Overview: The Election of 2012
Barack Hussein Obama was re-elected President of the United States on Tuesday, November 6th, 2012, serving a second term as the nation's first African-American president. The 2012 presidential election was a race between Democratic incumbent President Obama and Republican Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. The two other presidential candidates included Green Party nominee Jill Stein and Libertarian Party nominee, New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson.
Requiring 270 electoral votes to win the election, Obama received 303 electoral votes, while Romney earned 206. His victory was much narrower than his electoral victory in the 2008 Presidential Election against Senator John McCain. During his second term, President Obama continued to face a divided political climate with a Democratic Senate and a Republican House, often leading to stalemates in the Congress.
Candidate Nominations
The Democratic nomination was uncontested with the incumbent, President Barack Obama, running for reelection. The Republicans, convinced Obama was vulnerable because of opposition to his healthcare program and a weak economy, nominated Mitt Romney, a well-known business executive-turned politician who had earlier signed healthcare reform into state law as governor of Massachusetts. Romney had unsuccessfully challenged McCain for the Republican nomination in 2008, but by 2012, he had remade himself politically by moving towards the party’s right wing and its newly created Tea Party faction, which was pulling the traditional conservative base further to the right with its strong opposition to abortion, gun control, and immigration.
Republican candidate Mitt Romney
Former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney became the first member of the Mormon Church to run for president. He claimed his experience as a member of the Mormon lay clergy had made him sympathetic to the needs of the poor, but some of his campaign decisions contradicted this stance.
Debates
Four debates between the Democratic and Republican presidential and vice presidential candidates occurred. The first took place on October 3rd between Obama and Romney. A Gallup poll found that 72% of the debate watchers believed Romney was the clear winner, 20% believed that Obama had won, and 9% believed it was a tie or had no opinion—the widest margin of victory for any presidential debate in Gallup history. The primary critiques of Obama's performance were that he looked detached, seldom addressed his opponent directly, and was often looking down while Romney was speaking.
The vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan took place on October 11th. A CBS poll of uncommitted voters found that 50% of those viewers thought Biden did better, 31% thought Ryan did better, and 19% thought they tied. The final two presidential debates occurred on October 16th and October 22nd. The overall consensus among liberals as well as some conservatives was that Obama's showing in the second debate was considerably stronger in comparison with his performance in the first debate. Analysts characterized him as more assertive and "tough" in the second debate.
Campaign Issues
The economic crisis, the growing deficit, and America's longest undeclared war were the biggest obstacles to Obama's re-election. The major policy issues at stake in the 2012 election included the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and health care reform, the ongoing economic condition, tax reform, women's rights, and American foreign policy.
Romney appealed to a new attitude within the Republican Party. While the percentage of Democrats who agreed that the government should help people unable to provide for themselves had remained relatively stable from 1987 to 2012, at roughly 75-79%, the percentage of Republicans who felt the same way had decreased from 62-40% over the same period, with the greatest decline coming after 2007. Indeed, Romney himself revealed his disdain for people on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder when, at a fundraising event attended by affluent Republicans, he remarked that he did not care to reach the 47% of Americans who would always vote for Obama because of their dependence on government assistance. In his eyes, this low-income portion of the population preferred to rely on government social programs instead of trying to improve their own lives.
Starting out behind Obama in the polls, Romney significantly closed the gap in the first of three presidential debates, when he moved towards more centrist positions on many issues. Obama regained momentum in the remaining two debates and used his bailout of the auto industry to appeal to voters in the key states of Michigan and Ohio. Romney’s remarks about the 47% hurt his position among both poor Americans and those who sympathized with them, and he was highly criticized during his campaign due to his personal wealth. A long-time critic of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) who claimed that it should be eliminated, Romney also likely lost votes in the Northeast when, a week before the election, Hurricane Sandy devastated the New England, New York, and New Jersey coasts. Obama and the federal government had largely rebuilt FEMA since its disastrous showing in New Orleans in 2005, and the agency quickly swung into action to assist the 8.5 million people affected by the disaster.
Election Results
While Romney lost the popular vote by a slight margin, he lost the electoral college by a much greater margin. Obama won the election, but the Republicans retained their hold on the House of Representatives, and the Democratic majority in the Senate grew razor-thin. Political bickering and intractable Republican resistance—including a 70% increase in filibusters over the 1980s, a refusal to allow a vote on some legislation, and the glacial pace at which the Senate confirmed the President’s judicial nominations—created political gridlock in Washington, interfering with Obama’s ability to secure any important legislative victories.
Electoral College Changes and Controversies
Population changes indicated by the 2010 U.S. Census changed the apportionment of votes in the Electoral College, potentially altering the allocation of votes among swing states. Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Washington gained votes; conversely, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania lost votes. The change in electoral allotment shifts the allocation of votes across the Democratic-Republican divide; pundits predicted the Democratic Party would lose electoral votes in states previously won in the past three presidential elections, and the Republican Party would gain votes in states won by Republican candidates in the last three elections.
Some states enacted new electoral laws in 2011. For example, Florida and Iowa banned felons from voting, and various states shortened their voting periods, eliminating the option of early voting. These measures were criticized as strategies to impede certain groups of voters, including college students, African Americans, and Latinx Americans.
Barack Obama
Incumbent President Barack Obama was the Democratic candidate for the 2012 presidential election. On November 6th, 2012, Obama was re-elected President for a second term.