2012 United States presidential election in Nebraska

2012 United States presidential election in Nebraska
Romney 40-50% 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% 80-90%	Obama 50-60%
President before election; Barack Obama; Democratic	Elected President ; Barack Obama; Democratic

The 2012 United States presidential election in Nebraska took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Voters chose five electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, against Republican challenger and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan.

Mitt Romney carried Nebraska, taking 59.80% of the vote to Barack Obama's 38.03%, a margin of 21.77%. Nebraska is one of two states (along with Maine) which splits its electoral votes based on the winner in each congressional district. In 2012, Romney won all 3 congressional districts, thus winning all 5 of the state's electoral votes. This was a change from 2008, when the state as a whole had voted for Republican John McCain but Democrat Barack Obama still won an electoral vote from the state. Nebraska's 2nd congressional district, home to Omaha, had split with the rest of the state and awarded one of Nebraska's electoral votes to a Democratic presidential nominee for the first time since 1964. Nebraska's 2nd congressional district, Indiana, and North Carolina were the only sources of electoral votes to change hands from Obama to the Republicans between 2008 and 2012. Obama only won a single county, Thurston, largely due to its majority and increasingly politically active Native American population. He also narrowly lost three of four counties he won in 2008: Douglas, Lancaster, and Saline, home to the cities of Omaha, Lincoln, and Crete, respectively.

This is the most recent election as of 2020 in which the Democrat won Thurston County and the Republican won Douglas or Lancaster County. This is also the last election (and the sole one since 2000) when both Nebraska's 2nd congressional district did not back the overall winner of the Electoral College, while the Democratic candidate would win the general election without carrying the district (which was the first time that scenario would occur since 1996) as well.

Democratic primary[]

The Democratic primary was not held as Barack Obama ran unopposed and had secured enough delegates for nomination.^[1]

Republican primary[]

The Republican primary was on May 15, 2012.^[2] This primary was purely of an advisory nature. From June 1 to June 10 caucuses county conventions caucused to elect delegates to the state convention. These delegates were not bound to vote for any candidate, but at the state convention on July 14, elected 32 bound National delegates. 3 party leaders attended the National Convention unbound, making a total of 35 voting delegates going to the national convention from Nebraska.

2012 Nebraska Republican primary
Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Delegates
Mitt Romney	131,436	70.89%	30
Rick Santorum	25,830	13.93%	0
Ron Paul	18,508	9.98%	2
Newt Gingrich	9,628	5.19%	0
Unpledged delegates:			3
Total:	185,402	100.0%	35

Key:

Withdrew prior to contest

Convention[]

The State Convention was held in Grand Island on July 14, 2012.

Convention Results^[3]^[4]
Candidate	1st	2nd	3rd	State	Party leaders	Total
Mitt Romney	3	1	3	23	2	32
Ron Paul	0	2	0	0	0	2
Unknown	0	0	0	0	1	1
Total	9			23	3	35

General election[]

Results[]

2012 United States presidential election in Nebraska
Party		Candidate	Running mate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Mitt Romney	Paul Ryan	475,064	59.80%	5
	Democratic	Barack Obama	Joe Biden	302,081	38.03%	0
	Libertarian	Gary Johnson	Jim Gray	11,109	1.40%	0
	Write-Ins			3,717	0.47%	0
	Independent	Randall Terry	Missy Smith	2,408	0.30%	0
Totals				794,379	100.00%	5

Results by congressional district[]

Romney won all three of Nebraska's congressional districts.^[5]

District	Romney %	Romney #	Obama %	Obama #	Johnson %	Johnson #	Terry %	Terry #	Representative
1st	57.43%	152,021	40.83%	108,082	1.45%	3,847	0.28%	762	Jeff Fortenberry
2nd	52.85%	140,976	45.70%	121,889	1.27%	3,393	0.18%	469	Lee Terry
3rd	70.23%	182,067	27.82%	72,110	1.44%	3,869	0.45%	1,177	Adrian Smith

By county[]

County	Romney %	Romney #	Obama %	Obama #	Others %	Others #	Total
Adams	65.64%	8,316	32.06%	4,062	2.30%	292	12670
Antelope	80.32%	2596	17.67%	571	2.01%	65	3232
Arthur	86.64%	227	11.45%	30	1.91%	5	262
Banner	84.18%	346	13.38%	55	2.43%	10	411
Blaine	88.45%	268	9.57%	29	1.98%	6	303
Boone	76.19%	2,138	21.92%	615	1.89%	53	2806
Box Butte	60.98%	2,869	35.96%	1,692	3.06%	144	4705
Boyd	81.51%	873	17.55%	188	0.93%	10	1071
Brown	83.73%	1302	14.41%	224	1.86%	29	1555
Buffalo	69.76%	13,570	27.58%	5,365	2.66%	518	19453
Burt	60.12%	2,029	38.25%	1,291	1.63%	55	3375
Butler	70.95%	2,738	27.08%	1,045	1.97%	76	3859
Cass	62.04%	7556	35.85%	4367	2.11%	257	12180
Cedar	75.63%	3,278	22.10%	958	2.26%	98	4334
Chase	84.84%	1,584	13.60%	254	1.55%	29	1867
Cherry	83.45%	2,557	14.23%	436	2.32%	71	3064
Cheyenne	74.19%	3449	23.32%	1084	2.50%	116	4649
Clay	75.74%	2232	22.63%	667	1.63%	48	2947
Colfax	66.83%	2051	31.57%	969	1.60%	49	3069
Cuming	72.33%	2876	25.93%	1031	1.74%	69	3976
Custer	78.14%	4296	19.70%	1083	2.16%	119	5498
Dakota	50.42%	3094	47.62%	2922	1.96%	120	6136
Dawes	66.47%	2478	30.36%	1132	3.17%	118	3728
Dawson	69.47%	5460	27.98%	2199	2.54%	200	7859
Deuel	75.02%	763	21.14%	215	3.83%	39	1017
Dixon	64.97%	1745	32.39%	870	2.64%	71	2686
Dodge	60.17%	8995	37.95%	5673	1.89%	282	14950
Douglas	50.56%	113220	47.54%	106456	1.90%	4,251	223927
Dundy	80.41%	792	17.87%	176	1.73%	17	985
Fillmore	69.71%	2007	28.03%	807	2.26%	65	2879
Franklin	72.40%	1112	25.00%	384	2.60%	40	1536
Frontier	77.16%	1007	20.77%	271	2.07%	27	1305
Furnas	79.55%	1782	18.88%	423	1.56%	35	2240
Gage	57.06%	5513	40.40%	3903	2.54%	245	9661
Garden	75.99%	829	22.18%	242	1.83%	20	1091
Garfield	81.81%	769	15.85%	149	2.34%	22	940
Gosper	75.05%	734	23.52%	230	1.43%	14	978
Grant	88.71%	322	8.26%	30	3.03%	11	363
Greeley	69.20%	820	28.69%	340	2.11%	25	1185
Hall	62.51%	12646	35.40%	7161	2.09%	422	20229
Hamilton	73.91%	3600	23.53%	1146	2.57%	125	4871
Harlan	78.46%	1395	19.91%	354	1.63%	29	1778
Hayes	88.31%	476	9.46%	51	2.23%	12	539
Hitchcock	78.80%	1178	18.33%	274	2.88%	43	1495
Holt	79.41%	3922	17.86%	882	2.73%	135	4939
Hooker	83.54%	330	14.94%	59	1.52%	6	395
Howard	65.85%	1890	31.85%	914	2.30%	66	2870
Jefferson	62.86%	2166	34.68%	1195	2.47%	85	3446
Johnson	59.38%	1225	38.29%	790	2.33%	48	2063
Kearney	73.87%	2349	24.31%	773	1.82%	58	3180
Keith	75.01%	3044	22.87%	928	2.12%	86	4058
Keya Paha	81.20%	393	16.53%	80	2.27%	11	484
Kimball	73.21%	1235	23.41%	395	3.38%	57	1687
Knox	71.48%	2885	26.24%	1059	2.28%	92	4036
Lancaster	49.02%	62434	48.69%	62015	2.28%	2,906	127355
Lincoln	68.53%	10728	28.43%	4450	3.05%	477	15655
Logan	82.60%	356	15.78%	68	1.62%	7	431
Loup	81.01%	290	17.32%	62	1.68%	6	358
Madison	72.47%	10062	25.10%	3485	2.43%	338	13885
McPherson	81.44%	237	14.09%	41	4.47%	13	291
Merrick	71.37%	2490	26.51%	925	2.12%	74	3489
Morrill	76.76%	1681	20.78%	455	2.47%	54	2190
Nance	68.23%	1106	29.67%	481	2.10%	34	1621
Nemaha	62.60%	2012	35.10%	1128	2.30%	74	3214
Nuckolls	71.84%	1574	25.92%	568	2.24%	49	2191
Otoe	60.99%	4258	36.68%	2561	2.33%	163	6982
Pawnee	67.04%	899	29.83%	400	3.13%	42	1341
Perkins	81.42%	1135	17.07%	238	1.51%	21	1394
Phelps	77.63%	3400	20.09%	880	2.28%	100	4380
Pierce	78.90%	2707	18.57%	637	2.54%	87	3431
Platte	74.68%	10061	23.37%	3148	1.96%	264	13473
Polk	76.92%	1890	21.49%	528	1.59%	39	2457
Red Willow	78.83%	3891	19.29%	952	1.88%	93	4936
Richardson	65.34%	2443	31.85%	1191	2.81%	105	3739
Rock	85.17%	672	13.05%	103	1.77%	14	789
Saline	51.57%	2557	46.17%	2289	2.26%	112	4958
Sarpy	60.45%	43213	37.31%	26671	2.25%	1,606	71490
Saunders	65.65%	6770	32.07%	3307	2.28%	235	10312
Scotts Bluff	67.53%	9648	30.29%	4327	2.18%	312	14287
Seward	66.06%	5003	31.51%	2386	2.43%	184	7573
Sheridan	81.76%	2021	15.78%	390	2.47%	61	2472
Sherman	60.59%	927	36.08%	552	3.33%	51	1530
Sioux	84.44%	624	13.67%	101	1.89%	14	739
Stanton	73.71%	1949	23.22%	614	3.06%	81	2644
Thayer	70.48%	1874	27.38%	728	2.14%	57	2659
Thomas	88.24%	360	10.29%	42	1.47%	6	408
Thurston	42.39%	939	56.30%	1247	1.31%	29	2215
Valley	75.49%	1657	22.69%	498	1.82%	40	2195
Washington	67.33%	6899	30.57%	3132	2.10%	215	10246
Wayne	67.71%	2493	29.17%	1074	3.12%	115	3682
Webster	72.22%	1258	25.37%	442	2.41%	42	1742
Wheeler	77.01%	345	20.76%	93	2.23%	10	448
York	76.70%	4874	21.61%	1373	1.70%	108	6355

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican[]

Douglas (largest city: Omaha)
Lancaster (largest city: Lincoln)
Saline (largest city: Crete)

References[]

^ "Nebraska Results". Retrieved 7 November 2012.
^ http://www.sos.ne.gov/elec/2012/pdf/canvass-report-2012-primary.pdf
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-06-10. Retrieved 2012-07-19.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P12/NE-R
^ "Official Results of Nebraska General Election - November 6, 2012" (PDF). Retrieved April 16, 2013.

External links[]

The Green Papers: for Nebraska
The Green Papers: Major state elections in chronological order

[1] "Nebraska Results". Retrieved 7 November 2012.

[2] ttp://www.sos.ne.gov/elec/2012/pdf/canvass-report-2012-primary.pdf

[3] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-06-10. Retrieved 2012-07-19.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[4] ttp://www.thegreenpapers.com/P12/NE-R

[5] "Official Results of Nebraska General Election - November 6, 2012" (PDF). Retrieved April 16, 2013.

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