The 2008 North Carolina Democratic presidential primary took place on May 6, 2008, one of the last primary elections in the long race for nomination between
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
and
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...
. Obama won the primary.
North Carolina sent 134 delegates to the
2008 Democratic National Convention
The 2008 Democratic National Convention was a quadrennial United States presidential nominating convention, presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party where it adopted its national platform an ...
. 115 delegates were tied to the results of the primary, with the remainder being unelected
superdelegate
In American politics, a superdelegate is a delegate to a presidential nominating convention who is seated automatically.
In Democratic National Conventions, superdelegates—described in formal party rules as the party leaders and electe ...
s not pledged to any candidate. Registered
Democrats and unaffiliated voters (but not registered
Republicans) were allowed to participate. The polls were open from 6:30 AM to 7:30 PM, Eastern daylight time (
UTC-4). North Carolina had 5,811,778 registered voters in 2,817 precincts, with turnout at 36.42%.
Polls
Public opinion polling from early January 2008 through mid-February 2008 generally gave
Senator Hillary Clinton a single digit lead over
Senator Barack Obama. From then on, Obama had the lead in almost every poll, and on May 5, was up by 3%, holding 48% to her 45%. 7% were undecided, with a margin of error of 3%. The new polls gave "fresh hope" to Clinton.
Robocalls
The North Carolina state
board of elections reported that misleading
robocall
A robocall is a phone call that uses a computerized autodialer to deliver a pre-recorded message, as if from a robot. Robocalls are often associated with political and telemarketing phone campaigns, but can also be used for public service, emerge ...
s were made to
African-American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
voters in the days leading up to the primary in late April 2008, which essentially told registered voters that they were not registered.
According to
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
and Facing South,
these calls were made by the organization "Women's Voices Women Vote."
[Murray, Shailagh, "Women's Voices, Women Vote: Did the Outreach Overreach?", ''Washington Post'', Sunday, May 4, 2008; Page A10, found a]
Washington Post article on Women's Voices Women Vote
Accessed May 5, 2008.
"
Women's Voices Women Vote" included members such as former White House chief of staff
John Podesta
John David Podesta Jr. (born January 8, 1949) is an American political consultant who served as Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy from 2024 to 2025, having previously served as the Senior Advisor to the President ...
,
Maggie Williams, and
Page Gardner, all of whom have close ties to the Clintons. Voters and watchdog groups complained that it was a turnout-suppression effort, and the state Attorney General
Roy Cooper
Roy Asberry Cooper III ( ; born June 13, 1957) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 75th List of governors of North Carolina, governor of North Carolina from 2017 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), De ...
ordered them to stop making the calls.
Results
Primary date: May 6, 2008
National pledged delegates determined: 115
The day that the North Carolina primary was held was known as
Super Tuesday III. Along with
Indiana
Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
which held its primary on the same day, this was largely considered the "Waterloo" of the Democratic primaries. Obama had been under fire for
controversial remarks made by
Jeremiah Wright, and his lead in North Carolina polls had been reduced to single digits, so Clinton's double-digit loss in that state was a major disappointment. Further hurting Clinton's campaign was the time-zone differences, as the defeat was reported in prime time, and the news of the narrow victory in Indiana had come too late.
MSNBC
MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...
's
Tim Russert
Timothy John Russert (May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008) was an American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC's '' Meet the Press''. He was a senior vice president at NBC News a ...
was quoted as saying "She did not get the game-changer she wanted tonight
See also
*
*
North Carolina Republican primary, 2008
References
External links
NC Board of Elections{{2008Demprimaries
2008 North Carolina elections
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
2008
2008 was designated as:
*International Year of Languages
*International Year of Planet Earth
*International Year of the Potato
*International Year of Sanitation
The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...