Carolina Blues: President Obama and the 2012 Campaign in North Carolina
13 Pages Posted: 13 Mar 2014
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Carolina Blues: President Obama and the 2012 Campaign in North Carolina
Carolina Blues: President Obama and the 2012 Campaign in North Carolina
Date Written: March 11, 2014
Abstract
Illinois Senator Barack Obama, candidate for the U.S. presidency won the 2008 election and the state of North Carolina; a notably southern state with its own pernicious racial history. NC had hesitantly given Senator Obama its electoral blessings with a slim 14,177 margin of victory over Arizona Senator John McCain. Obama earned 2.14 million (49.7%) voters to McCain‘s 2.12 million (49.38%) in 2008. Senator Barack Obama had achieved a stunning accomplishment in a state that has been but an electoral dream for most modern Democratic presidential candidates. His achievement came as the result of forming a coalition of African Americans, women, youth, and white independent voters.
Four year later, President Obama narrowly lost to Republican candidate Mitt Romney in the state of North Carolina. Pundits and political analysts often point to President Obama‘s electoral successes nationally as the result of several key factors that substantiated his 2008 and 2012 campaigns as models of efficiency and effectiveness: 1) the most technologically driven campaign in political history; 2) campaign funding that exceeded even the wildest imagination of political professionals; and 3) favorable demographics with the expanding number of racial minorities and Unaffiliated (not associated with political parties) voters. What led to President Obama‘s failure to achieve what candidate Obama managed to do in North Carolina? President Obama lost what many saw as an increasingly blue state which prompted dreams of North Carolina advancing toward a new era of progressive politics.
Keywords: President Barack Obama, 2012 elections, North Carolina
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