Electoral history of Barack Obama
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Personal
Illinois State Senator and U.S. Senator from Illinois 44th President of the United States
Tenure
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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 Democratic Party, Obama was first elected to the Illinois Senate in 1997 representing the 13th district, which covered much of the Chicago South Side. In 2000, Obama ran an unsuccessful campaign for Illinois's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives against four-term incumbent Bobby Rush. In 2004, Obama campaigned for the U.S. Senate, participating in the first Senate election in which both major party candidates were African American, with Alan Keyes running as the Republican candidate. Obama won the election, gaining a seat previously represented by Republican Peter Fitzgerald.
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 Dwight D. Eisenhower to receive over 51% 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | |||||
2008 Presidential election
Democratic presidential primaries
Popular vote
| Barack Obama (33) Hillary Clinton (23) |
| Barack Obama Hillary Clinton John Edwards Tie No results |
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 | 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 | 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 | ||
2008 Democratic National Convention (Presidential tally)
- 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 | 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% | |
General election
| Candidate | Running mate | Party | Popular vote | Electoral vote | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | ||||
| Barack Obama | Joe Biden | Democratic | 69,498,516 | 52.91 | 365 | 67.84 | |
| John McCain | Sarah Palin | Republican | 59,948,323 | 45.64 | 173 | 32.16 | |
| Ralph Nader | Matt Gonzalez | Independent | 739,034 | 0.56 | |||
| Bob Barr | Wayne Allyn Root | Libertarian | 523,715 | 0.40 | |||
| Chuck Baldwin | Darrell Castle | Constitution | 199,750 | 0.15 | |||
| Cynthia McKinney | Rosa Clemente | Green | 161,797 | 0.12 | |||
| Others | 290,626 | 0.22 | |||||
| Total | 131,361,761 | 100.00 | 538 | 100.00 | |||
2012 Presidential election
2012 Democratic Presidential primaries
| 2012 Democratic Party presidential primaries | Pledged delegates |
Contest | Candidates and results | Total votes cast | Ref | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Barack Obama |
 John Wolfe Jr. |
KJ Keith Judd |
 Darcy Richardson |
BE Bob Ely |
 Randall Terry |
JR Jim Rogers |
 Other/Uncommitted | |||||
| Totals votes earned | 4,761 | 60 contests | 91.0% 4,780 delegates 8,106,369 votes |
1.3% 23 delegates 116,639 votes |
0.8% 15 delegates 73,138 votes |
0.5% 0 delegates 41,730 votes |
0.3% 0 delegates 29,947 votes |
0.3% 7 delegates 22,858 votes |
0.2% 3 delegates 15,535 votes |
5.6% 79 delegates 500,240 votes |
8,903,722 votes | |
| Convention roll call | 100% 5,556 delegates |
0% | ||||||||||
General election
| Candidate | Running mate | Party | Popular vote | Electoral vote | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | ||||
| Barack Obama (inc.) | Joe Biden (inc.) | Democratic | 65,915,795 | 51.06 | 332 | 61.71 | |
| Mitt Romney | Paul Ryan | Republican | 60,933,504 | 47.20 | 206 | 38.29 | |
| Gary Johnson | Jim Gray | Libertarian | 1,275,971 | 0.99 | |||
| Jill Stein | Cheri Honkala | Green | 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.
- ^ Florida and Michigan violated Democratic National Committee rules 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.
