United States presidential election in Ohio, 2008

Main article: United States presidential election, 2008

United States presidential election in Ohio, 2008

2004 ← November 4, 2008 → 2012

Nominee Barack Obama John McCain Party Democratic Republican Home state Illinois Arizona Running mate Joe Biden Sarah Palin Electoral vote 20 0 Popular vote 2,940,044 2,677,820 Percentage 51.5% 46.9%

County results

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

The 2008 United States presidential election in Ohio 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 20 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.

Ohio was won by Democratic nominee Barack Obama with a 4.6% margin of victory. Prior to the election, most news organizations considered this state as a major swing state and bellwether. Both major party candidates visited the Buckeye State numerous times and campaigned throughout the state extensively trying to sway moderates and independent voters to their side. The polls in Ohio were fairly even throughout the campaign but Obama had a slight lead as Election Day drew closer. In the end, Obama flipped Ohio into the Democratic column.

Primaries

• Ohio Republican primary, 2008
• Ohio Democratic primary, 2008

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
2. Cook Political Report: Toss Up
3. Takeaway: Toss Up
4. Election Projection: Leaning Obama
5. Electoral-vote.com: Leaning Democrat
6. Washington Post: Leaning Obama
7. Politico: Leaning Obama
8. Real Clear Politics: Toss Up
9. FiveThirtyEight.com: Leaning Obama
10. CQ Politics: Leaning Democrat
11. New York Times: Toss Up
12. CNN: Toss Up
13. NPR: Toss Up
14. MSNBC: Leaning McCain
15. Fox News: Toss Up
16. Associated Press: Toss Up
17. Rasmussen Reports: Toss Up

Polling

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

During most of the summer and September, McCain led many state polls and many by 50% of over. The most accurate pollster of Rasmussen had McCain leading with as high as 51% in September. But many voters in the state changed their minds as Obama later gained a steady lead in most polls taken starting in the beginning of October (around the time of the 2008 financial crisis).

Fundraising

Obama raised $7,218,801. McCain raised $5,682,839.

Advertising and visits

A major swing state, Obama spent over $28 million to McCain's $24 million. The Republican ticket visited the state 28 times to the Obama ticket's 22 times.

Analysis

Going into Election 2008, both McCain and Obama knew that Ohio was a crucial state. Earlier in the primary season, Ohio had given a major comeback victory to Hillary Rodham Clinton. Both candidates campaigned heavily throughout the state in hopes for winning its 20 electoral votes. As no Republican has ever won the presidency without winning Ohio, it was seen in particular as a "must-win" state for McCain.

On Election Day 2008, Obama won the Buckeye State's 20 electoral votes by a margin of 4.59 percent, an increase from 2004 when George W. Bush carried the state by 2.11 percent against John Kerry and 2000 when Bush carried the state by 3.50 percent against Al Gore. Obama's win in heavily populated areas such as Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), Franklin County (Columbus), Lucas County (Toledo) and the traditionally Republican Hamilton County (Cincinnati) greatly contributed to his victory in the state.

McCain did best in the Republican heart of the state, the state's center and western parts composed of relatively rural areas combined with Cincinnati and Columbus' heavily Republican suburbs. In addition, McCain won all but one county in the Appalachian southeast, mirroring the troubles Obama had throughout this region. On the other hand, Obama did best in the Democratic base—Cleveland (where he won almost 70% of the vote), Youngstown and the heavily unionized counties next to Pennsylvania. However, he was unable to significantly improve upon John Kerry's performance in these areas. More surprisingly, the cities of Cincinnati and Columbus gave him strong support. Cincinnati, the only major city that didn't vote for Franklin D. Roosevelt, voted Democratic for the first time since 1964. Columbus, a city shifting to the Democrats, also voted for Obama by a three-to-two margin. In addition, Obama won several northern counties along the shore of Lake Erie that John Kerry had lost in 2004.

As polls closed and results were coming in on Election Night, Republican strategist and adviser Karl Rove joined Brit Hume on Fox News offering analysis. Rove was discussing the impact an Ohio loss would have on McCain's chances of winning the election. "If he loses Ohio," Rove stated of McCain, "he goes from 286, which the Republicans carried in 2004, down to 266, and that puts him below the 270 threshold needed to win the White House. So he'd not only need to sweep the rest of these states which were won by the Republicans in 2004, he'd also need to pick up something as well." In a moment of unfortunate timing, Hume broke in. "Guess what Karl," Hume interrupted, "I've just received word that the state of Ohio has gone for Barack Obama."

Results

United States presidential election in Ohio, 2008
Party		Candidate	Running mate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Democratic	Barack Obama	Joe Biden	2,940,044	51.50%	20
	Republican	John McCain	Sarah Palin	2,677,820	46.91%	0
	Independent	Ralph Nader	Matt Gonzalez	42,337	0.74%	0
	Libertarian	Bob Barr	Wayne Allyn Root	19,917	0.35%	0
	Write-ins	Write-ins		13,330	0.23%	0
	Constitution	Chuck Baldwin	Darrell Castle	12,565	0.22%	0
	Green	Cynthia McKinney	Rosa Clemente	8,518	0.15%	0
	Others	Others		6,843	0.12%	0
Totals				5,721,374	100.00%	20
Voter turnout (Voting age population)						67.3%

Results breakdown

By county

Projections based on published official or unofficial county election board results, where available; otherwise, on the unofficial state board of elections results.

County	Barack Obama	John McCain	Ralph Nader	Bob Barr	Cynthia McKinney	Others
Adams	4,170	6,914	131	38	29	106
Allen	19,521	29,941	362	196	75	168
Ashland	9,300	15,158	225	117	76	292
Ashtabula	25,027	18,949	456	174	71	197
Athens	20,722	9,742	263	140	85	146
Auglaize	6,727	16,395	168	87	31	78
Belmont	16,302	15,422	402	104	52	129
Brown	7,503	12,192	220	84	32	82
Butler	66,030	105,340	1,039	642	222	503
Carroll	6,423	7,097	213	64	45	111
Champaign	7,385	11,141	196	70	35	60
Clark	31,958	33,634	661	217	110	190
Clermont	31,611	62,559	599	362	122	227
Clinton	6,558	12,410	197	67	21	53
Columbiana	21,882	25,585	545	143	94	238
Coshocton	7,689	8,675	221	86	65	127
Crawford	8,288	12,316	242	105	71	151
Cuyahoga	458,204	199,864	3,615	1,477	711	1,246
Darke	7,964	17,290	273	97	69	100
Defiance	8,399	10,407	154	81	37	119
Delaware	36,653	54,778	359	339	77	213
Erie	23,148	17,432	349	125	56	119
Fairfield	29,250	41,580	493	267	109	247
Fayette	4,401	7,102	103	44	19	25
Franklin	334,684	218,478	2,993	2,128	689	1,319
Fulton	9,900	11,689	167	72	38	107
Gallia	4,777	8,247	132	64	36	62
Geauga	21,250	29,096	379	180	59	138
Greene	33,540	48,936	510	288	110	205
Guernsey	7,625	9,197	228	85	48	142
Hamilton	224,644	195,107	1,899	1,264	397	774
Hancock	13,870	22,420	209	152	62	168
Hardin	5,013	7,749	139	76	51	86
Harrison	3,683	3,872	104	27	24	77
Henry	6,320	8,239	115	66	32	68
Highland	6,857	11,908	204	76	42	101
Hocking	6,231	6,326	154	58	38	88
Holmes	3,141	7,720	113	35	25	79
Huron	12,076	12,884	212	122	71	217
Jackson	5,397	8,219	179	70	32	96
Jefferson	17,635	17,559	395	138	57	155
Knox	11,014	16,640	233	106	47	191
Lake	60,155	59,142	1,086	399	163	390
Lawrence	11,262	15,415	282	94	34	107
Licking	33,896	46,886	683	345	133	340
Logan	7,936	13,848	208	97	49	79
Lorain	85,276	59,068	1,273	456	221	565
Lucas	142,852	73,706	1,488	923	277	585
Madison	6,532	10,603	142	89	31	54
Mahoning	79,173	45,319	1,300	432	276	703
Marion	12,870	15,454	301	157	76	159
Medina	40,924	48,189	638	278	109	313
Meigs	4,094	6,015	111	50	28	56
Mercer	5,853	15,100	127	70	28	93
Miami	18,372	33,417	426	221	135	236
Monroe	3,705	3,066	116	24	25	46
Montgomery	145,997	128,679	1,434	971	368	762
Morgan	2,966	3,440	106	34	12	50
Morrow	6,177	10,067	179	79	42	99
Muskingum	17,730	20,549	364	138	89	201
Noble	2,474	3,450	141	31	28	48
Ottawa	12,049	10,618	194	99	28	81
Paulding	4,165	5,317	127	50	25	85
Perry	7,261	7,721	206	58	40	118
Pickaway	9,077	14,228	210	84	38	89
Pike	6,033	6,162	143	52	30	86
Portage	41,856	34,822	664	289	155	420
Preble	6,999	13,562	227	105	40	69
Putnam	5,281	13,072	163	80	23	61
Richland	25,727	34,034	579	238	113	431
Ross	14,455	16,759	289	127	63	147
Sandusky	15,601	14,190	299	122	51	110
Scioto	14,926	16,994	348	117	46	140
Seneca	13,087	13,823	289	96	47	107
Shelby	7,317	15,924	230	62	46	89
Stark	96,990	86,743	1,784	663	347	1,018
Summit	155,105	110,499	1,718	780	316	641
Trumbull	64,145	40,164	1,285	433	245	639
Tuscarawas	21,498	20,454	465	178	89	266
Union	8,761	15,744	173	114	34	102
Van Wert	5,178	9,168	139	79	28	60
Vinton	2,463	3,021	94	21	21	26
Warren	33,398	71,691	488	352	83	204
Washington	12,368	17,019	285	91	44	125
Wayne	21,712	29,342	433	173	108	374
Williams	8,174	9,880	153	64	44	82
Wood	34,285	29,648	513	301	95	181
Wyandot	4,461	6,270	134	39	18	55
Total	2,933,388	2,674,491	42,288	19,888	8,513	19,692

By congressional district

Although Barack Obama won the state of Ohio, John McCain carried 10 of the state’s 18 congressional districts, including two districts held by Democratic incumbents and one district that simultaneously elected a Democrat. Obama carried 8 districts, including one district held by a Republican incumbent.

District	McCain	Obama	Representative
1st	44.30%	54.66%	Steve Chabot (110th Congress)
			Steve Driehaus (111th Congress)
2nd	58.61%	40.02%	Jean Schmidt
3rd	51.14%	47.39%	Mike Turner
4th	59.84%	38.16%	Jim Jordan
5th	52.95%	45.05%	Paul E. Gillmor (110th Congress)
			Bob Latta (111th Congress)
6th	50.30%	47.60%	Charlie Wilson
7th	53.80%	44.57%	Dave Hobson (110th Congress)
			Steve Austria (111th Congress)
8th	60.38%	37.87%	John Boehner
9th	36.17%	62.26%	Marcy Kaptur
10th	38.98%	59.16%	Dennis Kucinich
11th	14.39%	84.76%	Stephanie Tubbs Jones (110th Congress)
			Marcia Fudge (111th Congress)
12th	44.62%	54.15%	Pat Tiberi
13th	44.62%	54.15%	Betty Sutton
14th	49.35%	49.13%	Steven LaTourette
15th	44.64%	53.61%	Deborah Pryce (110th Congress)
			Mary Jo Kilroy (111th Congress)
16th	50.32%	47.69%	Ralph Regula (110th Congress)
			John Boccieri (111th Congress)
17th	36.09%	61.84%	Tim Ryan
18th	52.81%	44.79%	Zack Space

Electors

Main article: List of United States presidential electors, 2008

Technically the voters of Ohio cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Ohio is allocated 20 electors because it has 18 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 20 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 20 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. 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 20 were pledged to Barack Obama and Joe Biden:

1. Catherine Barrett
2. Barbara Tuckerman
3. Wade Kapszukiewicz
4. Tamela Lee
5. Renee Cafaro
6. Victoria Wulsin
7. Craig Brown
8. Jimmy Cotner
9. Janet Carson
10. Bruce Johnson
11. Nannette Whaley
12. Martha Jane Brooks
13. Eugene Miller
14. Fran Alberty
15. Chris Redfern
16. John Kosty
17. Kelly Gillis
18. Charleta Tavares
19. Michael Todd
20. Ted Strickland