WASHINGTON (NNPA) – After riding to victory in Ohio on the strength of his successful auto bailout plan and a come-from-behind victory in Virginia and Florida, President Barack Obama was re-elected on Tuesday to a second term.
In unofficial results, Obama beat Republican challenger Mitt Romney by approximately 2.6 million votes in the general election and was credited with 303 electoral votes. He is expected to win the Electoral College by a much larger margin when electors meet on Dec. 17 to officially determine who becomes the next president of the United States. Of the 538 electors, Obama needs 270 to win, and he is poised to collect approximately 322 votes in the Electoral College.
Although experts had predicted a long night before a victor would be declared, CNN announced Obama as the projected winner at 11:18 p.m. EST. With the outcome still unknown at the time in swing states Florida, Colorado, Virginia and Nevada, the Buckeye state put Obama over the top.
Obama swept to victory on the strength of a progressive coalition of blacks, Latinos, youth, unmarried women, Jews, union members and gay men and lesbians. He won about 40 percent of the white vote, down about 3 percent from 2008, and 69 percent of Latinos.
Speaking to cheering supporters in Chicago, Obama said: “While our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up. We have fought our way back. And we know in our hearts that, for the United States of America, the best is yet to come.”
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden carried most of the swing states, including Michigan, Romney’s birthplace; Massachusetts, where Romney served as governor; New Hampshire, where Romney has a summer home; Wisconsin, the home state of Congressman Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee; as well as Ohio, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Virginia.
In unofficial election results, Obama beat Romney in Florida by less than 50,000 votes, or 0.6 percentage points.
In a brief speech in Boston, Romney said, “I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction. But the nation chose another leader. So Ann and I join with you to earnestly pray for him and for this great nation.”
Congress still split
Democrats maintained their majority in the Senate and Republicans kept their grip on the House.
In closely watched races, two Republicans who had made controversial remarks about “legitimate rape” and abortion – Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Mourdock in Indiana – were defeated in their Senate contests. Elizabeth Warren, an outspoken liberal, defeated Republican incumbent Scott Brown in Massachusetts. Tammy Baldwin will become the first known lesbian to serve in the U.S. Senate after defeating former Gov. Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin.
In a major surprise, conservative Republican Congressman Allen West was trailing Democrat Patrick Murphy 159,959 to 157,578 with 99 percent of the vote counted as of Wednesday morning. West’s district was redrawn to include more Republican voters but apparently that won’t be enough to save his seat.
Another black conservative, Saratoga Springs, Utah Mayor Mia Love, lost her bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, losing by less than 3,000 votes.
Second term
Obama’s re-election means that the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, probably will not be repealed as Republicans had hoped.
The president, who made two Supreme Court appointments in his first term, will most likely get an opportunity to make another appointment to the court, possibly two. Depending on who retires from the court, Obama’s appointments could alter the direction of the court, which has been drifting to the right.
His first challenge will be a budget showdown with Republicans, who want to reduce the deficit solely through spending cuts. Obama, on the other hand, is insisting on a combination of cuts and increased revenue, including repeal of the Bush tax cuts that favor the wealthy.
Exit polls showed that the economy was the top issue on voters’ minds. The polls also showed that voters blamed George W. Bush more than Obama for the sluggish economy. In addition, voters also said they trust Obama more than Romney to protect the middle class.
Since the election, everyone has been speculating on whether Tuesday’s outcome will increase the prospect of House Republicans working more closely with the White House. Although no one claimed to have the definitive answer to that question, there were signs than the rancor between the president and conservatives is not likely to evaporate soon.
Some conservatives started raising questions about the size of Obama’s victory, saying he should not interpret the results as a mandate. They didn’t raise similar questions in 2000 when George W. Bush was declared the winner after receiving 500,000 fewer popular votes than Al Gore, his Democratic challenger.
State electoral votes are reported to Congress, which usually meets in a joint session on Jan. 6 following a presidential election. However, because Jan. 6, 2013 falls on a Sunday, Congress will probably meet the following Monday or Tuesday.
Vice President Joseph Biden, as president of the Senate, will preside over the joint session. He will open the electoral vote certificates from each state in alphabetical order and pass the certificates to four vote counters or tellers, two appointed by the House and two appointed by the Senate. After the votes are counted, the results will be announced by the vice president.
The electoral outcome has matched the popular vote in 47 of the 51 presidential elections since ratification of the 12th Amendment in 1804. The exceptions were 1876, 1888 and 2000 when George W. Bush was declared president after losing the popular vote to Al Gore. No candidate won the majority of the Electoral College vote in 1824, leaving the election of the president to the House of Representatives.
