2008 Jewish Vote for Obama Exceeds All Expectations

November 5, 2008

When the general election campaign began in June of this year the consensus opinion among political pundits was that Barack Obama was going to underperform among Jewish voters.  In the four presidential elections between 1992 and 2008 the Democratic presidential nominee averaged 79%.

The Republican Jewish Coalition and other Republican spokespeople were quite confident that McCain would outperform past Republican nominees in the Jewish community.  A few even predicted that McCain would surpass the 39% of the Jewish vote that Reagan received in 1980.

The chart below highlights how the national and state polls of Jewish voters progressed over the course of this election. 

The bottom line from the 2008 exit poll:  Obama 78%, McCain 21%, Other 1%