2012
The 2012 U.S. presidential election was won by Barack Obama (Democratic) with 332 of 538 electoral votes, defeating Mitt Romney (Republican). Electoral-vote margin: 126 (332 to 206). Popular-vote margin: 3.9 percentage points. Turnout was 58.6%. The cycle falls in the Modern Polarization era of American electoral history.
Open the what-if calculator → — flip states and re-count. A toy, not history.
Barack Obama and the 2012 map
Obama won re-election over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney despite high unemployment and slow economic recovery from the 2008 crash. The Obama campaign's sophisticated data analytics and ground game proved decisive, turning out supporters in key swing states. Romney's '47 percent' comment (secretly recorded at a private fundraiser) damaged his image as caring only for the wealthy. Sandy, the superstorm, struck a week before the election, giving Obama a bipartisan moment with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie that reinforced his presidential image.
Economic recovery; Obamacare; auto bailout; income inequality ('47 percent')
Obama's data-driven campaign pioneered modern voter targeting; Romney's '47 percent' remark proved fatal
This summary was drafted with AI tools and has not yet been checked sentence by sentence. The vote table and the National Archives note on this page come from named sources; where they differ from the summary, rely on them. Tell us about an error.
States · 51 reporting
State results · 2012
- Florida Obama by 74,309 · 0.9 pts
- North Carolina Romney by 92,004 · 2.0 pts
- Ohio Obama by 166,214 · 3.0 pts
- Virginia Obama by 149,298 · 3.9 pts
- Colorado Obama by 137,858 · 5.4 pts
ColoradoObama won it by 5.4 points; its electoral votes took the total to 272, past the 270 needed.
Line up the states the winner carried from widest margin to narrowest and add up their electoral votes: the tipping point is the state that takes the total past a majority.
Scroll the table sideways for every column.
| State | Electoral votes | Barack Obama Dem | Mitt Romney Rep | Gary Johnson Lib | Also named | Margin | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 9 EV | 795,696 38.4% | 1,255,925 60.5% | Not named | None | 460,229 22.2 pts | Romney Rep |
| Alaska | 3 EV | 122,640 40.8% | 164,676 54.8% | 7,392 2.5% | None | 42,036 14.0 pts | Romney Rep |
| Arizona | 11 EV | 1,025,232 44.6% | 1,233,654 53.7% | 32,100 1.4% | None | 208,422 9.1 pts | Romney Rep |
| Arkansas | 6 EV | 394,409 36.9% | 647,744 60.6% | 16,276 1.5% | None | 253,335 23.7 pts | Romney Rep |
| California | 55 EV | 7,854,285 60.2% | 4,839,958 37.1% | 143,221 1.1% | None | 3,014,327 23.1 pts | Obama Dem |
| Colorado | 9 EV | 1,323,101 51.5% | 1,185,243 46.1% | 35,545 1.4% | None | 137,858 5.4 pts | Obama Dem |
| Connecticut | 7 EV | 905,083 58.1% | 634,892 40.7% | Not named | None | 270,191 17.3 pts | Obama Dem |
| Delaware | 3 EV | 242,584 58.6% | 165,484 40.0% | Not named | None | 77,100 18.6 pts | Obama Dem |
| District of Columbia | 3 EV | 267,070 90.9% | 21,381 7.3% | Not named | None | 245,689 83.6 pts | Obama Dem |
| Florida | 29 EV | 4,237,756 50.0% | 4,163,447 49.1% | Not named | None | 74,309 0.9 pts | Obama Dem |
| Georgia | 16 EV | 1,773,827 45.5% | 2,078,688 53.3% | 45,324 1.2% | None | 304,861 7.8 pts | Romney Rep |
| Hawaii1 | 4 EV | 306,658 70.1% | 121,015 27.7% | Not named | None | 185,643 42.5 pts | Obama Dem |
| Idaho2 | 4 EV | 212,787 32.6% | 420,911 64.5% | 9,453 1.4% | None | 208,124 31.9 pts | Romney Rep |
| Illinois | 20 EV | 3,019,512 57.6% | 2,135,216 40.7% | 56,229 1.1% | None | 884,296 16.9 pts | Obama Dem |
| Indiana | 11 EV | 1,152,887 43.9% | 1,420,543 54.1% | 50,111 1.9% | None | 267,656 10.2 pts | Romney Rep |
| Iowa | 6 EV | 822,544 52.0% | 730,617 46.2% | Not named | None | 91,927 5.8 pts | Obama Dem |
| Kansas | 6 EV | 440,726 38.0% | 692,634 59.7% | 20,456 1.8% | None | 251,908 21.7 pts | Romney Rep |
| Kentucky | 8 EV | 679,370 37.8% | 1,087,190 60.5% | Not named | None | 407,820 22.7 pts | Romney Rep |
| Louisiana | 8 EV | 809,141 40.6% | 1,152,262 57.8% | Not named | None | 343,121 17.2 pts | Romney Rep |
| Maine3 | 4 EV | 401,306 55.4% | 292,276 40.3% | 9,352 1.3% | Jill Stein 8,119 · 1.1% | 109,030 15.0 pts | Obama Dem |
| Maryland | 10 EV | 1,677,844 62.0% | 971,869 35.9% | 30,195 1.1% | None | 705,975 26.1 pts | Obama Dem |
| Massachusetts4 | 11 EV | 1,921,290 60.3% | 1,188,314 37.3% | Not named | None | 732,976 23.0 pts | Obama Dem |
| Michigan | 16 EV | 2,564,569 54.2% | 2,115,256 44.7% | Not named | None | 449,313 9.5 pts | Obama Dem |
| Minnesota | 10 EV | 1,546,167 52.7% | 1,320,225 45.0% | 35,098 1.2% | None | 225,942 7.7 pts | Obama Dem |
| Mississippi | 6 EV | 562,949 43.8% | 710,746 55.3% | Not named | None | 147,797 11.5 pts | Romney Rep |
| Missouri | 10 EV | 1,223,796 44.4% | 1,482,440 53.8% | 43,151 1.6% | None | 258,644 9.4 pts | Romney Rep |
| Montana | 3 EV | 201,839 41.7% | 267,928 55.4% | 14,165 2.9% | None | 66,089 13.7 pts | Romney Rep |
| Nebraska | 5 EV | 302,081 38.0% | 475,064 59.8% | 11,109 1.4% | None | 172,983 21.8 pts | Romney Rep |
| Nevada5 | 6 EV | 531,373 52.4% | 463,567 45.7% | 10,968 1.1% | None | 67,806 6.7 pts | Obama Dem |
| New Hampshire | 4 EV | 369,561 52.0% | 329,918 46.4% | 8,212 1.2% | None | 39,643 5.6 pts | Obama Dem |
| New Jersey | 14 EV | 2,122,786 58.3% | 1,478,088 40.6% | Not named | None | 644,698 17.7 pts | Obama Dem |
| New Mexico | 5 EV | 415,335 53.0% | 335,788 42.8% | 27,788 3.5% | None | 79,547 10.1 pts | Obama Dem |
| New York6,7 | 29 EV | 4,485,7416 63.3% | 2,485,432 35.1% | Not named | None | 2,000,309 28.2 pts | Obama Dem |
| North Carolina | 15 EV | 2,178,391 48.4% | 2,270,395 50.4% | Not named | None | 92,004 2.0 pts | Romney Rep |
| North Dakota | 3 EV | 124,966 38.7% | 188,320 58.3% | 5,238 1.6% | None | 63,354 19.6 pts | Romney Rep |
| Ohio | 18 EV | 2,827,621 50.7% | 2,661,407 47.7% | Not named | None | 166,214 3.0 pts | Obama Dem |
| Oklahoma | 7 EV | 443,547 33.2% | 891,325 66.8% | Not named | None | 447,778 33.5 pts | Romney Rep |
| Oregon | 7 EV | 970,488 54.2% | 754,175 42.1% | 24,089 1.3% | Jill Stein 19,427 · 1.1% | 216,313 12.1 pts | Obama Dem |
| Pennsylvania | 20 EV | 2,990,274 52.1% | 2,680,434 46.7% | Not named | None | 309,840 5.4 pts | Obama Dem |
| Rhode Island | 4 EV | 279,677 62.7% | 157,204 35.2% | Not named | None | 122,473 27.5 pts | Obama Dem |
| South Carolina | 9 EV | 865,941 44.1% | 1,071,645 54.6% | Not named | None | 205,704 10.5 pts | Romney Rep |
| South Dakota | 3 EV | 145,039 39.9% | 210,610 57.9% | 5,795 1.6% | None | 65,571 18.0 pts | Romney Rep |
| Tennessee | 11 EV | 960,709 39.1% | 1,462,330 59.5% | Not named | None | 501,621 20.4 pts | Romney Rep |
| Texas | 38 EV | 3,308,124 41.4% | 4,569,843 57.2% | 88,580 1.1% | None | 1,261,719 15.8 pts | Romney Rep |
| Utah | 6 EV | 251,813 24.7% | 740,600 72.8% | 12,572 1.2% | None | 488,787 48.0 pts | Romney Rep |
| Vermont | 3 EV | 199,239 66.6% | 92,698 31.0% | 3,487 1.2% | None | 106,541 35.6 pts | Obama Dem |
| Virginia | 13 EV | 1,971,820 51.2% | 1,822,522 47.3% | Not named | None | 149,298 3.9 pts | Obama Dem |
| Washington | 12 EV | 1,755,396 56.2% | 1,290,670 41.3% | 42,202 1.4% | None | 464,726 14.9 pts | Obama Dem |
| West Virginia | 5 EV | 238,269 35.5% | 417,655 62.3% | Not named | None | 179,386 26.8 pts | Romney Rep |
| Wisconsin | 10 EV | 1,620,985 52.8% | 1,410,966 45.9% | Not named | None | 210,019 6.8 pts | Obama Dem |
| Wyoming8 | 3 EV | 69,286 27.6% | 170,962 68.2% | 5,326 2.1% | None | 101,676 40.6 pts | Romney Rep |
Shares are of each state’s total vote for president. “Not named”: the figures do not give that candidate a line of their own in that state — for example under 1% of the vote, not on the ballot there, or counted on an unnamed line (see the state’s note). Margin is the leader’s lead over the second-placed candidate.
Notes on the figures
- Hawaii 'Other candidates' includes 2,462 blank, void, over- or under-vote or 'none of these candidates' ballots, which the source reports as lines of their own.
- Idaho The source reports 6,901 votes under the label 'Independent' on one line with no candidate name, so the people they went to cannot be shown separately; they are counted in 'Other candidates'.
- Maine 'Other candidates' includes 11,578 blank, void, over- or under-vote or 'none of these candidates' ballots, which the source reports as lines of their own.
- Massachusetts 'Other candidates' includes 16,429 blank, void, over- or under-vote or 'none of these candidates' ballots, which the source reports as lines of their own.
- Nevada 'Other candidates' includes 5,770 blank, void, over- or under-vote or 'none of these candidates' ballots, which the source reports as lines of their own.
- New York The MIT Election Lab file gives Barack Obama 4,471,871 votes; the FEC's official results give 4,485,741. This site shows the FEC figure.
- New York The state total (7,081,159) is the FEC's official total; the MIT file's total is 7,116,784. 'Other candidates' is that total minus the figures shown.
- Wyoming 'Other candidates' includes 1,640 blank, void, over- or under-vote or 'none of these candidates' ballots, which the source reports as lines of their own.
SourcesMIT Election Data and Science Lab, U.S. President 1976–2024 ; Federal Election Commission, Federal Elections 2012: presidential results . How these figures were compiled
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