| Election Name: | 2008 United States presidential election in Maryland |
| Country: | Maryland |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2004 United States presidential election in Maryland |
| Previous Year: | 2004 |
| Next Election: | 2012 United States presidential election in Maryland |
| Next Year: | 2012 |
| Election Date: | November 4, 2008 |
| Image1: | Obama portrait crop.jpg |
| Nominee1: | Barack Obama |
| Party1: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Home State1: | Illinois |
| Running Mate1: | Joe Biden |
| Electoral Vote1: | 10 |
| Popular Vote1: | 1,629,467 |
| Percentage1: | 61.92% |
| Nominee2: | John McCain |
| Party2: | Republican Party (United States) |
| Home State2: | Arizona |
| Running Mate2: | Sarah Palin |
| Electoral Vote2: | 0 |
| Popular Vote2: | 959,862 |
| Percentage2: | 36.47% |
| Map Size: | 375px |
| President | |
| Before Election: | George W. Bush |
| Before Party: | Republican Party (United States) |
| After Election: | Barack Obama |
| After Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
The 2008 United States presidential election in Maryland 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 and vice president.
Maryland was won by Democratic nominee Barack Obama by a 25.4% margin of victory. Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations considered this a state Obama would win, or otherwise considered as a safe blue state. Maryland has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate of every election since 1992. In 2008, Obama easily captured the state's 10 electoral votes in a landslide victory, winning 61.92% of the popular vote to Republican John McCain's 36.47%.
There were 16 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day:
| D.C. Political Report[1] | ||
| Cook Political Report[2] | ||
| The Takeaway[3] | ||
| Electoral-vote.com[4] | ||
| The Washington Post | Washington Post[5] | |
| Politico[6] | ||
| RealClearPolitics[7] | ||
| FiveThirtyEight | ||
| CQ Politics[8] | ||
| The New York Times[9] | ||
| CNN[10] | ||
| NPR | ||
| MSNBC | ||
| Fox News[11] | ||
| Associated Press[12] | ||
| Rasmussen Reports[13] |
Obama won every single pre-election poll, each by a double-digit margin of victory and at least 51% of the vote. The final 3 polls averaged Obama leading 54% to 38%.[14]
John McCain raised a total of $3,439,120 in the state. Barack Obama raised $19,091,136.[15]
Obama spent $257,582 while McCain spent nothing.[16] Both tickets visited the state once.[17]
Maryland has supported the Democratic nominee in each of the last five presidential elections by an average margin of 15.4%. In 1980, it was 1 of only 6 states to vote for Democrat Jimmy Carter over Republican Ronald Reagan. It has only supported a Republican six times since Franklin D. Roosevelt – 1948 and the Republican landslides of 1952, 1956, 1972, 1984 and 1988.
Maryland is often among the Democratic nominees' best states. In 1992, Bill Clinton fared better in Maryland than any other state except his home state of Arkansas. In 1996, Maryland was Clinton's sixth best, in 2000 Maryland ranked fourth for Al Gore and in 2004 John Kerry showed his fifth best performance in Maryland.
Republican presidential candidates typically win more counties by running up huge margins in western Maryland and the Eastern Shore. However, they are usually swamped by the heavily Democratic Baltimore-Washington, D.C. axis, which casts almost 75% of the state's vote. The state's four largest county-level jurisdictions – Montgomery, Prince George's and Baltimore counties and the City of Baltimore — are strongly Democratic. These areas, which contain 1.5 million voters combined, make it extremely difficult for a Republican to win Maryland. Even in bad years for Democrats, a Republican usually has to run the table in the rest of the state and win either Montgomery, Prince George's or Baltimore counties to have a realistic chance of carrying the state. In 1984, for instance, Ronald Reagan only carried Maryland by crushing Walter Mondale in Baltimore County and narrowly winning Montgomery. In 1988, George H. W. Bush ran up a 42,300-vote margin in Baltimore County over Michael Dukakis – almost 85% of his statewide margin of 49,800 votes.
The 2008 election was no exception. Barack Obama won the state's 10 electoral votes in 2008 with 61.92% of the vote to John McCain's 36.47%. Obama carried Montgomery, Prince George's, Baltimore County and Baltimore City with 71.6%, 88.9%, 56.2 and 87.2% of the vote, respectively. Obama's combined 550,000-vote margin in these four areas would have been enough to carry the state. While McCain won more counties, the only large county he won was Anne Arundel County, home to the state capital, Annapolis. In this election, Maryland voted 18.17% to the left of the nation at-large.[18]
In 2008, Democrats picked up a U.S. House an open seat in Maryland's 1st Congressional District as Democrat Frank M. Kratovil, Jr. defeated Republican Andy Harris by less than a 1% margin of victory.
| 2008 United States presidential election in Maryland[19] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | ||
| Democratic | Barack Obama | Joe Biden | 1,629,467 | 61.92% | 10 | ||
| Republican | John McCain | Sarah Palin | 959,862 | 36.47% | 0 | ||
| Independent | Ralph Nader | Matt Gonzalez | 14,713 | 0.56% | 0 | ||
| Libertarian | Bob Barr | Wayne Allyn Root | 9,842 | 0.44% | 0 | ||
| Independent | Write-in candidates | 9,043 | 0.34% | 0 | |||
| Green | Cynthia McKinney | Rosa Clemente | 4,747 | 0.18% | 0 | ||
| Constitution | Chuck Baldwin | Darrell Castle | 3,760 | 0.14% | 0 | ||
| America's Independent | Alan Keyes (write-in) | Brian Rohrbough | 103 | 0.00% | 0 | ||
| Unaffiliated | Donald Kenneth Allen (write-in) | Christopher Borcik | 17 | 0.56% | 0 | ||
| Democratic | Blaine Taylor (write-in) | n/a | 12 | 0.00% | 0 | ||
| Socialist USA | Brian Moore (write-in) | Stewart Alexander | 10 | 0.00% | 0 | ||
| Totals | 2,631,596 | 100.00% | 10 | ||||
| Voter turnout (Voting age population) | 62.4% | ||||||
| County | Barack Obama Democratic | John McCain Republican | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast[20] | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | % | ||||||||||||||||
| Allegany | 10,693 | 35.95% | 18,405 | 61.88% | 644 | 2.17% | -7,712 | -25.93% | 29,742 | ||||||||||
| Anne Arundel | 125,015 | 48.15% | 129,682 | 49.95% | 4,922 | 1.90% | -4,667 | -1.80% | 259,619 | ||||||||||
| Baltimore | 214,151 | 56.22% | 158,714 | 41.66% | 8,073 | 2.12% | 55,437 | 14.55% | 380,938 | ||||||||||
| Baltimore City | 214,385 | 87.16% | 28,681 | 11.66% | 2,902 | 1.18% | 185,704 | 75.50% | 245,968 | ||||||||||
| Calvert | 20,299 | 46.07% | 23,095 | 52.42% | 663 | 1.50% | -2,796 | -6.35% | 44,057 | ||||||||||
| Caroline | 4,971 | 37.61% | 8,015 | 60.64% | 232 | 1.76% | -3,044 | -23.03% | 13,218 | ||||||||||
| Carroll | 28,060 | 33.11% | 54,503 | 64.30% | 2,197 | 2.59% | -26,443 | -31.20% | 84,760 | ||||||||||
| Cecil | 17,665 | 41.57% | 23,855 | 56.14% | 974 | 2.29% | -6,190 | -14.57% | 42,494 | ||||||||||
| Charles | 43,635 | 62.22% | 25,732 | 36.69% | 760 | 1.08% | 17,903 | 25.53% | 70,127 | ||||||||||
| Dorchester | 6,912 | 45.25% | 8,168 | 53.48% | 194 | 1.27% | -1,256 | -8.22% | 15,274 | ||||||||||
| Frederick | 54,013 | 48.58% | 55,170 | 49.62% | 2,003 | 1.80% | -1,157 | -1.04% | 111,186 | ||||||||||
| Garrett | 3,736 | 29.02% | 8,903 | 69.17% | 233 | 1.81% | -5,167 | -40.14% | 12,872 | ||||||||||
| Harford | 48,552 | 39.38% | 71,751 | 58.19% | 2,992 | 2.43% | -23,199 | -18.82% | 123,295 | ||||||||||
| Howard | 87,120 | 59.99% | 55,393 | 38.14% | 2,720 | 1.87% | 31,727 | 21.85% | 145,233 | ||||||||||
| Kent | 4,953 | 49.43% | 4,905 | 48.95% | 162 | 1.62% | 48 | 0.48% | 10,020 | ||||||||||
| Montgomery | 314,444 | 71.58% | 118,608 | 27.00% | 6,209 | 1.41% | 195,836 | 44.58% | 439,261 | ||||||||||
| Prince George's | 332,396 | 88.87% | 38,833 | 10.38% | 2,797 | 0.75% | 293,563 | 78.49% | 374,026 | ||||||||||
| Queen Anne's | 8,575 | 35.66% | 15,087 | 62.74% | 383 | 1.59% | -6,512 | -27.08% | 24,045 | ||||||||||
| Somerset | 4,779 | 48.16% | 5,037 | 50.76% | 108 | 1.09% | -258 | -2.60% | 9,924 | ||||||||||
| St. Mary's | 19,023 | 42.84% | 24,705 | 55.63% | 681 | 1.53% | -5,682 | -12.79% | 44,409 | ||||||||||
| Talbot | 9,035 | 44.45% | 10,995 | 54.09% | 298 | 1.47% | -1,960 | -9.64% | 20,328 | ||||||||||
| Washington | 26,245 | 42.61% | 34,169 | 55.47% | 1,186 | 1.93% | -7,924 | -12.86% | 61,600 | ||||||||||
| Wicomico | 19,436 | 46.44% | 21,849 | 52.20% | 569 | 1.36% | -2,413 | -5.77% | 41,854 | ||||||||||
| Worcester | 11,374 | 41.59% | 15,607 | 57.07% | 365 | 1.33% | -4,233 | -15.48% | 27,346 | ||||||||||
| Totals | 1,629,467 | 61.92% | 959,862 | 36.47% | 42,267 | 1.61% | 669,605 | 25.45% | 2,631,596 | ||||||||||
Barack Obama carried 6 of Maryland's 8 congressional districts. McCain carried two congressional districts, including one that was won by a Democrat.
| District | Obama | McCain | Representative | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 39.81% | 58.26% | Wayne Gilchrest (110th Congress) | ||||
| Frank M. Kratovil, Jr. (111th Congress) | ||||||
| 59.84% | 38.25% | Dutch Ruppersberger | ||||
| 58.78% | 39.23% | John Sarbanes | ||||
| 85.06% | 14.16% | Albert Wynn (110th Congress) | ||||
| Donna Edwards (111th Congress) | ||||||
| 65.44% | 33.30% | Steny Hoyer | ||||
| 40.19% | 57.65% | Roscoe Bartlett | ||||
| 78.79% | 19.89% | Elijah Cummings | ||||
| 73.88% | 24.70% | Chris Van Hollen |
See main article: List of 2008 United States presidential electors.
Technically the voters of Maryland cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Maryland is allocated 10 electors because it has 8 congressional districts 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 his or her 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.[21] An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.
The electors of each state and the District of Columbia 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 Barack Obama and Joe Biden:[22]