# 2008 United States presidential election in Connecticut

"none" is preferred when the title is already sufficiently detailed; see [[WP:SDNONE]]
Elections in Connecticut :
Federal government
U.S President
1788–89
1792
1796
1800
1804
1808
1812
1816
1820
1824
1828
1832
1836
1840
1844
1848
1852
1856
1860
1864
1868
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
2028
Presidential primaries
Democratic
2000
2004
2008
2016
2020
2024
2028
Republican
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
2028
U.S. Senate
1788
1790
1791
1791 (sp)
1793
1793 (sp)
1796
1796 (sp)
1797
1801
1803
1807
1807 (sp)
1809
1810 (sp)
1812
1813
1813 (sp)
1814
1818
1819
1821
1824 (sp)
1825 (sp)
1826
1831
1832
1835 (sp)
1837
1840 (sp)
1842
1848 (sp)
1852 (sp)
1854
1854 (sp)
1856
1860
1863
1866
1872
1876 (sp)
1879
1881
1885
1887
1891
1893
1897
1899
1903
1905
1905 (sp)
1909
1911
1914
1916
1920
1922
1924 (sp)
1926
1928
1932
1934
1938
1940
1944
1946
1946 (sp)
1950
1950 (sp)
1952
1952 (sp)
1956
1958
1962
1964
1968
1970
1974
1976
1980
1982
1986
1988
1992
1994
1998
2000
2004
2006
2010
2012
2016
2018
2022
2024
2028
2030
U.S. House
1788
1790
1790 (sp)
1791 (sp)
1792
1793 (sp)
1794
1795 (sp)
1796
1796 (sp)
1797 (sp)
1798
1798 (sp)
1799 (sp)
1800 (sp)
1800
1801 (sp)
1802
1803 (sp)
1804
1805 (sp)
1806
1806 (sp)
1808
1810
1812
1814
1816
1817 (sp)
1818
1818 (sp)
1821
1823
1825
1827
1829
1831
1833
1835
1837
1839
1840
1843
1845
1847
1849
1851
1853
1855
1857
1859
1861
1863
1865
1867
1869
1871
1873
1875
1876
1878
1880
1882
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
1896
1898
1900
1902
1904
1906
1908
1910
1912
1914
1916
1917 (4th sp)
1918
1920
1922
1924
1926
1928
1930
1932
1934
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
1946
1948
1950
1952
1954
1956
1958
1960
1962
1964
1966
1968
1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1987 (4th sp)
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
2026 :
State government
State elections
2010
2014
2018
2022
2024
2026
Governor
1776
1777
1778
1779
1780
1781
1782
1783
1784
1785
1786
1787
1788
1789
1790
1791
1792
1793
1794
1795
1796
1797
1798
1799
1800
1801
1802
1803
1804
1805
1806
1807
1808
1809
1810
1811
1812
1813
1814
1815
1816
1817
1818
1819
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1851
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
Apr
Nov
1878
1880
1882
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
1896
1898
1900
1902
1904
1906
1908
1910
1912
1914
1916
1918
1920
1922
1924
1926
1928
1930
1932
1934
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
1946
1948
1950
1954
1958
1962
1966
1970
1974
1978
1982
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
Attorney General
1898
1902
1906
1910
1914
1918
1922
1926
1930
1934
1938
1942
1946
1950
1954
1958
1962
1966
1970
1974
1978
1982
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
Secretary of the State
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
State Treasurer
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
State Comptroller
2018
2022
2026
State Senate
1920
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2015
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
2026
State House
2010
2018
2020
2022
2024
2026 :
Bridgeport
Mayor
2015
2019
2023-24
2027 :
Hartford
Mayor
1935
1937
1939
1941
1943
1979
1981
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
2003
2007
2011
2015
2019
2023 :
New Haven
Mayor
2013
2015
2017
2019
2021
2023 :
Stamford
Mayor
2017
2021
2025 :
Waterbury
Mayoral Elections
2019 :
vte :
The 2008 United States presidential election in Connecticut took place on November 4, 2008, and was part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose seven representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
Connecticut was won by Democratic nominee Barack Obama with a 22.4% margin of victory. Connecticut was one of the six states that had every county—including traditionally Republican Litchfield County—go for Obama, the others being Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Connecticut has not voted for a Republican presidential nominee since 1988 when the state was carried by George H. W. Bush over Michael Dukakis. As of the 2024 presidential election, this is the last election in which Litchfield County voted for the Democratic candidate, also making it the last time any presidential candidate has won every single county in the state.
To date, this is the last time that the city of Torrington and the towns of Barkhamsted, Colebrook, New Hartford, Preston, Scotland, Thompson, and Winchester voted Democratic. The town of Warren would not vote Democratic again until 2024.

## Primaries

* 2008 Connecticut Democratic presidential primary
* 2008 Connecticut Republican presidential primary

## Campaign
### Predictions

There were 16 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day:
| Source | Ranking |
| D.C. Political Report | Likely D |
| Cook Political Report | Solid D |
| The Takeaway | Solid D |
| Electoral-vote.com | Solid D |
| Washington Post | Solid D |
| Politico | Solid D |
| RealClearPolitics | Solid D |
| FiveThirtyEight | Solid D |
| CQ Politics | Solid D |
| The New York Times | Solid D |
| CNN | Safe D |
| NPR | Solid D |
| MSNBC | Solid D |
| Fox News | Likely D |
| Associated Press | Likely D |
| Rasmussen Reports | Safe D |

### Polling

Barack Obama won every single poll taken in the state, and every one of them by a double-digit margin of victory.

### Fundraising

John McCain raised a total of $3,966,985. Barack Obama raised $9,727,617.

### Advertising and visits

Obama spent $730,335 while McCain spent nothing on the state. Neither campaign visited the state.

## Analysis

Connecticut is a part of New England, an area of the country that has in recent decades become a Democratic stronghold. The state went Republican in most of the elections from 1948 to 1988, the exceptions being the three in the 1960s. However, following Bill Clinton's narrow victory in the state in 1992, it has not been seriously contested by Republicans since. McCain ceded the state to Obama early on, despite the endorsement of the state's incumbent Senator Joe Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-Independent who still caucused with the Democrats but backed McCain for president in 2008.
In 2006, Democrats knocked off two incumbent Republicans and picked up two U.S. House seats in CT-02 and CT-05 (Joe Courtney and Chris Murphy, respectively). Although then-Governor M. Jodi Rell and Lieutenant Governor Michael Fedele were both moderate Republicans, all other statewide offices were held by Democrats. Democrats also enjoyed a supermajority status in both chambers of the Connecticut state legislature.
In 2008, Democrat Jim Himes defeated incumbent Republican Christopher Shays, who was at the time the only Republican member of the U.S. House from New England, for the U.S. House seat in Connecticut's 4th congressional district. This was largely because Obama carried the district with a staggering 60% of the vote—one of his best performances in a Republican-held district. Shays' defeat meant that for the first time in almost 150 years, there were no Republican Representatives from New England. In no other part of the country is a major political party completely shut out. At the state level, Democrats picked up 6 seats in the Connecticut House of Representatives and 1 seat in the Connecticut Senate.

## Results

2008 United States presidential election in Connecticut :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes |
| | Democratic | Barack Obama | 997,773 | 60.59% | 7 |
| | Republican | John McCain | 629,428 | 38.22% | 0 |
| | Independent | Ralph Nader | 19,162 | 1.16% | 0 |
| | Constitution (Write-in) | Chuck Baldwin (Write-in) | 311 | 0.02% | 0 |
| | Green (Write-in) | Cynthia A. McKinney (Write-in) | 90 | 0.01% | 0 |
| | Socialist (Write-in) | Brian Moore (Write-in) | 19 | 0.00% | 0 |
| | Socialist Workers (Write-in) | Roger Calero (Write-in) | 10 | 0.00% | 0 |
| Totals | Totals | Totals | 1,646,793 | 100.00% | 7 |
| Voter turnout (voting age population) | Voter turnout (voting age population) | Voter turnout (voting age population) | Voter turnout (voting age population) | Voter turnout (voting age population) | 62.1% |

### By county

| County | Barack Obama Democratic | Barack Obama Democratic | John McCain Republican | John McCain Republican | Various candidates Other parties | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Margin | Total votes cast |
| County | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | Total votes cast |
| Fairfield | 242,936 | 58.72% | 167,736 | 40.54% | 3,059 | 0.74% | 75,200 | 18.18% | 413,741 |
| Hartford | 268,721 | 65.11% | 138,984 | 33.67% | 5,023 | 1.21% | 129,737 | 31.44% | 412,728 |
| Litchfield | 51,041 | 51.57% | 46,173 | 46.66% | 1,752 | 1.77% | 4,868 | 4.91% | 98,966 |
| Middlesex | 52,984 | 60.72% | 32,918 | 37.73% | 1,351 | 1.55% | 20,066 | 22.99% | 87,253 |
| New Haven | 233,589 | 61.01% | 144,650 | 37.78% | 4,647 | 1.22% | 88,939 | 23.23% | 382,886 |
| New London | 74,776 | 59.88% | 48,491 | 38.83% | 1,607 | 1.29% | 26,285 | 21.05% | 124,874 |
| Tolland | 45,043 | 59.67% | 29,266 | 38.76% | 1,182 | 1.57% | 15,777 | 20.91% | 75,501 |
| Windham | 28,673 | 56.39% | 21,210 | 41.72% | 961 | 1.89% | 7,463 | 14.67% | 50,844 |
| Totals | 997,773 | 60.59% | 629,428 | 38.22% | 19,592 | 1.19% | 368,345 | 22.37% | 1,646,793 |

#### Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

* Litchfield (largest borough: Litchfield)

### By congressional district

Barack Obama carried all 5 of Connecticut's congressional districts.
| District | McCain | Obama | Representative |
| 1st | 32.73% | 65.95% | John Larson |
| 2nd | 40.07% | 58.48% | Joe Courtney |
| 3rd | 36.28% | 62.50% | Rosa DeLauro |
| 4th | 39.64% | 59.70% | Chris Shays (110th Congress) |
| 4th | 39.64% | 59.70% | Jim Himes (111th Congress) |
| 5th | 42.40% | 56.34% | Chris Murphy |

## Electors

Technically the voters of Connecticut cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Connecticut is allocated 7 electors because it has 5 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 7 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 sevenelectoral 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. 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 7 were pledged to Barack Obama and Joe Biden:
* Shirley Steinmetz
* Nicholas Paindiris
* Andrea Jackson Brooks
* Jim Ezzes
* Lorraine McQueen
* Deborah McFadden
* Ken Delacruz