Ohio's Republican presidential primary was Super Tuesday's highest-profile contest, but Ari Berman raised a largely-overlooked point about the results: "Obama got more votes in Ohio than Romney last night."
That may seem hard to believe -- leading Republicans campaigned aggressively in Ohio, and Mitt Romney spent $4 million to win the state, while President Obama didn't try and wasn't in a contested primary -- but according to the data from the Ohio Secretary of State's office, that's what happened. I put together this chart to show the state's vote totals:
Of course, it's not as if a half-million Democrats turned out yesterday just to support the unchallenged incumbent president; these were Democratic voters who turned out to vote in party primaries and down-ballot races. But the number of votes for Obama reminds me of a report Erin McPike ran on Monday: while the Republican nominating race slowly drags on, the president is putting together an impressive campaign organization.
You need not look further than this critical swing state to see just how badly Mitt Romney's vaunted campaign organization lags behind President Obama's.
Obama for America already has more than a dozen staffers in the Buckeye State, working seven days a week. There are nine offices scattered throughout Ohio where volunteers gather every day to contact voters -- and Election Day is still eight months away. And what should send a chill down Romney's spine is that the same thing is happening in every swing state. [...]
The evidence was plain on Sunday, a blustery, snowy afternoon just 48 hours before Republicans go to the polls on Super Tuesday: About 15 volunteers gathered at the campaign's Franklin County office here to phone former supporters they hope to recruit for the campaign's 2012 network.
Since the president launched his re-election bid last April, his Ohio team has conducted 5,000 volunteer-led events, including house parties, phone-banking efforts and neighborhood canvassing. These events have now reached more than 650,000 Ohio voters, whether via phone, the front door or even one-on-one meetings, according to the campaign. The team is opening its 10th office -- in Youngstown -- on Thursday and plans to open several dozen more over the next few months.
In a practical sense, it doesn't much matter that Obama won more primary votes yesterday than Romney, but it matters a great deal that while Romney spends millions to destroy his GOP rivals in states like Ohio, Obama's team is in the same state building an infrastructure for the general election.
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This is very reassuring. Was turnout higher for the Democrats, too, or was all turnout down?
Pretty sure since it was a republican primary that there were way fewer dems voting. Mostly the democrats got to vote on gerrymandered seats and who to boot (I am really sad to see Kucinich go), and levy/bond issues - if that.
I am thrilled to see Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH) LOST!
Less toxic waste in the House ;))
But, but.... if you add up all the red bars (they are different people, after all), doesn't it come out to be a lot more than the blue bar? (Mind you, I'm a Democrat.)
Yeah RMIsaac, I caught that. Looks like Obama got _about— 550k, while all the Rs combined got _about— 1.2M. That's without any campaigning, though, and Ohio's a pretty red shade of purple.
I suspect more Democrats will how up for the general. The big question is going to be, always, where will the independents go? If the Rs nominate anyone but Romney I suspect, and fervently hope, that they'll be up a creek. Romney might get enough votes to pull out the general. Especially if they use the, "Blame Obama for the Bush Economy," tactic successfully. I know they'll use it, and I know a lot of people will fall for it.
Obama _needs— to maintain the recovery of the real economy to win. Not the Wall Street economy, but the one that makes paychecks and buys groceries.
This isn't an open primary. I am shocked that many dems actually voted at all.
It's a fun fact, but it isn't very relevant.
Ohio turn out was about 1,200,000 in all. Not necessarily great but, not insanely bad either. I'm from Marion and turn out was really bad there. When I walked into the polling place one of the poll workers said "Thank God, finally another woman!" Because I looked at her quizzically she told me that I was the first woman they'd seen in hours and they had only seen two to three dozen men. I think most people wait for the General election to get involved.
Women can vote? When did that happen? I'll have to write to my Congressman about that. What next? They'll be wanting to make decisions and have equal pay and refuse to have a baby every year.
But seriously - why would a woman choose to vote for any of the Republican candidates? They can just stay home and wait for November and hope they're still allowed to vote then.
Everyone needs to vote in Nov....don't think we have it in the bag...vote vote vote or we will have a republican in the white house again to take us back to where Bush took us.
The place where Bush took us no longer exists. If we go anywhere but forward, we'll just fall right off a cliff.
There were lots of Dems at my caucus. Not as many as in 2008 by a long shot but more than I expected certainly. We all fully supported the President!
We cannot become complacent, even with these Republicans, so get out the Vote. Walk and talk and engage your neighbors.
I'm looking at it positively. I mean, he was on the ballot but not "in the primary" and 500K people went to the polls and voted for him when it basically didn't matter?
That has to be a very good thing! :)
Since this was basically a Republican primary, the fact that he got that many votes is very telling, so of course if you add up all the votes, you would think that Republicans should have gotten many more votes than they did.
I don't disagree with any points made in the article, but the chart is meaningless. I don't know any fellow Ohioan Dems who went to the polls to vote for Obama. Some of us had local school levies, and there was a hotly contested Congressional district (Kasich lost) that boosted that turnout. All Dem politics is local for now. The total GOP turnout was higher and we know that the GOP will fall in line in November. In the general election the GOP vote will not be split and the Dems will go to the polls solely to vote for Obama raising that number, so this chart gives no meaningful information. If it had any meaning, we Dems could get discouraged as the GOP to Dem ratio was 2 to 1. Cheer up... it has no meaning.
If Dems ever hope to get more states to vote Dem then they need to keep pursuing the Howard Dean 50 state strategy. The party has to be built from the bottom up to lay a foundation for state and federal elections. This strategy should be pursued in safe Republicans states as well as swing states. A local party can be mobilized to swing close elections on the state and federal level even in safe states. And every so often there are upset elections.
re: Dems could get discouraged as the GOP to Dem ratio was 2 to 1.
^ Nah. There was really no reason for Dems to vote, and Obama didn't even campaign.
Rasmussen Tracking
3/4 - 3/6
1500 LV
49
42
Obama +7
^ Note: this is a pro-GOP poll that a year ago made headlines with Romney up by 3.
Obama took the lead 6 months ago, and it's now at it's highest margin to date.
Opinions are like a**holes, every body has one, the real issue is which opinion is based on factual evidence and which is based on wishful liberal thinking. They are called swing states because voters historically have voted against their own economic self interest on a regular basis in these rust belt states, that's one of the reasons for the stop and start nature of economic growth in those states, neither political corporation is going to instill its largesse in purple states. So you just gotta try to evaluate political trends from the numbers, and at the moment the numbers look good for the President. But at this point in the 1980 election things looked good for Carter, at this point in the 2000 election things looked good for Gore. Never underestimate the effectiveness of old good electoral theft, a skill the dumbocrats seem to have lost since the 1960's and one the rethuglicans have refined since the 1980's.
You have a point. The 2000 election was stolen and possibly the 2004. Vote!
Not surprised. The Democrats have the plan and the party. GOP go home, we are sending you back to your constiuents, or you can become a lobbyist like Santorum and Gingrich, who actually lobbied while Speaker. 1.6 Million. Santorum a million a year. 3.6 in 4 years. So Obama who had student loan debt until he ran for President, lives in my world. He's carried my load, looks at the world similarly. He is the American Story. As a women, his administration promotes a world I want my kids to be apart of. I do not care what religion he is. As long as he does not legislate it. The Democrats leave my religion alone. It permits privacy, that my government does not care if I were to worship lemon trees. If I did, I would not call my representatives and push the lemon tree morality down America's throat. If I don't worship lemon tress they don't care either. My party is trying by themselves and the POTUS to put it back together, provide stability so it does not crash again, without poisoning my food chain and watching habitats destroyed forever. They understand health care for women and men. As an RN, I have been waiting for this change. It will stabilize the market of private insurance fees. It was not permitted to make the substantive changes necessary for real reform and price reduction because the GOP, who is representing private insurance company interests in Washington, NOT the patients. It has kept fees flying and less and less access, means people get to us, later, sicker, and it costs more. They are out of work longer. Do not be afraid of losing private insurance, if you want it, buy it. In 2014 Private insurance coverage is going to have to compete for the first time and it will have to lower it's prices. Game over. That's why the Supreme Court has it. MONEY. GOP has promised insurance companies they will not be dethroned. You can go back to price manipulation, no insurance for a ton of prople and everyone pays more. That's the GOP plan.
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I love it love it love it!! I am a DNC volunteer and I am so glad to be part of Obama's re-election efforts. I live in North Carolina (Obama was in Charlotte, today). This is a swing state and I think President Obama made a great decision having the Democrat National Convention in Charlotte, NC!!
I am not complacent but I am confident in our President's skills to run a great campaign against all comers. He beat the strongest candidate in 2008 when he defeated Hillary Clinton. President Obama will not face any GOP candidate as good as Hillary was and is.
I enjoy politics and I think Rachel Maddow is the smartest person on TV, period!!
Years ago the Academy Awards decided to the drop the phrase, "The winner is...." and go with "the Oscar goes to ...."
I think it is time that political reporters drop talking about who "won" a primary or a caucas, unless the person clearly won and got all of the delegates (or at least substantially all). That would be a win. It is not a "win" when someone takes the most votes among all cast (not even 50% in most cases) in a primary, but ties his/her opponent in delegates. It is misleading the voters on a night like Super Tuesday for the pundits to be declaring "winners" in the Eastern time zone, when people still have 3 hours to vote in the West. I am not arguing against calling the election in any particular state on an election night. I am suggesting that calling a "winner" is wrong and misleading to voters. Romney didn't win Michigan because he finished a few voters higher than Santorum; not when they split the delegates evenly. And the same is true of the other candidates, even Gingrich in Georgia.
Thanks to Rachel Maddow for her quality work as the anchor on election nights; you came closest to recognizing this issue last night.
We need to fire GObama! the idiot. He is a moron and has made things worse. Gas has more then doubled since that idiot has been playing in the WH.
LOL
all that to fine out who maybe is the Idiot. lets see Kasich is one, President Obama NOT One. there is another one not sure which of the one it is.
Thanks Rachael for your wonderful shows. I am a buckeye I do not remember voting in Primary before so I debated whether to vote. But there were other issues I said I would support and so with my drivers licence in hand went to my polling office and Oh boy howdy was I happy. I could vote DEM. And I was so happy. It was like playing the one armed bandit to vote for Obama and Sharrod Brown. Obama is a winner and cares so deeply for this nation. Its wonderful to see the graph because I have been wanting to know how he did. Obama won OHIO! Hey Rachael you need to come to our great state. Keep up the great work and thanks for keeping us informed on the issue!!!!
mrs. maddow, of allthe problems facing our nation, and you want to talk about rick's google problem and the food police, and how vile mr limbaugh is. what about when mr. maher etal called mrs. palin everything in the book and then somemore? why not use your program to help suffering Americans? like high gas prices, high taxes, etc. you lefties are the most hypocritical people!!