2008 United States presidential election in Delaware

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Nominee Barack Obama John McCain Party Democratic Republican Home state Illinois Arizona Running mate Joe Biden Sarah Palin Electoral vote 3 0 Popular vote 255,459 152,374 Percentage 61.94% 36.92%

County results Precinct results Obama   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   90–100% McCain   40–50%   50–60%   60–70% Tie/No Data

President before election George W. Bush Republican Elected President Barack Obama Democratic

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

Delaware was won by Democratic nomineeBarack Obama with a 25.0% margin of victory, the best-ever result for a Democratic presidential candidate in Delaware as of 2024. Obama's large margin of victory was aided by his running mate,Joe Biden, a longtimeU.S. senator from the state and the first Delawarean to appear on a national presidential ticket. At the same time, Biden was also running for aseventh term in the Senate, being elected during the same time he was elected vice president. During the campaign, Delaware was considered a safeblue state, and in the end only one county of Delaware's three counties,Sussex County, went for McCain, by a margin of approximately 7,000 votes or 8.58%. Obama's winning margin of over 103,000 votes is the largest in history for a presidential candidate in Delaware, with no one else ever winning by six figures.

Delaware was one of three states, along with rapidly left-trendingVermont and Obama's home state ofIllinois, in which Obama outperformedFranklin D. Roosevelt in all four of his runs andLyndon B. Johnson in his1964 landslide.

TheSocialist Workers Party appeared on the ballot making it the first time that aMarxist political party appeared on the presidential ballot since theSocialist Labor Party had appeared on it in the1976 election.^[1]

The Democratic Primary was held onSuper Tuesday, February 5, 2008, and had a total of 15 delegates at stake.^[2] The winner in each of Delaware's subdivisions was awarded those subdivisions' delegates, totaling 10. Another 5 delegates were awarded to the statewide winner,Barack Obama. The 15 delegates represented Delaware at theDemocratic National Convention inDenver, Colorado. 8 other unpledged delegates, known assuperdelegates, also attended the convention and cast their votes as well.

Barack Obama's win in the Delaware Democratic Primary can be traced to a number of factors. According to the exit polls, 64% of voters in the Delaware Democratic Primary wereCaucasian and they favored Clinton by a margin of 56-40 compared to the 28% ofAfrican American voters who backed Obama by a margin of 86–9. Obama won all age groups exceptsenior citizens ages 65 and over who strongly backed Clinton by a margin of 56–38. Obama also wonmiddle class and more affluent voters making over $30,000 while Clinton won lower middle class and less affluent voters making less than $30,000. Obama also won higher-educated voters (college graduates 60–35; postgraduate studies 66–32) while high school graduates backed Clinton 51–44; both candidates evenly split voters who had some college and/or an associate degree 47-47. Registered Democrats favored Obama 54-42 whileIndependents also backed him by a margin of 50–44; he also won all ideological groups. Regarding religion, Obama won all major denominations exceptRoman Catholics who backed Clinton with a 60–35 margin – Obama wonProtestants 51–47, other Christians 71–24, andatheists/agnostics 60–35.

Obama performed best inNew Castle County, the most populous andurban part of the state which containsWilmington as well as severalAfrican Americans, which he won by a 56.49-39.69 margin of victory. He also narrowly won neighboringKent County to the south, which contains the state capital ofDover, with 51.76% of the vote. Clinton wonSussex County in Southern Delaware, the morerural andconservative part of the state, with 52.73% of the vote.

The Republican primary was held on February 5 (Super Tuesday). A total of 18 delegates were selected. The Delaware Republican Party rallied behindJohn McCain, and was the declared winner of the primary election after successfully taking all 3 Delaware counties. McCain was followed byMitt Romney in second and then byMike Huckabee in third.

• Mike Huckabee
• John McCain
• Ron Paul
• Mitt Romney

CandidatesRudy Giuliani,Duncan Hunter,Fred Thompson, andTom Tancredo had dropped out of the presidential race before the Delaware primary.

*Candidate withdrew before primary

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

Obama won every single pre-election poll taken in the state, and each one by a double-digit margin of victory. He won the last poll by a 30-point margin.

John McCain raised a total of $340,736. Barack Obama raised $1,010,740.^[18]

No advertising was spent by either campaign.^[19] Delaware nativeJoe Biden campaigned here 6 times.^[20]

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Kent (largest city:Dover)

Due to the state's low population, only one congressional district is allocated. This district is called the at-large district, because it covers the entire state, and thus is equivalent to the statewide election results.

Technically the voters of Delaware cast their ballots for electors: representatives to theElectoral College. Delaware is allocated 3 electors because it has onecongressional district and twosenators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of three electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and their running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all three 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.^[22] 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 capitals.

The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 3 were pledged toBarack Obama andJoe Biden:^[23]

1. James Johnson
2. Ted Kaufman
3. Harriet Smith Windsor

• United States presidential elections in Delaware

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

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