See main article: article and 2012 United States presidential election.
| Election Name: | 2012 United States presidential election in New Mexico |
| Country: | New Mexico |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2008 United States presidential election in New Mexico |
| Previous Year: | 2008 |
| Next Election: | 2016 United States presidential election in New Mexico |
| 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: | 5 |
| Popular Vote1: | 415,335 |
| Percentage1: | 52.99% |
| Nominee2: | Mitt Romney |
| Party2: | Republican Party (United States) |
| Home State2: | Massachusetts |
| Running Mate2: | Paul Ryan |
| Electoral Vote2: | 0 |
| Popular Vote2: | 335,788 |
| Percentage2: | 42.84% |
| Map Size: | 265px |
| 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 New Mexico 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. This was the 25th U.S. presidential election in which New Mexico participated. New Mexico voters chose five 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.
Prior to the election, 17 news organizations considered this a state Obama would win, or otherwise considered as a safe blue state. President Obama and Vice President Biden carried New Mexico with 52.99% of the vote to Mitt Romney's 42.84%, a victory margin of 10.15%. Libertarian Gary Johnson, a former Republican who served two terms as Governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003, garnered 3.55% of the vote, his strongest statewide performance in the nation, and the strongest 3rd party showing in the state since 2000 (although that was easily surpassed by Johnson in 2016, when he received nearly 10% of the vote in New Mexico).
As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last time where Colfax County, Hidalgo County, and Valencia County voted for the Democratic candidate. (Valencia County picked Donald Trump, Obama's successor, in both his 2016 win and 2020 loss, thus ending its reputation as a pivotal bellwether in presidential elections.) Since its statehood in 1912, no incumbent president of either party has ever won another term in office without carrying New Mexico. This is the last time that the presidential candidate who carried New Mexico won a majority of New Mexico's counties.
The Democratic caucus in New Mexico was uncontested as no one challenged incumbent President Barack Obama for the nomination. As a result, all of the state's 50 delegates were allocated to Obama.
| Election Name: | 2012 New Mexico Republican primary |
| Country: | New Mexico |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2008 New Mexico Republican primary |
| Previous Year: | 2008 |
| Next Election: | 2016 New Mexico Republican primary |
| Next Year: | 2016 |
| Image1: | Mitt_Romney_by_Gage_Skidmore_6_cropped.jpg |
| Candidate1: | Mitt Romney |
| Home State1: | Massachusetts |
| Delegate Count1: | 20 |
| Popular Vote1: | 65,935 |
| Percentage1: | 73.17% |
| Color1: | ff6600 |
| Candidate2: | Rick Santorum |
| Home State2: | Pennsylvania |
| Delegate Count2: | 0 |
| Popular Vote2: | 9,517 |
| Percentage2: | 10.56% |
| Color2: | 008000 |
| Image4: | Ron Paul by Gage Skidmore 3 (crop 2).jpg |
| Candidate4: | Ron Paul |
| Percentage4: | 10.39% |
| Popular Vote4: | 9,363 |
| Home State4: | Texas |
| Delegate Count4: | 0 |
| Color4: | ffcc00 |
| Image5: | Newt Gingrich by Gage Skidmore 3 (cropped).jpg |
| Candidate5: | Newt Gingrich |
| Home State5: | Georgia |
| Popular Vote5: | 5,928 |
| Percentage5: | 5.88% |
| Delegate Count5: | 0 |
| Color5: | 800080 |
| Map Size: | 225px |
The 2012 New Mexico Republican presidential primary was proclaimed under state law on January 30, 2012[1] to take place on June 5, 2012.[2] Under New Mexico law it is a closed primary, with only registered members of the New Mexico Republican Party being eligible to vote in the Republican primary.[3] 20 delegates were chosen, for a total of 23 delegates to go to the national convention.
| New Mexico Republican primary, 2012[6] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Delegates | |
| Mitt Romney | 65,935 | 73.2% | 20 | |
| Rick Santorum | 9,517 | 10.56% | 0 | |
| Ron Paul | 9,363 | 10.39% | 0 | |
| Newt Gingrich | 5,298 | 5.88% | 0 | |
| Unpledged delegates: | 3 | |||
| Total: | 90,113 | 100.0% | 23 | |
| Key: | align:"center" bgcolor=DDDDDD | Withdrew prior to contest |
| County | Barack Obama Democratic | Mitt Romney Republican | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | % | ||||||||||||||||
| Bernalillo | 150,739 | 55.63% | 106,408 | 39.27% | 13,822 | 5.10% | 44,331 | 16.36% | 270,969 | ||||||||||
| Catron | 560 | 26.38% | 1,494 | 70.37% | 69 | 3.25% | -934 | -43.99% | 2,123 | ||||||||||
| Chaves | 6,604 | 32.54% | 13,088 | 64.50% | 600 | 2.96% | -6,484 | -31.96% | 20,292 | ||||||||||
| Cibola | 4,961 | 60.18% | 2,998 | 36.37% | 284 | 3.45% | 1,963 | 23.81% | 8,243 | ||||||||||
| Colfax | 2,828 | 49.06% | 2,699 | 46.83% | 237 | 4.11% | 129 | 2.23% | 5,764 | ||||||||||
| Curry | 4,022 | 29.52% | 9,251 | 67.90% | 352 | 2.58% | -5,229 | -38.38% | 13,625 | ||||||||||
| De Baca | 287 | 31.82% | 586 | 64.97% | 29 | 3.21% | -299 | -33.15% | 902 | ||||||||||
| Dona Ana | 37,139 | 55.91% | 27,322 | 41.13% | 1,962 | 2.96% | 9,817 | 14.78% | 66,423 | ||||||||||
| Eddy | 6,142 | 31.88% | 12,583 | 65.30% | 544 | 2.82% | -6,441 | -33.42% | 19,269 | ||||||||||
| Grant | 7,090 | 54.95% | 5,358 | 41.53% | 454 | 3.52% | 1,732 | 13.42% | 12,902 | ||||||||||
| Guadalupe | 1,488 | 69.70% | 557 | 26.09% | 90 | 4.21% | 931 | 43.61% | 2,135 | ||||||||||
| Harding | 260 | 43.26% | 327 | 54.41% | 14 | 2.33% | -67 | -11.15% | 601 | ||||||||||
| Hidalgo | 995 | 51.42% | 899 | 46.46% | 41 | 2.12% | 96 | 4.96% | 1,935 | ||||||||||
| Lea | 4,080 | 23.98% | 12,548 | 73.75% | 387 | 2.27% | -8,468 | -49.77% | 17,015 | ||||||||||
| Lincoln | 2,942 | 31.83% | 5,961 | 64.50% | 339 | 3.67% | -3,019 | -32.67% | 9,242 | ||||||||||
| Los Alamos | 5,191 | 48.72% | 4,796 | 45.02% | 667 | 6.26% | 395 | 3.70% | 10,654 | ||||||||||
| Luna | 3,583 | 47.77% | 3,670 | 48.93% | 247 | 3.30% | -87 | -1.16% | 7,500 | ||||||||||
| McKinley | 15,841 | 72.24% | 5,546 | 25.29% | 542 | 2.47% | 10,295 | 46.95% | 21,929 | ||||||||||
| Mora | 1,955 | 74.88% | 595 | 22.79% | 61 | 2.33% | 1,360 | 52.09% | 2,611 | ||||||||||
| Otero | 6,829 | 34.12% | 12,451 | 62.22% | 732 | 3.66% | -5,622 | -28.10% | 20,012 | ||||||||||
| Quay | 1,383 | 37.31% | 2,202 | 59.40% | 122 | 3.29% | -819 | -22.09% | 3,707 | ||||||||||
| Rio Arriba | 11,465 | 74.72% | 3,397 | 22.14% | 481 | 3.14% | 8,068 | 52.58% | 15,343 | ||||||||||
| Roosevelt | 1,727 | 28.93% | 4,043 | 67.73% | 199 | 3.34% | -2,316 | -38.80% | 5,969 | ||||||||||
| San Juan | 15,855 | 34.29% | 28,849 | 62.39% | 1,533 | 3.32% | -12,994 | -28.10% | 46,237 | ||||||||||
| San Miguel | 8,850 | 76.90% | 2,303 | 20.01% | 356 | 3.09% | 6,547 | 56.89% | 11,509 | ||||||||||
| Sandoval | 27,236 | 50.36% | 24,387 | 45.10% | 2,455 | 4.54% | 2,849 | 5.26% | 54,078 | ||||||||||
| Santa Fe | 50,872 | 73.47% | 15,500 | 22.38% | 2,873 | 4.15% | 35,372 | 51.09% | 69,245 | ||||||||||
| Sierra | 1,964 | 38.49% | 2,928 | 57.39% | 210 | 4.12% | -964 | -18.90% | 5,102 | ||||||||||
| Socorro | 4,058 | 56.42% | 2,722 | 37.84% | 413 | 5.74% | 1,336 | 18.58% | 7,193 | ||||||||||
| Taos | 11,978 | 78.09% | 2,730 | 17.80% | 631 | 4.11% | 9,248 | 60.29% | 15,339 | ||||||||||
| Torrance | 2,428 | 37.93% | 3,529 | 55.12% | 445 | 6.95% | -1,101 | -17.19% | 6,402 | ||||||||||
| Union | 472 | 26.83% | 1,236 | 70.27% | 51 | 2.90% | -764 | -43.44% | 1,759 | ||||||||||
| Valencia | 13,511 | 48.73% | 12,825 | 46.25% | 1,392 | 5.02% | 686 | 2.48% | 27,728 | ||||||||||
| Total | 415,335 | 52.99% | 335,788 | 42.84% | 32,634 | 4.16% | 79,547 | 10.15% | 783,757 | ||||||||||
Obama won 2 of 3 congressional districts.[7]
| District | Obama | Romney | Representative | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55.25% | 39.6% | Michelle Lujan Grisham | |||
| 44.9% | 51.72% | Steve Pearce | |||
| 57.52% | 38.67% | Ben Ray Luján | |||
for New Mexico
Major state elections in chronological order