Oklahoma gave John McCain his strongest showing in Election 2008 with a rounded percentage of 66% (65.65%) going to him. Oklahoma was also the only state in the country where every single county voted for McCain. Although the results were similar to
2004 in which
George W. Bush swept every county in the state with 65.57% of the vote, McCain's margin of victory was slightly better - 0.08% more - in 2008. Oklahoma was one of five states where McCain outperformed
George W. Bush, the other four being
Arkansas,
Louisiana,
Tennessee, and
West Virginia. Oklahoma, despite the large concentration of
Native Americans in the state, remains one of the most reliably Republican states in the country. Although Democrats still had a majority of registered voters (as well as the governorship) at the time, the state's Democrats are very conservative by national standards. Oklahoma is part of the
Bible Belt, and voters in the state have a strong penchant for being values voters; that is, they are strongly and deeply conservative on social issues such as
abortion and
gay rights. McCain's selection of the socially conservative
Governor Sarah Palin of
Alaska proved to be an excellent fit for Oklahoma. Obama was at a disadvantage beforehand in Oklahoma during the primary season when voters in Oklahoma backed
Hillary Rodham Clinton with 54.76% of the vote compared to Obama's 31.19% and a significant amount (10.24%) going to
John Edwards. Clinton won every county in the Oklahoma Democratic Primary except for
Oklahoma County, home of
Oklahoma City which Obama just narrowly carried. Most of Oklahoma's Democratic establishment were early endorsers of Hillary Clinton as well. Another setback for Obama was that
U.S. Representative Dan Boren, the only Democrat from Oklahoma's five-member delegation in the
U.S. House of Representatives, refused to endorse Obama. Another key to McCain's victory was the highly populated counties of
Tulsa County, which he won with over 62%, and Oklahoma County, which he won with over 58%. He also dominated the heavily Republican
Oklahoma Panhandle by an almost four-to-one margin. Despite the Republican landslide, Obama did improve upon
John Kerry's performance in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. However, this was more than canceled out by his extremely weak showing in Southeast Oklahoma, historically the most Democratic region in the state. This socially conservative but fiscally liberal area, known as "
Little Dixie," still votes Democratic at the local level and state levels. It also warmly supported
Bill Clinton of neighboring
Arkansas in
1992 and
1996; Clinton's populism struck a chord among the region's voters. Democratic nominees from
John Kerry on, on the other hand, have proven spectacularly bad fits for the region and the state as a whole. Obama lost many counties in Southeast Oklahoma by more than two-to-one margins. Also, Oklahoma was the only state in the country that didn't have a third-party candidate on the ballot, mostly because the state has the toughest ballot access laws in the country. Obama became the first Democrat to win without winning a single county in Oklahoma. During the same election, incumbent Republican
U.S. Senator James Inhofe was solidly reelected over Democratic
State Senator Andrew Rice. Inhofe received 56.68% while Rice took in 39.18% and
Independent Stephen P. Wallace received the remaining 4.14%. At the state level, Republicans made gains in the
Oklahoma Legislature, picking up four seats in the
Oklahoma House of Representatives and two seats in the
Oklahoma Senate which gave the GOP control of the state legislature for the first time since statehood. ==Results==