Mitt Romney carried Nebraska, taking 59.80% of the vote to Barack Obama's 38.03%, a margin of 21.77%. Nebraska is one of two states (along with Maine) which splits its electoral votes based on the winner in each congressional district. In 2012, Romney won all 3 congressional districts, thus winning all 5 of the state's electoral votes. This was a change from 2008, when the state as a whole had voted for Republican John McCain but Democrat Barack Obama still won an electoral vote from the state. Nebraska's 2nd congressional district, home to Omaha, had split with the rest of the state and awarded one of Nebraska's electoral votes to a Democratic presidential nominee for the first time since 1964. Nebraska's 2nd congressional district, Indiana, and North Carolina were the only sources of electoral votes won by Obama in 2008 that Romney managed to flip. Obama only won a single county, Thurston, largely due to its majority and increasingly politically active Native American population. He also narrowly lost three of four counties he won in 2008: Douglas, Lancaster, and Saline, home to the cities of Omaha, Lincoln, and Crete, respectively. He became the first Democrat since Grover Cleveland in 1892 to win without carrying Saline County.
As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last time that the Democrat won Thurston County and the Republican won Douglas or Lancaster County. This is also the last election when both Nebraska's 2nd congressional district did not back the overall winner of the Electoral College (and the sole time that would occur since 2000) and while the Democratic candidate would win the general election without carrying the district.
Primary elections
Democratic primary
The Democratic primary was not held as Barack Obama ran unopposed and had secured enough delegates for nomination.[1]
The Republican primary was on May 15, 2012.[2] This primary was purely of an advisory nature. From June 1 to June 10 caucuses county conventions caucused to elect delegates to the state convention. These delegates were not bound to vote for any candidate, but at the state convention on July 14, elected 32 bound National delegates. 3 party leaders attended the National Convention unbound, making a total of 35 voting delegates going to the national convention from Nebraska.
^"Nebraska Results". CNN. Retrieved November 7, 2012.
^"Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on November 8, 2018. Retrieved August 14, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^"Archived copy". Archived from the original on June 10, 2012. Retrieved July 19, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^"Nebraska Republican Delegation 2012".
^"Official Results of Nebraska General Election - November 6, 2012" (PDF). Retrieved April 16, 2013.
External links
The Green Papers: for Nebraska
The Green Papers: Major state elections in chronological order