2004 United States presidential election in Utah
November 2, 2004
Turnout72.6% (of registered voters)
57.7% (of voting age population)
 
Nominee George W. Bush John Kerry
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Texas Massachusetts
Running mate Dick Cheney John Edwards
Electoral vote 5 0
Popular vote 663,742 241,199
Percentage 71.54% 26.00%
County Results
Bush
  50-60%
  60-70%
  70-80%
  80-90%

President before election

George W. Bush
Republican

 Elected President

George W. Bush
Republican

The 2004 United States presidential election in Utah took place on November 2, 2004. It was part of the 2004 United States presidential election. Voters chose five representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Utah was won by incumbent President George W. Bush by a 45.5% margin of victory. Prior to the election, all 12 news organizations considered this a state Bush would win, or otherwise considered as a safe red state. It is a strongly Republican state and has supported the party’s nominee in every presidential election since 1968. With 71.54 percent of the popular vote, Utah was Bush's strongest state in the 2004 election.[1]

This was the first of four instances in which a presidential candidate gained over 70% of a state's vote after Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide. The others are Mitt Romney in Utah in 2012 and Barack Obama in Hawaii in 2008 and 2012. These last three all involved a candidate with a close tie to the state: Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, and Mitt Romney, as the first Mormon on a major-party presidential ticket, was popular in Mormon-majority Utah and would later represent the state in the United States Senate.

Primaries

Campaign

Predictions

There were 12 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day.[2]

Source Ranking
D.C. Political Report Solid R
Cook Political Report Solid R
Research 2000 Solid R
Zogby International Likely R
Washington Post Likely R
Washington Dispatch Likely R
Washington Times Solid R
The New York Times Solid R
CNN Likely R
Newsweek Solid R
Associated Press Solid R
Rasmussen Reports Likely R

Polling

The final three polls averaged Bush with 67 percent to Kerry with 25 percent.[3]

Fundraising

Bush raised $561,645.[4] Kerry raised $262,031.[5]

Advertising and visits

Neither campaign advertised or visited this state during the fall election.[6][7]

Analysis

Republicans dominate Utah state politics because of the very high Mormon population that accounts for almost seventy percent of the residents throughout the state. Mormons have been known for having very conservative values. While every county voted for Bush, areas such as Summit County (ski resort), Moab (becoming an outpost for environmental activists), Carbon County (largely blue collar), Salt Lake City (urban area with some diversity) and San Juan County (economically distressed and mostly Native American) did give a somewhat greater proportion of their votes to Kerry. However, other areas were uniformly Republican in voting. Utah County's (home of Provo and Brigham Young University) Republican vote (86%) was by far the largest percentage of any county its size in America.

Results

2004 United States presidential election in Utah[8]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican George W. Bush (incumbent) 663,742 71.54% 5
Democratic John Kerry 241,199 26.00% 0
Unaffiliated Ralph Nader 11,305 1.22% 0
Constitution Party Michael Peroutka 6,841 0.74% 0
Libertarian Party Michael Badnarik 3,375 0.36% 0
Personal Choice Party Charles Jay 946 0.10% 0
Socialist Workers Party Roger Calero 393 0.04% 0
Green Party David Cobb 39 0.00% 0
Write Ins 4 0.00% 0
Totals 927,844 100.00% 5
Voter turnout (Voting age population) 57.7%

Results by county

County George W. Bush
Republican		 John Kerry
Democratic		 Ralph Nader[9]
Unaffiliated		 Michael Peroutka[9]
Constitution		 Various candidates[9]
Other parties		 Margin Total votes cast
#  % #  % #  % #  % #  % #  %
Beaver 2,023 79.52% 493 19.38% 12 0.47% 9 0.35% 7 0.28% 1,530 60.14% 2,544
Box Elder 15,751 85.75% 2,244 12.22% 145 0.79% 144 0.78% 84 0.46% 13,507 73.53% 18,368
Cache 32,486 81.76% 6,375 16.05% 413 1.04% 274 0.69% 183 0.46% 26,111 65.71% 39,731
Carbon 4,950 58.18% 3,415 40.14% 83 0.98% 22 0.26% 38 0.45% 1,535 18.04% 8,508
Daggett 380 76.15% 108 21.64% 6 1.20% 3 0.60% 2 0.20% 272 54.51% 499
Davis 86,187 78.88% 20,893 19.12% 1,055 0.97% 695 0.64% 438 0.41% 65,294 59.76% 109,268
Duchesne 4,742 85.35% 738 13.28% 27 0.49% 32 0.58% 17 0.31% 4,004 72.07% 5,556
Emery 3,781 80.83% 831 17.76% 23 0.49% 29 0.62% 14 0.30% 2,950 63.07% 4,678
Garfield 1,848 85.48% 264 12.21% 22 1.02% 16 0.74% 12 0.56% 1,584 73.27% 2,162
Grand 2,130 51.14% 1,858 44.61% 118 2.83% 20 0.48% 39 0.94% 272 6.53% 4,165
Iron 12,815 82.97% 2,267 14.68% 111 0.72% 169 1.09% 84 0.54% 10,548 68.29% 15,446
Juab 2,681 78.46% 605 17.71% 20 0.59% 98 2.87% 13 0.38% 2,076 60.75% 3,417
Kane 2,414 79.12% 576 18.88% 25 0.82% 19 0.62% 17 0.55% 1,838 60.24% 3,051
Millard 4,084 83.74% 626 12.84% 28 0.57% 118 2.42% 21 0.43% 3,458 70.90% 4,877
Morgan 3,301 85.94% 472 12.29% 25 0.65% 24 0.62% 19 0.49% 2,829 73.65% 3,841
Piute 646 83.57% 123 15.91% 3 0.39% 1 0.13% 0 0.00% 523 67.66% 773
Rich 922 88.91% 109 10.51% 5 0.48% 1 0.10% 0 0.00% 813 78.40% 1,037
Salt Lake 215,728 59.57% 135,949 37.54% 6,025 1.66% 2,199 0.61% 2,237 0.62% 79,779 22.03% 362,138
San Juan 2,971 60.02% 1,906 38.51% 30 0.61% 24 0.48% 19 0.38% 1,065 21.51% 4,950
Sanpete 7,004 82.33% 1,189 13.98% 58 0.68% 217 2.55% 39 0.46% 5,815 68.35% 8,507
Sevier 6,597 86.34% 920 12.04% 37 0.48% 60 0.79% 27 0.35% 5,677 74.30% 7,641
Summit 7,936 51.83% 6,977 45.57% 265 1.73% 36 0.24% 98 0.64% 959 6.26% 15,312
Tooele 12,181 73.10% 4,130 24.78% 150 0.90% 111 0.67% 92 0.55% 8,051 48.32% 16,664
Uintah 8,518 85.55% 1,266 12.71% 42 0.42% 99 0.99% 32 0.32% 7,252 72.84% 9,957
Utah 128,269 85.99% 17,357 11.64% 1,289 0.86% 1,621 1.09% 637 0.43% 110,912 74.35% 149,173
Wasatch 5,503 73.26% 1,854 24.68% 60 0.80% 65 0.87% 30 0.40% 3,649 48.58% 7,512
Washington 35,633 80.95% 7,513 17.07% 301 0.68% 362 0.82% 209 0.47% 28,120 63.88% 44,018
Wayne 1,062 78.09% 279 20.51% 10 0.74% 5 0.37% 4 0.29% 783 57.58% 1,360
Weber 51,199 70.43% 19,862 27.32% 917 1.26% 368 0.51% 345 0.47% 31,337 43.11% 72,691
Totals663,74271.54%241,19926.00%11,3051.22%6,8410.74%4,7570.51%422,54345.54%927,844

Results by congressional district

Bush won all 3 congressional districts, including one held by a Democrat.

District Bush Kerry Representative
1st 73% 25% Rob Bishop
2nd 66% 31% Jim Matheson
3rd 77% 20% Chris Cannon

Electors

Technically the voters of Utah cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Utah is allocated five electors because it has three congressional districts and two senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of five electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins a plurality of votes in the state is awarded all five electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.

The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 13, 2004, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.

The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 5 were pledged to Bush/Cheney:

  1. Olene S. Walker
  2. Gayle McKeachnie
  3. Lewis K. Billings
  4. Joseph A. Cannon
  5. Scott F. Simpson

See also

References

  1. ↑ "2004 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". dcpoliticalreport.com. Archived from the original on November 21, 2010. Retrieved June 6, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ↑ "Election 2004 Polls - Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". Archived from the original on June 2, 2006.
  4. ↑ "George W Bush - $374,659,453 raised, '04 election cycle, Republican Party, President".
  5. ↑ "John F Kerry - $345,826,176 raised, '04 election cycle, Democrat Party, President".
  6. ↑ "CNN.com Specials". CNN.
  7. ↑ "CNN.com Specials". CNN.
  8. ↑ "2004 Presidential General Election Results – Utah".
  9. 1 2 3 Our Campaigns; UT US Presidential Election November 02 2004
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.