2008 United States presidential election in Kentucky: Difference between revisions

[[Kentucky]] was won by Republican nominee [[John McCain]] by a 16.23% 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 State. 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]] where 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.