2008 United States presidential election in Minnesota

2008 United States presidential election in Minnesota

← 2004 November 4, 2008 2012 →
Turnout	78.11%[1]
Nominee Barack Obama John McCain Party Democratic Republican Home state Illinois Arizona Running mate Joe Biden Sarah Palin Electoral vote 10 0 Popular vote 1,573,354 1,275,409 Percentage 54.06% 43.82%
County Results Obama   40-50%   50-60%   60-70% McCain   40-50%   50-60%
President before election George W. Bush Republican Elected President Barack Obama Democratic

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

Minnesota was won by Democratic nominee Barack Obama by a 10.2% margin of victory. Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations considered this a state Obama would win, or otherwise considered as a safe blue state. Barack Obama carried the state with 54.06% of the vote in 2008 over John McCain's 43.82%. Minnesota has not voted Republican since Richard Nixon in 1972. Nevertheless, Obama became the first Democrat to win the White House without carrying Anoka County since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

As of 2020, this election is the last time Minnesota voted to the right of Pennsylvania and neighboring Wisconsin, and was decided by a double digit margin too.

Caucuses[]

• 2008 Minnesota Democratic presidential caucuses
• 2008 Minnesota Republican presidential caucuses

Campaign[]

Predictions[]

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

Source	Ranking
D.C. Political Report[2]	Likely D
Cook Political Report[3]	Lean D
The Takeaway[4]	Solid D
Electoral-vote.com[5]	Solid D
Washington Post[6]	Lean D
Politico[7]	Solid D
RealClearPolitics[8]	Solid D
FiveThirtyEight[6]	Solid D
CQ Politics[9]	Lean D
The New York Times[10]	Lean D
CNN[11]	Lean D
NPR[6]	Solid D
MSNBC[6]	Solid D
Fox News[12]	Likely D
Associated Press[13]	Likely D
Rasmussen Reports[14]	Safe D

Polling[]

In the aftermath of the GOP National Convention that was highlighted by a well delivered and received speech by vice presidential nominee Governor Sarah Palin, a strong Obama lead tightened into a very narrow polling lead. However, when the September financial crisis irreparably damaged McCain's chances at victory, McCain remained competitive in Minnesota for some time after Obama had pulled away in other states such as Michigan and Wisconsin. At no time, however, did polls indicate that John McCain was ahead in the state, and Obama eventually did pull away from John McCain.^[15]

Fundraising[]

John McCain raised a total of $2,423,705 in the state. Barack Obama raised $6,058,168.^[16]

Advertising and visits[]

Obama and his interest groups $3,006,784. McCain and his interest groups spent 4,467,107.^[17] The Republican ticket visited the state 9 times. Obama visited the state only once.^[18]

Analysis[]

Although Minnesota had the longest streak as a blue state, not having voted for the Republican presidential nominee since 1972, the Democrats' margin of victory had been narrow in the previous two presidential elections. With this in mind, Republicans targeted the state for the 2008 election, holding the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Although the state swung more Democratic in 2008 and Barack Obama performed better here than John Kerry did in 2004, the swing was smaller than the national average.

During the same election, a contentious U.S. Senate battle took place between incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken. The close election resulted in two court appeals, both of which eventually declared Franken the winner. At the state level, Democrats picked up two seats in the Minnesota House of Representatives and one seat in the Minnesota Senate.

On Election Day, Obama won Minnesota by a comfortable margin, piling up 2-1 margins in Hennepin County (Minneapolis) and Ramsey County (St. Paul). Obama also ran evenly in the Minneapolis suburbs and rural Minnesota. However, McCain mostly held the same counties Bush won in the Republican base of central Minnesota.^[19] While Obama still won the state with ease, GOP efforts and the Republican National Convention led to a better Republican performance than seen in neighboring states in the Upper Midwest, and prevented the collapse of Republican support that occurred in neighboring Michigan and Wisconsin.

As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Stevens County, Watonwan County, Pope County, Grant County, Yellow Medicine County, Lincoln County, Pennington County, Murray County, Pine County, Big Stone County, Marshall County, Polk County, Red Lake County, and Aitkin County voted for the Democratic candidate.

Results[]

2008 United States presidential election in Minnesota[20]
Party		Candidate	Running mate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Democratic	Barack Obama	Joe Biden	1,573,354	54.06%	10
	Republican	John McCain	Sarah Palin	1,275,409	43.82%	0
	Independent	Ralph Nader	Matt Gonzalez	30,152	1.04%	0
	Independent	Write-in candidates		9,496	0.33%	0
	Libertarian	Bob Barr	Wayne Allyn Root	9,174	0.32%	0
	Constitution	Chuck Baldwin	Darrell Castle	6,787	0.23%	0
	Green	Cynthia McKinney	Rosa Clemente	5,174	0.18%	0
	Socialist Workers	Róger Calero	Alyson Kennedy	790	0.03%	0
	Independent	Alan Keyes (write-in)	Brian Rohrbough	22	0.00%	0
	Socialist Party USA	Brian Moore (write-in)	Stewart Alexander	7	0.00%	0
	Independent	Joe Schriner (write-in)	Dale Way	3	0.00%	0
	Independent	Curtis Montgomery (write-in)	Janice Montgomery	1	0.00%	0
Totals				2,910,369	100.00%	10
Voter turnout (Voting age population)						74.7%

By congressional district[]

Barack Obama carried five of the state’s eight congressional districts in Minnesota, including one seat held by a Republican. John McCain carried three congressional districts, including one seat held by a Democrat.

District	McCain	Obama	Representative
1st	46.59%	50.96%	Tim Walz
2nd	49.76%	48.32%	John Kline
3rd	45.99%	52.41%	Jim Ramstad (110th Congress)
			Erik Paulsen (111th Congress)
4th	33.57%	64.41%	Betty McCollum
5th	23.79%	74.15%	Keith Ellison
6th	53.33%	44.60%	Michele Bachmann
7th	50.10%	47.39%	Collin Peterson
8th	44.50%	53.10%	Jim Oberstar

By county[]

County	Barack Hussein Obama Democratic		John Sidney McCain III Republican		Other candidates Various parties		Total
	%	#	%	#	%	#
Aitkin	48.83%	4,595	48.77%	4,589	2.4%	226	9,410
Anoka	47.73%	86,976	50.13%	91,357	2.14%	3,891	182,224
Becker	45.31%	7,687	52.17%	8,851	2.52%	427	16,965
Beltrami	54.05%	12,019	43.90%	9,762	2.05%	455	22,236
Benton	43.71%	8,454	53.46%	10,338	2.83%	547	19,339
Big Stone	51.91%	1,552	45.55%	1,362	2.54%	76	2,990
Blue Earth	55.10%	19,325	42.15%	14,782	2.75%	963	35,070
Brown	42.65%	5,809	54.74%	7,456	2.61%	355	13,620
Carlton	62.34%	11,501	35.50%	6,549	2.16%	399	18,449
Carver	41.57%	20,654	56.67%	28,156	1.76%	873	49,683
Cass	44.62%	7,276	53.11%	8,660	2.28%	371	16,307
Chippewa	51.60%	3,280	45.74%	2,907	2.66%	169	6,356
Chisago	43.62%	12,783	53.88%	15,789	2.5%	733	29,305
Clay	56.96%	16,666	40.94%	11,978	2.1%	615	29,259
Clearwater	44.05%	1,877	53.77%	2,291	2.18%	93	4,261
Cook	60.30%	2,019	37.04%	1,240	2.66%	89	3,348
Cottonwood	45.71%	2,759	52.30%	3,157	1.99%	120	6,036
Crow Wing	45.10%	15,859	52.80%	18,567	2.1%	739	35,165
Dakota	51.79%	116,778	46.29%	104,364	1.92%	4,330	225,472
Dodge	43.70%	4,463	53.54%	5,468	2.76%	282	10,213
Douglas	44.25%	9,256	53.74%	11,241	2.01%	421	20,918
Faribault	45.83%	3,736	51.47%	4,196	2.7%	220	8,152
Fillmore	52.71%	5,921	44.45%	4,993	2.85%	320	11,234
Freeborn	57.38%	9,915	40.25%	6,955	2.37%	410	17,280
Goodhue	48.15%	12,420	49.53%	12,775	2.33%	600	25,795
Grant	51.32%	1,850	45.66%	1,646	3.02%	109	3,605
Hennepin	63.42%	420,958	34.81%	231,054	1.77%	11,768	663,780
Houston	54.27%	5,906	43.58%	4,743	2.15%	234	10,883
Hubbard	41.86%	4,872	56.35%	6,558	1.79%	208	11,638
Isanti	41.13%	8,248	56.47%	11,324	2.4%	481	20,053
Itasca	55.18%	13,460	42.26%	10,309	2.57%	626	24,395
Jackson	46.56%	2,618	50.83%	2,858	2.61%	147	5,623
Kanabec	44.04%	3,743	52.70%	4,479	3.26%	277	8,499
Kandiyohi	46.24%	10,125	51.70%	11,319	2.06%	451	21,895
Kittson	58.10%	1,492	39.56%	1,016	2.34%	60	2,568
Koochiching	53.65%	3,649	43.55%	2,962	2.81%	191	6,802
Lac qui Parle	51.53%	2,160	45.61%	1,912	2.86%	120	4,192
Lake County	59.89%	4,174	37.82%	2,636	2.28%	159	6,969
Lake of the Woods	41.98%	971	55.25%	1,278	2.77%	64	2,313
Le Sueur	46.60%	6,994	50.88%	7,636	2.53%	379	15,009
Lincoln	48.53%	1,517	47.70%	1,491	3.77%	118	3,126
Lyon	48.08%	6,110	49.69%	6,315	2.23%	283	12,708
McLeod	39.44%	7,505	57.77%	10,993	2.79%	531	19,029
Mahnomen	61.29%	1,436	35.98%	843	2.73%	64	2,343
Marshall	48.77%	2,311	48.22%	2,285	3.02%	143	4,739
Martin	41.04%	4,413	56.29%	6,053	2.68%	288	10,754
Meeker	42.89%	5,380	53.70%	6,737	3.41%	428	12,545
Mille Lacs	44.83%	6,072	52.05%	7,049	3.12%	423	13,544
Morrison	39.10%	6,547	58.14%	9,735	2.75%	461	16,743
Mower	60.48%	11,605	36.87%	7,075	2.64%	507	19,187
Murray	48.72%	2,345	48.20%	2,320	3.08%	148	4,813
Nicollet	54.19%	9,887	43.67%	7,968	2.14%	390	18,245
Nobles	48.16%	4,244	49.56%	4,368	2.28%	201	8,813
Norman	62.00%	2,129	35.06%	1,204	2.94%	101	3,434
Olmsted	50.62%	38,711	47.34%	36,202	2.04%	1,557	76,470
Otter Tail	42.39%	13,856	55.30%	18,077	2.31%	754	32,687
Pennington	49.75%	3,394	47.61%	3,248	2.64%	180	6,822
Pine	49.25%	7,084	47.71%	6,862	3.04%	437	14,383
Pipestone	42.14%	2,023	55.24%	2,652	2.62%	126	4,801
Polk	51.19%	7,850	46.62%	7,148	2.19%	336	15,334
Pope	50.75%	3,317	46.96%	3,069	2.29%	150	6,536
Ramsey	65.96%	182,974	32.06%	88,942	1.97%	5,470	277,386
Red Lake	51.12%	1,120	44.87%	983	4.02%	88	2,191
Redwood	41.63%	3,250	55.19%	4,308	3.18%	248	7,806
Renville	47.99%	3,904	48.63%	3,956	3.38%	275	8,135
Rice	54.66%	17,381	43.16%	13,723	2.19%	695	31,799
Rock	41.79%	2,079	55.78%	2,775	2.43%	121	4,975
Roseau	40.22%	3,097	57.64%	4,438	2.14%	165	7,700
St. Louis	65.10%	77,351	32.61%	38,742	2.29%	2,721	118,814
Scott	43.51%	29,208	54.70%	36,724	1.79%	1,200	67,132
Sherburne	39.91%	17,957	58.10%	26,140	1.98%	893	44,990
Sibley	38.79%	2,998	58.12%	4,492	3.09%	239	7,729
Stearns	45.32%	35,690	52.31%	41,194	2.38%	1,872	78,756
Steele	45.87%	9,016	51.22%	10,068	2.91%	572	19,656
Stevens	49.36%	2,781	48.10%	2,710	2.54%	143	5,634
Swift	55.43%	2,907	41.65%	2,184	2.92%	153	5,244
Todd	43.05%	5,277	54.15%	6,637	2.8%	343	12,257
Traverse	51.25%	1,043	45.85%	933	2.9%	59	2,035
Wabasha	47.47%	5,646	49.90%	5,935	2.62%	312	11,893
Wadena	40.20%	2,882	57.58%	4,128	2.22%	159	7,169
Waseca	44.51%	4,401	52.70%	5,211	2.79%	276	9,888
Washington	51.27%	70,277	46.94%	64,334	1.79%	2,448	137,059
Watonwan	48.73%	2,562	48.04%	2,526	3.23%	170	5,258
Wilkin	45.40%	1,550	52.31%	1,786	2.28%	78	3,414
Winona	58.38%	16,308	39.29%	10,975	2.33%	652	27,935
Wright	40.17%	26,343	57.61%	37,779	2.22%	1,456	65,578
Yellow Medicine	50.57%	2,816	46.31%	2,579	3.12%	174	5,569

Electors[]

Technically the voters of Minnesota heir ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Minnesota is allocated 10 electors because it has 8 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 10 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 10 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Following an apparent mishap in the previous election, whereby an elector pledged to Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry instead cast their vote for running-mate John Edwards and thus became a faithless elector, Minnesota amended its statutes and became one of the few states whereby electors are legally required to vote for the candidate they are pledged to. This was the first election where the new laws were effective.^[21]

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 10 were pledged to Barack Obama and Joe Biden:^[22]

1. Arthur A. Anderson
2. Jim Gremmels
3. Dave Lee
4. Al Patton
5. Joan M. Wittman
6. William J. Davis
7. Benjamin F. Gross
8. Matt Little
9. Jackie Stevenson
10. Susan Kay Moravec - replaced Donyta J. Wright who did not appear for the ceremony^[23]

See also[]

• United States presidential elections in Minnesota

References[]