MISSOURI 11 Electoral Votes
Obama/Allies  |  McCain/Allies  |  Nader  
Missouri proved to be the closest state of the 2008 cycle, going for the McCain-Palin ticket by 3,903 votes (0.14 percentage points).  The Associated Press did not call the race until November 19; it was the closest presidential race in Missouri since 1908.  Missourians split their votes, however, electing Democrat Jay Nixon governor by more than half a million votes.

Because John Kerry had pulled out of Missouri in the closing weeks of the campaign, the Obama team faced an initial challenge of convincing state Democrats that they were serious about contesting the state.  They were and the did, opening up about 42 offices and putting some two hundred people on the ground.  Sen. Claire McCaskill endorsed Sen. Obama relatively early (Jan. 13, 2008) and continued to be one of his most enthusiastic supporters throughout the general election campaign. 

The Republican team, while it was not as big as Obama's, was led by people who had a considerable experience in Missouri campaigns.  Typically, RNC/Victory seeks to set major parameters of the campaign such as vendors and targeting universes.  Leaders of the campaign in Missouri engaged in a "several month [long] friendly argument" over some of these details.  For example, they wanted to stay with the phone vendor, Friendly Phones, which the state party had been using for more than a decade.  In the end, the local team prevailed.  By Election Day, 7,264 live callers made 1.9 million voter identification calls and more than 600,000 GOTV reminder calls, and Missouri was the only battleground state to go for McCain.

Gov. Sarah Palin, for all her faults, provided a boost to the Republican ticket in Missouri.  People in the southern part of the state could relate to her, and she appealed to evangelicals in the Springfield area and the Boot Heel.  (In an obscure Missouri connection, Todd Palin attended Missouri Valley College as a freshman during 1984-85). 

Looking at the broader map, the McCain-Palin ticket fared better than Bush-Cheney '04 in a just handful of states, three of which (Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee) border upon Southern Missouri; this regional trend is one factor that contributed the the Republicans' razor-thin margin.


One of the highlights of the Republican campaign in the state was the rally McCain and Palin held at T.R. Hughes Ballpark in O'Fallon (30 miles west of St. Louis in St. Charles County) on August 31, a couple of days after her selection and just in advance of the Convention.  There was a tremendous energy and excitement despite it being a very hot day.  On the Democratic side, Obama's rally under the Gateway Arch in St. Louis on October 18 drew what was reported at that time to be his biggest U.S. crowd of the campaign, 100,000 or more.  Another highlight of the campaign was the vice presidential debate on October 2 at the Washington University in St. Louis.


TruthandHopePAC.org mounted an interesting independent effort on the progressive side; its "Local Voices" ads, featuring local individuals discussing their support for Obama, ran in several smaller communities.  Among the groups supporting McCain-Palin were Missouri Right to Life PAC.


Travel  compare...
Five Months (June 1-Nov. 4, 2008)
OBAMA-BIDEN McCAIN-PALIN
Barack Obama - 8 visits (10 days)
Joe Biden - 5 visits (6 days)
Michelle Obama (solo) - 2 visits (2 days)
Jill Biden (solo) - 1 visit (3 days)
John McCain - 8 visits (9 days)
Sarah Palin - 6 visits (7 days)
Cindy McCain (solo) - no visits
Todd Palin (solo) - no visits


Newspaper Endorsements
OBAMA
Columbia Daily-Tribune  (Oct. 19)
Joplin Globe  (Oct. 29)
*Kansas City Star  (Oct. 17)   252,785 (28)
*St. Louis Post-Dispatch  (Oct. 12)   255.057 (27)
specialty
St. Louis American  (Oct. 30)  African American weekly

McCAIN
Jefferson City News Tribune
St. Joseph News-Press  (Oct. 26)
NO ENDORSEMENT
Springfield News-Leader


Results
Most of the state was red.  Obama carried St. Louis City and St. Louis County plus four other St. Louis area counties; Jackson County (Kansas City); Boone County in the center part of the state (home to the University of Missouri at Columbia); and, by a tiny margin, Buchanan County in the Northwest part of the state.

Obama

McCain

Others
Total
St. Louis County 333,123
59.50
221,705
39.60
5,026
559,854
St. Louis City
132,925
83.55
  24,662
15.50
1,516
159,103







Jackson County
210,824
62.14
124,687
36.75
3,755
339,266







Jefferson County
  53,467 50.42   50,804 47.91
1,779
106,050
St. Genevieve County
    4,979 56.42
    3,732 42.29
   114
    8,825
Washington County
    4,711
49.00
    4,706
48.95
   197
    9,614
Iron County
    2,213 50.14
    2,090 47.35    111
    4,414







Boone County
  47,062
55.20
  36,849
43.22
1,340
  85,251







Buchanan County
 19,164
49.09
  19,110
48.95
  766
  39,040


Copyright © 2008  Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action