November 6, 2012 2016 → 1,971,820 1,822,522 Date 6 March 2012 | 13 0 51.16% 47.28% Location Virginia, United States | |
 | ||
Turnout 66.9% (voting eligible) Obama
40-50%
50-60%
60-70%
70-80%
80-90% Romney
40-50%
50-60%
60-70%
70-80% | ||
The 2012 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 6, 2012 as part of the 2012 General Election in which all 50 states plus The District of Columbia participated. Virginia voters chose 13 electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, against Republican challenger and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan.
Contents
Virginia was won by President Barack Obama with 51.16% of the vote to Mitt Romney's 47.28%, a 3.88% margin of victory.
In 2008, Obama won the state by 6.3%, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Virginia since the nationwide Democratic landslide of 1964, but it had otherwise been a reliably Republican state prior to this. Much of the Democratic gains can be attributed to the growth of progressive suburban Northern Virginia, particularly in Fairfax County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County, all of which voted for Obama twice. Obama's increased strength in this heavily populated region more than canceled out his weakness across rural Virginia. On the other hand, Obama suffered an historically poor showing even in traditionally Democratic counties of Southwest Virginia, similar to his weak performance in neighboring West Virginia. The Republicans would win the White House without taking Virginia in the next election, and for the first time since 1924.
Obama's 2012 win made him the first Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt to carry Virginia for the Democrats in two consecutive elections. The Democratic margin of victory also made 2012 the first time since 1948 that Virginia was more Democratic than the nation as a whole, albeit narrowly: Obama carried Virginia by 3.88%, while winning nationally by 3.86%.
This is also the first election since 1976 in which Virginia did not vote in the same way as neighbouring North Carolina.
General election
Candidate Ballot Access:
Results by county/city
Source: [2]
Democratic primary
Because Democratic President Barack Obama was unopposed by members of his party in seeking reelection, no Democratic primary was held.
Republican primary
The Republican primary took place on Super Tuesday, March 6, 2012.
Virginia has 49 delegates to the 2012 Republican National Convention including three unbound superdelegates. 33 delegates are awarded on a winner-take-all basis by congressional district. The other 13 are awarded to the candidate who wins a majority statewide, or allocated proportionally if no one gets majority.
Ballot
Only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul appeared on the ballot. Other candidates failed to submit the necessary 10,000 signatures (including at least 400 from each of the state's 11 congressional districts) required to get on the ballot by the deadline of 22 December 2011.
On 27 December, Rick Perry filed a lawsuit – joined later by Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum – in the federal District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond that challenged provisions that determine who can appear on the primary ballot. Perry and the other candidates argued that the chairman of the Virginia Republican Party and members of State Board of Elections violated their rights by enforcing state requirements as to the number of signatures, the qualifications for signers and the requirement that all petition circulators be "an eligible or registered qualified voter in Virginia." Perry and the other litigants argued that these restrictions "impose a severe burden" on their freedoms of speech and association under the First and Fourteenth Amendment.
The case was Perry v. Judd. U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney, Jr. ruled on 29 December that he would not issue an injunction to stop the printing of ballots before a scheduled hearing on 13 January. The Virginia Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, representing the state, made a motion to dismiss the case because of a lack of standing. On 13 January, Judge Gibney, Jr. dismissed the lawsuit citing the equitable doctrine of laches ("sleeping on one's rights"), writing, "They knew the rules in Virginia many months ago... In essence, they played the game, lost, and then complained that the rules were unfair." The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed, emphasizing that although the constitutional challenge had merit and was possibly even likely to prevail, the candidate plaintiffs' failure to file in a timely fashion required dismissal.