Brookings Institution. January 4, 2013.
William Galston analyzes the political backdrop against which the 2012 general campaign was waged, offering fuller context into voter attitudes, the composition of the winning coalition, and the events, economic realities, policy and ideological issues that shaped the election and President Obama’s eventual victory. [Note: contains copyrighted material].
http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2013/1/04%20presidential%20election%20galston/04presidentialelection [PDF format, 19 pages].
Pew Social & Demographic Trends. December 26, 2012.
Blacks voted at a higher rate this year than other minority groups and for the first time in history may also have voted at a higher rate than whites, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data, election day exit poll data and vote totals from selected cities and counties. Unlike other minority groups whose increased electoral muscle in 2012 was primarily the function of population growth, blacks’ high turnout share was mainly a function of elevated participation rates. [Note: contains copyrighted material].
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2012/12/2012_Black_Voter_Project.pdf [PDF format, 13 pages].
Center for American Progress. December 2012.
In 2012 President Obama won re-election with 50.9 percent of the popular vote and 332 Electoral College votes. He is the first Democratic president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt to win two terms with more than 50 percent of the total popular vote. Unlike Democratic victories of the past, however, President Obama was also able to achieve victory with a historically low percentage of the white vote. According to the national exit poll, President Obama achieved victory by carrying 93 percent of African American voters, 71 percent of Latino voters, 73 percent of Asian American voters, and only 39 percent of white voters—slightly less than former Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis’ share of the white vote in 1988. [Note: contains copyrighted material]
http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ObamaCoalition-5.pdf [PDF format, 26 pages].
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. November 26, 2012.
In winning reelection, Barack Obama won 60% of the vote among those younger than 30. That was down somewhat from 2008, when Obama won nearly two-thirds (66%) of the votes of young people. However, Obama’s youth support may have been an even more important factor in his victory this year than it was in 2008. [Note: contains copyrighted material].
http://www.people-press.org/2012/11/26/young-voters-supported-obama-less-but-may-have-mattered-more/ [HTML format].
