The 2008 Idaho Democratic presidential caucuses were held on
Super Tuesday
Super Tuesday is the United States presidential primary election day in February or March when the greatest number of U.S. states hold primary elections and caucuses. Approximately one-third of all delegates to the presidential nominating co ...
, February 5, 2008, with 18 national delegates at stake.
For the first time, caucuses were held in all 44 counties, all of them open caucuses organized at the county level rather than the precinct level.
The Idaho Democratic Caucus was overwhelmingly won by
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 ...
, who won 15 of Idaho's 18 delegates, 44 of the 45 county-level caucuses, and the support of 79.54 percent of caucus attendees statewide, his largest margin of victory in any state during the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary season. A handful of caucus attendees pledged to support
John Edwards
Johnny Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a U.S. senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004 alongside John Kerry, losing to incumbents George ...
on the first ballot even though he had dropped out of the race the previous week; this residual support was sufficient to give him a third-place finish.
Each of Idaho's 44 counties held its own caucus except for
Ada County
Ada County is located in the southwestern part of Idaho, United States. As of the 2021 United States census estimate, the county had a population of 511,931, making it by far the state's most populous county; it is home to 26.8% of the state's p ...
, which held two: one for the part of the county in the
First Congressional District, and the other for the part of the county in the
Second Congressional District. Collectively, both Ada County caucuses (which convened at
Qwest Arena
Idaho Central Arena (originally Bank of America Centre, formerly Qwest Arena and CenturyLink Arena) is a multi-purpose arena in the western United States, located in Boise, Idaho. Its seating capacity is 5,002 for ice hockey, 5,300 for basketbal ...
in Downtown
Boise
Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown area' ...
) were notable for the unprecedented mass public participation which made them the largest caucus gathering of Super Tuesday 2008: 3,075 votes were cast by the constituents of the 1st Congressional District and 5,215 votes were cast by those of the 2nd Congressional District for a grand total of 8,290 votes cast at a single venue. Thousands of freshly printed ballots were rushed to those caucusing outside the arena in frigid weather. Much higher than anticipated attendance was also reported at other caucus locations throughout the state. Statewide some 28,000 people caucused, an order of magnitude increase over the approximately 5,000 who had caucused throughout Idaho in 2004
Process
Since at the time Idaho residents did not choose a political party preference at voter registration, the 2008 Idaho Democratic Caucus was open to all individuals who were or would have been qualified to vote in the general election in Idaho on November 4, 2008, including those who were not registered or who were not yet legally old enough to vote (but were going to be legally old enough to vote at the national election). Caucus attendees were required to sign a pledge that they planned on voting Democratic in the county in which they were caucusing. After signing in, participants either marked their first presidential preference or declared themselves uncommitted.
As in past years, the caucuses employed a 15-percent support threshold at the county level. If a candidate failed to meet that threshold on the first vote, the candidate was eliminated from consideration at the county level. A second vote was then taken with all participants free to declare or re-declare their support for any remaining candidate or for "Uncommitted." In 2008, Barack Obama was the only candidate to meet the threshold requirement on the first vote in several counties, most notably in Ada County. Clinton won the caucus vote only in one county:
Lewis County in the Northern Panhandle of the state.
After the second vote, county caucuses were broken up into groups by candidate support. These groups then selected county delegates and alternates to the Idaho Democratic Party State Convention who were pledged but unbound by the results. The 2008 Idaho Democratic Party State Convention was held June 12–14, 2008, in
Garden City.
Campaigning
Senator
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 ...
made a campaign stop at
Taco Bell Arena
ExtraMile Arena (formerly BSU Pavilion and Taco Bell Arena) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the western United States, on the campus of Boise State University in Boise, Idaho. It is located on the east end of campus, between West Campus La ...
in
Boise State University
Boise State University (BSU) is a Public university, public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding ...
before Super Tuesday and told voters that he would not take their guns away.
Polls
Results
County Caucuses
Caucus Date: February 5, 2008
Primary
On May 27, 2008, a non-binding presidential preference primary was held on the Democratic ticket. The primary had no impact on the Democratic Party delegate selection process. Obama won the primary, but by a considerably smaller margin than his caucus win three months earlier.
Primary Date: May 27, 2008
The 734 votes assigned to 'others' in the table were awarded to
Keith Russell Judd
Keith Russell Judd (born May 23, 1958) is an American convicted criminal and perennial candidate for political office. His nicknames include "Dark Priest"Dana MilbankRichard Mourdock and Keith Judd vs. Washington ''The Washington Post'', May 11, ...
, who ran his 2008 presidential campaign from federal prison in Texas. He would run against Barack Obama
again in 2012, still from prison, winning ten counties in West Virginia, and coming in second with 73k votes to Obama's 106k votes in that state's 2012 democratic primary.
Analysis
Idaho, one of the most staunchly
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
states in the nation, is difficult to analyze for Democrats. The state delivered a massive three-to-one victory for Obama, his largest victory in the course of the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary.
See also
*
2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries
From January 3 to June 3, 2008, voters of the Democratic Party chose their nominee for president in the 2008 United States presidential election. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois was selected as the nominee, becoming the first African Am ...
*
2008 Idaho Republican presidential primary
The 2008 Idaho Republican presidential primary took place on May 27, 2008. John McCain won the primary, although before the election he had already won enough pledged delegates in earlier primaries to secure his nomination at the 2008 Republican ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Idaho Democratic Caucuses, 2008
2008 United States Democratic presidential primaries by state
2008 Idaho 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; ...
2008 Super Tuesday