# 2012 United States presidential election in Connecticut

"none" is preferred when the title is already sufficiently detailed; see [[WP:SDNONE]]
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vte :
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. Romney managed to flip the traditionally Republican Litchfield County, which Obama had won in 2008. 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.

## Primary elections
### Democratic primary

As Barack Obama was the only candidate to qualify, no Democratic primary was held.

### Republican primary

The 2012 Connecticut Republican presidential primary took place on April 24, 2012. 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.

#### Process

After switching from proportional distribution of delegates to a winner-take-all system in 1996, 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.
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.

#### Opinion polling

| Poll source | Date | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Other |
| Quinnipiac 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 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% |
| Public Policy Polling Margin of error: ±4.9% Sample size: 400 | Sep. 22–25, 2011 | Mitt Romney 45% | Rick Perry 36% | – | not sure 19% |
| Quinnipiac 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 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% |
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| ← 2008 | 2012 | 2016 → |
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#### Results

2012 Connecticut Republican presidential primary :
| 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: | Unprojected delegates: | 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 |

## General election
### Predictions

| Source | Ranking | As of |
| Huffington Post | Safe D | November 6, 2012 |
| CNN | Safe D | November 6, 2012 |
| New York Times | Safe D | November 6, 2012 |
| Washington Post | Safe D | November 6, 2012 |
| RealClearPolitics | Solid D | November 6, 2012 |
| Sabato's Crystal Ball | Solid D | November 5, 2012 |
| FiveThirtyEight | Solid D | November 6, 2012 |

### Ballot access

* Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan, Republican
* Barack Obama/Joseph Biden, Democratic
* Gary Johnson/James P. Gray, Libertarian
* Rocky Anderson/Luis J. Rodriguez, Justice
Write-in candidate access:
* Jill Stein/Cheri Honkala, Green
* Virgil Goode/Jim Clymer, Constitution
* Raymond Sizemore/Vicki Tomalin, Independent

### Results

2012 United States presidential election in Connecticut :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Running mate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes |
| | Democratic | Barack Obama (incumbent) | Joe Biden (incumbent) | 905,109 | 58.06% | 7 |
| | Republican | Mitt Romney | Paul Ryan | 634,899 | 40.72% | 0 |
| | Libertarian | Gary Johnson | 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 | Totals | Totals | Totals | 1,558,960 | 100.00% | 7 |

#### By county

| County | Barack Obama Democratic | Barack Obama Democratic | Mitt Romney Republican | Mitt Romney Republican | Various candidates Other parties | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Margin | Total votes cast |
| County | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | 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 |

##### Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

* Litchfield (largest city: Torrington)

#### By congressional district

Obama won all 5 congressional districts.
| District | Obama | Romney | Representative |
| 1st | 63.3% | 35.6% | John B. Larson |
| 2nd | 55.9% | 42.57% | Joe Courtney |
| 3rd | 62.6% | 36.3% | Rosa DeLauro |
| 4th | 55.07% | 44.02% | Jim Himes |
| 5th | 53.53% | 45.31% | Elizabeth Esty |

## Analysis
### Voter demographics

2012 Connecticut presidential election (New York Times) :
| Demographic subgroup | Obama | Romney | % of total vote |
| Ideology ||||
| Liberals | 93 | 6 | 28 |
| Moderates | 56 | 42 | 47 |
| Conservatives | 19 | 80 | 24 |
| Party ||||
| Democrats | 94 | 6 | 41 |
| Republicans | 9 | 91 | 26 |
| Independents | 51 | 46 | 32 |
| Age ||||
| 18–29 years old | 66 | 30 | 13 |
| 30–44 years old | 55 | 44 | 24 |
| 45–64 years old | 58 | 41 | 43 |
| 65 and older | 54 | 46 | 20 |
| Gender ||||
| Men | 51 | 47 | 47 |
| Women | 63 | 36 | 53 |
| Marital status ||||
| Married | 54 | 45 | 64 |
| Unmarried | 65 | 33 | 36 |
| Race/ethnicity ||||
| White | 51 | 48 | 79 |
| Black | 93 | 7 | 11 |
| Latino | 79 | 20 | 6 |
| Education ||||
| Never attended college | 62 | 37 | 41 |
| Some college education | 60 | 39 | 24 |
| College graduate | 49 | 49 | 31 |
| Advanced degree | 60 | 38 | 29 |
| Income ||||
| Under $30K | 73 | 24 | 12 |
| $30K-$49K | 73 | 26 | 13 |
| $50K or more | 53 | 46 | 75 |
| $100K or more | 53 | 46 | 46 |