The 2012 United States presidential election in Connecticut took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Connecticut voters chose seven electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, against Republican challenger and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan. Obama and Biden carried Connecticut with 58.1% of the popular vote to Romney's and Ryan's 40.7%, thus winning the state's seven electoral votes. Romney managed to flip the traditionally Republican Litchfield County, which Obama had won in 2008. As of the 2020 United States presidential election, this was the last election that the Democratic presidential nominee won Windham County.

To date, this is the last time that the towns of Berlin, Bozrah, Brooklyn, Chaplin, East Haven, Franklin, Griswold, Killingly, Lebanon, Lisbon, Naugatuck, North Branford, North Haven, North Stonington, Plainfield, Plainville, Putnam, Salem, Southington, Sprague, Stafford, Union, and Voluntown voted Democratic and the last time that the towns of Avon, Darien, East Granby, Easton, Granby, Greenwich, New Canaan, Newtown, Ridgefield, and Wilton voted Republican. This is also the most recent election in which Woodstock voted for the losing candidate.

Primary elections

Democratic primary As Barack Obama was the only candidate to qualify, no Democratic primary was held.

Republican primary

The 2012 Connecticut Republican presidential primary took place on April 24, 2012. It was a closed primary, open only to Republican electors. 25 of the state's 28 delegates to the 2012 Republican National Convention were decided by the primary outcome, with the other 3 being superdelegates: the state party chairman and the state's two Republican National Committee representatives.

Mitt Romney won the primary by a wide margin, garnering two-thirds of the vote. Only 14.4% of active registered Republicans participated in the primary, the lowest turnout since the primary format was put in place in the state in 1980.

Process After switching from proportional distribution of delegates to a winner-take-all system in 1996, the Connecticut Republican Party voted in September 2011 to award delegates by a hybrid winner-take-all and proportional distribution process beginning with the 2012 primary. Of the 25 regular delegates at stake in the primary, the party called for three delegates to be awarded to the winner of each of the state's five congressional districts on a winner-take-all basis for a total of 15 delegates. The remaining 10 would be distributed proportionally based on the statewide vote total among candidates receiving at least 20% support unless a candidate won a majority of the statewide vote, in which case the candidate would receive all 10 of these delegates.

With Romney's primary day wins in all five congressional districts and a majority of the statewide vote, he was able to claim all 25 of the delegates at stake.

Opinion polling Poll source Date 1st 2nd 3rd OtherQuinnipiacQuinnipiacMargin of error: ±4.7%Sample size: 429 Mar. 14–19, 2012Mitt Romney42%Rick Santorum19%Newt Gingrich13%Ron Paul 9%, Won't vote 3%, Don't know/No answer 14%Public Policy PollingPublic Policy PollingMargin of error: ±4.9%Sample size: 400 Sep. 22–25, 2011Mitt Romney25%Rick Perry18%Herman Cain10% Newt Gingrich 10%, Ron Paul 10%, Michele Bachmann 8%, Jon Huntsman 3%, Rick Santorum 3%, Gary Johnson 1%, someone else/not sure 12%Mitt Romney45% Rick Perry36% – not sure 19%QuinnipiacMargin of error: ±5.4%Sample size: 332 Sep. 8–13, 2011Mitt Romney37% Rick Perry19% Michele Bachmann8%Sarah Palin 4%, Herman Cain 3%, Newt Gingrich 3%, Ron Paul 3%, Jon Huntsman 2%, Rick Santorum 1%, Thaddeus McCotter 0%, someone else/undecided 20%Public Policy PollingPublic Policy PollingMargin of error: ±7.3%Sample size: 180 Oct. 27–29, 2010Mitt Romney28%Mike Huckabee15% Newt Gingrich14% Sarah Palin 11%, Tim Pawlenty 5%, Mike Pence 5%, Mitch Daniels 4%, John Thune 2%, someone else/undecided 18%

Results 2012 Connecticut Republican presidential primary Candidate Votes Percentage Delegates Mitt Romney 40,171 67.43% 25Ron Paul 8,032 13.48% 0Newt Gingrich 6,135 10.30% 0Rick Santorum 4,072 6.83% 0 Uncommitted 1,168 1.96% 0Unprojected delegates:0Total: 59,578 100%25

Official source reports a turnout of 59,639, with the difference from 59,578 likely due to blank ballots.

Key:Suspended campaign prior to contest

General election Predictions SourceRankingAs ofHuffington PostNovember 6, 2012CNNNovember 6, 2012 The New York Times November 6, 2012The Washington PostNovember 6, 2012RealClearPoliticsNovember 6, 2012Sabato's Crystal BallNovember 5, 2012FiveThirtyEightNovember 6, 2012

Ballot access Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan, Republican Barack Obama/Joseph Biden, Democratic Gary Johnson/James P. Gray, Libertarian Rocky Anderson/Luis J. Rodriguez, Justice Write-in candidate access: Jill Stein/Cheri Honkala, Green Virgil Goode/Jim Clymer, Constitution Raymond Sizemore/Vicki Tomalin, Independent

Results 2012 United States presidential election in ConnecticutPartyCandidateRunning mateVotesPercentageElectoral votes Democratic Barack Obama (incumbent) Joe Biden (incumbent) 905,109 58.06% 7 Republican Mitt Romney Paul Ryan 634,899 40.72% 0 Libertarian Gary Johnson Jim Gray 12,580 0.81% 0 Justice Rocky Anderson Luis J. Rodriguez 5,487 0.35% 0 Green (Write-in) Jill Stein (Write-in) Cheri Honkala 863 0.06% 0 American Independent (Write-in) Thomas Hoefling (Write-in) Jonathan D. Ellis 25 0.00% 0 Write-ins Write-ins 25 0.00% 0 Socialist Workers (Write-in) James Harris (Write-in) Maura DeLuca 5 0.00% 0 Totals 1,558,960 100.00% 7

By county County Barack ObamaDemocratic Mitt RomneyRepublican Various candidatesOther parties Margin Total votes cast # % # % # % # % Fairfield 217,294 54.85% 175,168 44.22% 3,668 0.93% 42,126 10.63% 396,130 Hartford 244,639 62.37% 143,238 36.52% 4,363 1.11% 101,401 25.85% 392,240 Litchfield 43,856 47.45% 47,201 51.07% 1,370 1.48% -3,345 -3.62% 92,427 Middlesex 47,855 57.29% 34,591 41.41% 1,092 1.30% 13,264 15.88% 83,538 New Haven 218,998 60.65% 138,364 38.32% 3,697 1.03% 80,634 22.33% 361,059 New London 67,144 58.33% 46,119 40.07% 1,839 1.60% 21,025 18.26% 115,102 Tolland 39,366 55.45% 30,450 42.89% 1,175 1.66% 8,916 12.56% 70,991 Windham 25,957 55.72% 19,768 42.43% 863 1.85% 6,189 13.29% 46,588Totals905,10958.06%634,89940.72%18,9851.22%270,21017.34%1,558,993

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican Litchfield (largest city: Torrington)

By congressional district Obama won all five congressional districts.

District Obama Romney Representative 63% 36%John B. Larson 56% 43%Joe Courtney 63% 36%Rosa DeLauro 55% 44%Jim Himes 54% 45%Elizabeth Esty

Analysis Voter demographics + 2012 Connecticut presidential election (New York Times) Demographic subgroupObamaRomney % oftotal voteIdeology Liberals 93 6 28 Moderates 56 42 47 Conservatives 19 80 24Party Democrats 94 6 41 Republicans 9 91 26 Independents 51 46 32Age 18–29 years old 66 30 13 30–44 years old 55 44 24 45–64 years old 58 41 43 65 and older 54 46 20Gender Men 51 47 47 Women 63 36 53Marital status Married 54 45 64 Unmarried 65 33 36Race/ethnicity White 51 48 79 Black 93 7 11 Latino 79 20 6Education Never attended college 62 37 41 Some college education 60 39 24 College graduate 49 49 31 Advanced degree 60 38 29Income Under $30K 73 24 12 $30K-$49K 73 26 13 $50K or more 53 46 75 $100K or more 53 46 46

See also United States presidential elections in Connecticut Presidency of Barack Obama 2012 Republican Party presidential debates and forums 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries Results of the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries Connecticut Republican Party

References

External links The Green Papers: for Connecticut The Green Papers: Major state elections in chronological order