2012 United States presidential election in Minnesota candidate Barack Obama
The 2012 United States presidential election in Minnesota 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. State voters chose ten 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.
Minnesota backed Obama for re-election, giving him 52.65% of the vote, while Republican challenger Mitt Romney took 44.96%, a victory margin of 7.69%. With ten Democratic wins in a row, Minnesota has the longest current streak of voting for the Democratic candidate in presidential elections of any state, having not voted Republican since Richard Nixon in 1972. This is the longest streak for the Democrats in history amongst non-Southern states.However, Romney was able to significantly improve on McCain's performance in the North Star State, as he did nationally. Fourteen counties which voted for Obama in 2008 flipped and voted for the Republican Party in 2012, while many Democratic counties had a margin of victory much narrower than in 2008. Many of these counties had not voted for a Republican in decades, such as Big Stone County which only voted for a Republican only once since 1952 for Dwight D. Eisenhower until this election; Obama thus became the first Democrat to win the White House without carrying this county since Grover Cleveland in 1892. Obama also became the first ever Democrat to win the White House without carrying Red Lake County, as well as the first to do so without carrying Lincoln, Marshall, Pennington, or Polk Counties since Woodrow Wilson in 1912, the first to do so without carrying Grant or Pine Counties since Woodrow Wilson in 1916, the first to do so without carrying Aitkin, Murray, Pope, Stevens, or Yellow Medicine Counties since John F. Kennedy in 1960, and the first to do so without carrying Watonwan County since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the most recent time the Democratic candidate won the following counties: Beltrami, 
Chippewa, Fillmore, Freeborn, Houston, Itasca, Kittson, Koochiching, Lac qui Parle, Mahnomen, Mower, Norman, Rice, Swift, and Traverse. It is also, to date, the most recent time that Minnesota voted to the left of Colorado and Virginia, two former Republican strongholds that rapidly transitioned to being reliably blue in the 2010s.
contender aspirant nominee applicant contender for