2008 United States presidential election in Minnesota

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Turnout	78.11%[1]
Nominee Barack Obama John McCain Party Democratic (DFL) Republican Home state Illinois Arizona Running mate Joe Biden Sarah Palin Electoral vote 10 0 Popular vote 1,573,354 1,275,409 Percentage 54.06% 43.82%
County results Congressional district results Precinct results Obama   30–40%   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   90–100% McCain   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   90–100% Tie/No Data
President before election George W. Bush Republican Elected President Barack Obama Democratic (DFL)

The2008 United States presidential election in Minnesota took place on November 4, 2008, and was part of the2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose ten representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.

Minnesota was won by DFL nomineeBarack Obama by a 10.2% margin of victory. Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations considered this a state Obama would win, or otherwise considered as a safeblue state.Barack Obama carried the state with 54.06% of the vote in 2008 overJohn McCain's 43.82%. Obama became the first ever Democrat to win the White House without carryingLake of the Woods County, the first to do so without carryingClearwater County sinceWoodrow Wilson in1912, and the first to do so without carryingAnoka orJackson Counties sinceWoodrow Wilson in1916.

In 2008 78.1% of eligible Minnesotans voted – the highest percentage of any U.S. state – versus the national average of 61.2% As of2024, this election was the last time Minnesota voted by a double-digit margin for a presidential candidate.

• 2008 Minnesota Democratic presidential caucuses

There were 16 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are the last predictions before election day:

In the aftermath of the Republican National Convention that was highlighted by a well delivered and received speech by vice presidential nomineeGovernorSarah Palin, a strong Obama lead tightened into a very narrow polling lead. However, when the September financial crisis irreparably damaged McCain's chances at victory, McCain remained competitive in Minnesota for some time after Obama had pulled away in other states such as Michigan and Wisconsin. At no time, however, did polls indicate that John McCain was ahead in the state, and Obama eventually did pull away from John McCain.^[15]

The2008 Republican National Convention took place at theXcel Energy Center inSaint Paul, Minnesota, from September 1, through September 4, 2008. The first day of theRepublican Party's convention fell onLabor Day, the last day of the popularMinnesota State Fair, though because ofHurricane Gustav, this day was mostly a call for action to help victims and formal, required activities; most of the politicking and partying did not start until Tuesday, the second scheduled day

Four cities made bids to theRepublican National Committee (RNC) for proposals to host the 2008 Convention. Those cities wereCleveland, Ohio;Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota; New York City, New York; andTampa-St. Petersburg, Florida. The RNC Selection Committee made its recommendation for Minneapolis-Saint Paul and on September 27, 2006, the RNC made its decision public that the 2008 Republican National Convention would be held in Minneapolis-Saint Paul. The RNC made their decision earlier than originally scheduled because theDemocratic National Committee (DNC) also had Minneapolis-Saint Paul as a finalist among bidding cities. (After the RNC's selection, the DNC removed Minneapolis-Saint Paul from consideration which left the DNC with only two cities to choose from: New York City and Denver, Colorado.) This is the second time the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area held the Republican National Convention—the first was held in 1892.

John McCain raised a total of $2,423,705 in the state. Barack Obama raised $6,058,168.^[16]

Obama and his interest groups $3,006,784. McCain and his interest groups spent 4,467,107.^[17] The Republican ticket visited the state 9 times. Obama visited the state only once.^[18]

Minnesota has the longest streak as ablue state, having last voted for a Republican presidential nominee in1972. However, the Democrats' margins of victory in 2000 and 2004 were relatively narrow. With this in mind, Republicans targeted the state for the 2008 election, holding the2008 Republican National Convention inMinneapolis-St. Paul. Although the state swung more Democratic in 2008 and Barack Obama performed better here thanJohn Kerry did in2004, the swing was smaller than the national average.

During the same election, a contentiousU.S. Senate battle took place between incumbent RepublicanU.S. SenatorNorm Coleman and DemocratAl Franken. The close election resulted in two court appeals, both of which eventually declared Franken the winner. At the state level, Democrats picked up two seats in theMinnesota House of Representatives and one seat in theMinnesota Senate.

On Election Day, Obama won Minnesota by a comfortable margin, piling up 2-1 margins inHennepin County (Minneapolis) andRamsey County (St. Paul). Obama also ran evenly in the Minneapolis suburbs and rural Minnesota. However, McCain mostly held the same counties Bush won in the Republican base of central Minnesota.^[19] While Obama still won the state with ease, GOP efforts and the Republican National Convention led to a better Republican performance than seen in neighboring states in the Upper Midwest, and prevented the collapse of Republican support that occurred in neighboring Michigan and Wisconsin. Obama was the first Democrat to carry Olmstead County since 1964.

As of the2024 presidential election^[update], this is the last election in whichStevens County,Watonwan County,Pope County,Grant County,Yellow Medicine County,Lincoln County,Pennington County,Murray County,Pine County,Big Stone County,Marshall County,Polk County,Red Lake County, andAitkin County voted for the Democratic candidate.

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Aitkin (largest city:Aitkin)
• Clay (largest city:Moorhead)
• Dakota (largest city:Hastings)
• Grant (largest city:Elbow Lake)
• Houston (largest city:La Crescent)
• Lincoln (largest city:Tyler)
• Marshall (largest city:Warren)
• Murray (largest city:Slayton)
• Olmsted (largest city:Rochester)
• Pennington (largest city:Thief River Falls)
• Polk (largest city:East Grand Forks)
• Pope (largest city:Glenwood)
• Red Lake (largest city:Red Lake Falls)
• Stevens (largest city:Morris)
• Traverse (largest city:Wheaton)
• Washington (largest city:Stillwater)
• Watonwan (largest city:St. James)
• Yellow Medicine (largest city:Granite Falls)

Barack Obama carried five of eight congressional districts. Each candidate won a district that elected a representatives of the other party.

Technically the voters of Minnesota cast ballots for electors: representatives to theElectoral College. Minnesota is allocated 10 electors because it has 8congressional districts and 2senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 10 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 10 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Following an apparent mishap in theprevious election, whereby an elector pledged to Democratic presidential candidateJohn Kerry instead cast their vote for running-mateJohn Edwards and thus became afaithless elector, Minnesota amended its statutes and became one of the few states whereby electors are legally required to vote for the candidate they are pledged to. This was the first election where the new laws were effective.^[21]

The electors of each state and theDistrict 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.

The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 10 were pledged toBarack Obama andJoe Biden:^[22]

1. Arthur A. Anderson
2. Jim Gremmels
3. Dave Lee
4. Al Patton
5. Joan M. Wittman
6. William J. Davis
7. Benjamin F. Gross
8. Matt Little
9. Jackie Stevenson
10. Susan Kay Moravec - replaced Donyta J. Wright who did not appear for the ceremony^[23]

• United States presidential elections in Minnesota

• 2008 United States presidential election by state
• 2008 Minnesota elections
• United States presidential elections in Minnesota

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