ABSTRACT
On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama won the most decisive Democraticpresidential election victory in a generation. Obama’s victory was historically significant because he attracted a winning coalition of diverse Americans that included educated whites, women, Latinos, African Americans, Asians, and young voters. Obama was able to motivate a broad cross-section of American voters and increase turnout among these voters. Obama achieved only moderate success with working-class voters, who made up the majority of the Democratic Party from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s victory in 1932 until the election of Republican Richard Nixon in 1968. Obama’s unprecedented victory created an aura of excitement at home and abroad over a historic bid by an African American.
