2008 United States presidential election in New Mexico

2008 United States presidential election in New Mexico
Obama 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% 80-90%	McCain 50-60% 60-70% 70-80%
President before election; George W. Bush; Republican	Elected President ; Barack Obama; Democratic

The 2008 United States presidential election in New Mexico took place on November 4, 2008. Voters chose five representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

New Mexico was won by the Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, by a 15.13% margin of victory; Obama took 56.91% of the vote while his Republican opponent, Senator John McCain of Arizona, took 41.78%. Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations considered this a state Obama would win, or otherwise considered it as a safe blue state. Due to the extremely narrow margins of victory in the previous two presidential elections (less than 1% in 2004 and less than 0.1% in 2000), it started out as a swing state, but hypothetical general election match-up polls taken in the state continued to show a big lead for Obama. Obama's polling advantage in New Mexico increased so much that McCain did not campaign nearly as much there as he did elsewhere, despite it neighboring his home state of Arizona.

A large Hispanic and Native American as well as a trending Democratic population put Obama over the top.^[1] Obama became the first Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 to win a majority of New Mexico’s vote in a presidential election.

^ Cost, Jay; Sean Trende (January 18, 2009). "Election Review, Part 3: The West". RealClearPolitics. Retrieved May 11, 2009.

[1] Cost, Jay; Sean Trende (January 18, 2009). "Election Review, Part 3: The West". RealClearPolitics. Retrieved May 11, 2009.

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