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United States · Election results history · 2012 president · California
Election 2012 Results

Each election opens in its own mode: the forecast before the votes are counted, the live count while races are still too close to call, and the results once every race is decided.

2012 presidential election in California

Barack Obama (Democrat) beat Mitt Romney (Republican) in California in 2012, 60.2% to 37.1%, a margin of 23.1 points and 3,014,327 votes.

California voted 19.3 points more Democratic than the country as a whole, where the margin was D+3.9.

The Democratic hold continued from 2008, when Barack Obama also won.

Democrats led in 31 of the 58 counties and Republicans in 27. The largest, Los Angeles, cast 3,181,067 votes and went to the Democrat by 41.9 points. The closest was Trinity, where 42 votes separated the two parties.

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Early projection, based on early and incomplete polling: the likely matchups, each weighted by the betting markets' odds of both nominations, not a result. Each county is its 2024 presidential margin moved by its state's projected swing; set a national vote and every state, district and county moves by the same amount from our projection. Colours run in 100 steps from a safe Republican to a safe Democratic margin. Boundaries: US Census Bureau.

Result

CandidatePartyVotesShare
Barack Obama won Democratic 7,854,285 60.2%
Mitt Romney Republican 4,839,958 37.1%
All other candidates 344,304 2.6%
Total13,038,547

Every county

CountyDemocratRepublicanOthersTotalMargin
Los Angeles 2,216,903 69.7% 885,333 27.8% 78,831 3,181,067 D+41.9
San Diego 626,957 52.6% 536,726 45.0% 28,599 1,192,282 D+7.6
Orange 512,440 45.6% 582,332 51.9% 27,892 1,122,664 R+6.2
Riverside 329,063 49.7% 318,127 48.1% 14,717 661,907 D+1.7
Santa Clara 450,818 70.1% 174,843 27.2% 17,430 643,091 D+42.9
Alameda 469,684 78.9% 108,182 18.2% 17,776 595,642 D+60.7
San Bernardino 305,109 52.5% 262,358 45.1% 14,050 581,517 D+7.4
Sacramento 300,503 58.1% 202,514 39.2% 13,792 516,809 D+19.0
Contra Costa 290,824 66.4% 136,517 31.2% 10,885 438,226 D+35.2
San Francisco 301,723 83.5% 47,076 13.0% 12,410 361,209 D+70.5
Ventura 170,929 52.3% 147,958 45.3% 8,087 326,974 D+7.0
San Mateo 206,085 72.1% 72,756 25.5% 6,879 285,720 D+46.7
Fresno 129,129 49.9% 124,490 48.1% 5,208 258,827 D+1.8
Kern 89,495 40.4% 126,618 57.2% 5,359 221,472 R+16.8
Sonoma 153,942 71.1% 54,784 25.3% 7,782 216,508 D+45.8
San Joaquin 114,121 55.8% 86,071 42.0% 4,505 204,697 D+13.7
Placer 66,818 39.0% 99,921 58.3% 4,583 171,322 R+19.3
Santa Barbara 94,129 57.6% 64,606 39.6% 4,585 163,320 D+18.1
Stanislaus 77,724 50.0% 73,459 47.3% 4,186 155,369 D+2.7
Solano 96,783 63.5% 52,092 34.2% 3,569 152,444 D+29.3
Marin 99,896 74.3% 30,880 23.0% 3,740 134,516 D+51.3
San Luis Obispo 61,258 48.8% 59,967 47.7% 4,413 125,638 D+1.0
Monterey 82,920 67.1% 37,390 30.3% 3,208 123,518 D+36.9
Santa Cruz 90,805 75.6% 24,047 20.0% 5,243 120,095 D+55.6
Tulare 41,752 41.3% 56,956 56.3% 2,392 101,100 R+15.0
Butte 42,669 47.0% 44,479 49.0% 3,604 90,752 R+2.0
El Dorado 35,166 39.6% 50,973 57.4% 2,635 88,774 R+17.8
Shasta 25,819 33.8% 48,067 63.0% 2,449 76,335 R+29.1
Yolo 48,715 65.4% 23,368 31.4% 2,392 74,475 D+34.0
Merced 33,005 53.2% 27,581 44.4% 1,471 62,057 D+8.7
Humboldt 34,457 60.0% 18,825 32.8% 4,188 57,470 D+27.2
Napa 35,870 63.0% 19,526 34.3% 1,572 56,968 D+28.7
Nevada 24,663 47.7% 24,986 48.4% 2,027 51,676 R+0.6
Madera 16,018 40.2% 22,852 57.3% 996 39,866 R+17.1
Imperial 25,136 65.2% 12,777 33.1% 652 38,565 D+32.0
Mendocino 23,193 66.2% 9,658 27.6% 2,166 35,017 D+38.7
Kings 12,979 41.3% 17,671 56.2% 768 31,418 R+14.9
Sutter 12,192 39.3% 18,122 58.4% 712 31,026 R+19.1
Tuolumne 9,998 40.5% 13,880 56.2% 809 24,687 R+15.7
Lake 13,163 56.3% 9,200 39.3% 1,028 23,391 D+16.9
Tehama 7,934 34.5% 14,235 62.0% 808 22,977 R+27.4
Calaveras 8,670 39.8% 12,365 56.8% 751 21,786 R+17.0
Siskiyou 8,046 40.4% 11,077 55.6% 787 19,910 R+15.2
Yuba 7,711 39.1% 11,275 57.2% 714 19,700 R+18.1
San Benito 11,276 59.2% 7,343 38.6% 425 19,044 D+20.7
Amador 6,830 38.7% 10,281 58.3% 538 17,649 R+19.6
Lassen 3,053 28.6% 7,296 68.3% 334 10,683 R+39.7
Plumas 4,026 40.1% 5,721 56.9% 300 10,047 R+16.9
Glenn 3,301 35.8% 5,632 61.1% 278 9,211 R+25.3
Mariposa 3,498 38.9% 5,140 57.1% 362 9,000 R+18.2
Del Norte 3,791 43.2% 4,614 52.6% 365 8,770 R+9.4
Inyo 3,422 42.6% 4,340 54.0% 274 8,036 R+11.4
Colusa 2,314 38.3% 3,601 59.7% 119 6,034 R+21.3
Trinity 2,674 47.1% 2,716 47.9% 284 5,674 R+0.7
Mono 2,733 52.8% 2,285 44.1% 163 5,181 D+8.6
Modoc 1,111 27.9% 2,777 69.7% 98 3,986 R+41.8
Sierra 653 36.4% 1,056 58.8% 86 1,795 R+22.5
Alpine 389 59.6% 236 36.1% 28 653 D+23.4

Margin: the Democrat's share of all votes minus the Republican's. Sources and how the results were checked.

California in every presidential election we hold

YearWinnerMargin
2024 Kamala Harris (D) D+20.1
2020 Joe Biden (D) D+29.2
2016 Hillary Clinton (D) D+30.1
2012 Barack Obama (D) D+23.1
2008 Barack Obama (D) D+24.1
2004 John Kerry (D) D+9.9
2000 Al Gore (D) D+11.8
1996 Bill Clinton (D) D+12.9
1992 Bill Clinton (D) D+13.4
1988 George H. W. Bush (R) R+3.6
1984 Ronald Reagan (R) R+16.2
1980 Ronald Reagan (R) R+16.8
1976 Gerald Ford (R) R+1.8
1972 Richard Nixon (R) R+13.5
1968 Richard Nixon (R) R+3.1
1964 Lyndon B. Johnson (D) D+18.3
1960 Richard Nixon (R) R+0.5
1956 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) R+11.1
1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) R+14.6
1948 Harry S. Truman (D) D+0.4
1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+13.5
1940 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+16.1
1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+35.3
1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+21.0
1928 Herbert Hoover (R) R+30.5
1924 Calvin Coolidge (R) R+49.0
1920 Warren G. Harding (R) R+41.9
1916 Woodrow Wilson (D) D+0.4
1912 Theodore Roosevelt (other)
1908 William Howard Taft (R) R+22.5
1904 Theodore Roosevelt (R) R+34.9
1900 William McKinley (R) R+13.2
1896 William McKinley (R) R+0.6
1892 Grover Cleveland (D) D+0.1
1888 Benjamin Harrison (R) R+2.8
1884 James G. Blaine (R) R+6.6
1880 Winfield Scott Hancock (D) D+0.1
1876 Rutherford B. Hayes (R) R+1.8
1872 Ulysses S. Grant (R) R+13.3
1868 Ulysses S. Grant (R) R+0.5