2012 United States presidential election in New York


The 2012 United States presidential election in New York took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. New York voters chose 29 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.
Barack Obama carried the state of New York by a landslide margin, winning 63.35% of the vote to Mitt Romney's 35.17%. As in previous elections, the Democratic ticket racked up large margins in the heavily populated New York City area, as well as in upstate cities like Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, and the college town of Ithaca. The Republicans won only in some rural parts of upstate and western New York. New York was 1 of only 6 states to swing in President Obama's favor from 2008 to 2012, giving him the largest percentage of the vote for any presidential candidate in the state since 1964 and the second largest Democratic vote share in the state in history.

General election

Candidate Ballot Access:
Write-In Candidate Access:

Geographic breakdown

The politics of New York State are dominated by the heavily populated area of New York City, which Barack Obama won in a historic landslide, taking over 80% of the vote and sweeping all 5 boroughs. Obama took 1,995,241 votes in New York City, to Mitt Romney's 436,889, giving Obama 81.19% of the vote to Romney's 17.78%. No other presidential candidate of either party has ever received more than 80% of the vote in New York City.
Discounting New York City's votes, Obama still would have carried New York State, but by a closer margin. Excluding New York City, Obama's vote total in the state was 2,490,636 to Romney's 2,053,607, giving Obama a 54.03%-44.54% win outside of NYC.

Results by county

Republican primary

The 2012 New York Republican primary took place on April 24, 2012.
By county, Romney won a plurality in every county, and a majority in all but 6: Niagara, Cattaraugus, Wyoming, Orleans, Schuyler, Herkimer and Oswego.
Paul finished second in most counties. Santorum finished second in Otsego County. Gingrich finished second in two geographic areas: a cluster of counties in the Catskills and Hudson Valley and in most of the counties of Western New York, in addition to Herkimer and Oneida counties. Gingrich's relative strength in Western New York, as well as in Herkimer, can be attributed to the continued popularity and efforts of Carl Paladino, who carried those counties in the previous gubernatorial election and campaigned on Gingrich's behalf. The majority of New York politicians had endorsed Romney while the primary election was still competitive.