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| Elections in Hawaii |
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The2008 United States presidential election in Hawaii took place on November 4, 2008, and was part of the2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose 4 representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.
Hawaii,Barack Obama's birth state, gave him 71.9% of the vote with a 45.3% margin of victory in 2008. Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations considered this a state Obama would win, or otherwise considered as a safeblue state. Hawaii has voted Democratic in every presidential election since1988. Obama's margin of victory in this state is only surpassed by that of theDistrict of Columbia and is the only state that gave either candidate more than 70% of the vote. Turnout in the state was much higher than previous elections.
This remains the second-best performance by any party in a presidential election in Hawaii after Lyndon Johnson's landslide election in1964.
There were 16 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Listed below are their last predictions before election day:
| Source | Ranking |
|---|---|
| D.C. Political Report[1] | Likely D |
| Cook Political Report[2] | Solid D |
| The Takeaway[3] | Solid D |
| Electoral-vote.com[4] | Solid D |
| Washington Post[5] | Solid D |
| Politico[6] | Solid D |
| RealClearPolitics[7] | Solid D |
| FiveThirtyEight[5] | Solid D |
| CQ Politics[8] | Solid D |
| The New York Times[9] | Solid D |
| CNN[10] | Safe D |
| NPR[5] | Solid D |
| MSNBC[5] | Solid D |
| Fox News[11] | Likely D |
| Associated Press[12] | Likely D |
| Rasmussen Reports[13] | Safe D |
Just 3 pre-election polls were ever taken in the state, averaging Obama at 64% to McCain at 30%.[14]
Obama raised $3,098,395. McCain raised $424,368.[15]
Obama spent $113,838 while a conservative interest group spent $31.[16] Obama visited the state once.[17]
| 2008 United States presidential election in Hawaii | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Democratic | Barack Obama | Joe Biden | 325,871 | 71.85% | 4 | |
| Republican | John McCain | Sarah Palin | 120,566 | 26.58% | 0 | |
| Independent | Ralph Nader | Matt Gonzalez | 3,825 | 0.84% | 0 | |
| Libertarian | Bob Barr | Wayne Allyn Root | 1,314 | 0.29% | 0 | |
| Constitution | Chuck Baldwin (write-in) | Darrell Castle | 1,013 | 0.22% | 0 | |
| Green | Cynthia McKinney | Rosa Clemente | 979 | 0.22% | 0 | |
| Totals | 453,568 | 100.00% | 4 | |||
| Voter turnout (Voting age population) | 46.4% | |||||
| County | Barack Obama Democratic | John McCain Republican | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Hawaii | 50,819 | 75.94% | 14,866 | 22.22% | 1,231 | 1.84% | 35,953 | 53.72% | 66,916 |
| Honolulu | 214,239 | 69.83% | 88,164 | 28.74% | 4,410 | 1.44% | 126,075 | 41.09% | 306,813 |
| Kalawao | 24 | 77.42% | 6 | 19.35% | 1 | 3.23% | 18 | 58.07% | 31 |
| Kauai | 20,416 | 74.99% | 6,245 | 22.94% | 563 | 2.07% | 14,171 | 52.05% | 27,224 |
| Maui | 39,727 | 76.71% | 11,154 | 21.54% | 908 | 1.75% | 28,573 | 55.17% | 51,789 |
| Totals | 325,871 | 71.85% | 120,566 | 26.58% | 7,131 | 1.57% | 205,305 | 45.27% | 453,568 |
Obama won both congressional districts.
| District | McCain | Obama | Representative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 28.14% | 70.43% | Neil Abercrombie |
| 2nd | 25.15% | 73.14% | Mazie Hirono |
Technically the voters of Hawaii cast their ballots for electors: representatives to theElectoral College. Hawaii is allocated 4 electors because it has 2congressional districts and 2senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 4 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and their running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 4 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.[18] An elector who votes for someone other than their candidate is known as afaithless elector.
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 4 were pledged toBarack Obama andJoe Biden:[19]
One of the most reliablyblue states in the nation, Hawaii has only voted for two Republican candidates since statehood, both in national 49-state Republican landslides—Richard Nixon in1972 andRonald Reagan in1984. A large concentration ofAsian Americans makes the state very favorable to the Democrats. Although moderate Republicans occasionally win at the state level—for instance, then-GovernorLinda Lingle andLieutenant GovernorDuke Aiona were both Republicans—Hawaii has long been reckoned as a Democratic stronghold.
It came as something of a surprise in 2004 whenJohn Kerry only carried Hawaii by 8.7 points, the worst performance for a Democrat since Reagan carried the state in 1984. However, the state reverted to form in dramatic fashion in 2008, with Barack Obama (who was born in Hawaii) winning the state in a landslide over Republican John McCain. Obama outperformed Kerry by 36.52%, making Hawaii Obama's biggest improvement from 2004. During the same election, Democrats picked up one seat in theHawaii House of Representatives and two seats in theHawaii Senate, giving them a supermajority in the Hawaii state legislature with 45 out of 51 seats in the Hawaii House and 23 out of 25 seats in the Hawaii Senate. This is the most recent election that the state voted more Democratic than the previous one.
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