2016 United States presidential election in Alaska Party's nominee for the 2016 election and appeared on the ballot in Alaska, garnering 5.88% of the vote, making Alaska again his third strongest state after New Mexico and North Dakota. The incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, a Democrat and former U.S. Senator from Illinois, was first elected president in the 2008 election, running with former Senator Joe Biden of Delaware. Defeating the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, with 52.9% of the popular vote and 68% of the electoral vote, Obama succeeded two-term Republican President George W. Bush, the former Governor of Texas. Obama and
First inauguration of Barack Obama inauguration, as Barack Obama placed his hand on the Bible and recited the presidential oath. Nearly four years earlier, then-Senator Obama had been one of 22 Senators to vote against Roberts during Roberts' Supreme Court nomination; the inauguration marked the first time a Chief Justice administered the oath to a President-elect who had previously voted against the Chief Justice's confirmation. Roberts and Obama made several mistakes as they recited the oath. The proper wording for the oath of office is prescribed in the Constitution: Roberts had practiced for the ceremony carefully. However, a memo noting his planned pauses in the