President Barack Obama won re-election in the 2012 presidential campaign against Gov. Mitt Romney on Tuesday after garnering the electoral votes of several major swing states. The president received noteworthy support from college age students as 60 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 cast their ballots for Obama.
In addition, more young people voted in this election than in 2008. People between the ages of 18 and 29 accounted for 19 percent of those who voted in the election, according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research.
Battleground States
Obama won 11 of the 14 swing states, including Virginia, Ohio, Colorado, Iowa and Nevada.
Both the Obama and Romney campaigns expect Florida to narrowly favor the president.
Same-Sex Marriage
Maryland and Maine passed ballot measures Tuesday allowing same-sex marriage. Washington state is projected to pass a similar ballot measure, but results had not been finalized as of Nov. 8. Minnesota voters also rejected a measure that would have banned same-sex marriage.
Marijuana Initiatives
Recreational marijuana was legalized in Colorado and Washington state, and medical marijuana may be legalized in Massachusetts and Montana, pending final vote counts. However, Oregon and Arkansas voted against legalization of marijuana.
Puerto Rico may become the 51st State of America
Puerto Ricans voted in favor of statehood for the first time. According to the Constitution, Congress would still need to decide whether or not to accept Puerto Rico as a state before it can join the union.
Warren Unseats Brown
Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren defeated Republican Senator Scott Brown in the Senate race. The Warren-Brown race gained publicity after Brown’s repeated accusations that Warren illegitimately claimed to have Native American ancestry to advance her career. Brown was elected to replace the deceased Sen. Ted Kennedy, a longtime Democrat in the Senate. Warren helped create the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, a major cornerstone for the Obama Administration, and was a favorite among Democrats to head the new agency.
Mourdock Defeated by Donnelly
The Democrats gained another seat in the Senate with the victory of Joe Donnelly over Republican Richard Mourdock. Mourdock was severely criticized after he said that pregnancy as a result of rape was “something God intended.”
McCaskill Defeats Akin
Claire McCaskill defeated Todd Akin in the Missouri Senate Race. Akin’s campaign had its share of controversy. When he was asked whether abortion should be allowed in the case of rape, and he responded that “the female body has ways to try and shut that whole thing down.” He went on to say that the rapist, not the unborn child, should be punished.
Staff Writer Zach C. Cohen contributed to this report.
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