Barack Obama was reelected to a second term in office as President of the United States on November 6, winning over his opponent, Governor Mitt Romney, by more than 100 electoral votes.
After a long season of fiery speeches, heated debates, and pointing fingers, the election finally ended with Democrats Obama and running mate, Joe Biden, winning 332 electoral votes to Romney and Paul Ryan’s 206 votes for the Republican ticket. It takes 270 votes to win the election. Though the electoral vote seems like a landslide victory, the popular vote was much closer; Obama earned 61 million votes in comparison to Romney’s 58 million, reflecting the election atmosphere of the past few months in which polls were mere points apart.
Obama won all of the battleground states in this election, with the exception of North Carolina, although Florida was unable to announce its results for several days after the election because its votes were too close to predict. However, its numbers would not have made an impact either way, with the votes of the other states already pointing to Obama as the clear winner. In past elections, voting problems in Florida had led to a delay in the announcement of the winner, keeping the country waiting for several weeks after Election Day.
In his acceptance speech Wednesday morning, Obama promised that “the best is yet to come” for America’s future. Despite the deep party lines that were drawn during the campaign season, he also spoke of American unity, saying that “We are an American family and we rise and fall together as one nation.”
Obama also commended Romney on his campaign. “We may have battled fiercely, but it’s only because we love this country dearly,” he said. Romney, who was allegedly stunned by his loss, said in his concession speech that “this is a time of great challenges for America, and I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation.” He too, urged against political divides, saying, “The nation, as you know, is at a critical point. At a time like this we can’t risk partisan bickering and political posturing.”
The 2012 election showed a major shift in the American demographic. In 2008, suburban mothers seemed to be a major factor of the election and were an important focus in this year’s election. However, it only makes sense that as America changes, the voting demographic changes as well; this year the Latino vote made a big impact on the election results, with about three fourths of Latinos voting in favor of the Democratic Party. With many Latino voters supporting Obama’s Dream Act and his stance on immigration, they found him to be a preferable candidate over Romney, whose position was far less likeable to minorities.
Obama’s victory was in some ways historic, as he has the highest unemployment rate of any second-term president since Franklin Roosevelt’s 1936 reelection. He is also the second Democrat to be elected into a second term since Roosevelt, with President Bill Clinton being the first. With these statistics in mind, Americans can expect that the issue of the economy will be center-stage on the President’s mind as he leaves the campaign trail to go back to work in the oval office. In his victory speech he said, “I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together. Reducing our deficit. Reforming our tax code. Fixing our immigration system. Freeing ourselves from foreign oil. We’ve got more work to do.”