2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Early race
The next day, Congressman Ron Paul announced his exploratory committee to run for president in Des Moines, Iowa. He had visited the state several times before, including meeting with Governor of Iowa Terry Branstad a month earlier. Former Governor Mitt Romney, who announced his exploratory committee by posting a video on YouTube on April 11, 2011, failed to make his first appearance in Iowa until May 27, 2011, visiting Ankeny, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Early race
A month later, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann made her first visit to Iowa as a candidate on June 26, 2011, when she officially announced her campaign in Waterloo, Iowa. Former Governor Jon Huntsman, who announced his campaign in front of the Statue of Liberty on June 21, 2011, was the final then-announced candidate to visit Iowa, making his first speech at a soapbox event held by the Des Moines Register at the Iowa State Fair on August 11, 2011.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Ames Straw Poll
As the Ames Straw Poll approached in August 2011, visits and spending by the campaigns dramatically increased. Several candidates, including Bachmann, Congressman Ron Paul, former Senator Rick Santorum, Congressman Thaddeus McCotter, former Governor Tim Pawlenty, and businessman Herman Cain made bids for spots to compete at the straw poll. Congressman Paul bid the most, and was awarded the prime spot at the straw poll, which Mitt Romney occupied in 2007, and eventually led to his victory.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Ames Straw Poll
A representative for Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was also present, but due to his campaign facing large amounts of debt,  did not place a bid, and was not given a spot at the straw poll. The rest of the candidates who did place a bid spent millions attempting to win the poll, with Bachmann, Paul and Pawlenty spending the most money, performing various get out the vote efforts, and visiting the state dozens of times in the weeks leading up to the straw poll.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Ames Straw Poll
Two days before the straw poll, the third official Republican debate was held at Iowa State University in Ames, sponsored by the Republican Party of Iowa, Fox News, and The Washington Examiner. Candidates participating in the debate included Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum. The debate was noted for the sparring between Bachmann and Pawlenty, with Pawlenty criticized Bachmann for what he said was a lack of leadership, while Bachmann fired back that Pawlenty's support for cap and trade legislation and the individual mandate while governor of Minnesota made his record look like Obama's.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Ames Straw Poll
Gingrich criticized Wallace by saying he was asking "gotcha questions" instead of legitimate questions. Romney responded to criticisms of his Massachusetts health care reform, and its similarity to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, termed "Obamacare" by its opponent. Santorum stated his view that same-sex marriage is not a state issue, because the 10th Amendment "does not give states the right to trample over moral law." Romney agreed that it is a federal issue, reasoning that people move to different states and that marriage is a status, not an activity that takes place within the walls of a state. Huntsman and Paul reiterated their support for civil unions.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Ames Straw Poll
On Saturday, August 13, 2011, the straw poll was conducted on the campus of Iowa State University at the Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa, with Bachmann narrowly defeating Paul, and former Governor Tim Pawlenty in third place. The 2011 straw poll had the second highest turnout in history, second only to 1999 straw poll, when then-Governor George W. Bush won in a landslide. Governor Rick Perry, who announced the day of the straw poll in South Carolina, but whose name did not appear on the ballot, received a significant number of write-in votes, placing in sixth. Other non-participating candidates, such as Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and former Governor of Utah Jon Huntsman, performed poorly in the straw poll, placing a distant seventh, eighth, and ninth respectively.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Post-straw poll
Following the straw poll, support of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann continued to grow, as the media focused on what they deemed the "new top tier" of Bachmann, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney. This drew criticism from the supporters of Congressman Ron Paul, as well as comedian Jon Stewart on his program The Daily Show, who pointed out Paul's near tie with Bachmann in the poll, and subsequent lack of coverage of the candidate by the media. Bachmann's support in polls following Ames began to fall, however, with Rick Perry's support growing in the state following his entrance to the race. His first visit to the state as a presidential candidate was at an event held on August 14, 2011, in Waterloo, Iowa, which Bachmann also attended.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Post-straw poll
The same day, former Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota announced his intentions to withdraw from the race, as a result of placing a distant third in the Ames Straw Poll. Congressman Thaddeus McCotter also dropped out of the race a month after the straw poll, calling his presidential bid the "worst 15 minutes of [his] life."


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Post-straw poll
Going into September, media coverage of subsequent debates held in Simi Valley, California, Tampa and Orlando, Florida focused on Rick Perry's poor performance in those debates, and eventually led to a significant drop in his support in statewide polls conducted in both Iowa, as well as nationwide. This also coincided with the introduction of the 9–9–9 plan by fellow candidate businessman Herman Cain, who then saw a sharp rise in the polls, putting him in a virtual tie with Mitt Romney. In the weeks following, Cain was the subject of a scandal involving accusations of sexual harassment during his tenure at the National Restaurant Association, as well as an accusation that he had participated in a 13-year affair with an Atlanta businesswoman.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Post-straw poll
Subsequent statewide polling then saw a surge among several candidates, including Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, who would both surge in the final weeks before the caucuses. On December 3, 2011, in Atlanta, Georgia, Herman Cain officially announced the suspension of his campaign, due to the various allegations of sexual harassment, a 13-year affair, and personal attacks on his family. Soon thereafter it was reported that Cain would endorse Gingrich the following Monday, but it proved to be untrue, with Cain refusing to endorse any other candidates. Despite the suspension of his campaign, the Republican Party of Iowa will still report caucus vote totals for Cain.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Final debates
On December 10, 2011, the first of two final debates to be conducted in Iowa before the caucuses was held, and hosted by ABC News, The Des Moines Register, and the Iowa Republican Party. The debate was the first to occur following Cain's campaign suspension, with Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum participating in the debate. Jon Huntsman, who had refused to contest Iowa, instead focusing his efforts on winning the New Hampshire primary, was not invited to participate in the debate, and did not meet the debate organizer's criteria of participation.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Final debates
The debate was also one of the first to occur following Gingrich's surge in the statewide polls in Iowa, as well as nationwide. It was focused on various economic, foreign, and domestic issues, with Gingrich facing most of the criticism from his fellow competitors. Romney mocked Gingrich's plan to build a lunar colony to mine minerals from the moon, saying that the real difference between the two of them was their backgrounds, saying "I spent my life in the private sector. I know how the economy works."


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Final debates
Gingrich replied, "Let's be candid. The only reason you didn't become a career politician is you lost to Teddy Kennedy in 1994", which drew boos and laughter from the audience. Romney replied "If I'd have beaten Ted Kennedy I could have been a career politician, that's probably true. If I would've been able to get in the NFL like I hoped when I was a kid, I would have been a football star all my life too." Mitt Romney later received criticism when he attempted to bet fellow candidate Rick Perry $10,000, when discussing the issue of his past support of a healthcare mandate, which Perry had pointed out was removed from his book.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Final debates
Other participants, including Ron Paul, who had also seen a significant surge in polls in the state, criticized Gingrich for his participation as a consultant for mortgage company Freddie Mac, during which he was paid $1.6 million, shortly before its collapse and subsequent bail out by the federal government. Michele Bachmann also attacked Gingrich, after he refused to call himself a lobbyist, saying, "You don't need to be within the technical definition of a lobbyist to still be influence peddling."


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Final debates
A second debate was held on December 15, 2011, and took place in Sioux City, Iowa. It was hosted by Fox News and the Iowa Republican Party, and moderated by Bret Baier. Participants in the debate included Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. Newt Gingrich was once again the main focus of his competitors, and continued to receive criticism for his past dealing with Freddie Mac.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Final debates
Ron Paul was also challenged for his stance on Iran, and was criticized by Michele Bachmann, who Paul refuted by continuing to state his position that sanctions are an act of war, and the prospect of Iran possibly having a nuclear weapon is similar to the war propaganda that preceded the war in Iraq. Paul continued, "I don't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I would like to reduce them because there would be less chance of war. But to declare war on 1.2 billion Muslims and say all Muslims are the same, this is dangerous talk. Yeah, there are some radicals. But they don't come here to kill us because we're free and prosperous. Do they go to Switzerland and Sweden? That is absurd."


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Final debates
Paul also stated, "why do we have 900 bases in 130 countries and we're totally bankrupt. How do you rebuild a military when we have no money? How are we going to take care of the people? I think this wild goal to have another war in the name of defense is the dangerous thing. The danger is really us overreacting. We need a strong national defense, and we need to only go to war with a declaration of war." Later in the debate, Rick Perry received attention when he called himself the "Tim Tebow of the Iowa caucuses," when asked how he would compete against President Barack Obama in a general election debate.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Final debates
Mitt Romney received praise for his performance in the debate, who largely focused on criticizing President Obama, rather than his opponents. One exchange involved Obama's lack of response towards a drone being taken down in Iran, with Romney stating, "This is a president — with the — the spy drone being brought down, he says pretty please? A foreign policy based on pretty please? You got to be kidding."


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Final weeks of campaign
In the final weeks leading up to the caucuses, a majority of the candidates spent a large amount of time campaigning in the state, with Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry touring the state on their own respective bus tours. Bachmann visited all 99 of the state's counties in a ten-day sweep through the state. Other candidates, including Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, also held several events throughout the state to meet with voters. Mitt Romney also visited the state, but spent most of December focusing his efforts on the New Hampshire primary instead. Jon Huntsman also decided to focus on the New Hampshire primary, and did not campaign in Iowa.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Final weeks of campaign
Polling in the final weeks saw a surge of support for Ron Paul, with Gingrich's support beginning to falter. Support for Mitt Romney also stayed somewhat steady, and Bachmann, Perry, and Santorum were all mostly tied in the second-tier. A poll conducted by Public Policy Polling between December 16 until December 18, 2011, showed Paul with the lead for the first time, with 23% of likely caucus-goers supporting him. Romney fell close behind with 20%, and Gingrich saw a steep drop in support with 14%, largely due to the increase of negative advertisements being bought against him in the state's media market by his opponents.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Final weeks of campaign
Another poll conducted by Iowa State University, KCRG-TV and The Gazette between December 8–18, 2011, also found Paul in the lead with 27.5% of support, with Gingrich close behind at 25.3%. Yet another poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports on December 19, 2011, found Mitt Romney with the most support at 25%, with Paul close behind at 20%, and Gingrich at 16%. Fundraising for Paul also increased in December, when his campaign raised more than $4 million in one "moneybomb" over a weekend.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Final weeks of campaign
Shortly prior to the caucus date, an unofficial campaign to urge voters to write in Sarah Palin began running radio and television ads in Iowa. The ads argued that Palin is the only candidate who can stop crony capitalism. The final week before the caucus witnessed a surprise surge in the polls for Santorum, who rose from singled digits earlier to 15% behind Paul at 22% and Romney at 24%.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Final weeks of campaign
Santorum spent months in Iowa, traveling to all 99 counties and holding some 381 town hall meetings over the course of the campaign. However, for months Santorum lagged in the polls and had difficulty raising money, traveling around the state in a pickup truck instead of buses and caravans used by other candidates. He lagged in the so-called second tier of candidates, polling in the single digits in Iowa as late as December 18. However, his surge began around that time, as numerous polls put him in the top three along with Romney and Paul.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Final weeks of campaign
According to the Los Angeles Times, "Santorum caught fire at just the right time as social conservatives in the state and other undecided voters appeared to gravitate his way in large numbers at the expense of candidates" such as Gingrich, Perry, and Bachmann.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Date of caucuses
The 2012 Iowa Republican caucuses were originally scheduled to begin on February 6, 2012, much later than the date in 2008, which almost immediately followed the beginning of the year in January 2008. On September 29, 2011, the entire schedule of caucuses and primaries was disrupted, however, when it was announced that the Republican Party of Florida had decided to move up its primary to January 31, in an attempt to bring attention to its own primary contest, and attract the presidential candidates to visit the state.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Date of caucuses
Because of the move, the Republican National Committee decided to strip Florida of half of its delegates. Also as a result, the Iowa Republican Party, along with New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada then sought to move their caucuses back into early January. All but Nevada, who agreed to follow Florida, confirmed their caucus and primary dates to take place throughout January, with Iowa deciding to hold their contest on January 3, 2012.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Campaign spending and super PACs
The Iowa race was dominated by a large volume of negative or attack advertising paid for by "super PACs" supporting candidates. Total political expenditures in Iowa set a new record, totaling over $12 million, with an estimated two-thirds coming from super PACs. (Unlike contributions directly to candidate funds, which have a $2,500 contribution limit and must disclose all contributors, super PACs may raise unlimited amounts of money and may keep contributors anonymous). Some $10 million was spent in television advertising by candidates and super PACs across the state by the end of 2011.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Campaign spending and super PACs
Former journalist David Yepsen, who covered nine Iowa caucuses for the Des Moines Register before joining the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, told The Boston Globe: "It's hard to figure out who is doing the attacking and to what end, and they're double-barreling the attacks on two or more candidates. I've never seen that before. We've never had this volume [of negative ads] or this much complexity."


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Campaign spending and super PACs
Romney's campaign was by far the largest overall spender, and Romney's "Restore Our Future" super PAC spent $4 million in attack ads against Gingrich beginning on December 9. The "Restore Our Future" negative television advertising and direct mail campaign was said to be "unprecedented" and "unlike anything in Iowa caucus history" and was credited with Gingrich's precipitous drop in the polls from front-runner into fourth-place finisher. By December 27, $2.86 million had been spent on television advertising by the Perry campaign, and $2.85 million had been spent by the pro-Romney  "Restore Our Future" PAC.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Campaign spending and super PACs
The New York Times reported that Romney "effectively outsourced his negative advertising to a group that has raised millions of dollars from his donors to inundate his opponents with attacks - all without breaking the rules that forbid super PACs to explicitly coordinate with the candidates." The Detroit Free Press editorialized that "No one exploited the new no-limits-or-accountability playing field more shamelessly or effectively than [Romney]. His campaign mounted a sunny, Morning in America-style ad blitz, while super PACs founded and directed by longtime Romney loyalists buried the governor's GOP rivals in televised slime."


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Campaign spending and super PACs
On January 1, ahead of the caucuses, Gingrich stated that Romney would "buy an election if he could." In the final days of the campaign and immediately after the results came in, Gingrich expressed anger toward Romney and the negative "Restore Our Future" campaign, stating that in the future "We are not going to go out and run nasty ads, but I do reserve the right to tell the truth ... If the truth seems negative, that may be more a comment on his [Romney’s] record than the nature of politics."


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Campaign spending and super PACs
A study conducted by Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group showed that by December 30, some 45 percent of all television ads in Iowa were negative ads against Gingrich; 20 percent were negative ads against Romney; 10% were positive ads for Romney; 6% were positive ads for Gingrich; 8% were negative ads against Perry; 8% were positive ads for Perry; and 3% were positive ads for Paul.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Campaign spending and super PACs
Gingrich was the only candidate of the five leading candidates to face a net financial disadvantage in terms of ad money spent (as a percent of total ad money spent in Iowa) verses percent of ads run against that candidate:  Gingrich was at -35%, Santorum as +4%, Romney at +10%, Paul at +17%, and Perry at +31% (the largest net financial advantage).


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Campaign, Campaign spending and super PACs
According to data compiled by BuzzFeed, for every $1,000 spent on advertising by their campaigns, Santorum received 49 votes; Gingrich received 11 votes; Paul received 10 votes; Romney received six votes; and Perry received two votes. For every one vote received, Perry's campaign spent $478.40 in paid media, Romney spent $154.90, Paul spent $103.30, Gingrich spent $89.74, Santorum spent $20.50, and Bachmann spent $3.95. This makes the average "price per vote" about $130, taking in account only media spending.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Endorsements
Romney was endorsed by three of the state's five largest newspapers: The Des Moines Register, the Quad City Times, and the Sioux City Journal. The two other large state newspapers, the Cedar Rapids Gazette and the Waterloo Cedar Fall Courier, did not endorse any candidate.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Endorsements
Few major endorsements were made by major Iowa Republican elected officials. Iowa's governor Terry Branstad endorsed no candidate. Similarly, Senator Chuck Grassley chose not to endorse any candidate. On January 2, U.S. Representative Steve King said on Simon Conway's program on WHO Radio that he would not endorse before the caucuses.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Endorsements
On December 9, Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz endorsed Santorum. Prominent Christian right figures Bob Vander Plaats of The Family Leader (who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor of Iowa in 2010) and Chuck Hurley of the Iowa Family Policy Center endorsed Santorum on December 20.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election
Election Day was a "balmy January day by Iowa standards" with temperatures of up to 35 degrees in central Iowa and "occasional gusts of wind," more favorable weather than in the 2008 caucuses, with temperatures of 4 degrees.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Candidates on ballot
The Republican Party of Iowa announced on December 29, 2011, that they would report vote totals for the following candidates: Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Buddy Roemer, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum. Vote counts for "No Preference" and "Other" were also reported.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Candidates on ballot
The eight names were listed on the ballot in alphabetical order. Cain was included on the ballot although he had dropped out of the race because the names were finalized before Cain suspended his campaign.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Allegations of irregularities and results certification
On January 5 following the caucuses, Des Moines radio station KCCI first reported that caucus-goer Edward True, stated in an affidavit that at his 53-person caucus at the Garrett Memorial Library in Moulton in Appanoose County that he was one of three people who had helped in counting the results and had written the results down on a piece of paper to post to Facebook, but later discovered that the reported count was inaccurate.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Allegations of irregularities and results certification
According to True's affidavit, Romney had actually received just two votes, but had been credited with 22 votes: "53 caucus-goers had cast votes in his precinct, rather than 79 as reported by the state. The 26-vote difference reflects what he says were 20 excess votes for Mr. Romney and six for Mr. Roemer." If true, this would change the statewide results from an eight-vote victory for Romney into a 12-vote victory for Santorum.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Allegations of irregularities and results certification
Statistician Nate Silver notes that Romney had performed poorly in other Appanoose County precincts, receiving two of 39 votes in one, four of 43 votes in another, and none of 40 votes in a third, and also commented that it was unusual that obscure candidate Buddy Roemer, who received just 31 votes statewide, was credited with six votes in one precinct.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Allegations of irregularities and results certification
Silver also pointed out that one precinct in Appanoose County, Pleasant Franklin, reported no turnout at all, although it was listed as a valid caucus site and 132 voters cast ballots for John McCain in the 2008 general election there. Pleasant Franklin was one of eight precincts throughout that state that were listed by the state party but were reported as having no Republican turnout. Some have suggested that since minor counting errors are common, it is plausible that the lost votes could be canceled out by a similar error at another caucus location. However, Silver noted the exceptional closeness of the race and noted on January 5 that "For now, the caucuses are probably best thought of as still being too close to call."


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Allegations of irregularities and results certification
True, who is a Ron Paul supporter, stated to KCCI that: "This is huge. It essentially changes who won." A Republican Party of Iowa spokesman stated that since True is neither a precinct captain nor county chairperson, he has "no business" talking about election results. On January 5, the Iowa Republican Party released a written statement in which they refused to respond to reports of the irregularity and stated that did not have "any reason to believe the final, certified results of Appanoose County" would change the outcome.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Allegations of irregularities and results certification
Santorum stated on January 6 that the report of the irregularities "doesn't really matter to me," citing the virtually tied results. Counties had up to two weeks from the date of the caucuses to transmit their final certified results to the state Republican Party. While there are no recount provisions for caucus results in Iowa Republican party rules, there was a certification process, which was described as "nearly the same thing."


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Allegations of irregularities and results certification
On January 16, it was reported that there was "a very real chance that the Republican Party of Iowa will announce this week that Rick Santorum, and not Romney, won the Iowa caucuses," citing various campaign sources who reported that the final numbers will be different from those released on caucus night. Republican Party of Iowa executive director Chad Olsen said on January 17 that there have been errors giving both Santorum and Romney more votes than reported on caucus night.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Allegations of irregularities and results certification
On January 19, the Iowa Republican Party released the certified results showing Santorum edged out Romney with 29,839 votes to Romney's 29,805, a margin of 34 votes. The Iowa Republican Party initially declined to formally declare a winner because results from eight precincts were lost and could not be certified, which The Washington Post said "served to embarrass the Iowa GOP — which had to admit that it had misallocated some votes, and simply lost some others, in a razor's-edge election where every vote mattered." One party executive called the result a "split decision." The initial returns from the uncertified eight precincts (four in Lee County and one each in Cerro Gordo, Emmet, Franklin, and Pocahontas counties) also favored Santorum, and statistician Nate Silver stated that if those missing precincts had been included, Santorum's margin would have been increased.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Allegations of irregularities and results certification
Despite its earlier decision not to declare an official winner, on January 21, the Iowa Republican Party reversed itself and issued a press release formally declaring Santorum the winner of the caucuses, saying, "In order to clarify conflicting reports and to affirm the results released January 18 by the Republican Party of Iowa, Chairman Matthew Strawn and the state central committee declared Senator Rick Santorum the winner."


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Allegations of irregularities and results certification
According to observers, the "muddled result and response" threatens the future of the Iowa caucuses' first-in-the-nation status, which already have many critics because of the attention paid to the caucuses and its unrepresentative demographic characteristics. The Des Moines Register stated that the 2012 caucus errors "opens a new line of attack: that Iowa’s process is amateurish, and that its results cannot be trusted."


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Entrance poll
An entrance poll was conducted by Edison Research for the Associated Press and the television networks, involving interviews with 1,787 caucus-goers at 40 randomly selected caucus locations throughout Iowa, with a +/- 4% margin of error. The entrance poll found:


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Results
There are 614,913 registered Republicans as of January 3, 2012. Turnout was 19.9% of the voting-eligible population (registered Iowa Republicans).


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Selection of delegates
The Iowa Republican precinct caucus is the first part in a multi-step process to elect the state's 25 pledged delegates to the 2012 Republican National Convention. The January 3 caucuses (precinct caucuses) elect delegates to county conventions. These county conventions, in turn, elect delegates to the four congressional-district conventions on March 10, who elect three national delegates each. Each congressional-district convention also appoints two members to a "slate committee" which chooses 13 additional delegates. These 13 delegates are voted on at the Republican Party of Iowa state convention on June 18.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Selection of delegates
Notably, even the 25 pledged delegates are not bound to support any candidate at the national convention. Unlike the majority of states, Iowa RNC delegates are free to vote for any candidate for president or vice president. In addition to the 25 pledged delegates, Iowa also sent three unpledged delegates to the convention, for a total of 28 Iowa delegates.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Selection of delegates
According to the Associated Press (AP), the Iowa Republican system "puts a premium on getting the most votes in individual congressional districts. If a candidate's supporters can control a congressional district convention, they can choose national delegates and slate committee members who support their candidate." A January 4 Associated Press analysis projected that Romney would win 13 delegates, Santorum would win 12, and the rest of the candidates would get none. This projection was also used by The New York Times. CNN used a different estimate, predicting that Romney would receive 18 delegates, Santorum would receive 8, Paul would receive 7, Perry would receive 4, and Gingrich would receive 2. NBC used a third estimate, predicting that Romney would receive 11, Santorum would receive 11, and Paul would receive 3.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Selection of delegates
Contrary to these early projections, however, Paul ultimately did extremely well in the delegate race. Indeed, despite the fact that Paul finished in third place in the popular vote, 22 of Iowa's 28 delegates ultimately voted for Paul at the Republican National Convention. Since Iowa's delegates are not bound to vote for a nominee based on the results of the caucuses, Paul supporters were able to exert a substantial influence on the delegate race by mastering Iowa's arcane election rules and winning key positions on state election committees.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, Republican caucuses, Election, Selection of delegates
The Los Angeles Times described this effort by the Paul campaign as "part of a quiet strategy by Paul and his backers to amass an army of supporters at the GOP gathering in August in Tampa, Fla., to push Paul's views on liberty, states' rights, the monetary system and foreign policy." Some commentators noted that the Romney campaign was partly to blame for the delegate outcome, for their failure to mobilize supporters to participate fully in the Iowa nomination process.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, General election
There were eight candidates on the Iowa ballot in the general election: the two major-party candidates (Barack Obama and Mitt Romney) and six minor candidates.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, General election
Analysts considered Iowa to be a toss-up state—one which either major candidate could plausibly win. A majority of statewide opinion polls have shown Obama tied with or leading Romney. As of October 22, 2012, polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight estimates that there is a 66% likelihood that Obama will win Iowa's electoral votes.


2012 United States presidential election in Iowa, General election, Polling
Up until September 2012, polling showed a close race with Obama narrowly leading. In late September 2012, Obama gained momentum and this continued through the first three weeks of October 2012, where he won almost every poll in that time period. In October, when Romney gained momentum in other states, Obama won the majority of the polls conducted. Romney ended up winning the second to last poll, but other than that, Obama won every poll in the last week. The final poll showed Obama leading 50% to 48%, while an average of the last 3 polls showed Obama leading 48% to 46%.


2012 United States presidential election in Kansas
The 2012 United States presidential election in Kansas 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. Kansas voters chose six 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. Romney and Ryan carried the state with 59.66% of the popular vote to Obama's and Biden's 38.05%, thus winning the state's six electoral votes.


2012 United States presidential election in Kansas
Obama carried only two counties: Douglas, home to Lawrence and the University of Kansas; and Wyandotte, home to Kansas City and the state's largest concentration of nonwhite voters. He lost Crawford County, home to Pittsburg State University, which he won in 2008.


2012 United States presidential election in Kansas, Democratic caucuses
No major Democratic candidate challenged President Obama for the Democratic nomination in 2012. Obama thus won all 517 votes at the State Convention on June 9 and all 53 delegates.


2012 United States presidential election in Kansas, Republican caucuses
The Republican caucuses were held on Saturday, March 10, 2012. Kansas has 40 delegates to the 2012 Republican National Convention. 25 of these delegates are allocated proportionally to candidates who exceed a 20% threshold in the statewide vote tally. The 15 remaining delegates are 'winner-take-all' delegates. 12 delegates are given (3 each) to the candidates with most votes in each of Kansas's 4 congressional districts. 3 delegates are awarded to the candidate with most votes statewide.


2012 United States presidential election in Kansas, Republican caucuses
Rick Santorum won the caucus and will receive 33 delegates. He won the state with 51% of the statewide vote and received most votes in all of the congressional districts, thus winning 15 delegates. As only Santorum and Mitt Romney exceeded the 20% threshold, 18 of the 25 proportionally allocated delegates were allocated to Santorum and 7 to Romney.


2012 United States presidential election in Kentucky
The 2012 United States presidential election in Kentucky took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 General Election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Kentucky voters chose eight 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.


2012 United States presidential election in Kentucky
Romney carried Kentucky by a landslide margin, winning 60.49% of the vote to Obama's 37.80%. This represented a margin of 22.69%, a great improvement for the Republican Party from 2008, when they won with a 16.23% margin. Although Kentucky had been won by Southern Democrat Bill Clinton twice in the 1990s, Obama was seen as a poor cultural fit for the state, and he did not compete here either time he ran. The Romney campaign also attacked Obama's administration as being hostile to the coal industry, historically an important part of the state's economy.


2012 United States presidential election in Kentucky
Consequently, Obama suffered a historically poor showing in the traditionally, staunchly Democratic coalfields of Eastern Kentucky. Many counties that had voted even for landslide Democratic losers like George McGovern and Walter Mondale defected to the Republicans in 2012. Knott County, which had given Clinton 73% of the vote in 1996, gave Romney 73% of the vote in 2012.


2012 United States presidential election in Kentucky
Even Elliott County, the only county in the state in which Obama had broken 60% in 2008, barely held on in 2012, giving Obama a narrow plurality win, his only victory in the region, and one of just four county wins in the entire state. Wolfe County, which had returned to the Democratic Party in 2004 and 2008 after casting its first-ever Republican vote for George W. Bush in 2000, went for Romney by over twenty points, making Obama the first Democrat to win the White House without carrying it since the county's founding in 1860.


2012 United States presidential election in Kentucky
The only part of the state where Obama won convincingly was Jefferson County, the most urban and populous county in the state, and home to Louisville. He also eked out a close win in Fayette County, the second-most populous county, home to Lexington. Despite losing five counties he won in 2008, he managed to flip Franklin County, home to the state capital of Frankfort, which he had narrowly lost in 2008. This is the last time Elliott and Franklin Counties voted for a Democrat.


2012 United States presidential election in Kentucky, Democratic primary
Barack Obama's only "opponent" in the primary was the "Uncommited" ballot option, which garnered more than 42% of the primary vote, making Kentucky one of Obama's worst contested primary results.


2012 United States presidential election in Kentucky, Republican primary
The Republican primary occurred on May 22, 2012. 42 delegates were chosen, all of which were allocated to and pledged to vote for Mitt Romney at the 2012 Republican National Convention. Three delegates remain unpledged to any candidate. All Republicans in Kentucky were allowed to participate in the primary. A Republican primary was also held in Arkansas on this day.


2012 United States presidential election in Kentucky, Republican primary
Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich withdrew from the presidential race on April 10 and May 2, 2012, respectively. Both endorsed Mitt Romney as the Republican nominee.


2012 United States presidential election in Kentucky, General election, Results
On election night, Kentucky went as expected to the Republican candidate Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney over Incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama of bordering Illinois. Obama was reelected but nonetheless, lost Kentucky. In most recent years Democrats have maintained their lead in registered voters compared to Republicans. However, Kentucky is known as a highly conservative state with a populist streak. In most recent presidential elections in Kentucky, Democrats usually achieve lower 40 or upper 30% margins. Obama performed significantly worse in 2012 than he did in 2008.


2012 United States presidential election in Kentucky, General election, Results
Appalachian Kentucky used to be a place were Democrats thrived because of working-class people, particularly unionized coal miners. However this region has become more and more Republican in recent years. Romney performed, for the most part, very well statewide. Obama won four counties. Obama was however able to maintain a solid performance in perhaps the most Democratic place in the state, Jefferson County (Louisville Metro). The other counties Obama won were Franklin, Elliott and Fayette.


2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana
The 2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana 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. Louisiana voters chose eight 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.


2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana
Romney carried Louisiana's eight electoral votes with 57.78% of the popular vote.


2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana
Louisiana was 1 of 6 states where Obama did better in 2012 than in 2008, with his margin of loss decreasing from 18.63% to 17.2%.


2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana, Democratic primary
President Barack Obama received little opposition in the 2012 Democratic primaries, handily winning overall with over 88% of the vote. However, Tennessee attorney and perennial political candidate John Wolfe Jr. challenged President Obama in the primaries, and received nearly 12% of the vote. Entrepreneur Bob Ely and historian Darcy Richardson also participated, and received a little over 6% and 5% of the vote, respectively. On the date of the primary, President Obama swept nearly every parish in the state, with Wolfe winning LaSalle, Grant, and Cameron parishes. Although Wolfe qualified for four delegates, the Louisiana Democratic Party announced that they would not award the delegates to Wolfe on technical grounds.


2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana, Republican primary and caucuses
The 2012 Louisiana Republican primary took place on Saturday, March 24, 2012. And the caucuses were held April 28.


2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana, Republican primary and caucuses
Louisiana has 46 delegates to the Republican National Convention. 20 are awarded based on the primary outcome, and the rest 26 are awarded by the caucuses.


2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana, Republican primary and caucuses, Primary
The 20 delegate allocation is proportional among candidates who receive at least 25% of the statewide vote. Candidates who do not reach the 25% threshold lose the delegates they otherwise would have won, and those delegates become uncommitted then.


2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana, Republican primary and caucuses, Primary
On March 24, Rick Santorum was declared the winner of the state's primary.


2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana, Republican primary and caucuses, Caucuses, delegate dispute, and ultimate agreement
Although Ron Paul won just 6% of the vote in the primary on March 24 (in which almost 190,000 voters cast ballots), he carried four of Louisiana's six congressional districts in the congressional district caucuses held the following month (in which fewer than 10,000 people took part).


2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana, Republican primary and caucuses, Caucuses, delegate dispute, and ultimate agreement
Paul's showing in the April district causes "guaranteed him 12 of the state's 46 national convention delegates and, as important, gave his forces 111 of the 180 delegates to the state convention," which chose the actual delegates to the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.


2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana, Republican primary and caucuses, Caucuses, delegate dispute, and ultimate agreement
In advance of the June 2 Louisiana State Republican Convention in Shreveport, pro-Paul delegates and others clashed with officials and loyalists of the state Republican Party, which "issued supplemental rules on the eve of the convention to keep the Paul forces from wresting more than the 17 delegates which, in their view, was their due."


2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana, Republican primary and caucuses, Caucuses, delegate dispute, and ultimate agreement
The convention itself was described as a "riotous" and chaotic scene, as the police removed two Paul supporters, arresting one, and the convention devolved into two separate conventions, "as the Paul delegates turned their chairs around and conducted their convention facing one way, while the state party and its loyalists conducted their parallel convention facing the other."


2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana, Republican primary and caucuses, Caucuses, delegate dispute, and ultimate agreement
The split convention resulted in two rival slates of 46 delegates. The national Republican Party accepted the slate submitted by Louisiana Republican Party chairman Roger Villere as the official slate. In late July, however, Paul's campaign announced that it would challenge all the Louisiana delegates, asserting that "our rump convention is the legitimate delegation and they have a right to be seated at the Republican National Convention."


2012 United States presidential election in Louisiana, Republican primary and caucuses, Caucuses, delegate dispute, and ultimate agreement
In its official challenge to the delegate slate filed in August, Paul's campaign likened Villere to the leader of "a North Korean politburo"; in response, the executive director of the Louisiana Republican Party said that Paul's challenge was "full of personal attacks, hyperbole and unfounded assumption." The dispute was to be adjudicated by the Contest Committee of the national Republican Party, with a possible appeal to the full Republican National Committee and then to the Credential Committee of the convention. However, in late August—one week prior to the convention—the Paul campaign made an agreement with the Republican Party of Louisiana in which Paul would get 17 of the state's 46 delegates, with the rest of the state's delegates supporting then-presumptive nominee Mitt Romney.


2012 United States presidential election in Maine
The 2012 United States presidential election in Maine 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. Maine voters chose four 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 carried Maine with 56.27% of the popular vote to Romney's and Ryan's 40.98%, thus winning the state's four electoral votes.


2012 United States presidential election in Maine
This is the most recent election when the Democratic candidate won Maine's second congressional district along with a majority of counties in the state, as well as these counties (all of which comprise that district): Androscoggin County, Aroostook County, Franklin County, Oxford County, Penobscot County, Somerset County, and Washington County.


2012 United States presidential election in Maine, Republican caucuses
The Republican caucuses were held between Sunday, January 29, and Saturday, March 3, at various locations throughout the state of Maine. Presidential preference polls (straw polls) were held at the caucuses, but those polls were not binding on the choices of delegates to the Maine Republican Party convention. The caucuses chose delegates in processes separate from the straw polling.


2012 United States presidential election in Maine, Republican caucuses
The state party encouraged all municipal committees to hold their caucuses between February 4 and February 11, although each committee was free to choose a different date. The first caucus was in Waldo County on January 29 and the last one in Castine (Hancock County) on March 3. On Saturday, February 11, after 84% of precincts had completed voting, state-party officials announced results of straw polls. The results were revised in a second declaration on February 17 to include previously-missing results from several caucuses.


2012 United States presidential election in Maine, Republican caucuses
Those statewide totals still did not include the caucuses in Washington County, which had been scheduled for February 11 but postponed to February 18 by predictions of bad weather, nor did they include caucuses originally scheduled to occur between February 16 and March 3. The state Republican Party issued a third statewide compilation on February 24, adding all the February 18 caucuses (scheduled and postponed), but not those for February 16 or March 3. All three statewide totals showed former Governor Mitt Romney leading Representative Ron Paul by small margins, with other candidates well behind.


2012 United States presidential election in Maine, Republican caucuses
At the State Convention held over the weekend of May 5–6, Ron Paul won 20 out of 24 national delegates. One elected delegate, Governor Paul LePage is uncommitted. Of the three delegates qualified by the party offices they already hold, the state party chairman, Charlie Webster is also uncommitted, while the current National Committeeman and Committeewoman are committed to Mitt Romney.


2012 United States presidential election in Maine, Republican caucuses
Updated results were released by the Maine GOP on February 24. The new table does not show returns from Rome on February 16 or Castine on March 3, but does include returns from the towns listed above for February 18.


2012 United States presidential election in Maryland
The 2012 United States presidential election in Maryland 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. Maryland voters chose 10 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.


2012 United States presidential election in Maryland
Maryland is one of six states where Obama did better in 2012 than in 2008, with his percentage of the vote increasing from 61.92% to 61.97%. He managed to flip Somerset County but lost Kent County which he won in 2008.


2012 United States presidential election in Maryland
As of 2020, this is the last time a Republican won Anne Arundel County and a Democrat won Somerset County.


2012 United States presidential election in Maryland, Republican primary
The Republican primary took place on April 3, 2012, the same day as the District of Columbia Republican primary and the Wisconsin Republican primary. After the primary, 37 delegates were selected to attend the Republican National Convention.


2012 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
The 2012 United States presidential election in Massachusetts 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. Massachusetts voters chose 11 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.


2012 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
Obama and Biden won Massachusetts with 60.65% of the popular vote to Romney's and Ryan's 37.51%, thus winning the state's 11 electoral votes by a 23.14% margin of victory, despite Massachusetts being Romney's home state, as whose governor he had served from 2003 to 2007. 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 his home state since Richard Nixon lost his home state of New York to Hubert Humphrey in 1968.


2012 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
Massachusetts had been a Democratic-leaning state since 1928, and a Democratic stronghold since 1960, and has maintained extremely large Democratic margins since 1996. Even fending off one of the state's own former governors, Mitt Romney. Massachusetts has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1984. The 2012 election was also the sixth consecutive one (since 1992) in which the Democratic presidential candidate swept every one of the state's 14 counties. Romney became the first candidate since Theodore Roosevelt, one hundred years earlier, to win an electoral vote, but no counties in his home state. Romney also became the first major party nominee to lose his or her home state by twenty or more percentage points in 80 years.


2012 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
Nevertheless, Romney's 37.51% vote share still stands (as of the 2020 election) as the highest Republican vote share in the Bay State since 1988. Romney's 4.2% defeat in Plymouth County represents, as of 2020, the closest a Republican has come to carrying any of Massachusetts' counties since 1988. This was also the first and, as of 2020, only election since 1984 in which the former Republican stronghold of Barnstable County was not decided by double digits.


2012 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
The 2012 presidential election marks the most recent cycle that Romney would stand for public office as a resident of Massachusetts. He would be on the ballot again in 2018, but as a candidate for United States Senator from Utah.


2012 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
This election, Massachusetts weighed in as 0.02 percent more Democratic than California and 5.04 percent more Republican than New York. As of the 2020 election, this is the last election Massachusetts voted more Republican than New York. Despite Romney's expected wide loss, this is to date the best performance of a Republican presidential candidate in Massachusetts since George H.W. Bush in 1988, when he garnered more than 40% of the state's  votes and won four of its counties (making him the most recent Republican to win any Massachusetts counties). Romney outperformed George W. Bush's vote share in 2004 by 0.73%, while Obama underperformed John Kerry's vote share by 1.29%. Obama's 23% margin was the smallest margin since 1992.


2012 United States presidential election in Massachusetts, Primaries, Democratic
Incumbent president Barack Obama won the Massachusetts Democratic Primary with 81% of the vote. He received no official opposition in the primary, with the other 19% of the vote going to write-in candidates. Through the primary and district caucuses, he won all of the state's 110 pledged delegates, which voted for him at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina (the state also had 26 superdelegates).


2012 United States presidential election in Massachusetts, Primaries, Republican
The 2012 Massachusetts Republican presidential primary was held on March 6, 2012. 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. As expected, Romney won Massachusetts by a landslide. He won the plurality in every town but 10 (Rick Santorum won seven, Ron Paul won two, and no candidate won one), and earned the majority in all but 53.


2012 United States presidential election in Massachusetts, Primaries, Green-Rainbow
The 2012 Massachusetts Green-Rainbow presidential primary was held on March 6, 2012.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan
The 2012 United States presidential election in Michigan 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 16 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.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan
Michigan was won by Democrat Barack Obama with 54.21% of the vote to Romney's 44.71%, a victory margin of 9.5%. It was the sixth presidential election in a row where Michigan voted in favor of the Democratic candidate, with Republicans last carrying the state in 1988. Obama's margin of victory was significantly decreased from 2008 when he carried the state by 16.44%, and he lost 26 counties that had voted for him four years prior.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan
Many of those counties had gone Democratic for the first time in decades, such as Berrien County which hadn't voted for a Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. The state's Republican trend would continue, as Donald Trump would end up narrowly winning the state and flipping even more counties in 2016. Nevertheless, it would return to the Democratic column in the following cycle when it narrowly backed Joe Biden over Trump.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan
As of 2020, this is the last time Michigan voted to the left of Colorado, Virginia, New Hampshire, and Minnesota, along with the overall nationwide popular vote. Due to the latter, 2008 is the last time Michigan was the most Democratic state in the Midwest after Illinois. It was also the last time that Bay County, Calhoun County, Eaton County, Gogebic County, Isabella County, Lake County, Macomb County, Manistee County, Monroe County, Shiawassee County, and Van Buren County voted for a Democratic candidate.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Democratic primary
The Democratic Party used a caucus system to determine the proportion of delegates awarded to Democratic candidates. The caucuses took place May 5; as the only Democratic candidate, President Obama won all 183 pledged delegates in the caucus. They, along with the other 20 unpledged delegates, voted for Obama at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Republican primary
The Republican primary took place on February 28, 2012, the same day as the Arizona Republican primary. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won both of these elections.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Republican primary
This Michigan election used a semi-open primary system (which the state referred to as "closed") in which each voter made a public declaration at their election site and received the ballot for the appropriate party, rather than the fully open system used in the past. The state had 7,286,556 registered voters as of February 15, and delegates were awarded proportionately.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Republican primary
Michigan was given 59 delegates to the Republican (GOP) national convention, but that number was reduced to 30 as a penalty for bringing the election date forward before March 6 as the GOP rules set. The candidate with the greatest number of votes in each of the 14 congressional districts will receive that district's two delegates.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Republican primary
Two additional delegates for Michigan were announced by the media to be given proportionally before the election but after the election the Michigan GOP announced there had been an error in the memo published and that the two delegates will be given to the winner, which sparked accusations of Mitt Romney rigging the results from Rick Santorum's team.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Republican primary, Campaign
While Romney has close ties to Michigan, where he was born and grew up and his father was the Governor, Santorum, who once trailed Romney badly in the state, had a clear lead over him in mid February after Santorum won Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri caucuses and primary on February 7. And the competition became a statistical tie between these two candidates before the primary.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Republican primary, Campaign
Since Michigan allows primary voters to declare their affiliation at the time they vote, Santorum campaign paid for robo-calls inviting Democrats to  cross over and vote for him. Romney called this tactic "outrageous" and "disgusting" but Santorum defended himself as not doing anything wrong but getting people to vote in an open primary.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Republican primary, Campaign
Some Democrats also urged their supporters to vote for Santorum in the Republican primary, in hopes of forcing the Republican candidates to use more resources and help make it easier for Barack Obama to win the general election. This is similar to Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos", where Limbaugh urged voters in the 2008 Democratic Presidential primaries to vote for Hillary Clinton, whom he saw as being a weaker candidate than Obama. Michigan has a long history of such crossover voting; in 2000, strong Democratic crossover votes helped Senator John McCain win the Michigan Republican primary. In 1972, Republican crossover votes propelled Governor George Wallace to victory in the Democratic primary.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Republican primary, Results
Polls closed at 8 PM local time on election day. While most of the state is in the Eastern time zone (UTC −5), four counties in the Upper Peninsula are on Central time (UTC −6), so the final closures came at 9 PM Eastern time. As of 2/28, results showed Romney winning 7 congressional districts and Santorum winning 7.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Republican primary, Results
At the Republican state convention in May, it was reported that of the 30 voting delegates for the national convention in Tampa, 6 were Paul supporters, and 24 were Romney supporters. Paul organizers disputed these numbers, stating that they had actually taken 8 (instead of 6) of the voting delegates, plus several non-voting slots.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Republican primary, Delegate allocation controversy
A controversy arose over the delegate allocation in Michigan, where 28 congressional district delegates and two at-large delegates were awarded. The Republican Party of Michigan rules stated that the two at-large delegates would be awarded proportionally, meaning that Santorum and Romney would get one delegate each for a 15–15 tie. But the following day the party's credentials committee allocated both at-large delegates to Romney, saying it had changed the rules a few weeks prior to award the delegates to the statewide winner but "in error" sent a memo to the candidates saying they would be awarded proportionately.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Republican primary, Delegate allocation controversy
Santorum's campaign protested, saying the committee's six members were mostly Romney supporters, and filed a protest with the Republican National Committee. Santorum's general counsel wrote in a letter to the RNC, "It is our understanding that several public supporters and Michigan surrogates of an opposing campaign voted in favor of the delegate allocation change which assisted their chosen candidate.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Republican primary, Delegate allocation controversy
This request is not about the allocation of a single delegate; it is about ensuring a transparent process, avoiding unscrupulous tactics and backroom deals by establishment figures and campaigns who have not received the result they hoped for at the ballot box." Committee member and former state attorney general Mike Cox endorsed Romney, but said the delegates should have been awarded 15-15: "I have this crazy idea that you follow the rules. I'd love to give the at-large delegates to Mitt Romney, but our rules provide for strict apportionment."


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, General election, Analysis
All of the local polling firms had predicted a close election here, some even giving an advantage to native Michigander Romney over Obama; however, statistician Nate Silver pointed out several problems with the local pollsters' methodology and sampling errors, instead giving more credence to the national pollsters who posited a clear victory for Obama (by a mean of 7.3 points and a median of 7.0 over Romney).


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, General election, Analysis
In the end, Silver and the National pollsters were correct: Obama defeated Romney by over 9 points in the November 2012 election. Obama dominated the population centers that had traditionally anchored Democratic strength in the state—Detroit, Lansing, Ann Arbor, and Flint—but he also retained two populous counties that had been Republican strongholds in the 1970s and 1980s, the Detroit-area suburban counties of Oakland and Macomb. Even in Kent County, which flipped back to the Republican column, Romney substantially underperformed what Bush had done in 2000 and 2004. While Romney did better in more rural areas, without better strength in some of the state's population centers, Romney was unable to flip the state.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, General election, Analysis
As of 2020, this is the last time the Democratic candidate won Bay, Calhoun, Eaton, Gogebic, Isabella, Lake, Macomb, Manistee, Monroe, Shiawassee, and Van Buren counties.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Electors
Technically the voters of Michigan cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Michigan is allocated 16 electors because it has 14 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 16 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the plurality of votes in the state is awarded all 16 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. An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Electors
The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 17, 2012, 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.


2012 United States presidential election in Michigan, Electors
The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state.


2012 United States presidential election in Minnesota
The 2012 United States presidential election in Minnesota 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. State voters chose ten 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.


2012 United States presidential election in Minnesota
Minnesota backed Obama for re-election, giving him 52.65% of the vote, while Republican challenger Mitt Romney took 44.96%, a victory margin of 7.69%. With ten Democratic wins in a row, Minnesota has the longest current streak of voting for the Democratic candidate in presidential elections of any state, having not voted Republican since Richard Nixon in 1972. This is the longest streak for the Democrats in history amongst non-Southern states.


2012 United States presidential election in Minnesota
However, Romney was able to significantly improve on McCain's performance in the North Star State, as he did nationally. Fourteen counties which voted for Obama in 2008 flipped and voted for the Republican Party in 2012, while many Democratic counties had a margin of victory much narrower than in 2008. Many of these counties had not voted for a Republican in decades, such as Big Stone County which only voted for a Republican only once since 1952 for Dwight D. Eisenhower until this election.


2012 United States presidential election in Minnesota
As of the 2020 election, this is the most recent time the Democratic candidate won the following counties: Beltrami, Chippewa, Fillmore, Freeborn, Houston, Itasca, Kittson, Koochiching, Lac qui Parle, Mahnomen, Mower, Norman, Rice, Swift, and Traverse. It is also, to date, the most recently that Minnesota voted to the left of Colorado and Virginia, two former Republican strongholds that rapidly transitioned to being reliably blue in the 2010s.


2012 United States presidential election in Minnesota, Republican caucuses
The Republican caucuses were held on February 7, 2012. The events coincided with the Colorado Republican caucuses as well as the Missouri Republican primary. Minnesota has a total of 40 delegates, 37 of which are tied to the caucuses while 3 are unpledged RNC delegates. The non-binding straw poll was won by Rick Santorum, but Ron Paul won 32 of the 40 delegates to the Republican National Convention.


2012 United States presidential election in Minnesota, Republican caucuses, Conventions
There is no formal system of allocating delegates to candidates in any step of the election process. At each meeting the participants decides what the best course of action is. The state convention can vote to bind the 13 at-large delegates to a candidate. The 24 delegates elected at the CD conventions and the 3 automatic (RNC) delegates are not legally bound to vote for a candidate.


2012 United States presidential election in Mississippi
The 2012 United States presidential election in Mississippi took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 General Election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Mississippi voters chose six 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.


2012 United States presidential election in Mississippi
Romney and Ryan won Mississippi with 55.29% of the popular vote to Obama and Biden's 43.79%, thus winning the state's six electoral votes by an 11.50% margin. Mississippi was one of just six states where Obama improved on his 2008 performance. According to exit polls, the black vote share in Mississippi increased from 33% in 2008 to 36% in 2012, likely explaining Obama's gains. This was the strongest showing for a Democratic presidential candidate in Mississippi since native Southerner Bill Clinton's 44.08% in 1996.


2012 United States presidential election in Mississippi
Obama carried Warren County, becoming the first Democrat to do so since John F. Kennedy in 1960. He also managed to flip Benton County and improved his margins in Democratic counties throughout the state. As of 2021, this is the last time a Democratic presidential candidate has carried Benton, Chicksaw, and Panola counties. This is also the last time that Mississippi has voted to the left of Texas.


2012 United States presidential election in Mississippi, Democratic primary
Obama ran unopposed in the Mississippi primary and therefore received 100% of the vote.


2012 United States presidential election in Mississippi, Republican primary
The Republican primary took place on March 13, 2012, the same day as the Alabama Republican primary and the Hawaii Republican caucuses. After the open election, 37 bound delegates and three unbound delegates will go to the Republican National Convention.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri
The 2012 United States presidential election in Missouri 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. Missouri voters chose 10 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.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri
Missouri was won by Romney, who took 53.76% of the vote to Obama's 44.38%, a margin of 9.38%. Although it was a battleground in past elections, and even a bellwether up until 2008, the Show-Me State was and still is considered to be trending toward the GOP, having been the only long-time swing state to be won (albeit narrowly) by Republican John McCain in 2008. Consequently, the state was not heavily contested by either side in 2012, and the Republicans ultimately carried Missouri by the largest margin since Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri
As of 2020, this is the last time Missouri was decided by a single-digit margin, as Republican Donald Trump would carry the state by safe margins in the next two elections. In addition, this was the first time since 1900 that Missouri was not carried by the victor of the presidential contest two times consecutively, after Obama had failed to win the state in 2008, as well as the first time since 1900 when the overall loser of the presidential election won the state by a margin larger than 1% of the statewide vote.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri
Thus, the 2012 election seemingly marked the end of Missouri's swing state status. It was also the last time Missouri voted to the left of Texas, and the first time since 1980 that it voted to the right of Georgia, both of which are Southern states that had long been Republican strongholds at the time, it is also the last time Missouri voted to the left of South Carolina and Alaska further indicating a transformation of now being reliably Republican.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri
Obama carried only three counties and the City of St. Louis. He carried Boone County, home to Columbia and the University of Missouri; Jackson County, where most of Kansas City is located; and St. Louis County, home to many St. Louis suburbs. While Obama won many counties in the St. Louis Metro in 2008 such as Iron, Jefferson, Ste. Genevieve, and Washington counties, the Republicans won them in this election, all but Ste. Genevieve by comfortable margins.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri, Republican primary election and caucuses
The 2012 Missouri Republican presidential primary took place on February 7 and the caucuses ran from March 15 to March 24, 2012, except for one rescheduled for April 10. The primary election did not determine which delegates will be sent to the national convention; this is instead determined indirectly by the caucuses and directly by the Missouri Republican congressional-district conventions April 21 and the state convention June 2.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri, Republican primary election and caucuses
The unusual situation of having both the primary election and the caucus for the same party in the same election year in Missouri arose as a result of a change in the nominating rules of the Republican Party. State primaries in Missouri were previously held in early February. In September 2008, the Republican National Committee adopted a set of rules which included a provision that no states except Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada were allowed to begin the process of delegate selection (including binding primary elections) before the first Tuesday in March of an election year.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri, Republican primary election and caucuses
In 2011, the Republican-controlled Missouri General Assembly attempted to move the primary election to mid-March, but the bill was vetoed by Democratic Governor Jay Nixon because of a provision limiting his power to fill vacancies in statewide elected offices. In a compromise solution, it was decided that Republican primary election would be made non-binding and instead delegates would be nominated by separate caucuses in late March, a move estimated to cost the state $7–8 million.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri, Republican primary election and caucuses
This marks the first time since 1996 that Missouri Republicans used a caucus system to nominate delegates to the Republican National Convention.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri, Republican primary election and caucuses, Republican primary election
The primary was not to affect the selection of Missouri's delegates to the 2012 Republican National Convention, so it had no official effect on the nomination and was widely described beforehand as a "beauty contest". However it was seen as an opportunity for Rick Santorum to face off against Mitt Romney due to the absence of Newt Gingrich, who missed the filing deadline and was not on the ballot. Santorum was the only candidate to actively campaign in the state ahead of the primary.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri, Republican primary election and caucuses, Republican primary election
The primary election was won by Santorum, who also won the Colorado and Minnesota Republican caucuses held that day.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri, Republican primary election and caucuses, Republican primary election
There were 326,438 total votes cast by party ballot (including votes for Democratic, Libertarian and Constitution Party candidates), a turnout of 7.99% of 4,085,582 registered voters. Noting the low Republican turnout, NPR found voters apathetic because the primary was nonbinding.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri, Republican primary election and caucuses, Republican primary caucuses
The county caucuses elect delegates to congressional district conventions and the Missouri Republican Party state convention, which in turn elect 49 of Missouri's 52 delegates to the national convention. However, no straw poll is released to indicate levels of support to the general public. According to the state party, "Caucus-goers will be voting for delegates, and with few exceptions, these delegates will not be bound to a particular candidate. Because there is no vote on candidate preference, neither the Missouri GOP nor any election authority will have or release any data regarding the 'winner' of the caucuses."


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri, Republican primary election and caucuses, Republican primary caucuses
Despite the nonbinding nature of the February primary, caucuses had the option to use its result as the basis for delegate allocation. Santorum was to appear personally at some caucuses, which The New York Times described as "part of the campaign's county-by-county strategy to try to outflank Mr. Romney and catch him in the delegate race".


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri, Republican primary election and caucuses, Republican primary caucuses, Results
The county caucuses elect delegates to the congressional district conventions and the state convention. Delegates to the national convention will be elected at each of those conventions. Typically, the body of a caucus votes on slates of delegates prepared by leaders of factions and coalitions within the caucus.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri, Republican primary election and caucuses, Republican primary caucuses, Results
The following table shows who won the majority or plurality of delegates for each county according to available unofficial reports.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri, Republican primary election and caucuses, Controversies
There were controversies surrounding the caucuses in Clay and Cass counties. The Missouri Republican Party ruled later that the slates of delegates elected at those caucuses were valid. A do-over caucus was required in St. Charles County after the first attempt disbanded over a rules dispute. Controversy also arose at the Jefferson County caucus, and a challenge was filed but later withdrawn.


2012 United States presidential election in Missouri, Republican primary election and caucuses, District and state conventions
The following table shows who won the national delegates for each congressional district and statewide.


2012 United States presidential election in Montana
The 2012 United States presidential election in Montana 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. Montana voters chose three 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.


2012 United States presidential election in Montana
Romney carried Montana with 55.35% of the vote to Obama's 41.70%, with a 13.65% margin of victory. Montana was the second-best state performance for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, carrying about 3% of the vote.


2012 United States presidential election in Montana
Romney performed much better than John McCain had in 2008, when he narrowly won over Obama with only a 2.38% margin of victory. Romney also won over five counties that voted for Obama in 2008. Most of the counties Obama won were either majority Native American (such as Big Horn, Blaine, Glacier, and Roosevelt) or have some of Montana's most populous cities and towns, such as Missoula County (containing its namesake city, the second largest in the state and home of the University of Montana) and Silver Bow County (home to Butte and Montana Tech). As of 2020 this is the last time a Republican won Gallatin County and the Democrats won Hill County and Roosevelt County.


2012 United States presidential election in Montana, Republican primary
The Republican caucuses took place on June 14 to 16, 2012 as the Montana state convention. Ten days before, the state delegates were selected by the central committee in each county 23 delegates were to have been chosen, for a total of 26 delegates to go to the national convention. Prior to selecting delegates, a non-binding primary election was held June 5, 2012. Results were announced before the Republican National Convention in August.


2012 United States presidential election in Nebraska
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.


2012 United States presidential election in Nebraska
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.


2012 United States presidential election in Nebraska
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.


2012 United States presidential election in Nebraska
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 as well.


2012 United States presidential election in Nebraska, Democratic primary
The Democratic primary was not held as Barack Obama ran unopposed and had secured enough delegates for nomination.


2012 United States presidential election in Nebraska, Republican primary
The Republican primary was on May 15, 2012. 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 United States presidential election in Nebraska, Republican primary, Convention
The State Convention was held in Grand Island on July 14, 2012.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada
The 2012 United States presidential election in Nevada 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. State voters chose six 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.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada
Nevada was won by President Barack Obama with 52.36% of the vote to Mitt Romney's 45.68%, a 6.68% margin of victory. In 2008, Obama won the state by 12.49%. Nevada has voted for the winner in every presidential election from 1912 onwards, except in 1976 when it voted for Gerald Ford over Jimmy Carter and in 2016 when it voted for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Carson City, which voted for Obama in 2008, flipped to supporting the Republican Party this election cycle. Despite only winning two counties (Clark and Washoe), these counties consist of over 87% of Nevada's population and are home to Las Vegas and Reno, the largest and third largest cities in the state, thus allowing Obama to win by a comfortable margin.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada, Democratic caucuses
Incumbent President Barack Obama was not challenged for the Democratic candidacy so no Democratic Primary was held.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada, Republican caucuses
The Republican caucuses were held on February 4 and they are closed caucuses, Mitt Romney was declared the winner.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada, Republican caucuses, Date of caucuses
The 2012 Nevada Republican caucuses were originally scheduled to begin on February 18, 2012, much later than the date in 2008, which almost immediately followed the beginning of the year in January 2008. On September 29, 2011, the entire schedule of caucuses and primaries was disrupted, however, when it was announced that the Republican Party of Florida had decided to move up its primary to January 31, in an attempt to bring attention to its own primary contest, and attract the presidential candidates to visit the state.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada, Republican caucuses, Date of caucuses
Because of the move, the Republican National Committee decided to strip Florida of half of its delegates. Also as a result, the Nevada Republican Party, along with Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, then sought to move their caucuses back into early January. All but Nevada, who agreed to follow Florida, confirmed their caucus and primary dates to take place throughout January, with Nevada deciding to hold their contest on February 4, 2012.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada, Republican caucuses, Date of caucuses
The caucuses for 1,835 precincts in 125 sites were scheduled: voting from 9 AM - 1 PM, ballots handling 9-10 AM and to conclude by 3 PM at the latest on February 4, with results for almost all counties to be announced by the party at 5 PM.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada, Republican caucuses, Clark County
For Clark County, a special caucus was held at the Adelson Educational Campus at 7 PM, intended to accommodate those who observe Saturday Sabbath. According to Philip Kantor, an Orthodox Jew, the goal of the after-work caucus was to prevent electoral fraud "It has everything to do with not being deprived of a vote, being disenfranchised". This late caucus allowed a timely vote for Seventh-day Adventists, Orthodox Jews and other who don't vote until Sabbath is over.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada, Republican caucuses, Clark County
Adelson campus caucus attendees were required to sign affidavits stating that they had not already cast their ballot in an earlier caucus, that day. There was only one nationwide televised (by CNN) public vote-count. That Adelson caucus count provided the following Candidate vote results: Ron Paul 181, Mitt Romney 61, Newt Gingrich 57, and Rick Santorum 16 votes. The results of this special caucus were announced Feb 4 near 11 PM. Paul got second place in Clark County, but Gingrich was ahead of Paul by a larger margin in the rest of the state and therefore ended up beating Paul statewide for second place.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada, Republican caucuses, Results
Turnout was 8.23%. 1,800 of 1,800 precincts (100%) reporting. The voting-eligible population (400,310 registered Nevada Republicans). 125 caucus sites.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada, Republican caucuses, Results
This final result was announced by Twitter and the Nevada Republican Party on Monday February 6, at 01:01 am PST (local time). The actual Republican National Convention delegates from Nevada are mostly Ron Paul supporters (22 of 28), which were elected by state convention on May 6. The Nevada Republican Party's rules state that most elected delegates to the RNC are still bound to vote for Romney (in the first round of voting), because of Romney's statewide caucuses winning.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada, Republican caucuses, Controversy
Allegations of voter fraud have arisen due to a recount of Clark County ballots despite there being no official contest from any of the campaigns. One reason given by the GOP was that there were more ballots cast than people "signed in" at some precincts.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada, General election, Polling
Throughout the race, Barack Obama tied or won every single pre-election poll except one. The final poll showed Obama leading 51% to 47%, while the average of the last 3 polls showed Obama leading Romney 50% to 47%.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada, General election, Analysis
Nevada has historically been a swing state. It has voted for the winner of every presidential election since 1912, except for 1976 and 2016. From 1992 to 2004, the margin of victory was always under five points. In 2008, however, the state swung over dramatically to support Obama, who carried it by 12.49%.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada, General election, Analysis
In 2012, Obama held onto Nevada, though by a narrower margin of 6.68%. This was due almost entirely to Obama carrying the state's two largest counties–Clark County, home to Las Vegas and Henderson, and Washoe County, home to Reno. These two counties account for 85% of Nevada's population. Romney dominated the state's rural counties, which have supported Republicans for decades. However, the only large jurisdiction he carried was the independent city of Carson City.


2012 United States presidential election in Nevada, General election, Analysis
As in 2008, Obama owed his victory in part to the state's Hispanic voters breaking heavily for him. According to exit polls, Hispanics made up 19% of the electorate and voted for Obama by almost three-to-one.


2012 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
The 2012 United States presidential election in New Hampshire 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. New Hampshire voters chose four 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.


2012 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
New Hampshire voters chose to re-elect President Barack Obama, giving him 51.98% of the vote to Mitt Romney's 46.40%, a Democratic victory margin of 5.58%. Despite Obama winning all of the state's counties in 2008 (the first presidential candidate to do so since George H. W. Bush in 1988, and the first Democrat since Franklin Pierce in 1852) he lost three of them to Romney this election: Belknap, Carroll, and Rockingham.


2012 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
As of 2020, this is the most recent election in which the Democratic candidate won Coös County. This is also the most recent election that New Hampshire voted to the right of Wisconsin, Michigan or Iowa, and the most recent election it voted to the left of Colorado or Virginia.


2012 United States presidential election in New Hampshire, Democratic primary
New Hampshire held its primaries on January 10, 2012. The state is historically the first in the nation to hold presidential primaries, and moved its date up from February after Florida moved its primary date to January 31. Because New Hampshire has a proportional-delegate primary, the state's 12 national delegates will be allocated in proportion to candidates' percent of the popular vote.


2012 United States presidential election in New Hampshire, Democratic primary
Incumbent president Barack Obama won all the delegates and was renominated.


2012 United States presidential election in New Hampshire, Democratic primary
A Democratic presidential candidates debate, held at Saint Anselm College in December 2011, was attended by seven candidates; Obama did not participate.