 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 74.36% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 County results Congressional district results Precinct results
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Elections in Arizona | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||
| ||||||||
The2012 United States presidential election in Arizona took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the2012 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus theDistrict of Columbia participated. State voters chose 11 electors to represent them in theElectoral College via a popular vote pittingincumbentDemocraticPresidentBarack Obama and his running mate,Vice PresidentJoe Biden, againstRepublican challenger and formerMassachusetts GovernorMitt Romney and his running mate,CongressmanPaul Ryan. Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations considered this a state Romney would win, or otherwise considered as a safered state. Arizona was won by Romney with a 9.06% margin. Obama is the only Democrat to ever win two terms without carrying the state at least once since the state's founding in 1912. Arizona is also one of only two states that voted against Obama in both 2008 and 2012 that his vice president Joe Biden would go on to win in2020, the other beingGeorgia.
Until2020, Arizona had been won by the Republican nominee for president in every election since1952, except whenBill Clinton narrowly carried the state overBob Dole in1996. This is also the most recent time that Arizona has backed the losing candidate in a presidential election and the last time a Democrat won the presidency without winning Arizona.
Incumbent PresidentBarack Obama won all the delegates.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Romney 30–40% 40–50% 50–60% 60–70%
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 2012 U.S. presidential election |
|---|
| Democratic Party |
| Republican Party |
| Minor parties |
| Related races |
The Republican primary was aclosed primary that took place on February 28, 2012.[1] More than 1,130,000 registered Republican voters participated in the event, the purpose of which was to select delegates from the state to attend the Republican National Convention on behalf of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination. TheRepublican National Committee removed half of Arizona's delegate allocation because the state committee moved its Republican primary before March 6. Arizona therefore held a ballot to select 29 proportionally-allocated delegates. This election occurred the same day as theMichigan Republican primary. The Arizona primary was set as a winner-take-all contest, another violation of RNC delegate allocation rules, which require proportional allocation for all primaries held before April 1. Endorsements from 2008 primary rival and U.S. SenatorJohn McCain[2] and GovernorJan Brewer[3] helped add to the prospects of a victory for Romney in Arizona.
The small alternative newspaperTucson Weekly, for the second election in a row, has sponsored an event called "Project White House"[4] in which it gets as many ordinary citizens on the ballot as it possibly can. Afterward, a series of "reality show style" competitions occurred, including candidate meet-and-greets, and two televised debates which were sponsored by theTucson Weekly, a localpublic-access television show calledIllegal Knowledge, and local public television stations.[5]
The two debates took place on February 18 and February 19, 2012, both were commercial-free, one hour long each, and both aired on Access Tucson while they were streamed live on the internet.[6][7][8][9] Both debates were produced in conjunction withProject White House andJim Nintzel of theTucson Weekly.
The first debate, held on the 18th at 8 pm MST, produced byIllegal Knowledge[6] and hosted by Dave Maass ofSan Diego CityBeat,[10] had nine participants, composed of eight lesser known Republican candidates (Donald Benjamin,Simon Bollander,Cesar Cisneros,Kip Dean,Sarah Gonzales,Al "Dick" Perry,Charles Skelley andJim Terr) and one Green Party candidate (Michael Oatman).[7] A press release regarding this first debate was distributed which invited all candidates listed on either Republican or Green Party ballots in Arizona to the first debate,[11] although none of the major Republican or Green Party candidates appeared.
The second debate, held on the 19th at 7pm MST, produced by Access Tucson[8] and hosted by both Dave Maass ofSan Diego CityBeat andAmanda Hurley of TheUniversity of Arizona School of Journalism,[10] was restricted only to Republican candidates and featured seven of the eight lesser known Republican candidates from the previous night (less Cesar Cisneros).[9]
There was a third Arizona debate which took place in Mesa, AZ on February 22, 2012, but was not associated withProject White House and had only invited the four major Republican candidates to participate.[12][13]
Two lesser known candidates appearing in the first debates, Sarah Gonzales (who placed sixth) and Michael Oatman (who placed tied for third), placed ahead of their better known Republican and Green Party counterparts (Buddy Roemer and Gerard Davis respectively) in the Arizona Presidential Preference Election Results from February 28, 2012.[14]
Former Massachusetts GovernorMitt Romney, Texas CongressmanRon Paul, Former Louisiana GovernorBuddy Roemer, Former Speaker of the HouseNewt Gingrich, and Former Pennsylvania SenatorRick Santorum were contesting and campaigning in the Arizona primary.
Televised debates in Arizona were held on February 18 and 19, 2012, onPublic-access television[15] and February 22, 2012, onCNN. Only the major Republican candidates, except for Roemer,[16] were invited to the third, and none of them attended the first two.
Twenty-three candidates appeared on the presidential primary ballot,[17] 11 of whom are residents of the state.[18]
Arizona was allocated 29 delegates because it moved its primary to February 28.[19]
Voter turnout = 45.3%[20]
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Delegates[22] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mitt Romney | 239,167 | 46.87% | 26 |
| Rick Santorum | 138,031 | 27.05% | 0 |
| Newt Gingrich | 81,748 | 16.02% | 0 |
| Ron Paul | 43,952 | 8.61% | 3 |
| Rick Perry (withdrawn) | 2,023 | 0.40% | 0 |
| Sarah Gonzales | 1,544 | 0.30% | 0 |
| Buddy Roemer (withdrawn) | 692 | 0.14% | 0 |
| Paul Sims | 530 | 0.10% | 0 |
| Cesar Cisneros | 418 | 0.08% | 0 |
| Mark Callahan | 358 | 0.07% | 0 |
| Al "Dick" Perry | 310 | 0.06% | 0 |
| Donald Benjamin | 223 | 0.04% | 0 |
| Michael Levinson | 217 | 0.04% | 0 |
| Kip Dean | 198 | 0.04% | 0 |
| Ronald Zack | 156 | 0.03% | 0 |
| Christopher Hill | 139 | 0.03% | 0 |
| Frank Lynch | 110 | 0.02% | 0 |
| Wayne Charles Arnett | 96 | 0.02% | 0 |
| Raymond Scott Perkins | 90 | 0.02% | 0 |
| Matt Welch | 86 | 0.02% | 0 |
| Jim Terr | 59 | 0.01% | 0 |
| Charles Skelley | 57 | 0.01% | 0 |
| Simon Bollander | 54 | 0.01% | 0 |
| Total: | 510,258 | 100.00% | 29 |
| Source | Ranking | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Huffington Post[23] | Tossup | November 6, 2012 |
| CNN[24] | Lean R | November 6, 2012 |
| The New York Times[25] | Lean R | November 6, 2012 |
| The Washington Post[26] | Safe R | November 6, 2012 |
| RealClearPolitics[27] | Lean R | November 6, 2012 |
| Sabato's Crystal Ball[28] | Solid R | November 5, 2012 |
| FiveThirtyEight[29] | Solid R | November 6, 2012 |
Write-in candidate access:
| 2012 United States presidential election in Arizona[30] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Republican | Mitt Romney | Paul Ryan | 1,233,654 | 53.48% | 11 | |
| Democratic | Barack Obama (incumbent) | Joe Biden (incumbent) | 1,025,232 | 44.45% | 0 | |
| Libertarian | Gary Johnson | Jim Gray | 32,100 | 1.39% | 0 | |
| Green | Jill Stein | Cheri Honkala | 7,816 | 0.34% | 0 | |
| Constitution | Virgil Goode | Jim Clymer | 289 | 0.01% | 0 | |
| Justice | Rocky Anderson | Luis J. Rodriguez | 119 | 0.01% | 0 | |
| Other Write-In | Other Write-In | 7,349 | 0.32% | 0 | ||
| Totals | 2,306,559 | 100.00% | 11 | |||
| County | Mitt Romney Republican | Barrack Obama Democratic | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Apache | 8,250 | 31.83% | 17,147 | 66.16% | 520 | 2.01% | -8,897 | -34.33% | 25,917 |
| Cochise | 29,497 | 59.95% | 18,546 | 37.69% | 1,158 | 2.35% | 10,951 | 22.26% | 49,201 |
| Coconino | 21,220 | 40.84% | 29,257 | 56.30% | 1,485 | 2.86% | -8,037 | -15.46% | 51,962 |
| Gila | 13,455 | 62.31% | 7,697 | 35.64% | 443 | 2.05% | 5,758 | 26.67% | 21,595 |
| Graham | 8,076 | 67.84% | 3,609 | 30.31% | 220 | 1.85% | 4,467 | 37.53% | 11,905 |
| Greenlee | 1,592 | 53.32% | 1,310 | 43.87% | 84 | 2.81% | 282 | 9.45% | 2,986 |
| La Paz | 3,714 | 64.76% | 1,880 | 32.78% | 141 | 2.46% | 1,834 | 31.98% | 5,735 |
| Maricopa | 749,885 | 54.30% | 602,288 | 43.61% | 28,786 | 2.08% | 147,597 | 10.69% | 1,380,959 |
| Mohave | 49,168 | 69.91% | 19,533 | 27.77% | 1,627 | 2.31% | 29,635 | 42.14% | 70,328 |
| Navajo | 19,884 | 53.07% | 16,945 | 45.23% | 636 | 1.70% | 2,939 | 7.84% | 37,465 |
| Pima | 174,779 | 45.61% | 201,251 | 52.52% | 7,143 | 1.86% | -26,472 | -6.91% | 383,173 |
| Pinal | 62,079 | 57.12% | 44,306 | 40.77% | 2,297 | 2.11% | 17,773 | 16.35% | 108,682 |
| Santa Cruz | 4,235 | 30.44% | 9,486 | 68.19% | 190 | 1.37% | -5,251 | -37.75% | 13,911 |
| Yavapai | 64,468 | 64.04% | 33,918 | 33.69% | 2,281 | 2.27% | 30,550 | 30.35% | 100,667 |
| Yuma | 23,352 | 55.50% | 18,059 | 42.92% | 662 | 1.57% | 5,293 | 12.58% | 42,073 |
| Totals | 1,233,654 | 53.48% | 1,025,232 | 44.45% | 47,673 | 2.07% | 208,422 | 9.03% | 2,306,559 |
Shift by county
Trend relative to the state by countyRomney won six of nine districts, including two that elected Democrats.[31]
| District | Obama | Romney | Representative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 47.89% | 50.42% | Ann Kirkpatrick |
| 2nd | 48.37% | 49.94% | Ron Barber |
| 3rd | 61.44% | 36.94% | Raúl Grijalva |
| 4th | 31.02% | 67.19% | Paul Gosar |
| 5th | 34.56% | 63.76% | Matt Salmon |
| 6th | 38.82% | 59.52% | David Schweikert |
| 7th | 71.7% | 26.51% | Ed Pastor |
| 8th | 36.87% | 61.68% | Trent Franks |
| 9th | 51.12% | 46.59% | Kyrsten Sinema |
.jpg)
.jpg)
