2008 United States presidential election in Kentucky: Difference between revisions

| percentage1 = '''57.4037%'''

| percentage2 = 41.1715%

| map_image = {{Switcher
| [[File:Kentucky Presidential Election Results 2008.svg|380px]]

[[Kentucky]] was won by Republican nominee [[John McCain]] by a 16.2322% margin of victory. Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations considered this a state McCain would win, or otherwise a [[Red states and blue states|red state]]. In the primaries, [[Hillary Clinton]] slightly defeated McCain in hypothetical polls for the Bluegrass StateKentucky. Once [[Barack Obama]] secured the Democratic nomination, Kentucky was reclassified as safe for the GOP. In the end, Kentucky voted for McCain with 57.40% of the vote. Obama did, however, improve on [[John Kerry]]'s performance by two points. This was the first time since [[1960 United States presidential election in Kentucky|1960]] wherethat Kentucky did not vote for the winning candidate in a presidential election. Additionally, this was only the second presidential election (after 1960) since the founding of the Republican Party that a Democrat was elected president without carrying the state. This was the first time ever in which Kentucky voted more Republican than neighboring [[2008 United States presidential election in Indiana|Indiana]]. This was also the first time ever that [[Floyd County, Kentucky|Floyd]] and [[Knott County, Kentucky|Knott]] Counties voted for the Republican candidate, as well as the first time since [[1908 United States presidential election in Kentucky|1908]] that [[Breathitt County, Kentucky|Breathitt]] County voted for the Republican candidate.

This was the first time ever that [[Floyd County, Kentucky|Floyd]] and [[Knott County, Kentucky|Knott]] Counties voted for the Republican candidate, as well as the first time since [[1908 United States presidential election in Kentucky|1908]] that [[Breathitt County, Kentucky|Breathitt County]] voted for the Republican candidate. As such, Obama became the first Democrat to ever win the presidency without carrying numerous historically Democratic counties, primarily in the [[Eastern Kentucky Coalfield|Eastern Coalfield]], Bluegrass, and [[Jackson Purchase]] regions. As of [[2020 United States presidential election in Kentucky|2020]], this remains the last time that a Democratic presidential nominee has won over 40% of the vote in Kentucky.

|CNN<ref>{{cite news|date=2008-10-31|title=October &ndash; 2008 &ndash; CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs|work=CNN|url=http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/|access-date=May 26, 2010|archive-date=2010-06-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619013250/http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

|Rasmussen Reports<ref>{{Cite web|title=Election 2008: Electoral College Update - Rasmussen Reports™Reports|url=http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections2/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/election_2008_electoral_college_update|access-date=2016-09-22|website=www.rasmussenreports.com}}</ref>

In the 2008 primary, exitsexit polls conducted found that 30 percent of Clinton supporters opted not to vote for Obama in the general election, 40% would vote McCain and the rest would support Obama in the general election. Several counties in the southeastern part of the state swung Republican and went to McCain as solidly Democratic Floyd and Knott counties voted Republican for the first time ever, and Breathitt County voted Republican for the first time since 1908. Obama decided to not spend campaign funds on Kentucky and instead went to more viable battleground states like North Carolina and Indiana instead. McCain won Kentucky by a margin of 16.22 points on election day and performed slightly worse than George Bush in 2004. Obama improved upon Kerry's performance in big cities and urban areas while McCain improved upon Bush in rural areas. Kentucky was the first state called for either candidate. This was the first time since [[1952 United States presidential election in Kentucky|1952]] that Kentucky voted for a different presidential candidate than neighboring [[2008 United States presidential election in Ohio|Ohio]], as well as the first time ever that Kentucky voted Republican while Ohio voted Democratic.

At the same time, incumbent Republican [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]] [[Mitch McConnell]], who also served as [[Party leaders of the United States Senate|Senate Minority Leader]] at the time, was just narrowly [[2008 United States Senate election in Kentucky|reelected]] with 52.97% of the vote to Democrat [[Bruce Lunsford]]'s 47.03%. Republicans also held onto an open seat vacated by Ron Lewis in [[Kentucky's 2nd congressional district|Kentucky's 2nd Congressional District]]. At the state level, however, Democrats picked up two seats in the [[Kentucky House of Representatives]].

{|width="60%" class="wikitable sortable"

! colspan="2" |BarackJohn H.McCain<br Obama/>Republican

! colspan="2" |JohnBarack S.Obama<br McCain/>Democratic

! colspan="2" |Various candidates<br />Other parties