Obama wins with support from women, African-Americans, Hispanics

by Tina Kells | November 4, 2008 at 08:30 pm

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Obama has won not only the presidency of the United States, but a unique place in history as the first African-American president, and his victory came with overwhelming support from voters who have traditionally felt marginalized by the system. Women, African-Americans, and Hispanic voters played a significant role in the election of the 44th president, which is something for the history books as well.

Barack Obama soaked up most of the votes from the nation's women, blacks and Hispanics and siphoned off enough white support to leave John McCain with no way to win.

McCain eked out only a thin majority among white Americans, whose strong support is necessary for a GOP victory, exit polls showed.

McCain and Obama split white votes across the U.S. except in the South, where McCain got twice as many white votes as Obama. Southern whites had favored George Bush by similar margins in 2000 and 2004.

Overall, McCain was backed by just over half of white voters, who make up three-fourths of the electorate. Whites had favored Bush over John Kerry by a whopping 17 percentage points in 2004.

Obama, who will become the first black president and at age 47 one of its youngest, ran away with the youth vote. He won the under-30 crowd by 34 percentage points, even better than Democrat Bill Clinton's 19-point advantage when he defeated Bob Dole in 1996.

About 40 percent of those voting called themselves Democrats — a historically high number — and they overwhelmingly chose Obama. He also held a significant edge among the quarter of voters who called themselves independents