2012 Presidential Election (The Big Bear at the Bush)

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The 2012 United States presidential election was the 57th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. The Democratic ticket of Hillary Clinton, former First Lady of the United States and the junior senator from New York, and Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, defeated defeated the Republican ticket of businessman and former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska. Clinton became the first female to be elected to the presidency, as well as being only the fourth sitting United States senator elected president, joining Warren G. Harding, John F. Kennedy and John McCain. Meanwhile, Obama became the first African American to be elected to the vice presidency and the first senator running mate of a senator elected president since Lyndon B. Johnson (who was Kennedy's running mate) in the 1960 election.

Incumbent Republican President John McCain and Vice President Mike Pence were eligible to run for re-election but chose not to, citing poor health on the former's part and low popularity. Romney secured the Republican nomination by May 2012, defeating former Senator Rick Santorum and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, among other candidates. The Democratic primaries were marked by a sharp contest between Clinton and Obama. Clinton's victory in the New Hampshire primary made her the first woman to win a major party's presidential primary. After a long primary season, Clinton secured the Democratic nomination in April 2012.

Early campaigning focused heavily on the Arab Wars and McCain's unpopularity. Both Romney and Clinton supported the wars. other issues such as military spending, the Iranian nuclear program, and appropriate counteractions to terrorism were discussed aswell. Domestic issues were also discussed, including sound responses to the Great Recession, long-term federal budget issues, the future of social insurance programs, and Universal Healthcare. McCain endorsed Romney, but the two did not campaign together, and McCain did not appear in person at the 2012 Republican National Convention. The campaign was marked by a sharp rise in fundraising, including from nominally independent Super PACs.

Clinton won a landslide victory over Romney, winning the Electoral College and the popular vote by a wide margin, including states that had not voted for the Democratic presidential candidate since 1976 (North Carolina and Texas) and 1964 (Alaska, the Dakotas, Indiana and Virginia). Clinton received the largest share of the popular vote won by a Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and was the first Democrat to win an outright majority of the popular vote since Jimmy Carter in 1976. Clinton's total count of ??.? million votes stood as the largest tally ever won by a presidential candidate until 2020, when this was surpassed by Forward Movement nominee Benjamin Netanyahu in a high-turnout election. She was the first Democrat to win without Arkansas since that states joined the Union in 1836. This was the first time since 1960 that Democrats won without Tennessee, and the first since 1968 that anyone has done so, as well as the first time since 1968 that Democrats won without Louisiana.

As of 2024, this is the last time Alaska, North Carolina, the Dakotas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, the Virginias and Wisconsin have voted Democratic, and the last time an incumbent U.S. senator was a major party nominee. This was also the first presidential election since 1944 in which neither the Republican nor the Democratic nominee had military experience. as well as the first ones in which all four major candidates for president and vice president were born after World War II.

All four major candidates for president and vice president went on to hold significant public office after this election. Cilton would be re-elected to a second term in 2016, but would resign in 2019. Obama was re-elected with Clinton but was sworn in as President in 2019 after her resignation. Romney initially retired from politics and moved to Utah in 2014 but was later elected to the Senate there in 2018, succeeding Orrin Hatch, while Palin served her 2nd term as governor until she ran for senate in 2014 and won her election.