See main article: 2012 United States presidential election.
| Election Name: | 2012 United States presidential election in Connecticut |
| Country: | Connecticut |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2008 United States presidential election in Connecticut |
| Previous Year: | 2008 |
| Next Election: | 2016 United States presidential election in Connecticut |
| Next Year: | 2016 |
| Election Date: | November 6, 2012 |
| Image1: | President Barack Obama, 2012 portrait crop.jpg |
| Nominee1: | Barack Obama |
| Party1: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Home State1: | Illinois |
| Running Mate1: | Joe Biden |
| Electoral Vote1: | 7 |
| Popular Vote1: | 905,109 |
| Percentage1: | 58.06% |
| Nominee2: | Mitt Romney |
| Party2: | Republican Party (United States) |
| Home State2: | Massachusetts |
| Running Mate2: | Paul Ryan |
| Electoral Vote2: | 0 |
| Popular Vote2: | 634,899 |
| Percentage2: | 40.72% |
| President | |
| Before Election: | Barack Obama |
| Before Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| After Election: | Barack Obama |
| After Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
The 2012 United States presidential election in Connecticut took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Connecticut voters chose seven electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, against Republican challenger and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan. Obama and Biden carried Connecticut with 58.1% of the popular vote to Romney's and Ryan's 40.7%, thus winning the state's seven electoral votes.[1] Romney managed to flip the traditionally Republican Litchfield County, which Obama had won in 2008.[2] As of the 2020 United States presidential election, this was the last election that the Democratic presidential nominee won Windham County.
To date, this is the last time that the last time that the towns of Berlin, Bozrah, Brooklyn, Chaplin, East Haven, Franklin, Griswold, Killingly, Lebanon, Lisbon, Naugatuck, North Branford, North Haven, North Stonington, Plainfield, Plainville, Putnam, Salem, Southington, Sprague, Stafford, Union, and Voluntown voted Democratic and the last time that the towns of Avon, Darien, East Granby, Easton, Granby, Greenwich, New Canaan, Newtown, Orange, Ridgefield, and Wilton voted Republican.
As Barack Obama was the only candidate to qualify, no Democratic primary was held.[3]
| Election Name: | 2012 Connecticut Republican presidential primary |
| Country: | Connecticut |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2008 Connecticut Republican presidential primary |
| Previous Year: | 2008 |
| Next Election: | 2016 United States presidential election in Connecticut#Republican primary |
| Next Year: | 2016 |
| Image1: | Mitt_Romney_by_Gage_Skidmore_6_cropped.jpg |
| Candidate1: | Mitt Romney |
| Color1: | ff6600 |
| Home State1: | Massachusetts |
| Delegate Count1: | 25 |
| Popular Vote1: | 40,171 |
| Percentage1: | 67.43% |
| Candidate2: | Ron Paul |
| Color2: | ffcc00 |
| Home State2: | Texas |
| Delegate Count2: | 0 |
| Popular Vote2: | 8,032 |
| Percentage2: | 13.48% |
| Image4: | Newt Gingrich by Gage Skidmore 3 (cropped).jpg |
| Candidate4: | Newt Gingrich |
| Color4: | 800080 |
| Home State4: | Georgia |
| Delegate Count4: | 0 |
| Popular Vote4: | 6,135 |
| Percentage4: | 10.30% |
| Image5: | Rick Santorum by Gage Skidmore.jpg |
| Candidate5: | Rick Santorum |
| Color5: | 008000 |
| Home State5: | Pennsylvania |
| Delegate Count5: | 0 |
| Popular Vote5: | 4,072 |
| Percentage5: | 6.83% |
| Map Size: | 200px |
The 2012 Connecticut Republican presidential primary took place on April 24, 2012.[4] It was a closed primary, open only to Republican electors. 25 of the state's 28 delegates to the 2012 Republican National Convention were decided by the primary outcome, with the other 3 being superdelegates: the state party chairman and the state's two Republican National Committee representatives.
Mitt Romney won the primary by a wide margin, garnering two-thirds of the vote. Only 14.4% of active registered Republicans participated in the primary, the lowest turnout since the primary format was put in place in the state in 1980.[5]
After switching from proportional distribution of delegates to a winner-take-all system in 1996,[6] the Connecticut Republican Party voted in September 2011 to award delegates by a hybrid winner-take-all and proportional distribution process beginning with the 2012 primary. Of the 25 regular delegates at stake in the primary, the party called for three delegates to be awarded to the winner of each of the state's five congressional districts on a winner-take-all basis for a total of 15 delegates. The remaining 10 would be distributed proportionally based on the statewide vote total among candidates receiving at least 20% support unless a candidate won a majority of the statewide vote, in which case the candidate would receive all 10 of these delegates.[7]
With Romney's primary day wins in all five congressional districts and a majority of the statewide vote, he was able to claim all 25 of the delegates at stake.
| Poll source | Date | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Other | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quinnipiac[8] Margin of error: ±4.7% Sample size: 429 | Mar. 14–19, 2012 | Mitt Romney 42% | Rick Santorum 19% | Newt Gingrich 13% | Ron Paul 9%, Won't vote 3%, Don't know/No answer 14% | ||
| Public Policy Polling[9] Margin of error: ±4.9% Sample size: 400 | Sep. 22–25, 2011 | Mitt Romney 25% | Rick Perry 18% | Herman Cain 10% | Newt Gingrich 10%, Ron Paul 10%, Michele Bachmann 8%, Jon Huntsman 3%, Rick Santorum 3%, Gary Johnson 1%, someone else/not sure 12% | ||
| Mitt Romney 45% | Rick Perry 36% | – | not sure 19% | ||||
| Quinnipiac[10] Margin of error: ±5.4% Sample size: 332 | Sep. 8–13, 2011 | Mitt Romney 37% | Rick Perry 19% | Michele Bachmann 8% | Sarah Palin 4%, Herman Cain 3%, Newt Gingrich 3%, Ron Paul 3%, Jon Huntsman 2%, Rick Santorum 1%, Thaddeus McCotter 0%, someone else/undecided 20% | ||
| Public Policy Polling[11] Margin of error: ±7.3% Sample size: 180 | Oct. 27–29, 2010 | Mitt Romney 28% | Mike Huckabee 15% | Newt Gingrich 14% | Sarah Palin 11%, Tim Pawlenty 5%, Mike Pence 5%, Mitch Daniels 4%, John Thune 2%, someone else/undecided 18% |
| 2012 Connecticut Republican presidential primary[12] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Delegates | |
| Mitt Romney | 40,171 | 67.43% | 25 | |
| Ron Paul | 8,032 | 13.48% | 0 | |
| Newt Gingrich | 6,135 | 10.30% | 0 | |
| Rick Santorum | 4,072 | 6.83% | 0 | |
| Uncommitted | 1,168 | 1.96% | 0 | |
| Unprojected delegates: | 0 | |||
| Total: | 59,578 | 100% | 25 | |
Official source reports a turnout of 59,639, with the difference from 59,578 likely due to blank ballots.
| Key: | Suspended campaign prior to contest |
Write-in candidate access:
| 2012 United States presidential election in Connecticut | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | ||
| Democratic | Barack Obama (incumbent) | Joe Biden (incumbent) | 905,109 | 58.06% | 7 | ||
| Republican | Paul Ryan | 634,899 | 40.72% | 0 | |||
| Libertarian | Jim Gray | 12,580 | 0.81% | 0 | |||
| Justice | Rocky Anderson | Luis J. Rodriguez | 5,487 | 0.35% | 0 | ||
| Green (Write-in) | Jill Stein (Write-in) | Cheri Honkala | 863 | 0.06% | 0 | ||
| American Independent (Write-in) | Thomas Hoefling (Write-in) | Jonathan D. Ellis | 25 | 0.00% | 0 | ||
| Write-ins | Write-ins | 25 | 0.00% | 0 | |||
| Socialist Workers (Write-in) | James Harris (Write-in) | Maura DeLuca | 5 | 0.00% | 0 | ||
| Totals | 1,558,960 | 100.00% | 7 | ||||
| County | Barack Obama Democratic | Mitt Romney Republican | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | % | ||||||||||||||||
| Fairfield | 217,294 | 54.85% | 175,168 | 44.22% | 3,668 | 0.93% | 42,126 | 10.63% | 396,130 | ||||||||||
| Hartford | 244,639 | 62.37% | 143,238 | 36.52% | 4,363 | 1.11% | 101,401 | 25.85% | 392,240 | ||||||||||
| Litchfield | 43,856 | 47.45% | 47,201 | 51.07% | 1,370 | 1.48% | -3,345 | -3.62% | 92,427 | ||||||||||
| Middlesex | 47,855 | 57.29% | 34,591 | 41.41% | 1,092 | 1.30% | 13,264 | 15.88% | 83,538 | ||||||||||
| New Haven | 218,998 | 60.65% | 138,364 | 38.32% | 3,697 | 1.03% | 80,634 | 22.33% | 361,059 | ||||||||||
| New London | 67,144 | 58.33% | 46,119 | 40.07% | 1,839 | 1.60% | 21,025 | 18.26% | 115,102 | ||||||||||
| Tolland | 39,366 | 55.45% | 30,450 | 42.89% | 1,175 | 1.66% | 8,916 | 12.56% | 70,991 | ||||||||||
| Windham | 25,957 | 55.72% | 19,768 | 42.43% | 863 | 1.85% | 6,189 | 13.29% | 46,588 | ||||||||||
| Totals | 905,109 | 58.06% | 634,899 | 40.72% | 18,985 | 1.22% | 270,210 | 17.34% | 1,558,993 | ||||||||||
Obama won all 5 congressional districts.[13]
| District | Obama | Romney | Representative | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 63.3% | 35.6% | John B. Larson | |||
| 55.9% | 42.57% | Joe Courtney | |||
| 62.6% | 36.3% | Rosa DeLauro | |||
| 55.07% | 44.02% | Jim Himes | |||
| 53.53% | 45.31% | Elizabeth Esty | |||
for Connecticut
Major state elections in chronological order