2008 United States presidential election in Utah

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Main article: 2008 United States presidential election
2008 United States presidential election in Utah
← 2004 November 4, 2008 2012 →
  John McCain official portrait 2009.jpg Obama portrait crop.jpg
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 62.24% 34.22%
250px
County Results
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, and 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.

Primaries

Campaign

Predictions

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. There were 16 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day:

Polling

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

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 three-poll average showed McCain leading 59% to 31%.[17]

Fundraising

John McCain raised a total of $1,165,621 in the state. Barack Obama raised $2,121,563.[18]

Advertising and visits

Obama spent $297,645. McCain spent just $250.[19] Neither campaign visited the state.[20]

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.[21]

With 62.15 percent of the popular vote, Utah proved to be McCain's third strongest state in the 2008 election after Oklahoma and neighboring Wyoming.[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] In substantially Native American and non-Mormon – but historically heavily Republican – San Juan County, Obama’s performance was the best by a Democratic presidential candidate since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. As of the 2016 presidential election, this is the last time that Grand County voted for the Democratic candidate.

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

2008 United States presidential election in Utah
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
Peace and Freedom 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 by county

County[27] John Sidney McCain III
Republican		 Barack Hussein Obama
Democratic		 Charles Obadiah Baldwin[28]
Constitution		 Ralph Nader[28]
Peace and Freedom		 Robert Laurence Barr Jr.[28]
Libertarian		 Various candidates[28]
Other parties		 Margin Total votes cast
#  % #  % #  % #  % #  % #  % #  %
Beaver 1,902 75.81% 542 21.60% 30 1.20% 21 0.84% 12 0.48% 2 0.08% 1,360 54.20% 2,509
Box Elder 15,228 79.90% 3,311 17.37% 221 1.16% 147 0.77% 127 0.67% 24 0.13% 11,917 62.53% 19,058
Cache 29,127 70.47% 10,294 24.91% 1,153 2.79% 315 0.76% 372 0.90% 71 0.17% 18,833 45.57% 41,332
Carbon 4,091 52.60% 3,468 44.59% 62 0.80% 90 1.16% 48 0.62% 18 0.23% 623 8.01% 7,777
Daggett 297 67.65% 131 29.84% 2 0.46% 8 1.82% 1 0.23% 0 0.00% 166 37.81% 439
Davis 77,341 69.74% 30,477 27.48% 1,175 1.06% 956 0.86% 811 0.73% 142 0.13% 46,864 42.26% 110,902
Duchesne 4,689 81.63% 911 15.86% 66 1.15% 27 0.47% 37 0.64% 14 0.24% 3,778 65.77% 5,744
Emery 3,358 75.49% 973 21.88% 43 0.97% 39 0.88% 26 0.58% 9 0.20% 2,385 53.62% 4,448
Garfield 1,663 79.12% 402 19.12% 13 0.62% 9 0.43% 10 0.48% 5 0.24% 1,261 59.99% 2,102
Grand 1,871 45.89% 2,067 50.70% 28 0.69% 56 1.37% 30 0.74% 25 0.61% -196 -4.81% 4,077
Iron 12,518 76.10% 3,258 19.81% 352 2.14% 138 0.84% 163 0.99% 21 0.13% 9,260 56.29% 16,450
Juab 2,683 74.20% 741 20.49% 129 3.57% 30 0.83% 28 0.77% 5 0.14% 1,942 53.71% 3,616
Kane 2,212 70.13% 856 27.14% 27 0.86% 31 0.98% 24 0.76% 4 0.13% 1,356 42.99% 3,154
Millard 3,653 77.08% 758 15.99% 264 5.57% 27 0.57% 34 0.72% 3 0.06% 2,895 61.09% 4,739
Morgan 3,311 79.57% 689 16.56% 102 2.45% 28 0.67% 29 0.70% 2 0.05% 2,622 63.01% 4,161
Piute 635 79.57% 141 17.67% 13 1.63% 7 0.88% 2 0.25% 0 0.00% 494 61.90% 798
Rich 831 82.60% 154 15.31% 9 0.89% 5 0.50% 5 0.50% 2 0.20% 677 67.30% 1,006
Salt Lake 176,692 48.58% 176,988 48.66% 3,229 0.89% 3,768 1.04% 2,556 0.70% 516 0.14% -296 -0.08% 363,749
San Juan 2,638 51.42% 2,406 46.90% 45 0.88% 25 0.49% 14 0.27% 2 0.04% 232 4.52% 5,130
Sanpete 6,664 75.98% 1,631 18.60% 324 3.69% 87 0.99% 54 0.62% 11 0.13% 5,033 57.38% 8,771
Sevier 6,394 79.86% 1,359 16.97% 131 1.64% 52 0.65% 53 0.66% 18 0.22% 5,035 62.88% 8,007
Summit 6,956 41.38% 9,532 56.71% 75 0.45% 126 0.75% 104 0.62% 16 0.10% -2,576 -15.33% 16,809
Tooele 10,998 63.44% 5,830 33.63% 206 1.19% 151 0.87% 137 0.79% 15 0.09% 5,168 29.81% 17,337
Uintah 8,441 83.15% 1,462 14.40% 157 1.55% 45 0.44% 37 0.36% 9 0.09% 6,979 68.75% 10,151
Utah 122,224 77.71% 29,567 18.80% 2,877 1.83% 1,119 0.71% 1,311 0.83% 181 0.12% 92,657 58.91% 157,279
Wasatch 5,430 63.65% 2,892 33.90% 81 0.95% 86 1.01% 30 0.35% 12 0.14% 2,538 29.75% 8,531
Washington 37,311 75.33% 10,826 21.86% 628 1.27% 312 0.63% 413 0.83% 39 0.08% 26,485 53.47% 49,529
Wayne 940 71.54% 335 25.49% 10 0.76% 12 0.91% 12 0.91% 5 0.38% 605 46.04% 1,314
Weber 45,885 62.52% 25,666 34.97% 557 0.76% 697 0.95% 485 0.66% 104 0.14% 20,219 27.55% 73,394
Totals 596,030 62.58% 327,670 34.41% 12,012 1.26% 8,416 0.88% 6,966 0.73% 1,276 0.13% 268,360 28.18% 952,370


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

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Main article: List of 2008 United States presidential 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.[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 5 were pledged to John McCain and Sarah Palin:[30]

  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. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ http://electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Pres/Maps/Dec31.html
  5. ↑ Based on Takeaway
  6. ↑ http://www.politico.com/convention/swingstate.html
  7. ↑ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/?map=5
  8. ↑ Based on Takeaway
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Based on Takeaway
  13. ↑ Based on Takeaway
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/campaign_plus/roadto270/
  16. ↑ http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections2/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/election_2008_electoral_college_update
  17. ↑ http://uselectionatlas.org/POLLS/PRESIDENT/2008/pollsa.php?fips=49
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 Our Campaigns; UT US Presidential Election November 04 2008
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

See also

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