2008 United States presidential election in Idaho

2008 United States presidential election in Idaho

← 2004 November 4, 2008 2012 →

Nominee John McCain Barack Obama Party Republican Democratic Home state Arizona Illinois Running mate Sarah Palin Joe Biden Electoral vote 4 0 Popular vote 403,012 236,440 Percentage 61.21% 35.91%

County Results McCain   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%   80-90% Obama   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%

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

Elections in Idaho
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The 2008 United States presidential election in Idaho took place on November 4, 2008, and was part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Idaho was won by Republican nominee John McCain by a 25.3% margin of victory. Prior to the election, all 17 major news organizations considered this a state McCain would win, or a red state. Polling in the state gave a sizable lead to McCain over Democrat Barack Obama, with most polling predicting a McCain win of at least 30 percentage points. Despite his landslide defeat in the state, Obama over-performed his polls and greatly improved on Kerry's performance four years earlier. Idaho has not gone Democratic since Lyndon B. Johnson narrowly won it in 1964.

Primaries[]

• 2008 Idaho Democratic caucuses
• 2008 Idaho Republican primary

Campaign[]

Predictions[]

There were 16 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day:

Source	Ranking
D.C. Political Report[1]	Likely R
Cook Political Report[2]	Solid R
The Takeaway[3]	Solid R
Electoral-vote.com[4]	Solid R
Washington Post[5]	Solid R
Politico[6]	Solid R
RealClearPolitics[7]	Solid R
FiveThirtyEight[5]	Solid R
CQ Politics[8]	Solid R
The New York Times[9]	Solid R
CNN[10]	Safe R
NPR[5]	Solid R
MSNBC[5]	Solid R
Fox News[11]	Likely R
Associated Press[12]	Likely R
Rasmussen Reports[13]	Safe R

Polling[]

McCain won every pre-election poll with a double-digit margin and with at least 52 percent of the vote. The final three poll average gave the Republican 66 percent to Obama's 29 percent.^[14]

Fundraising[]

Obama raised $874,523. McCain raised $441,338.^[15]

Advertising and visits[]

Obama spent $268. McCain spent $434.^[16] Neither campaign visited the state.^[17]

Analysis[]

With a substantial Mormon population, Idaho is one of the most reliably GOP bastions in the country. Although Barack Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate since Michael Dukakis in 1988 to eclipse 35 percent of the vote in solidly red state Idaho,^[18] the state was still won handily by John McCain by a margin of approximately 25.34 percent. McCain carried 41 of the state's 44 counties, with Obama winning Blaine County, home to Sun Valley and several other prime ski resorts; Latah County, home to the college town of Moscow, and Teton County, a highly affluent suburb of Teton County, Wyoming, and the last until Joe Biden won it in 2020 United States presidential election in Idaho. Obama was the first Democrat to carry Teton County since Harry S. Truman in 1948.^{[19] [20]} While Obama did not carry Ada County, he did carry the state capital and city of Boise. McCain's victory in Idaho, however, was less than that of George W. Bush who carried the state with 68.38 percent of the vote in 2004, a 12.78-point swing to the Democrats in Idaho.

With 61.21 percent of the popular vote, Idaho proved to be McCain's fourth strongest state in 2008 election after Oklahoma, Wyoming and Utah.^[21]

During the same election, Republicans held onto the open U.S. Senate seat vacated by Republican Larry Craig who reluctantly retired after it was revealed that he had solicited a man for sex in the men's restroom at an airport in Minneapolis. Former Lieutenant Governor Jim Risch, a Republican, was elected with 57.65% of the vote over Democrat Larry LaRocco who received 34.11%. A pro-life independent candidate received 5.35 point while Libertarian Kent Marmon received 1.54% and Rex Rammell, a far right-wing candidate who also ran as an Independent, received 1.34%.

At the state level, Republicans expanded their supermajority status in the Idaho state legislature as they picked up one seat in the Idaho House of Representatives.

Results[]

2008 United States presidential election in Idaho[22]
Party		Candidate	Running mate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	John McCain	Sarah Palin	403,012	61.21%	4
	Democratic	Barack Obama	Joe Biden	236,440	35.91%	0
	Independent	Ralph Nader	Matt Gonzalez	7,175	1.09%	0
	Constitution	Chuck Baldwin	Darrell Castle	4,747	0.72%	0
	Libertarian	Bob Barr	Wayne Allyn Root	3,658	0.56%	0
	Write-ins	Write-ins		3,340[a]	0.51%	0
	American Independent (Write-in)	Alan Keyes (Write-in)	Brian Rohrbough	40[b]	0.01%	0
	Green (Write-in)	Cynthia McKinney (Write-in)	Rosa Clemente	39[b]	0.01%	0
	Socialist (Write-in)	Brian Moore (Write-in)	Stewart Alexander	3[b]	0.00%	0
Totals				658,454	100.00%	4
Voter turnout (Voting age population)						60.1%

Results by county[]

County	John Sidney McCain III Republican		Barack Hussein Obama Democratic		Ralph Nader[23] Independent		Charles Obadiah Baldwin[23] Constitution		Robert Laurence Barr Jr.[23] Libertarian		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Ada	92,879	51.97%	82,023	45.89%	1,970	1.10%	776	0.43%	1,082	0.61%	10,856	6.07%	178,730
Adams	1,515	65.36%	728	31.41%	36	1.55%	20	0.86%	19	0.82%	787	33.95%	2,318
Bannock	19,356	55.14%	14,792	42.14%	485	1.38%	257	0.73%	215	0.61%	4,564	13.00%	35,105
Bear Lake	2,377	80.77%	502	17.06%	26	0.88%	27	0.92%	11	0.37%	1,875	63.71%	2,943
Benewah	2,646	63.54%	1,407	33.79%	48	1.15%	38	0.91%	25	0.60%	1,239	29.76%	4,164
Bingham	12,230	71.29%	4,424	25.79%	207	1.21%	203	1.18%	91	0.53%	7,806	45.50%	17,155
Blaine	3,439	32.53%	6,947	65.72%	106	1.00%	16	0.15%	63	0.60%	-3,508	-33.19%	10,571
Boise	2,433	64.48%	1,240	32.87%	48	1.27%	25	0.66%	27	0.72%	1,193	31.62%	3,773
Bonner	11,145	57.02%	7,840	40.11%	259	1.33%	195	1.00%	108	0.55%	3,305	16.91%	19,547
Bonneville	29,333	70.34%	11,417	27.38%	334	0.80%	362	0.87%	256	0.61%	17,916	42.96%	41,702
Boundary	3,078	65.03%	1,484	31.35%	67	1.42%	77	1.63%	27	0.57%	1,594	33.68%	4,733
Butte	1,056	75.11%	318	22.62%	18	1.28%	7	0.50%	7	0.50%	738	52.49%	1,406
Camas	422	68.28%	187	30.26%	5	0.81%	1	0.16%	3	0.49%	235	38.03%	618
Canyon	42,752	66.54%	20,147	31.36%	639	0.99%	387	0.60%	321	0.50%	22,605	35.19%	64,246
Caribou	2,656	80.44%	553	16.75%	56	1.70%	23	0.70%	14	0.42%	2,103	63.69%	3,302
Cassia	6,309	80.45%	1,332	16.99%	86	1.10%	72	0.92%	43	0.55%	4,977	63.47%	7,842
Clark	305	81.33%	64	17.07%	2	0.53%	3	0.80%	1	0.27%	241	64.27%	375
Clearwater	2,569	65.77%	1,211	31.00%	60	1.54%	35	0.90%	31	0.79%	1,358	34.77%	3,906
Custer	1,704	71.87%	620	26.15%	18	0.76%	17	0.72%	12	0.51%	1,084	45.72%	2,371
Elmore	5,665	67.15%	2,591	30.71%	110	1.30%	37	0.44%	33	0.39%	3,074	36.44%	8,436
Franklin	4,231	83.68%	599	11.85%	48	0.95%	141	2.79%	37	0.73%	3,632	71.84%	5,056
Fremont	4,700	79.93%	1,065	18.11%	46	0.78%	44	0.75%	25	0.43%	3,635	61.82%	5,880
Gem	5,585	70.28%	2,166	27.26%	112	1.41%	52	0.65%	32	0.40%	3,419	43.02%	7,947
Gooding	3,764	69.88%	1,485	27.57%	75	1.39%	35	0.65%	27	0.50%	2,279	42.31%	5,386
Idaho	5,895	72.54%	1,935	23.81%	77	0.95%	166	2.04%	54	0.66%	3,960	48.73%	8,127
Jefferson	8,534	81.79%	1,641	15.73%	72	0.69%	138	1.32%	49	0.47%	6,893	66.06%	10,434
Jerome	4,897	69.69%	1,974	28.09%	74	1.05%	36	0.51%	46	0.65%	2,923	41.60%	7,027
Kootenai	38,387	61.98%	22,120	35.72%	592	0.96%	565	0.91%	268	0.43%	16,267	26.27%	61,932
Latah	7,984	45.09%	9,191	51.91%	199	1.12%	204	1.15%	128	0.72%	-1,207	-6.82%	17,706
Lemhi	2,938	76.55%	796	20.74%	28	0.73%	44	1.15%	32	0.83%	2,142	55.81%	3,838
Lewis	1,275	70.68%	479	26.55%	20	1.11%	23	1.27%	7	0.39%	796	44.12%	1,804
Lincoln	1,232	65.88%	545	29.14%	77	4.12%	10	0.53%	6	0.32%	687	36.74%	1,870
Madison	11,120	85.24%	1,625	12.46%	81	0.62%	151	1.16%	69	0.53%	9,495	72.78%	13,046
Minidoka	5,085	73.86%	1,627	23.63%	79	1.15%	52	0.76%	42	0.61%	3,458	50.23%	6,885
Nez Perce	10,357	58.11%	7,123	39.97%	189	1.06%	82	0.46%	72	0.40%	3,234	18.15%	17,823
Oneida	1,724	79.74%	381	17.62%	11	0.51%	27	1.25%	19	0.88%	1,343	62.12%	2,162
Owyhee	3,024	74.52%	944	23.26%	37	0.91%	29	0.71%	24	0.59%	2,080	51.26%	4,058
Payette	5,988	69.52%	2,415	28.04%	105	1.22%	66	0.77%	39	0.45%	3,573	41.48%	8,613
Power	1,754	61.72%	1,027	36.14%	28	0.99%	13	0.46%	20	0.70%	727	25.58%	2,842
Shoshone	2,953	52.12%	2,521	44.49%	111	1.96%	42	0.74%	39	0.69%	432	7.62%	5,666
Teton	2,263	48.58%	2,302	49.42%	61	1.31%	13	0.28%	19	0.41%	-39	-0.84%	4,658
Twin Falls	19,032	67.15%	8,621	30.42%	358	1.26%	181	0.64%	152	0.54%	10,411	36.73%	28,344
Valley	2,750	52.25%	2,394	45.49%	65	1.24%	21	0.40%	33	0.63%	356	6.76%	5,263
Washington	3,168	70.31%	1,241	27.54%	41	0.91%	28	0.62%	28	0.62%	1,927	42.77%	4,506
Totals	403,012	61.21%	236,440	35.91%	7,175	1.09%	4,747	0.72%	3,658	0.56%	166,572	25.30%	658,372[c]

By congressional district[]

John McCain solidly swept both Idaho's congressional districts.

District	McCain	Obama	Representative
1st	61.82%	35.88%	Bill Sali (110th Congress)
			Walt Minnick (111th Congress)
2nd	61.19%	36.34%	Mike Simpson

Electors[]

Technically the voters of Idaho cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Idaho is allocated four electors because it has two congressional districts and two senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of four electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins a plurality of votes in the state is awarded all four 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.^[24] 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 four were pledged to John McCain and Sarah Palin:^[25]

1. Darlene Bramon
2. Ben Doty
3. John Erickson
4. Melinda Smyser

Notes[]

References[]