United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 2012

United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 2012
November 6, 2012

 
Nominee Barack Obama Mitt Romney
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Illinois Massachusetts
Running mate Joe Biden Paul Ryan
Electoral vote 11 0
Popular vote 1,921,290 1,188,314
Percentage 60.65% 37.51%
County Results
Obama
  50-60%
  60-70%
  70-80%

President before election

Barack Obama
Democratic

 Elected President

Barack Obama
Democratic

The 2012 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 General Election in which all fifty states plus The District of Columbia participated. Massachusetts voters chose eleven 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.

Obama and Biden won Massachusetts with 60.7% of the popular vote to Romney's and Ryan's 37.5%, thus winning the state's eleven electoral votes, despite the fact that Massachusetts is Romney's home state and he had been Governor of the state from 2003 to 2007.[1] This was the first time a presidential candidate lost his home state since Al Gore lost Tennessee in the 2000 election. Romney also became the first Republican candidate to lose their home-state since Richard Nixon lost his home-state of New York to Hubert Humphrey in 1968.

Massachusetts has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1984. It was also the sixth straight election (beginning in 1992) in which the Democratic presidential candidate swept every one of the state's fourteen counties. Consequently, Romney became the first candidate since Theodore Roosevelt one hundred years earlier to claim an electoral vote yet win no county in his home state.[lower-alpha 1] The 2012 election also marks the third consecutive instance where a major party's presidential candidate who considered Massachusetts as his home state lost (this also happened in 1988 and 2004 when Michael Dukakis and John Kerry respectively lost their bids).

Democratic primary

Incumbent president Barack Obama won the Democratic Primary with 81% of the vote. He wasn't challenged in the primary and the rest of the vote went to write-in candidates, through the primary and district caucuses, he won all of the state's 136 delegates which were pledged to vote for him at the 2012 Democratic convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Republican primary

Massachusetts Republican primary, 2012
March 6, 2012 (2012-03-06)

 
Candidate Mitt Romney Rick Santorum
Home state Massachusetts Pennsylvania
Delegate count 38 0
Popular vote 266,313 44,564
Percentage 71.89% 12.03%
 
Candidate Ron Paul Newt Gingrich
Home state Texas Georgia
Delegate count 0 0
Popular vote 35,219 16,991
Percentage 9.51% 4.59%
Massachusetts results by county
  Mitt Romney

The 2012 Massachusetts Republican primary was held on March 6, 2012.[2][3] Among the 41 delegates to the Republican National Convention, 38 are awarded proportionately among candidates getting at least 15% of the vote statewide, and another three super delegates are unbound.[4] Expectedly, Romney won Massachusetts by a landslide. Romney won the plurality in every town with the exception of 10 towns (Santorum winning 7, Paul winning 2, and a tie in 1), earning the majority in all but 53 towns.[5]

Massachusetts Republican primary, 2012[6]
Candidate Votes Percentage Projected delegate count
AP CNN
[7]		 FOX
[8]
Mitt Romney 266,313 71.89% - 38 38
Rick Santorum 44,564 12.03% - 0 0
Ron Paul 35,219 9.51% - 0 0
Newt Gingrich 16,991 4.59% - 0 0
Jon Huntsman (withdrawn) 2,268 0.61% - 0 0
Rick Perry (withdrawn) 991 0.27% - 0 0
Michele Bachmann (withdrawn) 865 0.23% - 0 0
No preference 1,793 0.48% - 0 0
Blanks 818 0.22% - 0 0
Others 613 0.17% - 0 0
Unprojected delegates: 41 3 3
Total: 370,425 100.00% 41 41 41

General election

Candidate Ballot Access:

  • Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan, Republican
  • Barack Obama/Joseph Biden, Democratic
  • Jill Stein/Cheri Honkala, Green
  • Gary Johnson/James P. Gray, Libertarian

Results

United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 2012[9]
Party Candidate Running mate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Barack Obama Joe Biden 1,921,290 60.65% 11
Republican Mitt Romney Paul Ryan 1,188,314 37.51% 0
Libertarian Gary Johnson Jim Gray 30,920 0.98% 0
Green-Rainbow Jill Stein Cheri Honkala 20,691 0.65% 0
Others Others 6,552 0.21% 0
Totals 3,167,767 100.00% 11

By county

County Obama% Obama# Romney% Romney# Others% Others# Total
Barnstable County52.99%70,82245.23%60,4461.79%2,387133,655
Berkshire County75.34%48,84321.98%14,2522.68%1,73764,832
Bristol County58.74%142,96238.52%93,7522.74%6,676243,390
Dukes County72.34%7,97825.32%2,7922.35%25911,029
Essex County57.13%210,30240.88%150,4801.99%7,320368,102
Franklin County71.19%27,07224.57%9,3444.23%1,61038,026
Hampden County61.23%123,61936.35%73,3922.41%4,872201,883
Hampshire County69.77%57,35926.13%21,4804.11%3,37682,215
Middlesex County62.29%471,80435.30%267,3212.41%18,255757,380
Nantucket County62.33%3,83035.59%2,1872.08%1286,145
Norfolk County56.58%202,71441.42%148,3932.00%7,156358,263
Plymouth County51.16%131,84546.98%121,0861.86%4,803257,734
Suffolk County77.03%223,89620.64%59,9992.33%6,779290,674
Worcester County53.45%198,24444.06%163,3902.49%9,234370,868

Results by municipality

  Obama – 70–80%
  Obama – 60–70%
  Obama – 50–60%
  Obama – <50%
  Romney – <50%
  Romney – 50–60%
  Romney – 60–70%

See also

References

  1. ↑ "2012 Presidential Election – Massachusetts". Politico. Retrieved 22 November 2012.
  2. ↑ "Primary and Caucus Printable Calendar". CNN. Retrieved January 11, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Presidential Primary Dates" (PDF). Federal Election Commission. Retrieved January 23, 2012.
  4. ↑ Nate Silver (March 4, 2012). "Romney Could Win Majority of Super Tuesday Delegates". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  5. ↑ Boston Globe (March 4, 2012). "2012 Massachusetts Republican Presidential Primary results". Boston Globe. Retrieved April 11, 2012.
  6. ↑ http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/eleres/repprim12.pdf
  7. ↑ Massachusetts – CNN
  8. ↑ Massachusetts – Fox News
  9. ↑ "Massachusetts Secretary of State". Retrieved 2012-11-30.

Notes

  1. ↑ James B. Weaver, the Populist candidate in 1892, is the only other case since before the Civil War: he won five states but no county in his home state of Iowa.
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