United States presidential election in Utah, 2008

United States presidential election in Utah, 2008
Utah
November 4, 2008
 
Nominee John McCain Barack Obama
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Arizona Illinois
Running mate Sarah Palin Joe Biden
Electoral vote 5 0
Popular vote 596,030 327,670
Percentage 62.2% 34.2%

County Results
  Obama—50-60%
  Obama—<50%
  McCain—50-60%
  McCain—60-70%
  McCain—70-80%
  McCain—80-90%
President before election

George W. Bush
Republican

 Elected President

Barack Obama
Democratic

The 2008 United States presidential election in Utah took place on November 4, 2008 throughout all 50 states and D.C., which was part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose 5 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.

Utah was won by Republican nominee John McCain by a 28.0% margin of victory. Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations considered this a state McCain would win, or otherwise considered as a safe red state. Highlighting its status as a GOP bastion, the Beehive State gave McCain one of his largest victories over Democrat Barack Obama, a near two-to-one margin. Obama did, however, manage to carry three counties, and he greatly improved on John Kerry's performance here in 2004. However, in the next election Obama performed much worse among voters.

Primaries

Campaign

Predictions

There were 17 news organizations who made state by state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day:

  1. D.C. Political Report: Republican[1]
  2. Cook Political Report: Solid Republican[2]
  3. Takeaway: Solid McCain[3]
  4. Election Projection: Solid McCain[4]
  5. Electoral-vote.com: Strong Republican[5]
  6. Washington Post: Solid McCain[6]
  7. Politico: Solid McCain[7]
  8. Real Clear Politics: Solid McCain[8]
  9. FiveThirtyEight.com: Solid McCain[9]
  10. CQ Politics: Safe Republican[10]
  11. New York Times: Solid Republican[11]
  12. CNN: Safe Republican[12]
  13. NPR: Solid McCain[13]
  14. MSNBC: Solid McCain[14]
  15. Fox News: Republican[15]
  16. Associated Press: Republican[16]
  17. Rasmussen Reports: Safe Republican[17]

Polling

McCain won every pre-election poll conducted in this state, each with a double digit margin and with at least 55% of the vote. The final 3 poll average showed McCain leading 59% to 31%.[18]

Fundraising

John McCain raised a total of $1,165,621 in the state. Barack Obama raised $2,121,563.[19]

Advertising and visits

Obama spent $297,645. McCain spent just $250.[20] Neither campaign visited the state.[21]

Analysis

Utah is a heavily Republican state that has not voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since Lyndon B. Johnson's landslide election in 1964, and even then the margin of victory was small. The majority of the state's population is Mormon and highly conservative, especially on social issues. Utah gave George W. Bush his largest margin of victory in 2004 over John Kerry, as Bush received over 71 percent to Kerry's 26 percent and carried every county in the state.[22]

Although McCain easily won Utah in 2008, Obama did very well for a Democrat in this Republican stronghold. Obama was able to reduce McCain's margin of victory by narrowly winning Salt Lake County, the state's most populous county that contains the state capital of Salt Lake City, by a mere 296 votes. Obama also carried Summit County and Grand County, both of which have significantly lower Mormon populations than the rest of the state.[23][24][25]

Election 2008 proved to be remarkable as it was a Democratic presidential nominee's best showing in the Beehive State since 1968.[26]

During the same election, popular incumbent Republican Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. was reelected to a second term in a massive landslide victory, taking in 77.74 percent of the vote over Democrat Bob Springmeyer's 19.65 percent and Libertarian Dell Schanze's 2.62 percent. At the state level, however, Democrats did manage to pick up two seats in the Utah House of Representatives.

Results

United States presidential election in Utah, 2008
Party Candidate Running mate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican John McCain Sarah Palin 596,030 62.24% 5
Democratic Barack Obama Joe Biden 327,670 34.22% 0
Constitution Chuck Baldwin Darrell Castle 12,012 1.25% 0
Independent Ralph Nader Matt Gonzalez 8,416 0.88% 0
Libertarian Bob Barr Wayne Allyn Root 6,966 0.73% 0
Write-ins Write-ins 5,224 0.55% 0
Green Cynthia McKinney Rosa Clemente 982 0.10% 0
Others Others 290 0.03% 0
Totals 957,590 100.00% 5
Voter turnout (Voting age population) 55.5%

Results breakdown

By county

County McCain Votes Obama Votes Others Votes Total[27]
Beaver 76.4% 1,786 21.8% 509 1.8% 42 2,337
Box Elder 80.8% 14,340 17.4% 3,080 1.9% 331 17,751
Cache 71.1% 27,799 25.1% 9,806 3.8% 1,469 39,074
Carbon 53.2% 3,960 45.3% 3,368 1.5% 110 7,438
Daggett 69.0% 294 30.3% 129 0.7% 3 426
Davis 70.5% 73,317 27.7% 28,831 1.8% 1,894 104,042
Duchesne 82.1% 4,592 16.0% 897 1.8% 101 5,590
Emery 76.4% 3,338 22.1% 965 1.6% 68 4,371
Garfield 79.6% 1,663 19.2% 402 1.1% 24 2,089
Grand 46.7% 1,787 51.8% 1,981 1.4% 55 3,823
Iron 76.8% 11,786 20.1% 3,078 3.1% 473 15,337
Juab 74.9% 2,647 20.7% 730 4.4% 156 3,533
Kane 70.9% 2,194 27.5% 850 1.6% 51 3,095
Millard 77.7% 3,565 16.0% 733 6.4% 293 4,591
Morgan 80.1% 3,219 16.8% 674 3.2% 128 4,021
Piute 80.3% 635 17.8% 141 1.9% 15 791
Rich 83.1% 829 17.8% 154 1.4% 14 997
Salt Lake 49.1% 176,692 49.2% 176,988 1.6% 5,896 359,576
San Juan 52.1% 2,586 46.7% 2,322 1.2% 59 4,967
Sanpete 77.2% 6,036 18.5% 1,449 4.3% 335 7,820
Sevier 80.6% 6,222 17.1% 1,320 2.3% 182 7,724
Summit 41.7% 6,691 57.2% 9,194 1.1% 176 16,061
Tooele 64.3% 10,201 33.7% 5,349 2.0% 316 15,866
Uintah 83.6% 8,113 14.5% 1,407 1.9% 189 9,709
Utah 78.7% 111,273 18.6% 26,276 2.8% 3,899 141,448
Wasatch 64.3% 5,271 34.4% 2,818 1.3% 108 8,197
Washington 76.7% 33,594 21.1% 9,251 2.2% 946 43,791
Wayne 72.4% 930 25.9% 333 1.6% 21 1,284
Weber 63.3% 43,250 35.2% 24,028 1.5% 991 68,323

By congressional district

John McCain swept all three of the state's congressional districts.

District McCain Obama Representative
1st 63.62% 33.42% Rob Bishop
2nd 57.72% 39.55% Jim Matheson
3rd 67.35% 29.25% Chris Cannon (110th Congress)
Jason Chaffetz (111th Congress)

Electors

Technically the voters of Utah cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Utah is allocated 5 electors because it has 3 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 5 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 5 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.[28] 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 5 were pledged to John McCain and Sarah Palin:[29]

  1. Scott Simpson
  2. Richard Snelgrove
  3. Stan Lockhart
  4. Enid Greene-Mickelesen
  5. Mark Shurtleff

References

  1. ↑ http://www.dcpoliticalreport.com/Predictions.html
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 5, 2015. Retrieved May 4, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on April 22, 2009. Retrieved November 14, 2009.
  4. ↑ http://www.electionprojection.com/2008elections/president08.shtml
  5. ↑ http://electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Pres/Maps/Dec31.html
  6. ↑ Based on Takeaway
  7. ↑ http://www.politico.com/convention/swingstate.html
  8. ↑ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/?map=5
  9. ↑ Based on Takeaway
  10. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on June 14, 2009. Retrieved December 20, 2009.
  11. ↑ Nagourney, Adam; Zeleny, Jeff; Carter, Shan (2008-11-04). "The Electoral Map: Key States". The New York Times. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
  12. ↑ "October – 2008 – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs". CNN. 2008-10-31. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
  13. ↑ Based on Takeaway
  14. ↑ Based on Takeaway
  15. ↑ "Winning The Electoral College". Fox News. 2010-04-27.
  16. ↑ http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/campaign_plus/roadto270/
  17. ↑ http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections2/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/election_2008_electoral_college_update
  18. ↑ http://uselectionatlas.org/POLLS/PRESIDENT/2008/pollsa.php?fips=49
  19. ↑ http://www.fec.gov/DisclosureSearch/MapAppState.do?stateName=UT&cand_id=P00000001
  20. ↑ "Map: Campaign Ad Spending - Election Center 2008 from CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
  21. ↑ "Map: Campaign Candidate Visits - Election Center 2008 from CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
  22. ↑ "CNN Election Center 2004 - Utah Results". Retrieved 2008-11-13.
  23. ↑ "CNN Election Center 2008 - Utah Results". Retrieved 2008-11-13.
  24. ↑ "ksl.com - Final Tally: Obama Wins Salt Lake County". Retrieved 2008-11-19.
  25. ↑ "elections.utah.gov-Official Canvass of Utah Vote". Archived from the original on June 11, 2009. Retrieved 2008-11-28.
  26. ↑ "1968 General Election Results - Utah". Retrieved 2008-11-19.
  27. ↑ "NPR and NewsHour 2008 Election Results". Archived from the original on February 18, 2012. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
  28. ↑ "Electoral College". California Secretary of State. Archived from the original on October 30, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
  29. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on November 8, 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2008.

See also

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