Blaine County has gained a reputation as a Democratic Party enclave in strongly Republican Idaho. The Democratic presidential candidate has won the county in every election since 1992, when George H. W. Bush finished third behind Bill Clinton and Ross Perot. Blaine was the only Idaho county carried by Al Gore and John Kerry in 2000 and 2004 respectively. In the 2008 election, Barack Obama carried the county by a 33.2% margin over John McCain, while McCain won statewide by a 25.3% margin. It was one of three counties (with Latah and Teton) in Idaho won by Obama in 2008, and by far the highest margin. Obama also carried Blaine County in 2012 with 58.8 percent of the vote, compared to Mitt Romney's 38.7 percent. During the 2012 election Blaine County was the only Idaho county in which Obama received over 50 percent of the vote, although he also carried Latah County with 49.6 percent of the vote. From 1968 through 1988, a less-populated Blaine County was won by the Republican candidate in all six presidential elections, as was the state of Idaho, although even then the county voted more Democratic than Idaho as a whole in every election going back to 1924.