2008 United States presidential election in California


The 2008 United States presidential election in California took place on November 4, 2008, in California as part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose 55 electors, the most out of any of the 50 states, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
California was won by Democratic nominee Barack Obama with a 24.1% margin of victory. No Republican has carried the state in a presidential election since George H. W. Bush in 1988.
, this is the last time the Democratic candidate carried Trinity and Butte counties in a presidential election.

Primaries

On February 5, 2008, presidential primaries were held by all parties with ballot access in the state.

Democratic

The 2008 California Democratic presidential primary took place on February 5, 2008, also known as Super Tuesday. California was dubbed the "Big Enchilada" by the media because it offers the most delegates out of any other delegation. Hillary Clinton won the primary.

Process

In the primary, 370 of California's 441 delegates to the Democratic National Convention were selected. The remaining delegates were superdelegates not obligated to vote for any candidate at the convention. Of these delegates, 241 were awarded at the congressional district level, and the remaining 129 were awarded to the statewide winner. Candidates were required to receive at least 15% of either the district or statewide vote to receive any delegates. Registered Democrats and Decline to State voters were eligible to vote.

Polls

The latest six polls were averaged.
CandidateMean of
polls released
in February 2008		Median of
polls released
in February 2008
Hillary Clinton42.8%40.5%44.2%
Barack Obama40.3%40.4%41.6%

Results

Republican

The 2008 California Republican primary was held on February 5, 2008, with a total of 173 national delegates at stake.

Process

The delegates represented California at the Republican National Convention. There were three delegates to every congressional district and fourteen bonus delegates. The winner in each of the 53 congressional districts was awarded all of that district's delegates. The statewide winner was awarded 11 of the 14 bonus delegates, with the 3 remaining delegates assigned to party leaders. Voting in the primary was restricted to registered Republican voters.

Polls

Early polls showed Rudy Giuliani in the lead. Polls taken closer to the primary either showed Mitt Romney or John McCain as the favored candidate.

Results

American Independent Party

The American Independent Party held its primary February 5, 2008

Green Party

The Green Party held its primary February 5, 2008.

Libertarian

The Libertarian Party held its primary February 5, 2008.

Peace and Freedom

The Peace and Freedom Party held its primary February 5, 2008.

Predictions

NamePrediction
Democratic
Safe Democratic
Solid Democratic
Safe Democratic
Democratic
Strong Democratic
Democratic
Solid Democratic
Solid Obama
Solid Obama
Safe Democratic
Solid Obama

Polling

Obama won most opinion polls taken prior to the election. In the final three polls he averaged 59%, while McCain averaged 34%; which is close to the results on election day.

Fundraising

Obama raised a total of $124,325,459 from the state. McCain raised a total of $26,802,024.

Advertising and visits

The Obama campaign spent almost $5,570,641. The McCain campaign spent $1,885,142. Obama visited the state six times. McCain visited the state eight times.

Analysis

California was once a Republican stronghold, supporting Republican candidates in every election from 1952 through 1988, except in 1964. However, since the 1990s, California has become a reliably Democratic state with a highly diverse ethnic population and liberal bastions such as the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles County. The last time the state was won by a Republican candidate was in 1988 by George H. W. Bush.
Obama won by a historic margin, with 61.01% of the votes. The last time the margin was higher in the state was in 1936 when Franklin D. Roosevelt won with 66.95% of the vote.
In San Francisco and Alameda County, four out of five voters backed the Democratic candidate. Elsewhere in the Bay Area, Obama won every county by a three to two margin or greater. In Los Angeles County, Obama won almost 70% of the votes. His combined margin in the Bay Area and Los Angeles County would have been more than enough to carry the state.
Obama also made considerable headway in historically Republican areas of the state. Fresno County, for example, a heavily populated county in the Central Valley, went from giving Bush a 16% margin to a 1% margin for Obama. San Diego County moved from a six-percent margin for Bush to a 10-point margin for Obama—only the second time since World War II that a Democrat has carried this military-dominated county. San Bernardino and Riverside went from double-digit Republican victories to narrow Democratic wins. Ventura County also moved from Republican to Democratic. Orange County, historically one of the most Republican suburban counties in the nation, went from a 21-point margin for Bush to only a 2.5-point margin for McCain.
Voter turnout was also fairly higher in the election. The 79% turnout of registered voters was the highest since the 1976 presidential election.
Despite the Democratic landslide in California, during the same election, a ballot proposition to ban same-sex marriage narrowly passed. A number of counties that had voted for Obama voted yes for it, as it was supported by Hispanics and African Americans. Even though Obama considered marriage to be between a man and a woman at the time, he opposed the "divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution... the U.S. Constitution or those of other states". Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state's Republican governor and a supporter of McCain, opposed the proposition, though McCain supported it.

Results

The following are official results from the California Secretary of State.

By county

The results below are primarily compiled from the final reports available from the Secretary of State. The "others" category also includes write-in votes.
CountyObamaVotesMcCainVotesOthersVotes
San Francisco84.2%322,22013.7%52,2922.2%8,353
Alameda78.8%489,10619.3%119,5551.9%12,368
Marin78.0%109,32020.3%28,3841.7%2,866
Santa Cruz77.5%98,74519.9%25,2442.9%3,747
Sonoma73.7%168,88824.1%55,1272.5%5,817
San Mateo73.5%222,82624.8%75,0571.6%4,965
Mendocino69.6%27,84326.8%10,7214.0%1,620
Santa Clara69.5%462,24128.6%190,0391.8%12,255
Los Angeles69.2%2,295,85328.9%956,4251.9%64,352
Monterey68.2%88,45329.9%38,7972.0%2,533
Contra Costa68.0%306,98330.3%136,4362.2%9,825
Yolo67.1%53,48830.9%24,5922.1%1,669
Napa65.2%38,84932.7%19,4842.0%1,214
Solano63.5%102,09534.9%56,0352.1%3,458
Humboldt62.3%39,69234.1%21,7134.0%2,559
Imperial62.3%24,16236.1%14,0081.6%631
Alpine61.0%42236.4%2522.6%18
San Benito60.5%11,91737.7%7,4252.3%446
Santa Barbara60.4%105,61437.5%65,5852.4%4,208
Sacramento58.5%316,50639.5%213,5832.4%12,770
Lake58.2%14,85438.9%9,9353.3%840
Mono55.6%3,09342.3%2,3542.2%124
Ventura55.3%187,60143.0%145,8532.2%7,587
San Joaquin54.5%113,97443.8%91,6072.2%4,727
San Diego54.2%666,58144.0%541,0322.3%27,890
Merced53.4%34,03145.0%28,7042.1%1,316
San Bernardino52.1%315,72045.8%277,4082.2%13,206
Nevada51.5%28,61746.2%25,6632.1%1,138
San Luis Obispo51.4%68,17646.1%61,0552.0%3,924
Trinity50.8%3,23346.2%2,9404.0%257
Riverside50.3%325,01747.9%310,0411.7%11,216
Fresno50.3%136,70648.2%131,0152.1%5,727
Butte49.9%49,01347.6%46,7062.7%2,606
Stanislaus49.9%80,27948.2%77,4972.3%3,736
Orange47.7%549,55850.2%579,0642.2%25,065
Del Norte45.4%4,32352.2%4,9672.4%231
Inyo43.9%3,74353.1%4,5232.9%243
El Dorado43.7%40,52954.2%50,3142.6%2,466
Placer43.4%75,11254.7%94,6472.3%4,053
Siskiyou43.3%9,29253.7%11,5203.5%752
Plumas42.8%4,71554.8%6,0353.1%343
Mariposa42.5%4,10054.9%5,2982.9%279
Tuolumne42.5%11,53255.2%14,9882.3%631
Madera42.4%17,95255.7%23,5832.2%939
Calaveras42.2%9,81355.1%12,8353.3%773
Kings42.1%14,74756.2%19,7101.8%618
Amador41.5%7,81356.1%10,5612.3%436
Yuba41.5%8,86656.2%12,0072.3%492
Tulare41.5%43,63456.9%59,7652.0%2,126
Sutter40.8%13,41257.5%18,9112.1%698
Kern40.2%93,45757.9%134,7931.8%4,111
Colusa40.0%2,56958.1%3,7332.3%146
Glenn37.8%3,73459.9%5,9102.3%225
Sierra37.4%74358.2%1,1584.9%97
Tehama36.7%8,94560.8%14,8433.1%772
Shasta36.0%28,86761.7%49,5882.2%1,734
Lassen31.5%3,58665.8%7,4833.2%364
Modoc29.8%1,31367.5%2,9812.2%95

By congressional district

Obama carried 42 congressional districts in California, including all 34 districts held by Democrats and eight districts held by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.
DistrictMcCainObamaRepresentative
31.69%65.60%Mike Thompson
56.10%41.43%Wally Herger
48.81%49.28%Dan Lungren
53.98%43.83%John Doolittle
53.98%43.83%Tom McClintock
28.40%69.62%Doris Matsui
22.01%75.95%Lynn Woolsey
26.43%71.40%George Miller
12.38%85.22%Nancy Pelosi
9.87%88.13%Barbara Lee
33.14%64.66%Ellen Tauscher
44.47%53.79%Jerry McNerney
23.88%74.32%Jackie Speier
23.81%74.38%Pete Stark
24.88%73.11%Anna Eshoo
29.69%68.42%Mike Honda
28.83%69.55%Zoe Lofgren
25.78%72.14%Sam Farr
38.98%59.24%Dennis Cardoza
52.12%46.03%George Radanovich
38.70%59.55%Jim Costa
56.32%42.06%Devin Nunes
59.67%38.30%Kevin McCarthy
32.31%65.30%Lois Capps
47.65%50.49%Elton Gallegly
48.34%49.45%Howard McKeon
46.96%51.03%David Dreier
31.69%66.12%Brad Sherman
22.04%76.16%Howard Berman
30.37%67.59%Adam Schiff
27.90%70.44%Henry Waxman
17.83%79.87%Xavier Becerra
29.81%68.17%Hilda Solis
11.69%86.81%Diane Watson
23.15%74.73%Lucille Roybal-Allard
14.14%84.37%Maxine Waters
33.52%64.39%Jane Harman
18.70%79.59%Laura Richardson
26.62%71.27%Grace Napolitano
32.43%65.48%Linda Sánchez
51.14%46.63%Ed Royce
54.18%43.66%Jerry Lewis
53.19%44.88%Gary Miller
30.09%67.96%Joe Baca
48.57%49.51%Ken Calvert
46.94%51.52%Mary Bono Mack
49.77%47.94%Dana Rohrabacher
37.78%60.14%Loretta Sanchez
48.55%49.30%John B. T. Campbell III
53.01%45.14%Darrell Issa
47.08%51.26%Brian Bilbray
35.48%63.11%Bob Filner
53.42%44.98%Duncan Hunter
29.87%68.17%Susan Davis

Electors

Technically the voters of California cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. California is allocated 55 electors because it has 53 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 55 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate, to the California Secretary of State. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 55 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.
The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 15, 2008, 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. In California the 55 electors meet in the State Capitol building in Sacramento to cast their ballots.
The following were the members of the Electoral College from California. All were pledged to and voted for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
There was a proposed ballot proposition in the state to alter the way the state's electors would be distributed among presidential candidates, but the initiative failed to get onto the ballot.