| ←2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 → Presidential election year | |
| Election day | November 4 |
|---|---|
| Incumbent president | George W. Bush(Republican) |
| Next Congress | 111th |
| Presidential election | |
| Partisan control | Democratic gain |
| Popular vote margin | Democratic +7.3% |
| Electoral vote | |
| Barack Obama (D) | 365 |
| John McCain (R) | 173 |
 | |
| 2008 presidential election results map.Blue denotes states/districts won by Democrat Barack Obama, andRed denotes those won by Republican John McCain. Numbers indicateelectoral votes won by each candidate. | |
| Senate elections | |
| Overall control | Democratic hold |
| Seats contested | 35 of 100 seats (33 seats of Class II + 2 special elections) |
| Net seat change | Democratic +8 |
 | |
| 2008 Senate election results map Democratic hold Republican hold Democratic gain | |
| House elections | |
| Overall control | Democratic hold |
| Seats contested | All 435 voting seats |
| Popular vote margin | Democratic +10.6% |
| Net seat change | Democratic +21 |
 | |
| 2008 House election results map Democratic hold Republican hold Democratic gain Republican gain | |
| Gubernatorial elections | |
| Seats contested | 13 (11 states, 2 territories) |
| Net seat change | Democratic +1 |
 | |
| 2008 gubernatorial election results map Democratic hold Republican hold Democratic gain New Progressive gain Nonpartisan | |
Elections were held in the United States on November 4, 2008, during thewar on terror and the onset of theGreat Recession. It was considered aDemocratic wave election, withDemocratic SenatorBarack Obama ofIllinois defeating SenatorJohn McCain ofArizona by a wide margin, and the Democrats bolstering their majorities in both chambers ofCongress, thereby marking the first time since1992 in which the Democrats won Congress and the presidency in one election, and would not do so again until2020.
Obama won his party's presidential nomination after defeating SenatorHillary Clinton in the2008 Democratic primaries. WithRepublican PresidentGeorge W. Bush term-limited, SenatorJohn McCain ofArizona won the Republican nomination in the2008 Republican primaries. Obama won the general election with 52.9 percent of the popular vote and 365 of the 538electoral votes.
Democrats picked up net gains of eightSenate seats and 21 seats in theHouse of Representatives on the back of Obama'scoattail effect. They also won a net gain of one gubernatorial seat. The2006 elections and 2008 elections represented the first time since 1936 that Democrats or any party made substantial gains in Congress in two consecutive elections.[1][2]
This was the first presidential election year since1964 when the Democratic Party won the White House and had coattails in the Senate and House of Representatives. The major theme during the campaign was the American public's general desire for change and reform from both Washington and the policies of President Bush. The economy and other domestic policies were also dominant issues, especially during the last months of the campaign after the onset of the2008 financial crisis.
SenatorBarack Obama ofIllinois was theDemocratic nominee, and SenatorJohn McCain ofArizona was theRepublican nominee. IncumbentPresidentGeorge W. Bush was ineligible for re-election per theTwenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which limits a president to two terms, and incumbentVice PresidentDick Cheney declined to run for the office.
The 2008 presidential election was the first since1952 in which neither an incumbent president nor an incumbent vice president was a candidate.
Senator Obama won the number ofelectors necessary to be elected president and wasinaugurated on January 20, 2009.[3]
The 33 seats in theUnited States SenateClass 2 were up for election, plus special Senate elections inMississippi andWyoming. The resignation of Mississippi SenatorTrent Lott, and the death of Wyoming SenatorCraig L. Thomas, both Class 1 senators, meant that both of those states' senate seats were up for election. The Democrats gained 8 seats, while the Republicans did not gain a seat.
All seats in the House were up for election, including seats of the 435 voting representatives from the states and the 6non-voting delegates from theDistrict of Columbia and fiveU.S. territories. This marked the first time that the commonwealth of theNorthern Mariana Islands selected a delegate to Congress.
Democrats won the nationwide popular vote for the House of Representatives by 7.2 percentage points,[4] gaining 21 seats. They increased their total number of seats to 257, the largestnumber of seats held by either party in the House since Democrats lost control of Congress in the1994 elections.
Eleven of the fiftyUnited States governors were up for re-election, as were the governorships of twoU.S. territories. Eight incumbent state governors were running for re-election, while the retirements ofRuth Ann Minner ofDelaware,Matt Blunt ofMissouri, andMike Easley ofNorth Carolina left those gubernatorial positions open. The incumbent governors ofPuerto Rico,Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, andAmerican Samoa,Togiola Tulafono, were also up for re-election.
The only governorship that changed party hands was in Missouri: DemocratJay Nixon was elected to replace Blunt, who chose to retire instead of seeking a second term.
Elections tostate legislatures were held on November 4, 2008, alongside other elections, in which Democrats scored significant gains in ablue wave election. Elections were held for 85 legislative chambers, with all states butLouisiana,Mississippi,New Jersey,Alabama,Maryland, andVirginia holding elections in at least one house.Michigan andMinnesota held elections for their lower, but not upper houses.[5] Seven territorial chambers in four territories and theDistrict of Columbia were up.
TheNew Hampshire Senate saw the election of the first-ever female majority. This is the first time this has occurred in any chamber of anystate legislature in United States history.[6] In New York, the Democrats obtained a trifecta for the first time since 1935, and in Delaware for the first time since 1977.[7]
The Democrats took control of six legislative bodies to the Republicans' four. Democrats took control of theDelaware House of Representatives, for the first time since 1985, theMontana House of Representatives, theNevada Senate, and the New York State Senate, for the first time since 1966, theOhio House of Representatives, and theWisconsin State Assembly. Republicans took control of theMontana Senate; both houses of theTennessee General Assembly,[8] for the first time since 1870; and theOklahoma Senate, for the first time in state history. With the Montana Senate and the Montana House of Representatives flipping, this election cycle marked the last time in U.S. history as of 2025 where the upper house and lower house held by different political parties in a state legislature both flipped in the same cycle.
