2012 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania

2012 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania
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← 2008 November 6, 2012 2016 →
  President Barack Obama, 2012 portrait crop.jpg Mitt Romney by Gage Skidmore 6 cropped.jpg
Nominee Barack Obama Mitt Romney
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Illinois Massachusetts
Running mate Joe Biden Paul Ryan
Electoral vote 20 0
Popular vote 2,990,274 2,680,434
Percentage 51.97% 46.59%

Pennsylvania Presidential Election Results 2012.svg
County Results

President before election

Barack Obama
Democratic

Elected President

Barack Obama
Democratic

The 2012 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania 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. Pennsylvania voters chose 20 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. Pennsylvania's electoral vote number was a reduction from the 2008 delegation, which had 21 electors. This change was due to reapportionment following the 2010 United States Census. Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes are allotted on a winner-take-all basis.

Democratic incumbent President Barack Obama received 51.97% of the vote, beating Republican challenger Mitt Romney's 46.59%. Also on the ballot were physician Jill Stein of the Green Party and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party, who received 0.37% and 0.87%, respectively. Other candidates could run as write-in candidates, which received a total 0.2% of the vote. The state had been considered likely, but not certain, to go to Obama. While the state had voted for a Democratic since 1992, it remained competitive, especially after Bush's loss of only 2.5% in 2004. Its competitiveness was attributable to the stark contrast between the state's diverse, urban voters in areas such as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh; and rural, blue-collar voters in the rest of the state. However, massive margins in the urban regions of the state and victories in the Philadelphia suburbs, Lehigh Valley, Scranton, and Erie delivered a considerable victory for the president. Regardless, Romney improved on John McCain's 10.32% loss in the state in 2008, and flipped five counties that voted for Obama four years prior.

The primary election to select the Democratic and Republican candidates had been held on April 24, 2012. This was the sixth presidential election in a row where the Democratic candidate won Pennsylvania's electoral votes. However, the state would vote for Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, in 2016. Nevertheless, it would return to the Democratic column when it narrowly voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

Obama became the first Democrat to win the White House without carrying Cambria County since Woodrow Wilson in 1916, the first to do so without carrying Elk County since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940, and the first to do so without carrying Carbon County since John F. Kennedy in 1960.

This, as of 2022, is also the last time Pennsylvania voted to the right of Iowa; and to the left of Virginia (very narrowly) and Colorado (by 0.02%), two Republican leaning states in the early 2000s that would become solidly Democratic towards the late 2010s.

Democratic primary

Incumbent Barack Obama ran unopposed on the Democratic primary ballot. He received 616,102 votes. There were 19,082 write-in votes. In the floor vote taken at the Democratic National Convention, 242 Pennsylvania delegates voted for Obama, while the other 8 of the state's 250 allocated votes were not announced.

Republican primary

Four candidates were on the Republican primary ballot: Mitt Romney, former Senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum, U.S. Representative from Texas Ron Paul, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. His home state was set to be the make-or-break primary for Santorum. He had just lost 3 primaries to Romney, and Romney appeared poised to become the presumptive nominee by achieving a prohibitive lead.

As momentum in the Republican race built for Romney, Santorum suspended his campaign for four days to meet with 'movement conservatives' to strategize. Former Family Research Council chief Gary Bauer, who was present at the sit-down with Santorum, called it a 'strategy meeting to discuss how Senator Santorum prevails.' But rather than returning to campaigning the next Monday, Rick and Karen Santorum canceled campaign events scheduled right after Easter weekend to be in the hospital with their youngest daughter.

In deference to the sick child, Romney ceased airing attack ads, replacing them with positive introductory ones.

On April 10, Santorum formally suspended his campaign. On May 7, he endorsed Romney. Santorum and Gingrich both released their delegates to Romney in August, shortly before the Republican National Convention.

Candidate Votes Percentage Projected delegates Actual delegate vote
Mitt Romney 468,374 57.8% 31 67
Rick Santorum 149,056 18.4% 4 0
Ron Paul 106,148 13.1% 5 5
Newt Gingrich 84,537 10.4% 3 0
Write-in votes 2,819 0.3%
Unprojected delegates 29
Total: 810,934 100% 72 72

General election

In statewide opinion polling, incumbent Barack Obama consistently led challenger Mitt Romney by a margin of between 2 and 12 percentage points. Analysts rated Pennsylvania as a "likely Democratic" or "Democratic-leaning" state in the presidential race. On the morning of the election, polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight estimated that there was a 99% likelihood that Obama would win Pennsylvania's electoral votes. At the time, Pennsylvania's electoral votes had gone to the Democratic candidate in every presidential election since Bill Clinton won it in 1992. The average of the last three polls had Obama leading Romney 51% to 46%, which was very close to the actual result.

During the summer, there was significant spending on political advertisements in Pennsylvania, by both the Obama campaign and pro-Romney groups such as Crossroads GPS and Americans for Prosperity. However, because Obama maintained a consistent lead in polling, Pennsylvania came to be considered a "safe state" for Obama, and campaign advertising subsided substantially in August. This changed in October, when pro-Romney groups Restore Our Future and Americans for Job Security spent $3 million on advertising in Pennsylvania. Later that month, the Obama campaign and the Romney campaign both launched their own advertising campaigns in Pennsylvania. On November 1, the Republican National Committee announced that it would spend $3 million on television ads in Pennsylvania in the final days of the campaign. In total, pro-Romney spending in Pennsylvania was estimated to amount to as much as $12 million, much more than Obama campaign spending. The Obama campaign characterized the pro-Romney spending surge as "an act of sheer desperation", while the Romney campaign argued that they had a realistic chance of winning the state. In the end, Obama carried the state by a modest margin, albeit narrower than his 2008 landslide over Senator John McCain.

As of the 2020 election, this marked the most recent time that Chester County voted for the Republican candidate, and that Luzerne County voted for the Democratic candidate.

2012 U.S. presidential election in Pennsylvania
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Barack Obama 2,990,274 51.97
Republican Mitt Romney 2,680,434 46.59
Libertarian Gary Johnson 49,991 0.87
Green Jill Stein 21,341 0.37
Other Other 11,630 0.20
Total votes 5,753,670 100.0

By county

County Barack Obama
Democratic
Mitt Romney
Republican
Gary Johnson
Libertarian
Jill Stein
Green
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # %
Adams 15,091 35.54% 26,767 63.04% 437 1.03% 162 0.38% -11,676 -27.50% 42,457
Allegheny 352,687 56.69% 262,039 42.12% 5,196 0.84% 2,159 0.35% 90,648 14.57% 622,081
Armstrong 9,045 30.56% 20,142 68.04% 297 1.00% 118 0.40% -11,097 -37.49% 29,602
Beaver 37,055 46.05% 42,344 52.62% 794 0.99% 281 0.35% -5,289 -6.57% 80,474
Bedford 4,788 22.07% 16,702 76.98% 143 0.66% 64 0.29% -11,914 -54.91% 21,697
Berks 83,011 48.74% 84,702 49.73% 1,832 1.08% 775 0.46% -1,691 -0.99% 170,320
Blair 16,276 32.40% 33,319 66.32% 464 0.92% 182 0.36% -17,043 -33.92% 50,241
Bradford 8,624 36.81% 14,410 61.51% 243 1.04% 149 0.64% -5,786 -24.70% 23,426
Bucks 160,521 50.00% 156,579 48.78% 2,863 0.89% 1,053 0.33% 3,942 1.23% 321,016
Butler 28,550 31.92% 59,761 66.81% 819 0.92% 315 0.35% -31,211 -34.89% 89,445
Cambria 24,249 40.06% 35,163 58.10% 712 1.18% 402 0.66% -10,914 -18.03% 60,526
Cameron 724 34.30% 1,359 64.38% 19 0.90% 9 0.43% -635 -30.08% 2,111
Carbon 11,580 45.27% 13,504 52.79% 356 1.39% 141 0.55% -1,924 -7.52% 25,581
Centre 34,176 49.09% 34,001 48.83% 1,049 1.51% 400 0.57% 175 0.25% 69,626
Chester 124,311 49.34% 124,840 49.54% 2,082 0.83% 740 0.29% -529 -0.21% 251,973
Clarion 5,056 31.24% 10,828 66.90% 208 1.29% 94 0.58% -5,772 -35.66% 16,186
Clearfield 11,121 34.79% 20,347 63.65% 339 1.06% 160 0.50% -9,226 -28.86% 31,967
Clinton 5,734 43.23% 7,303 55.05% 171 1.29% 57 0.43% -1,569 -11.83% 13,265
Columbia 10,937 42.68% 14,236 55.56% 324 1.26% 126 0.49% -3,299 -12.88% 25,623
Crawford 13,883 39.23% 20,901 59.06% 436 1.23% 168 0.47% -7,018 -19.83% 35,388
Cumberland 44,367 40.04% 64,809 58.48% 1,191 1.07% 447 0.40% -20,442 -18.45% 110,814
Dauphin 64,965 52.39% 57,450 46.33% 1,128 0.91% 465 0.37% 7,515 6.06% 124,008
Delaware 171,792 60.16% 110,853 38.82% 2,002 0.70% 917 0.32% 60,939 21.34% 285,564
Elk 5,463 41.27% 7,579 57.25% 117 0.88% 79 0.60% -2,116 -15.98% 13,238
Erie 68,036 57.36% 49,025 41.33% 1,087 0.92% 471 0.40% 19,011 16.03% 118,619
Fayette 21,971 45.30% 26,018 53.64% 365 0.75% 151 0.31% -4,047 -8.34% 48,505
Forest 896 38.75% 1,383 59.82% 23 0.99% 10 0.43% -487 -21.06% 2,312
Franklin 18,995 30.11% 43,260 68.58% 571 0.91% 252 0.40% -24,265 -38.47% 63,078
Fulton 1,310 21.15% 4,814 77.71% 50 0.81% 21 0.34% -3,504 -56.56% 6,195
Greene 5,852 40.46% 8,428 58.27% 116 0.80% 68 0.47% -2,576 -17.81% 14,464
Huntingdon 5,409 30.67% 11,979 67.91% 135 0.77% 116 0.66% -6,570 -37.25% 17,639
Indiana 14,473 39.85% 21,257 58.53% 385 1.06% 206 0.57% -6,784 -18.68% 36,321
Jefferson 4,787 26.45% 13,048 72.10% 173 0.96% 89 0.49% -8,261 -45.65% 18,097
Juniata 2,547 26.71% 6,862 71.97% 83 0.87% 43 0.45% -4,315 -45.25% 9,535
Lackawanna 61,838 63.09% 35,085 35.80% 743 0.76% 349 0.36% 26,753 27.29% 98,015
Lancaster 88,481 39.78% 130,669 58.74% 2,527 1.14% 759 0.34% -42,188 -18.97% 222,436
Lawrence 17,513 44.86% 21,047 53.92% 334 0.86% 142 0.36% -3,534 -9.05% 39,036
Lebanon 19,900 35.17% 35,872 63.40% 589 1.04% 219 0.39% -15,972 -28.23% 56,580
Lehigh 78,283 53.25% 66,874 45.49% 1,331 0.91% 514 0.35% 11,409 7.76% 147,002
Luzerne 64,307 51.68% 58,325 46.87% 1,261 1.01% 546 0.44% 5,982 4.81% 124,439
Lycoming 15,203 32.70% 30,658 65.94% 409 0.88% 223 0.48% -15,455 -33.24% 46,493
Mckean 5,297 35.06% 9,545 63.18% 178 1.18% 88 0.58% -4,248 -28.12% 15,108
Mercer 24,232 47.64% 25,925 50.97% 487 0.96% 219 0.43% -1,693 -3.33% 50,863
Mifflin 4,273 26.10% 11,939 72.93% 107 0.65% 52 0.32% -7,666 -46.83% 16,371
Monroe 35,221 55.98% 26,867 42.70% 596 0.95% 233 0.37% 8,354 13.28% 62,917
Montgomery 233,356 56.61% 174,381 42.30% 3,253 0.79% 1,210 0.29% 58,975 14.31% 412,200
Montour 3,053 38.99% 4,652 59.40% 96 1.23% 30 0.38% -1,599 -20.42% 7,831
Northampton 67,606 51.71% 61,446 47.00% 1,188 0.91% 495 0.38% 6,160 4.71% 130,735
Northumberland 13,072 39.36% 19,518 58.77% 422 1.27% 200 0.60% -6,446 -19.41% 33,212
Perry 5,685 29.72% 13,120 68.59% 238 1.24% 85 0.44% -7,435 -38.87% 19,128
Philadelphia 588,806 85.29% 96,467 13.97% 2,892 0.42% 2,162 0.31% 492,339 71.32% 690,327
Pike 10,210 43.86% 12,786 54.93% 194 0.83% 89 0.38% -2,576 -11.07% 23,279
Potter 1,897 26.19% 5,231 72.23% 78 1.08% 36 0.50% -3,334 -46.04% 7,242
Schuylkill 24,546 42.52% 32,278 55.91% 617 1.07% 286 0.50% -7,732 -13.39% 57,727
Snyder 4,687 31.24% 10,073 67.14% 180 1.20% 62 0.41% -5,386 -35.90% 15,002
Somerset 9,436 27.80% 23,984 70.66% 334 0.98% 188 0.55% -14,548 -42.86% 33,942
Sullivan 1,034 35.06% 1,868 63.34% 30 1.02% 17 0.58% -834 -28.28% 2,949
Susquehanna 6,935 38.43% 10,800 59.85% 202 1.12% 107 0.59% -3,865 -21.42% 18,044
Tioga 5,357 31.50% 11,342 66.70% 195 1.15% 110 0.65% -5,985 -35.20% 17,004
Union 6,109 37.55% 9,896 60.83% 184 1.13% 79 0.49% -3,787 -23.28% 16,268
Venango 7,945 35.84% 13,815 62.32% 299 1.35% 108 0.49% -5,870 -26.48% 22,167
Warren 6,995 40.44% 10,010 57.86% 205 1.19% 89 0.51% -3,015 -17.43% 17,299
Washington 40,345 42.58% 53,230 56.18% 854 0.90% 321 0.34% -12,885 -13.60% 94,750
Wayne 8,396 38.86% 12,896 59.68% 195 0.90% 120 0.56% -4,500 -20.83% 21,607
Westmoreland 63,722 37.58% 103,932 61.29% 1,426 0.84% 492 0.29% -40,210 -23.71% 169,572
Wyoming 5,061 42.63% 6,587 55.48% 152 1.28% 72 0.61% -1,526 -12.85% 11,872
York 73,191 38.68% 113,304 59.88% 1,985 1.05% 749 0.40% -40,113 -21.20% 189,229
Totals 2,990,274 52.08% 2,680,434 46.68% 49,991 0.87% 21,341 0.37% 309,840 5.40% 5,742,040

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

Five counties that voted for Obama in 2008 voted for Romney in 2012. This included Cambria County, which made Obama the first Democrat to win the presidency without carrying the county since Woodrow Wilson in 1916. Chester County, a Philadelphia suburb, also voted for Romney, though it would flip back into the Democratic column in 2016 and remain there in 2020.

By congressional district

Despite losing the state overall, Romney won 13 of Pennsylvania's 18 congressional districts. This included the 4th and 12th districts, which at the time had Democrats representing them in Congress, though ended up electing Republicans in the House elections.

District Romney Obama Representative
1st 16.89% 82.26% Bob Brady
2nd 8.95% 90.41% Chaka Fattah
3rd 55.60% 43.05% Mike Kelly
4th 57.07% 41.51% Jason Altmire
Scott Perry
5th 56.95% 41.35% Glenn Thompson
6th 50.57% 48.12% Jim Gerlach
7th 50.36% 48.53% Pat Meehan
8th 49.42% 49.35% Mike Fitzpatrick
9th 62.82% 35.87% Bill Shuster
10th 60.11% 38.46% Tom Marino
11th 53.90% 44.57% Lou Barletta
12th 57.81% 40.94% Mark Critz
Keith Rothfus
13th 32.91% 66.17% Allyson Schwartz
14th 30.64% 67.99% Mike Doyle
15th 50.78% 47.87% Charlie Dent
16th 52.35% 46.25% Joe Pitts
17th 43.26% 55.38% Tim Holden
Matt Cartwright
18th 57.95% 40.99% Tim Murphy

Electors

In accordance with Commonwealth law and Chapter 1, Section 7 of Title 3, United States Code (62 Stat. 672 as amended,) the 20 Pennsylvania electors pledged for Obama and Biden cast their votes on 17 December in the State House of Representatives chamber. The Pennsylvania Democratic Committee seated the following electors for this procedure:

See also


This page was last updated at 2022-05-22 12:42 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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