Electoral history of Barack Obama
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Pre-presidency
44th President of the United States First term Second term Post-presidency Publications Personal
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This is the electoral history of Barack Obama. Obama served as the 44th president of the United States (2009–2017) and as a United States senator from Illinois (2005–2008).
A member of the
In 2008, Obama entered the Democratic primaries for the U.S. presidential election. Numerous candidates entered initially, but over time the field narrowed down to Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton from New York. The contest was highly competitive between the two, with neither being able to reach a majority of delegates without the addition of unpledged delegates. Eventually, Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama for the nomination, prompting his victory. He went on to face Senator John McCain from Arizona as the Republican nominee, defeating him with 365 electoral votes to McCain's 173.
Obama sought re-election for a second term in 2012, running virtually unopposed in the Democratic primaries. His opponent in the general election was former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney. Obama won 332 electoral votes, defeating Romney who gained 206. After this election, he became the first president since Ronald Reagan to receive a majority of the popular vote twice.[a]
Illinois Senate elections (1997–2002)
1997
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Barack Obama | 48,592 | 82.16% | |
Harold Washington | David Whitehead | 7,461 | 12.62% | |
Republican | Rosette Caldwell Peyton | 3,091 | 5.23% | |
Total votes | 59,144 | 100.00% | ||
Democratic hold |
1998
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Barack Obama (incumbent) | 45,486 | 89.17% | |
Republican | Yesse B. Yehudah | 5,526 | 10.83% | |
Total votes | 51,012 | 100.00% | ||
Democratic hold |
2002
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Barack Obama (incumbent) | 48,717 | 100.00% | |
Total votes | 48,717 | 100.00% | ||
Democratic hold |
United States House of Representatives election (2000)
Primary election
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Bobby Rush (incumbent) | 59,599 | 61.03% | |
Democratic | Barack Obama | 29,649 | 30.36% | |
Democratic | Donne Trotter | 6,915 | 7.08% | |
Democratic | George Roby | 1,501 | 1.54% | |
Total votes | 97,664 | 100.00% |
United States Senate election (2004)
Primary election
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Barack Obama | 655,923 | 52.77% | |
Democratic | Dan Hynes
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294,717 | 23.71% | |
Democratic | Blair Hull | 134,453 | 10.82% | |
Democratic | Maria Pappas | 74,987 | 6.03% | |
Democratic | Gery Chico | 53,433 | 4.30% | |
Democratic | Nancy Skinner
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16,098 | 1.30% | |
Democratic | Joyce Washington | 13,375 | 1.08% | |
Write-in | 10 | 0.00% | ||
Total votes | 1,242,996 | 100.00% |
General election
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Barack Obama | 3,598,277 | 69.97% | ||
Republican | Alan Keyes | 1,391,030 | 27.05% | ||
Independent
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Albert J. Franzen | 81,186 | 1.58% | ||
Libertarian | Jerry Kohn | 69,276 | 1.35% | ||
Write-in | 2,930 | 0.05% | |||
Total votes | 5,142,699 | 100.00% | |||
Democratic gain from Republican |
Presidential primary (2008)
Popular vote
Excluding penalized contests,[b] only primary and caucuses votes:
Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|
Barack Obama | 16,706,853 | 49.04% | |
Hillary Clinton | 16,239,821 | 47.67% | |
John Edwards | 742,010 | 2.18% | |
Bill Richardson | 89,054 | 0.26% | |
Uncommitted | 82,660 | 0.24% | |
Dennis Kucinich | 68,482 | 0.20% | |
Joe Biden | 64,041 | 0.19% | |
Mike Gravel | 27,662 | 0.08% | |
Christopher Dodd
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25,300 | 0.07% | |
Others | 22,556 | 0.07% | |
Total votes | 34,068,439 | 100.00% |
Including penalized contests:
Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|
Hillary Clinton | 18,225,175 | 48.03% | |
Barack Obama | 17,988,182 | 47.41% | |
John Edwards | 1,006,275 | 2.65% | |
Uncommitted | 299,610 | 2.79% | |
Bill Richardson | 106,073 | 0.28% | |
Dennis Kucinich | 103,994 | 0.27% | |
Joe Biden | 81,641 | 0.22% | |
Scattering | 44,348 | 0.12% | |
Mike Gravel | 40,251 | 0.11% | |
Christopher Dodd
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35,281 | 0.09% | |
Total votes | 37,980,830 | 100.00% |
Delegate counts
2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries | |||
---|---|---|---|
Candidate | Delegates | ||
Pledged delegates | Superdelegates
|
Total delegates | |
Barack Obama | 1,795 | 361 | 2,156 |
Hillary Clinton | 1,637 | 285 | 1,922 |
John Edwards | 4 | 2 | 6 |
Total | 3,436 | 648 | 4,084 |
Needed to win | 2,118 |
- Barack Obama - chosen by acclamation
Unfinished roll call (13 states, D.C. Guam, American Samoa and Democrats Abroad):
- Hillary Clinton - 1,011 (24.07%)
Other results
Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|
Raymond Stebbins | 50,485 | 46.93% | |
William Bryk | 22,965 | 21.35% | |
John Edwards | 10,553 | 9.81% | |
Barack Obama | 6,402 | 5.95% | |
Bill Richardson | 5,525 | 5.14% | |
Hillary Clinton | 3,419 | 3.18% | |
Joe Biden | 1,512 | 1.41% | |
Al Gore | 966 | 0.90% | |
Dennis Kucinich | 762 | 0.71% | |
Bill Clinton | 388 | 0.36% | |
John McCain | 293 | 0.27% | |
Christopher Dodd
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224 | 0.21% | |
Ron Paul | 176 | 0.16% | |
Jack Barnes, Jr.
|
95 | 0.09% | |
Mike Gravel | 91 | 0.09% | |
Joe Lieberman | 67 | 0.06% | |
Mitt Romney | 66 | 0.06% | |
Mike Huckabee | 63 | 0.06% | |
Rudy Giuliani | 46 | 0.04% | |
Darrel Hunter | 20 | 0.02% | |
Total votes | 104,118 | 100.00% |
Presidential elections (2008–2012)
2008
161,797 | 0.12 | ||||||
Others | 290,626 | 0.22 | |||||
Total | 131,361,761 | 100.00 | 538 | 100.00 |
2012
469,627 | 0.36 | ||||||
Others | 490,513 | 0.38 | |||||
Total | 129,085,410 | 100.00 | 538 | 100.00 |
See also
- Obama coalition
- Electoral history of Joe Biden
- Electoral history of Hillary Clinton
- Electoral history of Sarah Palin
- Electoral history of John McCain
- Electoral history of John Edwards
- Electoral history of Kamala Harris
- Electoral history of Mitt Romney
Notes
- ^ George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush won majorities of the popular vote once each, while Bill Clinton never won a majority in the popular vote.
- Michigan violated Democratic National Committeerules by moving their primaries before February 5, 2008, resulting in a nullification of their primaries, until the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee voted to restore half their delegates.