2008 United States presidential election in New York

The 2008 United States presidential election in New York took place on November 4, 2008, and was part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose 31 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Barack Obama won the state of New York with a decisive 26.9% margin of victory. Obama took 62.88% of the vote to McCain's 36.03%. At the time this was the highest Democratic vote share in New York State since 1964, although Obama would outperform his 2008 showing in New York just four years later in 2012. Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations considered this a state Obama would win, or otherwise considered as a safe blue state. Located in the Northeast, a region of the country that is trending heavily towards the Democrats, elections in New York are dominated by the presence of the heavily populated, heavily diverse, liberal bastion of New York City where Democrats tend to be heavily favored to win.

, this is the last election in which Chautauqua County voted for the Democratic candidate.

Primaries 2008 New York Democratic presidential primary 2008 New York Republican presidential primary

Campaign

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

+SourceRankingD.C. Political ReportCook Political ReportThe TakeawayElectoral-vote.comWashington PostBased on Takeaway.PoliticoRealClearPoliticsFiveThirtyEightCQ PoliticsThe New York TimesCNNNPRMSNBCFox NewsAssociated PressRasmussen Reports

Polling

Obama won all but one pre-election poll. Since September 15, Obama won each poll with a double-digit margin of victory and each with at least 55% of the vote. He won the final Marist poll with a 36-point spread. The final 3 polls averaged Obama leading 63% to 31%.Election 2008 Polls - Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections

Fundraising McCain raised a total of $12,582,856 in the state. Barack Obama raised $58,161,743.

Advertising and visits Obama and his interest groups spent $1,148,016. McCain and his interest groups spent just $7,310. The Republican visited the state 11 times and the Democratic ticket visited the state 4 times.

Analysis

New York was once reckoned as a powerful swing state with a slight Democratic lean. However, the last time the state went Republican was for Ronald Reagan in 1984. Michael Dukakis narrowly won it against George H. W. Bush in 1988, but the state has not been seriously contested since then. It is now considered an uncontested blue state, and was heavily favored to vote for Obama by a significant margin.

Elections in New York are dominated by the presence of New York City, a Democratic stronghold for more than a century and a half. It is made up mostly of white liberals as well as ethnic and religious minorities—all voting blocs that strongly vote Democratic. Obama won Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx by margins of 5-to-1 or more and carried Queens by a 3-to-1 margin. The only borough McCain carried was Staten Island, traditionally the most conservative area of the city. Obama's combined million-vote margin in the Five Boroughs would have been enough by itself to carry the state.

However, Obama also dominated heavily Democratic Western New York, including Buffalo and Rochester, and the Capital District (Albany, Schenectady and Troy), as well as the increasingly Democratic Long Island and Syracuse areas. Even when New York was considered a swing state, a Republican had to carry Long Island and do reasonably well in either Western New York, the Capital District or Syracuse to make up for the massive Democratic margins in New York City. Obama also won a number of traditionally Republican-leaning counties in Upstate New York and became the first Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson to win an outright majority of votes in the Upstate (although Democratic candidates had been consistently winning pluralities of the vote since 1992). Barack Obama dominated in fiercely Democratic New York City, taking 2,074,159 votes to John McCain's 524,787, giving Obama a 79.29%–20.06% landslide victory citywide. Excluding the votes of New York City, Obama still would have carried New York State, but by a smaller margin. Obama would have received 2,730,786 votes to McCain's 2,227,984, giving Obama a 55.06%–44.93% victory.

At the same time, Democrats in New York picked up three seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008. In the 13th district, which consists of Staten Island and part of Brooklyn, Democrats picked up an open seat that was vacated by former Republican Vito Fossella who resigned after he was arrested for getting a DUI. Democrat Michael McMahon solidly defeated Republican Robert Staniere by a two-to-one margin, 60.79–33.26%. His victory made the city's delegation entirely Democratic for the first time in over 70 years. In the 25th district, centered around Syracuse, Democrat Dan Maffei handily defeated Republican Dale Sweetland 55% to 42% for the open seat vacated by Republican Jim Walsh. In New York's 29th congressional district, which includes Canandaigua, Democrat Eric Massa narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Randy Kuhl by 1.7 points. This reduced the Republicans to only three of the state's 29 seats in the House—the fewest the GOP has ever won in an election. At the state level, Democrats picked up a seat in the New York State Assembly and two seats in the New York State Senate which gave Democrats control of the Senate and ultimately both chambers of the New York Legislature for the first time since 1966. This gave the Democrats complete control of New York's state government for the first time since 1935.

Results 2008 United States presidential election in New YorkPartyCandidateRunning mateVotesPercentageElectoral votes Democratic Barack Obama 4,645,332 60.80% Working Families Barack Obama 159,613 2.09% Total Barack Obama Joe Biden 4,804,945 62.88%31 Republican John McCain 2,418,323 31.65% Conservative John McCain 170,475 2.23% Independence John McCain 163,973 2.15% Total John McCain Sarah Palin 2,752,771 36.03% 0 Populist Ralph Nader Matt Gonzalez 41,249 0.54% 0 Libertarian Bob Barr Wayne Allyn Root 19,596 0.26% 0 Green Cynthia McKinney Rosa Clemente 12,801 0.17% 0 Socialist Workers James Harris Alyson Kennedy 3,615 0.05% 0 Write-ins Write-ins 3,272 0.04% 0 Socialism and Liberation Gloria La Riva Eugene Puryear 1,639 0.02% 0 Constitution (write-in) Chuck Baldwin Darrell Castle 646 0.01% 0 Independent (write-in) Ron Paul 341 >0.01% 0 America's Independent (write-in) Alan Keyes Brian Rohrbough 35 >0.01% 0 Socialist Equality (write-in) Jerry White Bill Van Auken 18 >0.01% 0 Socialist (write-in) Brian Moore Stewart Alexander 10 >0.01% 0 Independent (write-in) Lanakila Washington 3 >0.01% 0 Heartquake '08 (write-in) Jonathan E. Allen 1 >0.01% 0 Independent (write-in) Michael Skok 1 >0.01% 0 Totals 7,640,943 100.00% 31 Voter turnout (voting age population) 52.1%

New York City results 2008 presidential election in New York CityManhattanThe BronxBrooklynQueens Staten IslandTotal Democratic-Working FamiliesBarack Obama572,370338,261603,525480,69279,3112,074,15979.29%85.70%88.71%79.43%75.09%47.61% Republican-Conservative-IndependenceJohn McCain89,94941,683151,872155,22186,062524,78720.06%13.47%10.93%19.99%24.25%51.66% PopulistRalph Nader2,1874751,7201,9335986,9130.26%0.33%0.12%0.23%0.30%0.36% GreenCynthia McKinney1,2884251,2921,0192104,2340.16%0.19%0.11%0.17%0.16%0.13% LibertarianBob Barr1,3782098767682173,4480.13%0.21%0.05%0.12%0.12%0.13% Socialist WorkersRóger Calero252124207252498840.03%0.04%0.03%0.03%0.04%0.03% Socialism and LiberationGloria La Riva110103153128245180.02%0.02%0.03%0.02%0.02%0.01% Others351422031241073710.02%0.05%0.01%0.03%0.02%0.06%TOTAL667,885381,322759,848640,137166,5782,615,770100.00%

By county