
  19. ^ "Map: Campaign Ad Spending - Election Center 2008 from CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
  20. ^ "Map: Campaign Candidate Visits - Election Center 2008 from CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
  21. ^ "Official General Election Results" (PDF). State of Delaware. December 3, 2008. Retrieved December 6, 2008.
  22. ^ "Electoral College". California Secretary of State. Archived from the original on October 30, 2008. Retrieved November 1, 2008.
  23. ^ Delaware Certificate of Ascertainment, page 1 of 2.. National Archives and Records Administration.
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