The 2008 United States presidential election in Arizona took place on November 4, 2008, and was part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose 10 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

and

vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

was won by Republican nominee and native son John McCain with an 8.48% margin of victory over Democrat

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

. McCain had served as United States Senator from the state since 1987, and enjoyed high approval ratings. Prior to the election, sixteen of seventeen news organizations considered this a state McCain would win, or a

red state Starting with the 2000 United States presidential election, the terms "red state" and "blue state" have referred to U.S. states whose voters vote predominantly for one party — the Republican Party in red states and the Democratic Party in b ...

. Some polls taken near Election Day in 2008 showed Democrat

closer than expected to winning it, but these did not come to fruition, as McCain easily won Arizona and carried all but four of the state's 15 counties. Nonetheless, this was closer than any of McCain's Senate campaigns. Obama became the first Democrat to win the White House without winning Gila,

Greenlee Greenlee is an American industrial and electrical tool company headquartered in Rockford, Illinois. It was founded in 1862 by brothers Robert and Ralph Greenlee to manufacture their invention, a drill surrounded by four chisel blades, used in ...

, La Paz, or Pinal Counties since Arizona statehood in 1912, as well as the first to do so without winning

Navajo County Navajo County is in the northern part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, its population was 106,717. The county seat is Holbrook. Navajo County comprises the Show Low, Arizona Micropolitan Statistical Area. Navajo County c ...

since

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

in 1964. Twelve years later, Obama's former vice president Joe Biden, won the state of Arizona, in part due to votes from supporters of the then-late McCain, who had an aggrieved relationship with Biden's opponent, former president Donald Trump, prior to McCain's death in 2018.

Primaries

* 2008 Arizona Democratic primary * 2008 Arizona Republican 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:

Polling

Opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinion ...

s taken from February through to October 2008 showed McCain leading Obama by margins of between 1% and 21%. The final RealClearPolitics average gave the state an average of 53.8% for McCain, compared to 45.0% for Obama.

Fundraising

John McCain raised $7,448,622. Barack Obama raised $5,491,056.

Advertising and visits

Obama and his interest groups spent $1,510,900 in the state. McCain and his interest groups spent just $751. The Democratic ticket did not visit the state. Arizona native John McCain visited the state 5 times in the election campaign.

Analysis

Arizona has long been a Republican-dominated state. At the time, it was represented in the Senate by two Republicans (John McCain and Jon Kyl). It has only supported a Democrat for president once in the last 60 years, when

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

carried it in 1996. In addition, both the Arizona Senate and Arizona House of Representatives are controlled by Republicans. However, the

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

was Democrat

Janet Napolitano Janet Ann Napolitano (; born November 29, 1957) is an American politician, lawyer, and university administrator who served as the 21st governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009 and third United States secretary of homeland security from 2009 to 20 ...

, and both parties held four House seats each before the election. Arizona was McCain's home state and gave its 10 electoral votes to its favorite son. However, he won just under 54% of the vote. By comparison, he'd been reelected in 2004 with 77% of the vote, one of the largest margins of victory for a statewide race in Arizona history. This led to speculation that the race would have been far closer without McCain on the ballot. One major factor is the growing

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

vote in the state, a voting bloc that tends to favor the Democrats, although both

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

and John McCain held moderate positions on illegal immigration. Arizona politics are dominated by

Maricopa Maricopa can refer to: Places * Maricopa, Arizona, United States, a city ** Maricopa Freeway, a piece of I-10 in Metropolitan Phoenix ** Maricopa station, an Amtrak station in Maricopa, Arizona * Maricopa County, Arizona, United States * Marico ...

and

Pima Pima or PIMA may refer to: People * Pima people, the Akimel O'odham, Indigenous peoples in Arizona (U.S.) and Sonora (Mexico) Places * Pima, Arizona, a town in Graham County * Pima County, Arizona * Pima Canyon, in the Santa Catalina Mountains ...

counties, home to Phoenix and Tucson respectively. Between them, these two counties cast almost three-fourths of the state's vote and elect a substantial majority of the legislature. Maricopa County, a Republican stronghold since 1948, gave McCain an 11-point victory. This alone was more than enough to make up for Obama's narrow victory in Democratic-leaning Tucson. McCain also did well elsewhere throughout the state, winning the more sparsely populated counties by double digits. The election also saw Republicans making gains in the state legislature, as the GOP picked up one seat in the

State Senate A state legislature in the United States is the legislative body of any of the 50 U.S. states. The formal name varies from state to state. In 27 states, the legislature is simply called the ''Legislature'' or the ''State Legislature'', whil ...

and three seats in the State House. The Democrats, however, managed to win the open seat in , with former state representative

Ann Kirkpatrick Ann Leila Kirkpatrick (born March 24, 1950) is an American politician and retired attorney serving as the United States representative from since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she represented from 2009 to 2011 and again from 2013 to ...

cruising to victory over Republican Sydney Hay, giving the Democrats a majority of the state's House seats for the first time in 60 years.

Results

Constitution Party nominee

Chuck Baldwin Charles Obadiah Baldwin (born May 3, 1952) is an American right-wing politician, radio host, and founder-former pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. As of January 2011 he was pastor of Liberty Fellowship in Kalispell, Mon ...

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell t ...

nominee

Charles Jay The Boston Tea Party (BTP) was a United States political party named after the event known as the Boston Tea Party of 1773. The political party's ideology was libertarian. A group of former Libertarian Party (LP) members founded the party i ...

and

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

candidate Jonathan Allen were registered

write-in candidate A write-in candidate is a candidate whose name does not appear on the ballot but seeks election by asking voters to cast a vote for the candidate by physically writing in the person's name on the ballot. Depending on electoral law it may be poss ...

s in Arizona.

Results by county

By congressional district

McCain won 6 of Arizona's 8 congressional districts, including two districts ( AZ-08 and

AZ-05 Arizona's 5th congressional district is a congressional district located in the U.S. state of Arizona, currently represented by Republican Party (United States), Republican Andy Biggs. The district contains Gilbert, Arizona, Gilbert, Queen Cre ...

) represented by Democrats (

Gabrielle Giffords Gabrielle Dee Giffords (born June 8, 1970) is an American retired politician and gun control advocate who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing from January 2007 until January 2012, when she resigned ...

and

Harry Mitchell Harry Everett Mitchell (born July 18, 1940) is an American politician and educator who served as a U.S. Representative representing from 2007 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Early life, education and career Born and raise ...

, respectively), and one other ( AZ-01) represented by a Republican at the time but which voted for a Democrat (

) in the simultaneous U.S. House elections. Both districts Obama carried are represented by Democrats.

Electors

Technically the voters of Arizona cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Arizona is allocated 10 electors because it has 8

congressional districts Congressional districts, also known as electoral districts and legislative districts, electorates, or wards in other nations, are divisions of a larger administrative region that represent the population of a region in the larger congressional bod ...

and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 10 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and their running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 10 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. An elector who votes for someone other than their candidate is known as a

faithless elector In the United States Electoral College, a faithless elector is an elector who does not vote for the candidates for U.S. President and U.S. Vice President for whom the elector had pledged to vote, and instead votes for another person for one or ...

. The electors of each state and the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

met on December 15, 2008, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols. The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 10 were pledged to John McCain and

Sarah Palin Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, author, and reality television personality who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 R ...

:Az presidential electors include ex-governors, activists - Tucson Citizen Morgue (1992-2009)
/ref> # Bruce Ash # Kurt Davis # Wes Gullett # Sharon Harper # Jack Londen # Beverly Lockett Miller # Lee Miller # Bettina Nava # Randy Pullen # Michael Rappoport

References

{{United States elections

2008 Arizona elections

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...