How did America vote in terms of land area? (2012)

[Fuzzybigfoot]

Like, what was the total land area of all the counties/parishes/boroughs won by Obama and all the counties/parishes/boroughs won by Romney?  Anyone know?  

[Fuzzybigfoot]

?

[old timey villain]

I actually posted a thread about this a few months ago but I can't find it.

I think we agreed that Obama won the smallest amount of land for any winning Democrat in the modern era. Even Michael Dukakis won more square miles of county land area than Obama. This was because Dukakis was still able to win a lot of rural counties in the south and a good chunk of the great plains (farm crisis) but he got crushed in the more populous suburbs.

Obama lost more rural areas but he won most urban counties and a lot of suburban counties, so I'd guess than Obama only won about 25% of the US land area. Of course the size of a county doesn't correlate with votes.

[Mehmentum]

I think Alaska might help Obama a lot though.  Obama won the vast majority of Alaska's land area due to the Native American vote.

[ElectionsGuy]

Romney won 78% of Counties. That gives us an idea. But western counties definitely would help Romney, and Alaska would definitely help Obama. Overall its something like 75-80% Romney and 20-25% Obama.

[minionofmidas]

Does anybody have the 2008 figure? The areas that Obama gained in Alaska have 53% of that state's surface, and 3.6% of the US'. Romney's gains in the lower 48 are not going to fully offset that.

[RI]

Using Alaskan boroughs, in 2012, Obama won counties covering 1,120,703 sq. miles (31.65%), and Romney won counties covering 2,419,755 sq. miles (68.35%) of land area nationally.

[RI]

By state:

[RI]

In 2008, Obama won counties covering 951,043 sq. miles (26.86%), and McCain won counties covering 2,589,415 sq. miles (73.14%) of land area nationally. Almost all of the difference between 2008 and 2012 is in Alaska.

2008 by state:

Swing 2008-12: