2,990,274 2,680,434 Start date November 6, 2012 | 51.97% 46.59% | |
 | ||
Obama—40-50%
Obama—50-60%
Obama—60-70%
Obama—80-90% Romney—40-50%
Romney—50-60%
Romney—60-70%
Romney—70-80% | ||
The 2012 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 general election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Pennsylvania voters chose 20 electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote. This is a reduction from its 2008 delegation, which had 21 electors; the change was due to reapportionment following the 2010 United States Census. Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes are allotted on a winner-take-all basis.
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Democratic incumbent President Barack Obama received 52.0% of the vote, versus 46.6% for Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Also on the ballot were Jill Stein (of the Green Party) and Gary Johnson (of the Libertarian Party), who received 0.4% and 0.9%, respectively. Other candidates could run as write-in candidates. The state had been considered likely, but not certain, to go to Obama.
The primary election to select the Democratic and Republican candidates had been held previously, on April 24, 2012. This was the sixth presidential election in a row where the Democratic candidate won Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes; the state would vote Republican in the following presidential election.
Democratic primary
Incumbent Barack Obama ran unopposed on the Democratic primary ballot. He received 616,102 votes. There were 19,082 write-in votes. In the floor vote taken at the Democratic National Convention, 242 Pennsylvania delegates voted for Obama. The other 8 of the state's 250 allocated votes were not announced.
Republican primary
Four candidates were on the Republican primary ballot: Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, and Newt Gingrich. The primary was to be the make-or-break moment for Santorum. Santorum had just lost three primaries to Romney, and Romney appeared poised to become the presumptive nominee by achieving a prohibitive lead.
As momentum in the Republican race built for Romney, Santorum suspended his campaign for four days to meet with 'movement conservatives' to strategize. Former Family Research Council chief Gary Bauer, who was present at the sit-down with Santorum, called it a 'strategy meeting to discuss how Senator Santorum prevails.' But rather than returning to campaigning the next Monday, Rick and Karen Santorum canceled campaign events scheduled right after Easter weekend to be in the hospital with their youngest daughter.
In deference to the sick child, Romney ceased airing attack ads, replacing them with positive introductory ones.
On April 10, Santorum formally suspended his campaign. On May 7, he endorsed Romney. Santorum and Gingrich both released their delegates to Romney in August, shortly before the Republican National Convention.
General election
In statewide opinion polling, incumbent Barack Obama consistently led challenger Mitt Romney by a margin of between 2 and 12 percentage points. Analysts rated Pennsylvania as a "likely Democratic" or "Democratic-leaning" state in the presidential race. On the morning of the election, polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight estimated that there was a 99% likelihood that Obama would win Pennsylvania's electoral votes. At the time, Pennsylvania's electoral votes had gone to the Democratic candidate in every presidential election since 1992.
During the summer, there was significant spending on political advertisements in Pennsylvania, by both the Obama campaign and pro-Romney groups such as Crossroads GPS and Americans for Prosperity. However, because Obama maintained a consistent lead in polling, Pennsylvania came to be considered a "safe state" for Obama, and campaign advertising subsided substantially in August. This changed in October, when pro-Romney groups Restore Our Future and Americans for Job Security spent $3 million on advertising in Pennsylvania. Later that month, the Obama campaign and the Romney campaign both launched their own advertising campaigns in Pennsylvania. On November 1, the Republican National Committee announced that it would spend $3 million on television ads in Pennsylvania in the final days of the campaign. In total, pro-Romney spending in Pennsylvania is estimated to amount to as much as $12 million, much more than Obama campaign spending. The Obama campaign characterized the pro-Romney spending surge as "an act of sheer desperation", while the Romney campaign argued that they had a realistic chance of winning the state.
Electoral College Delegation
In accordance with Commonwealth law and Chapter 1, Section 7 of Title 3, United States Code (62 Stat. 672 as amended,) the 20 Pennsylvania electors pledged for Obama and Biden cast their votes on 17 December in the State House of Representatives chamber. The Pennsylvania Democratic Committee seated the following electors for this procedure: