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| Turnout | 72% [1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 County results Congressional district results
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The2012 United States presidential election in Florida took place on November 6, as part of the2012 U.S. presidential election in which all 50 states plus theDistrict of Columbia participated. Florida voters chose 29 electors to represent them in theElectoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbentDemocraticPresidentBarack Obama and his running mate,Vice PresidentJoe Biden, againstRepublican challenger and formerMassachusetts GovernorMitt Romney and his running mate,U.S. RepresentativePaul Ryan.[2][3][4]
By November 8, the vote counting had still not concluded. However, with much of the remaining vote still coming in was from heavily Democratic areas, Romney's Florida campaign acknowledged that he had lost the state to Obama. In order to certify the election in Florida, the ballots continued to be counted.[5] BothMiami-Dade andBroward County completed their ballot counts on November 8, leavingPalm Beach andDuval counties as the only two that did not have a final count at the end of the day.[6]
Florida required all counties to finish counting by noon Saturday but would not announce an official winner until the votes were certified on November 20. A recount is not done unless the difference is less than 0.5%. At 11 PM EST on November 9, the margin for Obama was 0.86%, with all but one county finished with their counting.[7] On November 10, most major news sources projected Obama to be the winner of Florida's 29 electoral votes. It was the last state to be called in the 2012 presidential election and also the closest.[8][9][10]
DespiteTampa having been the site of the2012 RNC, Obama ultimately carried Florida with 50.01% of the vote, to Romney's 49.13%, a margin of 0.88%. (Ironically,Charlotte, North Carolina was the site of the2012 DNC, and Romney wonNorth Carolina.) Having also won the state in2008, Obama's 2012 victory made him the first Democrat sinceFranklin D. Roosevelt in1944 to carry Florida in two consecutive elections, and also marked the first time since1948 that the state voted Democratic in consecutive elections.
Nonetheless, Obama's margin of victory decreased from 2.81% in 2008. He also lostFlagler andVolusia Counties, which he had won in 2008;[11] he thus became the first Democrat to win the White House without carrying the former sinceHarry S. Truman in1948 and the first to do so without carrying the latter sinceJohn F. Kennedy in1960. Florida is also one of only three states that backed Obama twice that would go on to vote against his vice president Joe Biden in2020, the other two beingIowa andOhio.
As of the2024 presidential election, this is the last time that a Democratic presidential nominee has carried Florida, or the following counties:Jefferson,St. Lucie, andMonroe. This remains the second closest presidential result in the state ever, behind only the2000 election. This was also the last time a Democrat won a federal statewide election in Florida, with the last statewide win coming in2018.
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 Florida results by county Mitt Romney Newt Gingrich | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Republican primary was held on January 31, 2012.[12] Fifty delegates were at stake, none of them RNC (or super) delegates; it is unclear whether these delegates will be allocated proportionally or winner-take-all. Originally awarded 99 delegates,[12] theRepublican National Committee removed half of Florida's delegates because the state committee moved its Republican primary before March 6;[13] theRepublican National Committee rules also set the delegate allocation to be proportional because the contest was held before April 1.[14] It is aclosed primary.[12] There were 4,063,853registered Republican voters as of January 3, 2012.[15]
Florida is spread over two time zones, so voting wasn't completed until 7 pm CST/8pm EST.[16]
In an effort to increase the political importance of their state's primary and receive added media exposure often directed to the early contests, Florida decided to plan its primary ahead of the early contests, a move that violated Republican Party rules and forced early states to move up their contests.[17] Florida announced that their primary would occur on January 31 instead of the expected March; Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina were expected to have their primaries in February but were forced to push their primaries into January, thereby shortening the overall amount of time that each person could campaign. Florida made this move in 2008.
As a result of this calendar violation, Florida was stripped of half of its delegates, awarding only 50 delegates instead of the original 100 delegates.
Dean Cannon, the Republican speaker of the Florida House of Representatives: "My goal all along is for Florida to preserve her place as the fifth spot on the nominating calendar and not to move ahead of Iowa and New Hampshire."[18]
According to a Gingrich campaign memo, he planned to challenge the results based on an interpretation of the Republican National Committee's rules that state that no contest can be winner-take-all prior to April 1, 2012.[19][20][21][22][23][24] Gingrich would have requested that delegates be divided proportionally, corresponding to the percentage of votes each candidate received.[25] It is not known what result a successful challenge might have had.
| Source | Ranking | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Huffington Post[26] | Tossup | November 6, 2012 |
| CNN[27] | Tossup | November 6, 2012 |
| The New York Times[28] | Tossup | November 6, 2012 |
| The Washington Post[29] | Tossup | November 6, 2012 |
| RealClearPolitics[30] | Tossup | November 6, 2012 |
| Sabato's Crystal Ball[31] | Lean R(flip) | November 5, 2012 |
| FiveThirtyEight[32] | Lean D | November 6, 2012 |
| Obama 40-50% 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% 80-90% | Romney 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% |
The final vote count was unknown at noon Friday, November 9, 2012.[33] The delay in the final count was caused by a combination of an extremely long ballot (with eleven state amendment questions) and a high number of absentee ballots. There were 240,000 absentee ballots inMiami-Dade County, Florida alone, with 54,000 of these cast on election day. Four urban counties, Dade,Broward,Palm Beach andDuval, all experienced problems with counting their large number of absentee ballots. Each ballot had to be hand certified page by page, and then the pages had to be hand fed into the counting machine one by one.[33] At noon Friday, Dade and Broward had finished counting, but Palm Beach and Duval were still counting.
| 2012 United States presidential election in Florida[34] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Democratic | Barack Obama (incumbent) | 4,237,756 | 50.01% | 29 | |
| Republican | Mitt Romney | 4,163,447 | 49.13% | 0 | |
| Libertarian | Gary Johnson | 44,726 | 0.53% | 0 | |
| Green | Jill Stein | 8,947 | 0.11% | 0 | |
| Peace and Freedom Party | Roseanne Barr | 8,154 | 0.10% | 0 | |
| Objectivist Party | Tom Stevens | 3,856 | 0.05% | 0 | |
| Justice Party | Rocky Anderson | 1,754 | 0.02% | 0 | |
| America's Party | Tom Hoefling | 946 | 0.01% | 0 | |
| Reform | Andre Barnett | 820 | 0.01% | 0 | |
| Socialist | Stewart Alexander | 799 | 0.01% | 0 | |
| Socialism and Liberation | Peta Lindsay | 322 | 0.00% | 0 | |
| Write-ins | Write-ins | 2,652 | 0.03% | 0 | |
| Totals | 8,474,179 | 100.00% | 29 | ||
| Voter turnout (eligible voters) | 72.00% | ||||
 | This section needs to beupdated. The reason given is: The county table results do not match the election box or the infobox. please fix it.. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(June 2024) |
| County | Barack Obama Democratic | Mitt Romney Republican | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Alachua | 69,699 | 57.71% | 48,797 | 40.40% | 2,277 | 1.89% | 20,902 | 17.31% | 120,773 |
| Baker | 2,311 | 20.29% | 8,975 | 78.80% | 104 | 0.91% | -6,664 | -58.51% | 11,390 |
| Bay | 22,051 | 27.53% | 56,876 | 71.01% | 1,174 | 1.46% | -34,825 | -43.48% | 80,101 |
| Bradford | 3,325 | 28.51% | 8,219 | 70.46% | 120 | 1.03% | -4,894 | -41.95% | 11,664 |
| Brevard | 122,993 | 42.94% | 159,300 | 55.62% | 4,135 | 1.44% | -36,307 | -12.68% | 286,428 |
| Broward | 508,312 | 67.12% | 244,101 | 32.23% | 4,941 | 0.65% | 264,211 | 34.89% | 757,354 |
| Calhoun | 1,664 | 26.91% | 4,366 | 70.61% | 153 | 2.48% | -2,702 | -43.70% | 6,183 |
| Charlotte | 35,906 | 42.28% | 47,996 | 56.52% | 1,021 | 1.20% | -12,090 | -14.24% | 84,923 |
| Citrus | 28,460 | 38.37% | 44,662 | 60.22% | 1,047 | 1.41% | -16,202 | -21.85% | 74,169 |
| Clay | 25,759 | 26.61% | 70,022 | 72.33% | 1,024 | 1.06% | -44,263 | -45.72% | 96,805 |
| Collier | 51,698 | 34.62% | 96,520 | 64.64% | 1,106 | 0.74% | -44,822 | -30.02% | 149,324 |
| Columbia | 8,462 | 31.08% | 18,429 | 67.69% | 336 | 1.23% | -9,967 | -36.61% | 27,227 |
| DeSoto | 4,174 | 42.22% | 5,587 | 56.51% | 126 | 1.27% | -1,413 | -14.29% | 9,887 |
| Dixie | 1,798 | 25.84% | 5,052 | 72.60% | 109 | 1.56% | -3,254 | -46.76% | 6,959 |
| Duval | 196,737 | 47.67% | 211,615 | 51.27% | 4,381 | 1.06% | -14,878 | -3.60% | 412,733 |
| Escambia | 58,185 | 39.06% | 88,711 | 59.55% | 2,071 | 1.39% | -30,526 | -20.49% | 148,967 |
| Flagler | 23,207 | 45.77% | 26,969 | 53.19% | 531 | 1.04% | -3,762 | -7.42% | 50,707 |
| Franklin | 1,845 | 33.58% | 3,570 | 64.98% | 79 | 1.44% | -1,725 | -31.40% | 5,494 |
| Gadsden | 15,770 | 70.01% | 6,630 | 29.43% | 125 | 0.56% | 9,140 | 40.58% | 22,525 |
| Gilchrist | 1,885 | 23.75% | 5,917 | 74.55% | 135 | 1.70% | -4,032 | -50.80% | 7,937 |
| Glades | 1,603 | 40.03% | 2,344 | 58.54% | 57 | 1.43% | -741 | -18.51% | 4,004 |
| Gulf | 2,014 | 28.26% | 4,995 | 70.10% | 117 | 1.64% | -2,981 | -41.84% | 7,126 |
| Hamilton | 2,228 | 41.11% | 3,138 | 57.90% | 54 | 1.00% | -910 | -16.79% | 5,420 |
| Hardee | 2,463 | 34.00% | 4,696 | 64.83% | 85 | 1.17% | -2,233 | -30.83% | 7,244 |
| Hendry | 4,751 | 46.51% | 5,355 | 52.42% | 109 | 1.07% | -604 | -5.91% | 10,215 |
| Hernando | 37,830 | 45.07% | 44,938 | 53.54% | 1,160 | 1.39% | -7,108 | -8.47% | 83,928 |
| Highlands | 16,148 | 37.96% | 25,915 | 60.92% | 478 | 1.12% | -9,767 | -22.96% | 42,541 |
| Hillsborough | 286,467 | 52.71% | 250,186 | 46.04% | 6,776 | 1.25% | 36,281 | 6.67% | 543,429 |
| Holmes | 1,264 | 15.25% | 6,919 | 83.46% | 107 | 1.29% | -5,655 | -68.21% | 8,290 |
| Indian River | 27,492 | 38.41% | 43,450 | 60.70% | 638 | 0.89% | -15,958 | -22.29% | 71,580 |
| Jackson | 7,342 | 35.02% | 13,418 | 64.00% | 207 | 0.98% | -6,076 | -28.98% | 20,967 |
| Jefferson | 3,945 | 50.45% | 3,808 | 48.70% | 67 | 0.85% | 137 | 1.75% | 7,820 |
| Lafayette | 687 | 20.17% | 2,668 | 78.33% | 51 | 1.50% | -1,981 | -58.16% | 3,406 |
| Lake | 61,799 | 40.89% | 87,643 | 57.99% | 1,702 | 1.02% | -25,844 | -17.10% | 151,144 |
| Lee | 110,157 | 41.32% | 154,163 | 57.83% | 2,278 | 0.85% | -44,006 | -16.51% | 266,598 |
| Leon | 90,881 | 61.13% | 55,805 | 37.54% | 1,985 | 1.33% | 35,076 | 23.59% | 148,671 |
| Levy | 6,119 | 33.15% | 12,054 | 65.31% | 284 | 1.54% | -5,935 | -32.16% | 18,457 |
| Liberty | 942 | 28.64% | 2,301 | 69.96% | 46 | 1.40% | -1,359 | -41.32% | 3,289 |
| Madison | 4,176 | 47.85% | 4,474 | 51.27% | 77 | 0.88% | -298 | -3.42% | 8,727 |
| Manatee | 66,503 | 43.22% | 85,627 | 55.65% | 1,736 | 1.13% | -19,124 | -12.43% | 153,866 |
| Marion | 66,831 | 41.32% | 93,043 | 57.53% | 1,864 | 1.15% | -26,212 | -16.21% | 161,738 |
| Martin | 30,107 | 38.09% | 48,183 | 60.96% | 747 | 0.95% | -18,076 | -22.87% | 79,037 |
| Miami-Dade | 541,440 | 61.58% | 332,981 | 37.87% | 4,758 | 0.55% | 208,459 | 23.71% | 879,179 |
| Monroe | 19,404 | 49.56% | 19,234 | 49.12% | 516 | 1.32% | 170 | 0.44% | 39,154 |
| Nassau | 10,251 | 25.23% | 29,929 | 73.67% | 445 | 1.10% | -19,678 | -48.44% | 40,625 |
| Okaloosa | 23,421 | 24.63% | 70,168 | 73.80% | 1,486 | 1.57% | -46,747 | -49.17% | 95,075 |
| Okeechobee | 4,856 | 39.27% | 7,328 | 59.25% | 183 | 1.48% | -2,472 | -19.98% | 12,367 |
| Orange | 273,665 | 58.56% | 188,589 | 40.36% | 5,049 | 1.08% | 85,076 | 18.20% | 467,303 |
| Osceola | 67,239 | 61.73% | 40,592 | 37.27% | 1,091 | 1.00% | 26,647 | 24.46% | 108,922 |
| Palm Beach | 349,651 | 58.14% | 247,398 | 41.13% | 4,390 | 0.73% | 102,253 | 17.01% | 601,439 |
| Pasco | 98,263 | 45.86% | 112,427 | 52.48% | 3,558 | 1.66% | -14,164 | -6.62% | 214,248 |
| Pinellas | 239,104 | 52.08% | 213,258 | 46.45% | 6,750 | 1.47% | 25,846 | 5.63% | 459,112 |
| Polk | 114,622 | 45.95% | 131,577 | 52.75% | 3,243 | 1.30% | -16,955 | -6.80% | 249,442 |
| Putnam | 11,667 | 37.13% | 19,326 | 61.50% | 431 | 1.37% | -7,659 | -24.37% | 31,424 |
| St. Johns | 35,190 | 30.59% | 78,513 | 68.25% | 1,332 | 1.16% | -43,323 | -37.66% | 115,035 |
| St. Lucie | 65,869 | 53.42% | 56,202 | 45.58% | 1,230 | 1.00% | 9,667 | 7.84% | 123,301 |
| Santa Rosa | 17,768 | 23.06% | 58,186 | 75.51% | 1,106 | 1.43% | -40,418 | -52.45% | 77,060 |
| Sarasota | 95,119 | 45.74% | 110,504 | 53.14% | 2,338 | 1.12% | -15,385 | -7.40% | 207,961 |
| Seminole | 96,445 | 46.12% | 109,943 | 52.57% | 2,732 | 1.31% | -13,498 | -6.45% | 209,120 |
| Sumter | 19,524 | 32.25% | 40,646 | 67.13% | 376 | 0.62% | -21,122 | -34.88% | 60,546 |
| Suwannee | 4,751 | 26.85% | 12,672 | 71.63% | 269 | 1.52% | -7,921 | -44.78% | 17,692 |
| Taylor | 2,764 | 30.24% | 6,249 | 68.37% | 127 | 1.39% | -3,485 | -38.13% | 9,140 |
| Union | 1,339 | 24.76% | 3,980 | 73.59% | 89 | 1.65% | -2,641 | -48.83% | 5,408 |
| Volusia | 114,748 | 48.78% | 117,490 | 49.94% | 3,016 | 1.28% | -2,742 | -1.16% | 235,254 |
| Wakulla | 5,175 | 35.21% | 9,290 | 63.21% | 232 | 1.58% | -4,115 | -28.00% | 14,697 |
| Walton | 6,671 | 23.34% | 21,490 | 75.19% | 421 | 1.47% | -14,819 | -51.85% | 28,582 |
| Washington | 2,820 | 25.54% | 8,038 | 72.79% | 184 | 1.67% | -5,218 | -47.25% | 11,042 |
| Totals | 4,237,756 | 49.90% | 4,163,447 | 49.03% | 90,972 | 1.07% | 74,309 | 0.87% | 8,492,175 |
| Democratic Hold | Republican Hold Gain from Democratic |
Despite losing the state, Romney won 16 of 27 congressional districts including one held by a Democrat, while Obama won 11, including two held by Republicans.[35]
| District | Romney | Obama | Representative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 68.66% | 30.18% | Jeff Miller |
| 2nd | 52.38% | 46.52% | Steve Southerland |
| 3rd | 61.5% | 37.5% | Ted Yoho |
| 4th | 63.62% | 35.45% | Ander Crenshaw |
| 5th | 28.05% | 71.23% | Corrine Brown |
| 6th | 57.7% | 41.4% | Ron DeSantis |
| 7th | 51.81% | 47.1% | John Mica |
| 8th | 56.76% | 42.18% | Bill Posey |
| 9th | 37.21% | 61.94% | Alan Grayson |
| 10th | 53.35% | 45.72% | Daniel Webster |
| 11th | 58.85% | 40.23% | Rich Nugent |
| 12th | 54.04% | 44.77% | Gus Bilirakis |
| 13th | 48.65% | 50.12% | Bill Young |
| 14th | 33.96% | 65.05% | Kathy Castor |
| 15th | 53.33% | 45.58% | Dennis Ross |
| 16th | 54.22% | 44.9% | Vern Buchanan |
| 17th | 57.88% | 41.2% | Tom Rooney |
| 18th | 51.72% | 47.56% | Patrick Murphy |
| 19th | 60.6% | 38.76% | Trey Radel |
| 20th | 16.98% | 82.16% | Alcee Hastings |
| 21st | 38.85% | 60.6% | Ted Deutch |
| 22nd | 44.93% | 54.38% | Lois Frankel |
| 23rd | 37.9% | 61.5% | Debbie Wasserman Schultz |
| 24th | 12.17% | 87.52% | Frederica Wilson |
| 25th | 50.8% | 48.7% | Mario Díaz-Balart |
| 26th | 46.35% | 53.1% | Joe Garcia |
| 27th | 46.45% | 53.05% | Ileana Ros-Lehtinen |
Obama won the state and its 29 electoral votes on Election Day by a margin of 0.88%, down from the 2.82% margin in2008. Florida was the closest race in the country at the presidential level. Throughout the night, Obama and Romney exchanged the lead, but the networks avoided calling the state for Obama until November 10 because long lines in the larger urban areas of the state meant that the vote count was delayed.
According to exit polling, Obama won 95% of theAfrican-American vote (13% of voters), 60% of Latino voters (up 3 points from 2008 and 17% of all voters), and 50% among Independents (who accounted for 33% of all voters). Mitt Romney won white voters by 24 percent. In addition, both Democratic and Republican strategists agreed that the President's ground game and early voting leads played a huge role in such a tight race. Despite laws that curbed early voting, more than 4 million Floridians cast a ballot before Election Day (almost 50% of all voters), and reports showed that Obama was leading by about 104,000 among those voters.
The political geography of Florida is largely divided in thirds:South Florida (around theMiami metropolitan area) is heavily Democratic,North Florida (theFlorida Panhandle, and theJacksonville metropolitan area) is heavily Republican outside ofTallahassee andGainesville, whileCentral Florida is a "swing" area of the state, where Democrats have made inroads in recent years.
Mirroring the results of the 2008 presidential election in Florida, Obama dominatedSouth Florida, winningMiami-Dade,Broward, andPalm Beach counties by comfortable margins, and actually increased his vote share in Miami -Dade and Broward counties from 2008. However, Romney's performance in Palm Beach County was notable considering he is the first Republican presidential candidate in over a decade to receive over 40% of the county's vote. Obama's gains in South Florida have been attributed to increasing his vote share amongCuban Americans, a large demographic in and aroundMiami who have reliably voted Republican, from 35% in 2008 to 48% against Romney's 52% in 2012. Combined with his large margins of victory among non-Cuban Hispanics in the state, Arian Campo-Flores atThe Wall Street Journal claimed that, "Together, both trends are accelerating a realignment of the state's Latino vote, from once solidly Republican to now reliably Democratic."[36] Twelve years later, in2024, RepublicanDonald Trump wonMiami-Dade County and a majority of Hispanics in Florida, while winning the state by 13%.[37]
Although Obama lost large swaths ofNorth Florida, he was able to keep the margins relatively close along the Eastern Seaboard. He lost to Romney inDuval County, anchored by Florida's largest city,Jacksonville, by only 3%, andVolusia County, home toDaytona Beach, by less than 2%. Where the state tipped into the Obama column was inCentral Florida, the site of enormous growth in the last two decades. Obama was able to deliver big wins in theOrlando andTampa Bay areas, whereGeorge W. Bush won in2004. In the former, Obama carriedOrange County (which includesOrlando) by 19 points andOsceola County near Orlando by a 24-point margin (Bush won it in 2004 52%-47%). In both counties, he was able to tap into a growing Puerto Rican community, which overwhelmingly broke his way.
In the Tampa Bay region, Obama once again carriedHillsborough County, home toTampa, by a 6-point margin, receiving over 13,000 more votes than he won in 2008. Obama also wonPinellas County, home toSt. Petersburg, by a 52%-46.5% margin. Bush had narrowly carried the county by about 0.1% in 2004. In all, Obama won the three largest counties in Central Florida – Hillsborough, Orange, and Pinellas – while keeping his losing margins low in other populous counties –Polk,Seminole, andManatee County.
Contrary to the2010 elections where Democrats lost four seats from Florida in theU.S. House of Representatives, Democrats picked up four seats from Florida this time around, as the state's congressional delegation increased by 2 members.Patrick Murphy defeated incumbent RepublicanAllen West inFlorida's 18th congressional district andJoe Garcia defeated incumbent RepublicanDavid Rivera inFlorida's 26th congressional district. DemocratAlan Grayson won a new seat inFlorida's 9th congressional district while formerWest Palm Beach mayor,Lois Frankel, won the newly created seat inFlorida's 22nd congressional district for the Democrats. At the state level, Democrats picked up two seats in theFlorida State Senate and five seats in theFlorida House of Representatives as well.
50 of Florida's delegates to the Republican National Convention are allocated to the Presidential contender receiving the most votes in today's Florida Presidential Primary. (Republican Party of Florida Rule 10 B).
State and district results of the2012 United States presidential election | ||
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