2008 Presidential Primary Votes
Obama Regains Total Vote Lead No Matter How The Votes Are Counted
May 8, 2008
Note: See latest results in Clinton Leads in Primary Votes
If popular votes in the presidential primaries provide campaign momentum, U.S. Senator Barack Obama is riding that wave into the Democratic primary stretch.
According to CNN’s unofficial state-by-state count, Obama ran up 1,506,078 votes in the North Carolina and Indiana primaries May 6. That was 208,664 more votes than U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton received, enough to pass Clinton in total votes received in all primaries through May 6.
The unofficial count for all 2008 Democratic presidential primaries gave Obama 16,683,805 votes and Clinton 16,557,398, a 126,407 vote advantage.
McCain Has Nearly 9 Million Votes in GOP Primaries
U.S. Senator John McCain received 381,616 votes in the North Carolina Republican primary and 319,610 votes in the Indiana GOP primary, giving him a total of 8,979,825 votes in all the Republican presidential primaries, easily surpassing all other GOP candidates. He appeared to have wrapped up the Republican nomination in March.
North Carolina and Indiana provided the latest lead change in the see-saw battle for leadership in the Democratic primary voting. Clinton had regained the lead with her victory in the Pennsylvania primary April 22 and was counting on that victory to help her in North Carolina and Indiana.
The counts do include the controversial voting in Florida and Michigan, both of which favor Clinton. They do not include caucus votes since some of the caucuses are not open to all voters and the number of eligible voters varies with each state
Here’s where the candidates registered their biggest votes:
- McCain: California 1,093,560; Texas 709,477; Florida 693,508; Ohio 636,256; Pennsylvania 586,904.
- Obama: California 1,890,026; Texas 1,358,785; Illinois 1,301,954; Pennsylvania 1,045,148; Ohio 979,025;
- Clinton: California 2,306,361; Texas 1,459,814; Pennsylvania 1,260,060; Ohio 1,207,806; New York 1,003,623.
Clinton's Biggest Win Was In California; Obama’s in Illinois
Clinton scored her biggest victory in California, beating Obama by 416,335 votes.
Obama's most decisive victory was in his adopted state of Illinois, beating Clinton by 639,109. She is a native of Illinois, but has since moved to Arkansas and later to New York.
Like the popular vote in the November 4 presidential election, the total votes in the primaries do not determine the delegate counts at the conventions. But they can provide the candidates with momentum in future primaries, with assistance in fund raising and possible help in winning over superdelegates.
The impact of the popular vote is lessened by the manner in which states allocate their delegates. Some direct all their delegates to the candidate with the highest popular vote, regardless of the margin. That means a candidate can lose the popular election by only a few votes and come away from that state with no delegates at all. Other states distribute the delegates in proportion to the popular vote.
Five Democratic and Six Republican Primaries Remain
Remaining May and June primaries leading to the national conventions:
- May 13—Nebraska Republican primary and West Virginia Democratic primary
- May 20—Kentucky and Oregon primaries
- May 27—Idaho Republican primary
- June 3—South Dakota primaries, Montana Democratic primary, New Mexico Republican primary
Source: CNN election website
Final Total Primary Popular Votes
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