2008 United States presidential election in Oregon

2008 United States presidential election in Oregon

← 2004 November 4, 2008 2012 →
 
Nominee Barack Obama John McCain
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Illinois Arizona
Running mate Joe Biden Sarah Palin
Electoral vote 7 0
Popular vote 1,037,291 738,475
Percentage 56.75% 40.40%

County Results

President before election

George W. Bush
Republican

Elected President

Barack Obama
Democratic

The 2008 United States presidential election in Oregon took place on November 4, 2008, and was part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose seven representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Oregon was won by Democratic nominee Barack Obama with a 16.4% margin of victory, making him the first successful Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 to win over 50% of the state's votes. Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations considered this a state Obama would win, or otherwise considered as a safe blue state. Situated on the West Coast, which has become a reliably Democratic stronghold, Oregon is a relatively blue state. The last Republican presidential nominee to carry Oregon was Ronald Reagan in his 1984 landslide reelection. Although George W. Bush came close in both 2000 and 2004 (with Al Gore winning by 0.54 percentage points in 2000 and John Kerry by 4.16 percentage points in 2004), Republicans have not seriously contested the state since. This is also the first time that a presidential candidate won more than a million votes in Oregon.

As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the most recent election in which Jackson County and Wasco County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate, and the last time any Southern Oregon county sided with a Democrat. Marion County, which sided with Obama, would not vote Democratic again until 2020.[1]

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