paragraph_text: North Carolina's party loyalties have undergone a series of important shifts in the last few years: While the 2010 midterms saw Tar Heel voters elect a bicameral Republican majority legislature for the first time in over a century, North Carolina has also become a Southern swing state in presidential races. Since Southern Democrat Jimmy Carter's comfortable victory in the state in 1976, the state had consistently leaned Republican in presidential elections until Democrat Barack Obama narrowly won the state in 2008. In the 1990s, Democrat Bill Clinton came within a point of winning the state in 1992 and also only narrowly lost the state in 1996. In the early 2000s, Republican George W. Bush easily won the state by over 12 points, but by 2008, demographic shifts, population growth, and increased liberalization in heavily populated areas such as the Research Triangle, Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville, and Asheville, propelled Barack Obama to victory in North Carolina, the first Democrat to win the state since 1976. In 2012, North Carolina was again considered a competitive swing state, with the Democrats even holding their 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. However, Republican Mitt Romney ultimately eked out a 2-point win in North Carolina, the only 2012 swing state that Obama lost, and one of only two states (along with Indiana) to flip from Obama in 2008 to the GOP in 2012.

paragraph_text: The Democratic Party candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of New York, carried Virginia with 49.7% of the popular vote against businessman Donald Trump of New York, who carried 44.4%, a victory margin of 5.3%. Clinton seemed to benefit from having Tim Kaine on the ticket, as well as the state having two Democratic senators. Whereas the national popular vote swung 1.9% Republican from the previous election, Virginia swung 1.37% Democratic.

paragraph_text: In the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries, John Kerry defeated several Democratic rivals, including Sen. John Edwards (D-North Carolina.), former Vermont Governor Howard Dean and retired Army General Wesley Clark. His victory in the Iowa caucuses is widely believed to be the tipping point where Kerry revived his sagging campaign in New Hampshire and the February 3, 2004, primary states like Arizona, South Carolina and New Mexico. Kerry then went on to win landslide victories in Nevada and Wisconsin. Kerry thus won the Democratic nomination to run for President of the United States against incumbent George W. Bush. On July 6, 2004, he announced his selection of John Edwards as his running mate. Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, who was Kerry's 2004 campaign adviser, wrote an article in Time magazine claiming that after the election, Kerry had said that he wished he'd never picked Edwards, and that the two have since stopped speaking to each other. In a subsequent appearance on ABC's This Week, Kerry refused to respond to Shrum's allegation, calling it a "ridiculous waste of time."

paragraph_text: A special election for the United States Senate in Alabama took place on December 12, 2017, to fill a vacancy in the Senate through the end of the term ending on January 3, 2021, arising from the resignation on February 8, 2017, of Jeff Sessions to serve as U.S. Attorney General. Democratic candidate Doug Jones defeated Republican candidate Roy Moore by a margin of 21,924 votes (1.7%). Jones is the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat in the state since 1992.

paragraph_text: In 1972, Shirley Chisholm was the first African - American major party candidate for president. She was a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination and participated in the Democratic primaries in numerous states. She campaigned in 12 states and won 28 delegates. In the actual balloting at the 1972 Democratic National Convention, she gained additional votes from disaffected Democrats and ended with 152 delegates.

paragraph_text: William Brownell Golden (born October 9, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American attorney and politician who represented the Norfolk and Plymouth district in the Massachusetts Senate from 1985–1991. He was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1990, but lost in the Democratic primary to Marjorie Clapprood.

paragraph_text: During McMahon's period in office, Neville Bonner joined the Senate and became the first Indigenous Australian in the Australian Parliament. Bonner was chosen by the Liberal Party to fill a Senate vacancy in 1971 and celebrated his maiden parliamentary speech with a boomerang throwing display on the lawns of Parliament. Bonner went on to win election at the 1972 election and served as a Liberal Senator for 12 years. He worked on Indigenous and social welfare issues and proved an independent minded Senator, often crossing the floor on Parliamentary votes.

paragraph_text: From the American Civil War until the mid-20th century, Philadelphia was a bastion of the Republican Party, which arose from the staunch pro-Northern views of Philadelphia residents during and after the war (Philadelphia was chosen as the host city for the first Republican National Convention in 1856). After the Great Depression, Democratic registrations increased, but the city was not carried by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt in his landslide victory of 1932 (in which Pennsylvania was one of the few states won by Republican Herbert Hoover). Four years later, however, voter turnout surged and the city finally flipped to the Democrats. Roosevelt carried Philadelphia with over 60% of the vote in 1936. The city has remained loyally Democratic in every presidential election since. It is now one of the most Democratic in the country; in 2008, Democrat Barack Obama drew 83% of the city's vote. Obama's win was even greater in 2012, capturing 85% of the vote.

paragraph_text: The Interregional Primary Plan is a proposed reform to the United States primary calendar supported by Representative Sandy Levin and Senator Bill Nelson, both Democrats. The plan would break the country into six regions. From those regions, one subregion - either a single state or a group of smaller states - would vote on each primary date (e.g., all A states,) with the entire country having held its primaries after the sixth set of primaries votes. Each state would vote first once every twenty-four years, with the first set of primaries determined by lottery and cycled thereafter.

paragraph_text: The 1978 South Carolina United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 7, 1978 to select six Representatives for two-year terms from the state of South Carolina. The primary elections for the Democrats and the Republicans were held on June 13. All five incumbents who ran were re-elected, but the open seat in the 4th congressional district was taken by the Republicans from the Democrats. The composition of the state delegation after the elections was four Democrats and two Republicans.

paragraph_text: February 1: Iowa caucus (both parties) February 9: New Hampshire primary (both parties) February 20: Nevada Democratic caucuses and South Carolina Republican primary February 23: Nevada Republican caucuses February 27: South Carolina Democratic primary March 1: Super Tuesday: Primaries / caucuses for both parties in several states

paragraph_text: Olin DeWitt Talmadge Johnston (November 18, 1896April 18, 1965) was a Democratic Party politician from the US state of South Carolina. He served as the 98th Governor of South Carolina, 1935–1939 and 1943–1945, and represented the state in the United States Senate from 1945 until his death from pneumonia in Columbia, South Carolina in 1965.

paragraph_text: Among the United States' 100 largest newspapers by paid circulation, 57 endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, while only two, the Las Vegas Review - Journal and the Florida Times - Union, endorsed Trump. Four (the Chicago Tribune, the Detroit News, the Richmond Times - Dispatch, and the Charleston (South Carolina) Post and Courier) endorsed Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, while three other newspapers (USA Today, the Fort Worth Star - Telegram, and the Milwaukee Journal - Sentinel) specifically discouraged their readers from voting for Trump. Clinton won support from not only traditionally Democratic - leaning newspapers, but also traditionally non-political and conservative newspapers, including those that had ``... either never before supported a Democrat or had not in many decades... or had never endorsed any presidential candidate, like USA Today. ''Many newspapers that endorsed Clinton encouraged readers to vote for her primarily, if not solely, to prevent Trump from being elected president. The endorsements by a handful of newspapers of third party candidates, including independent candidate Evan McMullin as well as Johnson, broke from the usual practice of newspaper editorial boards endorsing a candidate from one of the two major parties.

paragraph_text: Primary elections took place on June 13, 2017. Virginia utilizes an open primary, in which registered voters are allowed to vote in either party's primary election. The Democratic Party nominated Ralph Northam and the Republican Party nominated Ed Gillespie. The Libertarian Party nominated Cliff Hyra by convention on May 6, 2017.

paragraph_text: Rocco M. Clarizio (December 17, 1916 – August 24, 1990) was an American Republican Party politician from Newark, New Jersey. He ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1964 and for the New Jersey State Senate in 1977, but lost both times in the Republican primary. In 1964, Clarizio became a candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s 10th district, seeking to challenge Democratic incumbent Peter W. Rodino. In a historic primary where he was the only white candidate, Clarizio finished third behind two Black Republicans, William L. Stubbs and Dr. Harold R. Scott. Stubbs, who became the first Black to win a major party nomination for Congressman from New Jersey, won 5,148 (63%) to 2,217 (26%) for Scott, with Clarizio finishing third with 892 votes (11%). In 1977, Clarizo sought the Republican nomination for State Senator in the 28th legislative district, where Democratic incumbent Martin L. Greenberg was seeking re-election to a second term. The GOP primary included three candidates, each aligned with a different candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor: Rev. James A. Pindar ran on a line with Assembly Minority Leader Thomas Kean; Joan Lacey Mazauskas ran with State Sen. Raymond Bateman, and Clarizio was allied with former Senate Minority Leader C. Robert Sarcone. Pindar defeated Mazauskas by just 207 votes, 1,482 (42.04%) to 1,275 (36.17%), while Clarizio ran a distant third with 768 votes (21.79%).

paragraph_text: The following week, John Edwards won the South Carolina primary and finished a strong second in Oklahoma to Clark. Lieberman dropped out of the campaign the following day. Kerry dominated throughout February and his support quickly snowballed as he won caucuses and primaries, taking in a string of wins in Michigan, Washington, Maine, Tennessee, Washington, D.C., Nevada, Wisconsin, Utah, Hawaii, and Idaho. Clark and Dean dropped out during this time, leaving Edwards as the only real threat to Kerry. Kucinich and Sharpton continued to run despite poor results at the polls.

paragraph_text: If no candidate for president receives a majority of electoral votes for president, the Twelfth Amendment provides that the House of Representatives will select the president, with each of the fifty state delegations casting one vote. If no candidate for vice president receives a majority of electoral votes for vice president, then the Senate will select the vice president, with each of the 100 senators having one vote.

paragraph_text: The 1950 South Carolina United States House of Representatives elections were held on November 7, 1950 to select six Representatives for two-year terms from the state of South Carolina. Four incumbents were re-elected, but Hugo S. Sims, Jr. of the 2nd congressional district and James Butler Hare of the 3rd congressional district were defeated in the Democratic primaries. The seats were retained by the Democrats and the composition of the state delegation remained solely Democratic.

paragraph_text: Democratic primary results Party Candidate Votes% Democratic Richard Cordray 423,264 62.3 Democratic Dennis Kucinich 155,694 22.9 Democratic Joe Schiavoni 62,315 9.2 Democratic Bill O'Neill 22,196 3.3 Democratic Paul Ray 9,373 1.4 Democratic Larry Ealy 6,896 1.0 Total votes 679,738 100%

paragraph_text: Democrats were elected to the legislature and governor's office, but the Populists attracted voters displeased with them. In 1896 a biracial, Populist-Republican Fusionist coalition gained the governor's office. The Democrats regained control of the legislature in 1896 and passed laws to impose Jim Crow and racial segregation of public facilities. Voters of North Carolina's 2nd congressional district elected a total of four African-American congressmen through these years of the late 19th century.

Question: What year did voters of the state, where the candidate who won the 2004 South Carolina democratic primary was a senator, once again vote for a Democrat?
Answer: 2008