Final Total Primary Popular Votes
Senator Obama Won the Caucases and the Democratic Nomination
Depending upon whether the disputed Florida and Michigan votes are counted, both Hillary Clinton and Barick Obama can claim the most popular votes in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries that were conducted through June 3. Obama, however, wrapped up the nomination on June 3 with 2158 delegates.
Here, according to CNN’s unofficial state-by-state counts, are how the votes break down depending upon which states are counted:
Counting the popular vote in all 42 Democratic primaries:
- Clinton 17,564,254
- Obama 17,148,898
The popular vote not counting the Florida and Michigan primaries:
- Obama 16,579,857
- Clinton 16,378,895
Neither candidate campaigned in Florida or Michigan. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) ruled it would not count delegates from those two states because the primaries were scheduled too early, but it later gave each state half votes at the Democratic convention. Clinton won the voting in both states.
Obama did not list his name on the Michigan ballot, but on May 31 the Democratic National Committee gave him credit for the 237,762 uncommitted votes in that state. Those uncommitted votes are not counted in the above popular vote totals, but even if they were, Clinton would still have more popular votes in the 42 primaries.
Obama easily won the most votes in the 10 states conducting Democratic caucuses, topping Clinton 123,622 to 52,248.
When the popular votes in the 42 Democratic primaries are combined with the total caucus votes:
- Clinton 17,616,502
- Obama’s 17,272,520.
Senator John McCain Won Nearly 9.5 Million Votes
Senator John McCain rolled up another 268,000 votes in South Dakota and New Mexico on June 3 to run his unofficial Republican popular vote total to nearly 9.5 million.
The Democratic popular vote lead see-sawed between Obama and Clinton through most of the 2008 primaries. McCain appeared wrapped up the Republican nomination in March and faced little opposition in the primaries after that.
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.
Obama’s Biggest Win Was in Illinois: Clinton’s in California
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.
Just as the winning popular vote in the November 4 election does not necessarily determine who will be president, the total votes in the primaries do not determine the delegate counts at the nominating conventions. But they can help the candidate in fund raising, provide the candidates with momentum in future primaries and possible help in winning 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.
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