The 2008 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place, as in all 50 states and D.C., as part of the 2008 United States presidential election of November 4, 2008. Voters chose 12 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who, in turn, voted for the office of president and vice president.

Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama won the state by a 25.8% margin of victory: slightly better than John Kerry's 25.2% margin in 2004. Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations forecast that Obama would win Massachusetts, or otherwise considered it to be a safe blue state. Massachusetts had been a Democratic-leaning state since 1928, and a Democratic stronghold since 1960, and has maintained extremely large Democratic margins since 1996. No Republican presidential nominee has won a single county in the state, nor obtained more than 40% of the vote, since George H. W. Bush in 1988. In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama captured the state's 12 electoral votes winning 61.80% of the popular vote to Republican John McCain's 35.99%. Massachusetts was also 1 of only 6 states in which neither Obama nor McCain won during the primary season.

To date, this is the last time that the towns of Berkley, Brimfield, Brookfield, Carver, Dighton, Dudley, Holland, Oxford, Phillipston, Rehoboth, Spencer, and Warren voted Democratic.

Primaries Democratic

The Massachusetts Democratic primary took place on Super Tuesday, February 5, 2008, and had a total of 93 delegates at stake. The winner in each of Massachusetts's 10 congressional districts was awarded all of that district's delegates, totaling 61. Another 32 delegates were awarded to the statewide winner, Hillary Clinton. The 93 delegates represented Massachusetts at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. 26 other unpledged delegates, known as superdelegates, also attended the convention and cast their votes as well.

Polls indicated that Clinton was leading Barack Obama in the days leading up to the contest in Massachusetts.

Hillary Rodham Clinton won a convincing victory in Massachusetts over Barack Obama due to a number of factors. According to exit polls, 85% of voters in the Massachusetts Democratic Primary were Caucasians and they opted for Clinton by a margin of 58–40% compared to the 6% of African American voters who backed Obama by a margin of 66–29. Hispanics/Latinos, which comprised 5% of the total voters, backed Clinton by a margin of 56–36%. Clinton narrowly won the youth vote (those ages 18–29) by a margin of 49–48 and tied the vote among voters ages 30–44; she also won all voters over the age of 45 by a margin of 60.5–38. Pertaining to socioeconomic class, Clinton won all levels of family income except highly affluent voters making $200,000 or more a year, as they backed Obama by a narrow margin of 53–47%. As for educational attainment levels, Clinton won all categories except those with postgraduate degrees who backed Obama by a margin of 51–47%. Among self-identified Democrats in the primary, which made up 65% of the total electorate, they went for Clinton by a 58–41 margin while Independents, which comprised a healthy 33% of the electorate, also went for Clinton by a 54–42 margin. She also won all ideological groups. Clinton also won most major religious denominations – Protestants 53–46; Roman Catholics 64–33; other Christians 51–47; and other religions 49–46. Obama won Jews by a margin of 52–48 as well as atheists/agnostics by a margin of 53–45.

Clinton performed extremely well statewide, carrying a majority of counties and sweeping most of the major urban areas and cities. Obama won Boston by fewer than 10,000 votes, while Clinton won other urban and conservative towns such as Springfield and Worcester.

Obama had picked up major endorsements from the Massachusetts Democratic establishment prior to Super Tuesday. Both U.S. Senators Ted Kennedy and John Kerry threw their support behind Obama, along with Governor Deval Patrick. Clinton also picked up a number of top-tier endorsements from Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston and Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Salvatore DiMasi along with U.S. Representatives Richard Neal and Barney Frank, one of the three openly gay members of the U.S. Congress.

Party Candidate Votes Percentage Delegates Democratic Hillary Clinton 705,185 56.01% 55 Democratic Barack Obama 511,680 40.64% 38 Democratic John Edwards 20,101 1.60% 0 Democratic Uncommitted 8,041 0.64% 0 Democratic Write-ins 3,279 0.26% 0 Democratic Joe Biden 3,216 0.26% 0 Democratic Dennis Kucinich 2,992 0.24% 0 Democratic Bill Richardson 1,846 0.15% 0 Democratic Mike Gravel 1,463 0.12% 0 Democratic Christopher Dodd 1,120 0.09% 0 Totals 1,258,923 100.00% 93 Voter turnout % —

Republican

The Massachusetts Republican Primary took place on February 5, 2008, with 40 national delegates. Polls indicated that former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney was leading rival John McCain; Romney ended up defeating McCain by roughly 10% of the vote.

+Official Results Candidate Votes Percentage Delegates Mitt Romney 255,892 51.12% 21 John McCain 204,779 40.91% 17 Mike Huckabee 19,103 3.82% 0 Ron Paul 13,251 2.65% 0 Rudy Giuliani* 2,707 0.54% 0 Fred Thompson* 916 0.18% 0 Duncan Hunter* 258 0.05% 0 All Others 1,685 0.34% 0 Uncommitted 1,959 0.39% 0 Total 500,550 100% 38

* Candidate dropped out of the race before the primary

Green-Rainbow

The Massachusetts Green-Rainbow primary took place on February 5. Six candidates appeared on the ballot. Ralph Nader won, despite not running for the nomination of the party.

+ Massachusetts Green-Rainbow presidential primary, February 5, 2008CandidateVotesPercentageNational delegates Ralph Nader 744 39.91% 32Cynthia McKinney 474 25.43% -Kat Swift 60 3.22% -Jared Ball 42 2.25% -Kent Mesplay 39 2.09% -Elaine Brown 38 2.04% -Others 273 25.1% -No preference 194 10.41% -Blank votes (not tallied) Total1,941100%32

Working Families Party The Working Families Party did not have any candidates run in its 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 TakeawayPoliticoRealClearPoliticsFiveThirtyEightCQ PoliticsThe New York TimesCNNNPRMSNBCFox NewsAssociated PressRasmussen Reports

Polling

Very early on the election polls were tight, with McCain even leading by 5 in one poll on January 21 and a tie in a poll on March 16, but Obama won every poll after March 18. He won each by a double-digit margin since August 8. The final 3 polls averaged Obama leading 56% to 36%.

Fundraising John McCain raised $4,072,206 in the state. Barack Obama raised $24,358,264.

Advertising and visits Obama spent $46,839 while the Republican ticket spent nothing. Neither campaign visited the state.

Analysis In terms of voting in presidential elections, Massachusetts is one of the most heavily Democratic states in the nation. Massachusetts is ethnically diverse, highly educated, and less religious. The Bay State has voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in every election since 1960 except for Ronald Reagan's landslide victories of 1980 and 1984. In 1972, only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia voted for Democratic U.S. Senator George McGovern as Republican Richard M. Nixon won reelection.

Barack Obama won the state's 12 electoral votes with 61.80% of the vote to John McCain's 35.99%. This is slightly higher than Kerry's victory in 2004. Despite that, 4 counties in the state trended away from the Democratic party: Bristol, Plymouth, Norfolk, and Worcester.

Both of Massachusetts's U.S. Senators and all 10 of its U.S. Representatives were Democrats, and Democrats held supermajorities in the Massachusetts Legislature. At the same time in 2008, incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator John Kerry was reelected with 65.86% of the vote over Republican Jeff Beatty's 30.93% as were all of the state's delegates in the U.S. House of Representatives. At the state level, Democrats picked up three seats in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and one seat in the Massachusetts Senate.

Results 2008 United States presidential election in MassachusettsPartyCandidateRunning mateVotesPercentageElectoral votes Democratic Barack Obama Joe Biden 1,904,098 61.80% 12 Republican John McCain Sarah Palin 1,108,854 35.99% 0 Independent Ralph Nader Matt Gonzalez 28,841 0.94% 0 Independent Others (Write-In) 14,483 0.47% 0 Libertarian Bob Barr Wayne Allyn Root 13,189 0.43% 0 Green-Rainbow Cynthia McKinney Rosa Clemente 6,550 0.21% 0 Constitution Chuck Baldwin Darrell Castle 4,971 0.16% 0 Totals 3,080,985 100.00% 12 Voter turnout (Voting age population) 62.1%

By county County Barack ObamaDemocratic John McCainRepublican Various candidatesOther parties Margin Total votes cast # % # % # % # % Barnstable 74,264 56.11% 55,694 42.08% 2,395 1.81% 18,570 14.03% 132,353 Berkshire 49,558 74.94% 14,876 22.50% 1,696 2.56% 34,682 52.44% 66,130 Bristol 146,861 60.41% 90,531 37.24% 5,728 2.36% 56,330 23.17% 243,120 Dukes 7,913 74.98% 2,442 23.14% 198 1.88% 5,471 51.84% 10,553 Essex 208,976 59.12% 137,129 38.80% 7,357 2.08% 71,847 20.32% 353,462 Franklin 27,919 72.46% 9,545 24.77% 1,065 2.76% 18,374 47.69% 38,529 Hampden 121,454 61.43% 71,350 36.09% 4,916 2.49% 50,104 25.34% 197,720 Hampshire 56,869 71.47% 20,618 25.91% 2,083 2.62% 36,251 45.56% 79,570 Middlesex 464,484 63.98% 245,766 33.85% 15,781 2.17% 218,718 30.13% 726,031 Nantucket 4,073 67.30% 1,863 30.78% 116 1.92% 2,210 36.52% 6,052 Norfolk 200,675 58.18% 136,841 39.67% 7,400 2.15% 63,834 18.51% 344,916 Plymouth 131,817 52.77% 112,904 45.19% 5,096 2.04% 18,913 7.58% 249,817 Suffolk 207,128 76.94% 57,194 21.24% 4,900 1.82% 149,934 55.70% 269,222 Worcester 202,107 55.59% 152,101 41.83% 9,386 2.58% 50,006 13.76% 363,594Totals1,904,09861.80%1,108,85435.99%68,1172.21%795,24425.81%3,081,069

By congressional district

Barack Obama swept all ten congressional districts in Massachusetts.

District Representative McCain Obama John Olver 33.54% 64.17% Richard Neal 38.88% 59.04% Jim McGovern 39.39% 58.74% Barney Frank 34.67% 63.66% Niki Tsongas 39.41% 58.92% John F. Tierney 40.71% 57.65% Ed Markey 33.34% 64.96% Mike Capuano 13.74% 85.58% Stephen Lynch 38.50% 60.37% William Delahunt 43.60% 54.87%

By municipality Town/cityBarack Obama DemocraticJohn McCain