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| Turnout | 78.65%[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 County results Municipality results Congressional district results
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The2004 United States presidential election in Connecticut took place on November 2, 2004, and was part of the2004 United States presidential election. Voters chose seven representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.
Connecticut was won by Democratic nomineeJohn Kerry by a margin of 10.4%. Prior to the election, all 12 news organizations considered this a state Kerry would win, or otherwise considered as a safeblue state. Connecticut is also the birth state of the Republican nominee, the incumbent presidentGeorge W. Bush.
As of the2024 election, this would be the last time a Republican would carry the towns ofBethel,Cheshire, andMadison, and the last timeBristol voted for the nationwide losing candidate.
There were 12 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day.[2]
| Source | Ranking |
|---|---|
| D.C. Political Report | Solid D |
| Associated Press | Solid D |
| CNN | Likely D |
| Cook Political Report | Solid D |
| Newsweek | Solid D |
| New York Times | Solid D |
| Rasmussen Reports | Likely D |
| Research 2000 | Solid D |
| Washington Post | Likely D |
| Washington Times | Solid D |
| Zogby International | Likely D |
| Washington Dispatch | Likely D |
Kerry won every single pre-election poll. The final 3 poll averaged Kerry leading 52% to 42% for Bush and 2% for Nader.[3]
Bush raised $4,256,438.[4] Kerry raised $4,195,038.[5]
Neither campaign visited or advertised in this state during the fall campaign.[6][7]
All counties butLitchfield County and congressional districts went Democratic.Litchfield County is regarded as the most conservative county in the state, along with adjacentFairfield County to the south, although this county does tend to vote majority Democratic.Hartford County,Middlesex County,New Haven County, andNew London County each are regarded as the most loyally democratic counties in Connecticut. TheRepublican Party's last presidential victory inConnecticut was during the 1988 election of Bush's father,George H. W. Bush. However, Kerry's victory in Connecticut was not as large asAl Gore's lead in2000, when the then-vice president won the state by 17.47% percent and a majority of all the state's counties. However, in 2000 Gore's running mate was Connecticut SenatorJoe Lieberman.
George W. Bush lost Connecticut decisively even though he was born inNew Haven and is part of a family that has been a political dynasty in Connecticut for much of the 20th century. Despite his family background, as a presidential candidate, Bush was considered a Texan and largely perceived as a Southern candidate, and consequently, he had little appeal to voters in Northeastern states like Connecticut. Ironically, despite not winning his own birth state, Bush did winColorado, Kerry's birth state, making this the only presidential election since1864 where no candidate was able to win their state of birth. This is the first election since1968 in which the Republican nominee won the popular vote without carrying Connecticut. Bush was the first Republican to ever win two terms without ever carrying the state.
| 2004 United States presidential election in Connecticut[8] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Democratic | John Kerry | 857,488 | 54.31% | 7 | |
| Republican | George W. Bush (incumbent) | 693,826 | 43.95% | 0 | |
| Independent | Ralph Nader | 12,969 | 0.82% | 0 | |
| Green | David Cobb | 9,564 | 0.61% | 0 | |
| Libertarian | Michael Badnarik | 3,367 | 0.2% | 0 | |
| Concerned Citizens Party | Michael Peroutka | 1,543 | 0.1% | 0 | |
| Write In | Roger Calero | 12 | 0.0% | 0 | |
| Totals | 1,578,769 | 100.00% | 7 | ||
| Voter turnout (Voting Age population) | 59.6% | ||||
| County | John Kerry Democratic | George W. Bush Republican | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Fairfield | 205,902 | 51.35% | 189,605 | 47.29% | 5,460 | 1.36% | 16,297 | 4.06% | 400,967 |
| Hartford | 229,902 | 58.68% | 154,919 | 39.54% | 6,987 | 1.78% | 74,983 | 19.14% | 391,808 |
| Litchfield | 44,647 | 46.19% | 50,160 | 51.89% | 1,861 | 1.92% | -5,513 | -5.70% | 96,668 |
| Middlesex | 47,292 | 56.31% | 35,252 | 41.97% | 1,440 | 1.72% | 12,040 | 14.34% | 83,984 |
| New Haven | 199,060 | 54.33% | 160,390 | 43.78% | 6,942 | 1.89% | 38,670 | 10.55% | 366,392 |
| New London | 66,062 | 55.81% | 49,931 | 42.19% | 2,367 | 2.00% | 16,131 | 13.62% | 118,360 |
| Tolland | 39,146 | 54.57% | 31,245 | 43.56% | 1,338 | 1.87% | 7,901 | 11.01% | 71,729 |
| Windham | 25,477 | 52.14% | 22,324 | 45.69% | 1,060 | 2.16% | 3,153 | 6.45% | 48,861 |
| Totals | 857,488 | 54.31% | 693,826 | 43.95% | 27,455 | 1.74% | 163,662 | 10.36% | 1,578,769 |
| Democratic Hold | Republican Gain from Democratic |
Kerry won all five congressional districts, including three that elected Republicans.[9]
| District | Bush | Kerry | Representative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 39% | 60% | John Larson |
| 2nd | 44% | 54% | Rob Simmons |
| 3rd | 42% | 56% | Rosa DeLauro |
| 4th | 46% | 52% | Chris Shays |
| 5th | 49.0% | 49.3% | Nancy Johnson |
Technically the voters of Connecticut cast their ballots for electors: representatives to theElectoral College. Connecticut is allocated 7 electors because it has 5congressional districts and 2senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 9 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 7 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 afaithless elector.
The electors of each state and theDistrict of Columbia met on December 13, 2004, 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.
The following were the members of the Electoral College from Connecticut. All were pledged to John Kerry and John Edwards:
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{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)State and district results of the2004 United States presidential election | ||
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