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The2008 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 4, 2008, and was part of the2008 United States presidential election. Maine is one of two states in the U.S. that instead of all of the state's four electors of theElectoral College to vote based upon the statewide results of the voters, two of the individual electors vote based on their congressional district because Maine has two congressional districts. The other two electors vote based upon the statewide results. See below in the section ofElectors for more information.
Maine once again displayed its status as ablue state, withDemocratBarack Obama taking the state with 57.71% of the vote and a difference of 126,650 votes. Maine is one of only two states, along withNebraska, to not allocate its electoral votes via a winner-take-all system; rather, two electoral votes are allocated to the statewide winner and one for the winner in each individualcongressional district. Maine at-large and its1st district has voted Democratic since1992, and the2nd district did the same untilDonald Trump won it in2016,2020, and2024. It is also the only state inNew England where a county voted forRepublicanJohn McCain, withPiscataquis County giving McCain 50.72% of the vote.
There were 16 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here 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] | Lean D |
| NPR[5] | Solid D |
| MSNBC[5] | Solid D |
| Fox News[11] | Likely D |
| Associated Press[12] | Likely D |
| Rasmussen Reports[13] | Safe D |
Obama won every single pre-election poll. The final 3 polls averaged Obama leading 55% to 39%.[14]
John McCain raised a total of $465,676 in the state, while Barack Obama raised $2,205,059.[15]
Obama spent $1,216,060 while McCain and the RNC spent $444,529.[16] The Obama ticket didn't visit the state, but both McCain and Palin visited Maine once.[17]
Maine is located inNew England, an area that has become a Democratic Party stronghold. It was once a classic Yankee Republican state. It identified with the newly formed GOP in1856 and stayed in the GOP fold for most of the next 132 years. The GOP carried the state in all but three elections (1912,1964 and1968) from 1856 to1988. Additionally, Maine andVermont were the only two states that voted againstFranklin D. Roosevelt in all four of his campaigns. However, no Republican presidential nominee has carried Maine sinceGeorge H. W. Bush in 1988, leading many analysts to reckon the state as part of the solid bloc of blue states in the Northeast. WhileGeorge W. Bush held the state to single digits in2000 and2004, polls in 2008 never showed anything but a significant Obama lead.
Ultimately, Obama won the state by a comfortable margin, taking 57.71% of the vote—the highest percentage by a Democrat in Maine sinceLyndon B. Johnson carried it as part of his 44-state landslide in 1964, althoughBill Clinton in1996 won with a wider margin when third parties were a more impactful factor. As evidence of how Democratic Maine has become, George W. Bush at the time was only the second Republican ever to win the White House without carrying Maine, the first beingRichard Nixon in1968 when Maine SenatorEdmund Muskie was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee. At the same time, however, incumbent RepublicanU.S. SenatorSusan Collins defeated former DemocraticU.S. RepresentativeTom Allen and won reelection to a third term with 61.33% of the vote. Maine was the only state carried by Obama to elect a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 2008.
The seat inMaine's 1st Congressional District that was vacated by Tom Allen in his unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate was retained by DemocratChellie Pingree. At the state level, Democrats made gains in theMaine Legislature, picking up six seats in theMaine House of Representatives and one seat in theMaine Senate.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | 421,923 | 57.71% | +4.14% | ||
| Republican | 295,273 | 40.38% | −4.20% | ||
| Independent | 10,636 | 1.46% | +0.37% | ||
| Green | 2,900 | 0.40% | − | ||
| Libertarian | 251 | 0.03% | −0.23% | ||
| Constitution |
| 177 | 0.02% | −0.08% | |
| HeartQuake '08 |
| 3 | 0.00% | N/A | |
| Total votes | 731,163 | 100.00% | N/A | ||
| County[19] | Barack Obama Democratic | John McCain Republican | Ralph Nader Independent | Cynthia McKinney Green | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total Votes | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Androscoggin | 31,017 | 56.55% | 22,671 | 41.33% | 926 | 1.69% | 222 | 0.40% | 14 | 0.03% | 8,346 | 15.22% | 54,850 |
| Aroostook | 19,345 | 53.75% | 15,898 | 44.17% | 582 | 1.62% | 157 | 0.44% | 12 | 0.03% | 3,447 | 9.58% | 35,994 |
| Cumberland | 105,218 | 64.10% | 56,186 | 34.23% | 2,070 | 1.26% | 532 | 0.32% | 145 | 0.09% | 49,032 | 29.87% | 164,151 |
| Franklin | 10,113 | 58.87% | 6,627 | 38.58% | 348 | 2.03% | 86 | 0.50% | 4 | 0.02% | 3,486 | 20.29% | 17,178 |
| Hancock | 18,895 | 58.74% | 12,686 | 39.44% | 420 | 1.31% | 150 | 0.47% | 14 | 0.04% | 6,209 | 19.30% | 32,165 |
| Kennebec | 37,238 | 56.43% | 27,482 | 41.65% | 979 | 1.48% | 263 | 0.40% | 24 | 0.04% | 9,756 | 14.78% | 65,986 |
| Knox | 13,728 | 59.74% | 8,816 | 38.36% | 325 | 1.42% | 97 | 0.42% | 14 | 0.06% | 4,912 | 21.38% | 22,980 |
| Lincoln | 11,886 | 55.07% | 9,287 | 43.03% | 307 | 1.42% | 87 | 0.40% | 17 | 0.08% | 2,599 | 12.04% | 21,584 |
| Oxford | 17,940 | 56.68% | 12,863 | 40.64% | 647 | 2.05% | 172 | 0.54% | 28 | 0.08%% | 5,077 | 16.04% | 31,650 |
| Penobscot | 41,614 | 51.72% | 37,495 | 46.60% | 1,003 | 1.24% | 299 | 0.37% | 56 | 0.07% | 4,119 | 5.12% | 80,467 |
| Piscataquis | 4,430 | 46.96% | 4,785 | 50.72% | 157 | 1.66% | 50 | 0.53% | 12 | 0.13% | -355 | -3.76% | 9,434 |
| Sagadahoc | 12,152 | 57.05% | 8,721 | 40.94% | 342 | 1.61% | 82 | 0.38% | 4 | 0.02% | 3,431 | 16.11% | 21,301 |
| Somerset | 13,335 | 51.77% | 11,867 | 46.07% | 417 | 1.62% | 131 | 0.51% | 8 | 0.03% | 1,468 | 5.70% | 25,758 |
| Waldo | 11,967 | 54.77% | 9,423 | 43.13% | 315 | 1.44% | 123 | 0.56% | 22 | 0.10% | 2,544 | 11.64% | 21,850 |
| Washington | 8,246 | 49.51% | 8,077 | 48.50% | 258 | 1.55% | 70 | 0.42% | 3 | 0.02% | 169 | 1.01% | 16,654 |
| York | 64,799 | 59.36% | 42,389 | 38.83% | 1,540 | 1.41% | 379 | 0.35% | 54 | 0.05% | 22,410 | 20.53% | 109,161 |
| Total | 421,923 | 57.71% | 295,273 | 40.38% | 10,636 | 1.46% | 2,900 | 0.40% | 431 | 0.05% | 126,650 | 17.33% | 731,163 |
| Democratic Hold Gain from Republican | Republican Hold |
Barack Obama won both of Maine's congressional districts.[19]
| District | Barack Obama Joe Biden Democratic | John McCain Sarah Palin Republican | Ralph Nader Matt Gonzalez Independent | Cynthia McKinney Rosa A. Clemente Green | Other Candidates | Margin | Representative | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| 1st | 232,145 | 60.51% | 144,604 | 37.69% | 5,263 | 1.37% | 1,362 | 0.36% | 252 | 0.07% | 87,541 | 22.82% | Chellie Pingree |
| 2nd | 189,778 | 54.61% | 150,669 | 43.35% | 5,373 | 1.55% | 1,538 | 0.44% | 179 | 0.05% | 39,109 | 11.25% | Mike Michaud |
Technically the voters of Maine cast their ballots for electors: representatives to theElectoral College. Maine 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 their running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded just 2 of the electoral votes. The other 2 electoral votes are based upon the congressional district results. 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.[20] 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. Since Obama won both congressional districts, all 4 were pledged toBarack Obama andJoe Biden:[21]
 Elections and referendums in Maine | |||||
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| Gubernatorial elections |
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| Legislative elections |
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State and district results of the2008 United States presidential election | ||
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