2008 United States presidential election in Massachusetts

The 2008 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place, as in all 50 states and D.C., as part of the 2008 United States presidential election of November 4, 2008. Voters chose 12 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who, in turn, voted for the office of president and vice president.

2008 United States presidential election in Massachusetts

November 4, 2008

Nominee Barack Obama John McCain Party Democratic Republican Home state Illinois Arizona Running mate Joe Biden Sarah Palin Electoral vote 12 0 Popular vote 1,904,098 1,108,854 Percentage 61.80% 35.99%

County Results Obama   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%

President before election George W. Bush Republican Elected President Barack Obama Democratic

Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama won the state by a 25.8% margin of victory: slightly better than John Kerry's 25.2% margin in 2004. Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations forecast that Obama would win Massachusetts, or otherwise considered it to be a safe blue state. Massachusetts had been a Democratic-leaning state since 1928, and a Democratic stronghold since 1960, and has kept up its intense level of the sizable Democratic margins since 1996. No Republican presidential nominee has won a single county in the state, nor obtained more than 40% of the vote, since George H. W. Bush in 1988.[1][2] In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama captured the state's 12 electoral votes winning 61.80% of the popular vote to Republican John McCain's 35.99%. Massachusetts was also 1 of only 6 states in which neither Obama nor McCain won during the primary season.

Primaries

Democratic

2008 Massachusetts Democratic presidential primary

February 5, 2008

Candidate Hillary Clinton Barack Obama Party Democratic Democratic Home state New York Illinois Delegate count 55 38 Popular vote 705,185 511,680 Percentage 56.01% 40.64%

The Massachusetts Democratic primary took place on Super Tuesday, February 5, 2008, and had a total of 93 delegates at stake. The winner in each of Massachusetts's 10 congressional districts was awarded all of that district's delegates, totaling 61. Another 32 delegates were awarded to the statewide winner, Hillary Clinton. The 93 delegates represented Massachusetts at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. 26 other unpledged delegates, known as superdelegates, also attended the convention and cast their votes as well.

Polls indicated that Clinton was leading Barack Obama in the days leading up to the contest in Massachusetts.[3]

Hillary Rodham Clinton won a convincing victory in Massachusetts over Barack Obama due to a number of factors. According to exit polls, 85% of voters in the Massachusetts Democratic Primary were Caucasians and they opted for Clinton by a margin of 58–40% compared to the 6% of African American voters who backed Obama by a margin of 66–29. Hispanics/Latinos, which comprised 5% of the total voters, backed Clinton by a margin of 56–36%. Clinton narrowly won the youth vote (those ages 18–29) by a margin of 49–48 and tied the vote among voters ages 30–44; she also won all voters over the age of 45 by a margin of 60.5–38. Pertaining to socioeconomic class, Clinton won all levels of family income except highly affluent voters making $200,000 or more a year, as they backed Obama by a narrow margin of 53–47%. As for educational attainment levels, Clinton won all categories except those with postgraduate degrees who backed Obama by a margin of 51–47%. Among self-identified Democrats in the primary, which made up 65% of the total electorate, they went for Clinton by a 58–41 margin while Independents, which comprised a healthy 33% of the electorate, also went for Clinton by a 54–42 margin. She also won all ideological groups. Clinton also won most major religious denominations – Protestants 53–46; Roman Catholics 64-33; other Christians 51-47; and other religions 49-46. Obama won Jews by a margin of 52–48 as well as atheists/agnostics by a margin of 53-45.

Clinton performed extremely well statewide, carrying a majority of counties and sweeping most of the major urban areas and cities. Obama won Boston by fewer than 10,000 votes, while Clinton won other urban and conservative towns[4] such as Springfield and Worcester.

Obama had picked up major endorsements from the Massachusetts Democratic establishment prior to Super Tuesday. Both U.S. Senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry threw their support behind Obama, along with Governor Deval Patrick. Clinton also picked up a number of top-tier endorsements from Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston and Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Salvatore DiMasi along with U.S. Representatives Richard Neal and Barney Frank, one of the three openly gay members of the U.S. Congress.

Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Delegates
	Democratic	Hillary Clinton	705,185	56.01%	55
	Democratic	Barack Obama	511,680	40.64%	38
	Democratic	John Edwards	20,101	1.60%	0
	Democratic	Uncommitted	8,041	0.64%	0
	Democratic	Write-ins	3,279	0.26%	0
	Democratic	Joe Biden	3,216	0.26%	0
	Democratic	Dennis Kucinich	2,992	0.24%	0
	Democratic	Bill Richardson	1,846	0.15%	0
	Democratic	Mike Gravel	1,463	0.12%	0
	Democratic	Christopher Dodd	1,120	0.09%	0
Totals			1,258,923	100.00%	93
Voter turnout			%		—

Republican

2008 Massachusetts Republican presidential primary

February 5, 2008

Candidate Mitt Romney John McCain Party Republican Republican Home state Massachusetts Arizona Delegate count 21 17 Popular vote 255,892 204,779 Percentage 51.92% 41.68%

The Massachusetts Republican Primary took place on February 5, 2008, with 40 national delegates.[5] Polls indicated that former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney was leading rival John McCain;[6] Romney ended up defeating McCain by roughly 10% of the vote.

Official Results[7]

Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Delegates
Mitt Romney	255,892	51.12%	21
John McCain	204,779	40.91%	17
Mike Huckabee	19,103	3.82%	0
Ron Paul	13,251	2.65%	0
Rudy Giuliani*	2,707	0.54%	0
Fred Thompson*	916	0.18%	0
Duncan Hunter*	258	0.05%	0
All Others	1,685	0.34%	0
Uncommitted	1,959	0.39%	0
Total	500,550	100%	38

* Candidate dropped out of the race before the primary

Green-Rainbow

2008 Massachusetts Green-Rainbow presidential primary

February 5, 2008

Candidate Ralph Nader Cynthia McKinney Party Green Green Home state District of Columbia Georgia Delegate count 32 0 Popular vote 744 474 Percentage 39.91% 25.43%

Town results of the Massachusetts Green presidential primaries, 2008.   Ralph Nader   Cynthia McKinney   Kat Swift   Jared Ball   Kent Mesplay   Elaine Brown   No Votes

The Massachusetts Green-Rainbow primary took place on February 5. Six candidates appeared on the ballot. Ralph Nader won, despite not running for the nomination of the party.

Massachusetts Green-Rainbow presidential primary, February 5, 2008[8][9]
Candidate	Votes	Percentage	National delegates
Ralph Nader	744	39.91%	32
Cynthia McKinney	474	25.43%	-
Kat Swift	60	3.22%	-
Jared Ball	42	2.25%	-
Kent Mesplay	39	2.09%	-
Elaine Brown	38	2.04%	-
Others	273	25.1%	-
No preference	194	10.41%	-
Blank votes (not tallied)	77	n/a	n/a
Total	1,941	100%	32

Working Families Party

The Working Families Party did not have any candidates run in its presidential primary.[10]

Campaign

Predictions

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

• D.C. Political Report: Democrat[11]
• Cook Political Report: Solid Democrat[12]
• Takeaway: Solid Obama[13]
• Electoral-vote.com: Strong Democrat[14]
• Washington Post: Solid Obama[15]
• Politico: Solid Obama[16]
• Real Clear Politics: Solid Obama[17]
• FiveThirtyEight.com: Solid Obama[15]
• CQ Politics: Safe Democrat[18]
• New York Times: Solid Democrat[19]
• CNN: Safe Democrat[20]
• NPR: Solid Obama[15]
• MSNBC: Solid Obama[15]
• Fox News: Democrat[21]
• Associated Press: Democrat[22]
• Rasmussen Reports: Safe Democrat[23]

Polling

Very early on the election polls were tight,[24] with McCain even leading by 5 in one poll on January 21 and a tie in a poll on March 16, but Obama won every poll after March 18. He won each by a double-digit margin since August 8. The final 3 polls averaged Obama leading 56% to 36%.[25]

Fundraising

John McCain raised $4,072,206 in the state. Barack Obama raised $24,358,264.[26]

Advertising and visits

Obama spent $46,839 while the Republican ticket spent nothing.[27] Neither campaign visited the state.[28]

Analysis

Massachusetts was (and is) the bluest state in the nation, in terms of voting for the Democrat in presidential elections. Massachusetts is ethnically diverse, highly educated, and less religious. The Bay State has voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in every election since 1960 except for Ronald Reagan's landslide victories of 1980 and 1984. In 1972, only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia voted for Democratic U.S. Senator George McGovern as Republican Richard M. Nixon won reelection.

Barack Obama won the state's 12 electoral votes with 61.80% of the vote to John McCain's 35.99%. This is slightly higher than Kerry's victory in 2004. Despite that, 4 counties in the state trended away from the Democratic party: Bristol, Plymouth, Norfolk, and Worcester.

Both of Massachusetts's U.S. Senators and all 10 of its U.S. Representatives were Democrats, and Democrats held supermajorities in the Massachusetts Legislature. At the same time in 2008, incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator John Kerry was reelected with 65.86% of the vote over Republican Jeff Beatty's 30.93% as were all of the state's delegates in the U.S. House of Representatives. At the state level, Democrats picked up three seats in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and one seat in the Massachusetts Senate.

Results

2008 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
Party		Candidate	Running mate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Democratic	Barack Obama	Joe Biden	1,904,098	61.80%	12
	Republican	John McCain	Sarah Palin	1,108,854	35.99%	0
	Independent	Ralph Nader	Matt Gonzalez	28,841	0.94%	0
	Independent	Others (Write-In)		14,483	0.47%	0
	Libertarian	Bob Barr	Wayne Allyn Root	13,189	0.43%	0
	Green-Rainbow	Cynthia McKinney	Rosa Clemente	6,550	0.21%	0
	Constitution	Chuck Baldwin	Darrell Castle	4,971	0.16%	0
Totals				3,080,985	100.00%	12
Voter turnout (Voting age population)						62.1%

Results by County

County	McCain %	McCain Votes	Obama %	Obama Votes	Others %	Others Votes
Barnstable	42.1%	55,694	56.1%	74,264	1.8%	2,395
Berkshire	22.5%	14,876	74.9%	49,558	2.6%	1,696
Bristol	37.2%	90,531	60.4%	146,861	2.4%	5,728
Dukes	23.1%	2,442	75.0%	7,913	1.9%	198
Essex	38.8%	137,129	59.1%	208,976	2.1%	7,357
Franklin	24.8%	9,545	72.5%	27,919	2.8%	1,065
Hampden	36.1%	71,350	61.4%	121,454	2.5%	4,916
Hampshire	25.9%	20,618	71.5%	56,869	2.6%	2,083
Middlesex	33.9%	245,766	64.0%	464,484	2.2%	15,781
Nantucket	30.8%	1,863	67.3%	4,073	1.9%	116
Norfolk	39.7%	136,841	58.2%	200,675	2.1%	7,400
Plymouth	45.2%	112,904	52.8%	131,817	2.0%	5,096
Suffolk	21.2%	57,194	76.9%	207,128	1.8%	4,900
Worcester	41.8%	152,101	55.6%	202,107	2.6%	9,386

Results by municipality

Results by town

  Obama – 80–90%

  Obama – 70–80%

  Obama – 60–70%

  Obama – 50–60%

  Obama – <50%

  McCain – <50%

  McCain – 50–60%

Results by Congressional district

Barack Obama swept all 10 Congressional districts in Massachusetts.

District	Representative re-elected	McCain	Obama
1	John Olver (D)	33.54%	64.17%
2	Richard Neal (D)	38.88%	59.04%
3	Jim McGovern (D)	39.39%	58.74%
4	Barney Frank (D)	34.67%	63.66%
5	Niki Tsongas (D)	39.41%	58.92%
6	John F. Tierney (D)	40.71%	57.65%
7	Ed Markey (D)	33.34%	64.96%
8	Mike Capuano (D)	13.74%	85.58%
9	Stephen Lynch (D)	38.50%	60.37%
10	William Delahunt (D)	43.60%	54.87%

Electors

Technically the voters of Massachusetts cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Massachusetts is allocated 12 electors because it has 10 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 12 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 12 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.[29] An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.

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

The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 12 were pledged to Obama and Biden:[30]

1. Brenda Brathwaite
2. Mary Ann Dube
3. Patricia Marcus
4. Faye Morrison
5. Carol Pacheco
6. Corinne Wingard
7. John Brissette
8. Raymond Jordan
9. Joe Kaplan
10. Melvin Poindexter
11. Samuel Poulten
12. Jason Whittet

See also

• United States presidential elections in Massachusetts
• 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries

References

1. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
2. Archived 2008-06-18 at the Wayback Machine Archived 2008-05-11 at the Wayback Machine
3. "Massachusetts Democratic Primary". RealClearPolitics. Retrieved February 4, 2008.
4. Phillips, Frank; Viser, Matt (February 6, 2008). "Decisive victories in Mass". Boston Globe. Retrieved February 6, 2008.
5. "Massachusetts Republican Delegation 2008". The Green Papers. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
6. "RESULTS: Massachusetts". CNN. 2008-02-05. Retrieved 2008-02-05.
7. "Massachusetts 2008 Presidential Primary Results - Republican Party". Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. 2008-02-05. Retrieved 2008-05-24.
8. Giese, Chuck (June 20, 2008). "The Green Party's Internal Democracy Problem: Presidential Politics". www.dissedentvoice.org. Dissident Voice. Retrieved April 7, 2008.
9. "2008 President Green-rainbow Primary". Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Government of Massachusetts. February 5, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2008.
10. "PD43+ » Search Elections". PD43+. Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
11. "D.C.'s Political Report: The complete source for campaign summaries". Archived from the original on 2009-01-01. Retrieved 2009-12-20.
12. Presidential | The Cook Political Report Archived May 5, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
13. Adnaan (2008-09-20). "Track the Electoral College vote predictions". The Takeaway. Archived from the original on April 22, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-14.
14. Electoral-vote.com: President, Senate, House Updated Daily
15. Based on Takeaway
16. POLITICO's 2008 Swing State Map - POLITICO.com
17. RealClearPolitics - Electoral Map
18. CQ Politics |CQ Presidential Election Maps, 2008 Archived October 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
19. "Electoral College Map". The New York Times. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
20. "October – 2008 – CNN Political Ticker". CNN. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
21. "Winning the Electoral College". Fox News. April 27, 2010.
22. roadto270
23. Election 2008: Electoral College Update - Rasmussen Reports™
24. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/ma/massachusetts_mccain_vs_obama-575.html#polls
25. Election 2008 Polls - Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections
26. "Presidential Campaign Finance". Archived from the original on 2009-03-24. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
27. "Map: Campaign Ad Spending - Election Center 2008 from CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
28. "Map: Campaign Candidate Visits - Election Center 2008 from CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
29. "Electoral College". California Secretary of State. Archived from the original on October 30, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
30. http://www.massdems.org/dsc/dscon_resources08.cfm Archived 2008-10-01 at the Wayback Machine Massachusetts Democratic Party