2008 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania

The 2008 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania took place on November 4, 2008, throughout all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Voters chose 21 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Democratic nominee Barack Obama was won by a 10. 32% margin of victory. Obama became the first Democrat to win the White House without carrying Westmoreland County since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.

About 2008 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania in brief

Summary 2008 United States presidential election in PennsylvaniaThe 2008 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania took place on November 4, 2008, throughout all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Voters chose 21 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Democratic nominee Barack Obama was won by a 10. 32% margin of victory. Hillary Clinton won the primary by 9. 28%, a wider margin than expected than recent polls suggested, but smaller than most January and February polls. Obama became the first Democrat to win the White House without carrying Westmoreland County since Woodrow Wilson in 1916. The Pennsylvania Democratic Party sent 187 delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Of those delegates, 158 were pledged, and 29 were unpledged. All of the 158 pledged delegates were allocated to vote for a particular candidate at the National Convention according to the results of the Pennsylvania Presidential Primary. The 55 statewide delegates were divided into 35 at-large delegates and 20 party leaders and elected officials. They were allocated to the presidential candidates based on the preference of the delegates at the State Committee meeting on June 7. The primary was the first time since 1976 that Pennsylvania played a major role in a presidential nomination. The delegates selected in advance were 13 Democratic National Committee members, the 11 Democratic U. S. Representatives from Pennsylvania, Democratic Senator Bob Casey, Jr., and Democratic Governor Ed Rendell. The 103 district delegates were further divided among Pennsylvania’s 19 Congressional Districts and were allocated for each district based on primary results in each district.

On March 18, 2008 Barack Obama chose Philadelphia as the site of his 2008 presidential campaign launch. Barack Obama and his family still maintained the family cottage near Scranton, Pennsylvania, as her father and brothers were christened there each summer and still maintain a summer home there. The family vacationed there in March and April of 2008 as Barack Obama came to Philadelphia to visit his brother and sister-in-law, who live in the Philadelphia suburb of Doylestown. The Obama family still maintains a summer cottage near Philadelphia as their summer home and still maintains the family vacation site in Philadelphia. The Clintons had been trying to secure the support of Congressman Jason Altmire but he remained uncommitted after she won his district by 31% during the primary. Despite her victory, she gained only nine delegates on Obama. In particular superdelegates were not swinging in her direction after her win; the Clintons were not able to secure his support after the primary, which was considered to be a’must win’ for Clinton, who defeated Obama, but by a smaller margin than hoped for. In 2004 John Kerry won the Keystone State by a slim margin of 2. 50%. In 2004 George W. Bush came so close to winning the state in 2004 and because Barack Obama lost the Democratic primary to Hillary Rodham Clinton by nearly 10% in April 2008, many analysts believed that John McCain had a decent shot at winning Pennsylvania in the general election. Nevertheless, Pennsylvania remained blue and gave Obama 54. 47% of the vote to McCain’s 44. 15%, a margin of 10.32%.