In key states, Latino vote fueled Obama’s victory
Will Obama push the McCain immigration bill as payback?
TH-Latinos are hailed as a key voting bloc, even though they show their power at the polls only sporadically. When they turned out in record numbers to vote for Democrat Barack Obama, they not only erased recent gains by Republicans but shattered the myth of a black-Latino divide.
Amid worries about home foreclosures and economic recession and driven by an unprecedented get-out-the-vote effort and the acidic debate over illegal immigration, Latinos helped Democrats flip the battleground states of Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Florida.
“Without the Latino vote, we would not have won those states,” said Federico Pena, Denver’s first Hispanic mayor and a national co-chairman of the Obama campaign.
November 11th, 2008 at 7:45 am
I’m sure there’s going to be an immigration bill but who knows which one. Kennedy/McCain might be the one.
November 11th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
In Indiana, Sen Obama won by 26,163 votes, slightly fewer than Bob Barr’s 29,196 votes.
North Carolina cast 25,419 votes for Bob Barr, but Sen. Obama won by 13,692 votes.
Nebraska’s 2nd District electoral votes went to Sen. Obama by 1,260 votes, whereas 2,887 ballots were cast for third party candidates.
That’s 27 electoral college votes right there.
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As for cross-state tendencies,
No Democrat has won a majority of White voters since 1964, but Sen. Obama did better than any of the previous five Democratic Party nominees.
Sen. Obama won a larger share (77%) of the Jewish vote than did John Kerry in 2004.
Sen. Obama won a larger share (53%) of the Catholic vote than did John Kerry in 2004.
Sen. Obama won a larger share of the Protestant vote than did John Kerry in 2004.
Those who seldom or never attend church went for Obama 61:39.
Sen. Obama won a decisive majority of Women’s votes (56%), far out-performing any previous candidate from either party, including about 70% of married women (2004: 53% for Bush).
Sen. Obama won 74% of Latino votes.
Postgrads went for Sen. Obama two-to-one as well.
Sen Obama won the youth vote two-to-one, and took a larger share of the middle-aged vote than did Sen. Kerry in 2004.
Of course, Dubious is the least popular president in the post-War era, according to Gallup (http://www.gallup.com/poll/111838/Obama-Bush-Contrast-Popularity.aspx), and that might have helped a bit.