The 2012 United States elections took place on November 6, 2012. Democratic President Barack Obama won election to a second term, though the Republican Party retained control of the House of Representatives. Many of the major issues of the 2012 election were the same as in both 2008 and 2010.
About 2012 United States elections in brief
The 2012 United States elections took place on November 6, 2012. Democratic President Barack Obama won election to a second term, though the Republican Party retained control of the House of Representatives. Many of the major issues of the 2012 election were the same as in both 2008 and 2010. The major foreign policy controversy during the final weeks of the campaign was the September attack on the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya. Three state referenda passed legalizing same-sex marriage, while Minnesota became the first state in history to reject a proposed state-level constitutional ban of same sex marriage. Two states approved and one rejected the legalization of recreational marijuana, and one more state voted to approve allowing marijuana for medical use. A referendum was also held in Puerto Rico regarding the future political status of the U.S. unincorporated territory. The 2012 election season became the most expensive in American history. Despite various issues during this election cycle, ultimately little overall change occurred on both the Federal and the gubernatorial level. With the advantage of incumbency, Obama faced no major challengers in the Democratic Party primaries; Romney was declared the presumptive Republican nominee by late April. This was the first presidential election since the Census changed the Electoral College apportionment, which changed the vote apportionments from the popular vote to the electoral college.
In the first election held since the round of redistricting following the 2010 United States Census, Democrats picked up eight seats but failed to gain a majority, despite winning thepopular vote. In the gubernatorial elections, Republicans won a net gain of one seat. In 2011, there were a series of demonstrations in Wisconsin, involving at its zenith as many as 100,000 protestors opposing the 2011 Wisconsin Act 10. The legislation, passed by the Wisconsin Legislature on June 29, 2011, primarily impacted the following areas: collective bargaining, compensation, retirement, health insurance, and sick leave of the state’s public sector employees. These protests became a major driving force of multiple recall elections, including state senators in 2011 and 2012, Governor Scott Walker in 2012 and a contentious Wisconsin Supreme Court election in 2011. On June 25, 2012, the Supreme Court delivered its decision in Arizona v. United States, striking down three of the four provisions of Arizona’s law. Immigration reform and the controversial Arizona Senate Bill 1070, passed in 2010 to enhance the power of law enforcement agencies to investigate the immigration status of suspected illegal immigrants, also remained important issues.
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