The 2008 Colorado Democratic presidential caucuses took place on

Super Tuesday Super Tuesday is the United States presidential primary election day in February or March when the greatest number of U.S. states hold primary elections and caucuses. Approximately one-third of all delegates to the presidential nominatin ...

, February 5, 2008. As he did in every other state that held a caucus rather than a primary,

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

won the caucus by a wide, two-to-one margin over

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

Process

As a cost-saving measure, Colorado stopped holding primary elections in 2000 in favor of a caucus system. Caucuses are run and paid for by the political parties. Both Republican and Democratic Caucus started at 7 p.m. The Colorado Democratic Caucus was a closed caucus, open only to registered voters who registered as Democrats no later than December 5, 2007, with the exception of 18-year-olds or new citizens, who could register at the caucus site. The precinct chairs took presidential preference polls of all caucus attendees; these preference polls were reported to the media. After the preference poll, delegates were then selected among the attendees for each viable candidate, and supporters of nonviable groups could re-caucus into viable groups. Candidates were required to reach a 15-percent threshold for viability within each level of the selection process. Following the local caucuses, county conventions, congressional district conventions, and the state convention, on May 17, 2008, were held to finally apportion delegates to the

Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 18 ...

Polls

A ''

Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in the Denver metropolitan area. it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 mil ...

'' poll from late January indicated that

was leading

, though polls from earlier in the year had shown Clinton with a double-digit lead.

Results

Precinct Caucus Results

Total Precincts: 3,205 Caucus date: February 5, 2008

County Assembly and Convention Results

Assembly/Convention Dates: February 20–March 17, 2008 National pledged delegates determined: 0 (of 55)

Congressional District Convention Results

Convention Dates: May 3–16, 2008 National pledged delegates determined: 36 (of 55)

State Convention Results

Convention Date: May 17, 2008 National pledged delegates determined: 19 (of 55)

Analysis

's large margin of victory in the Colorado Democratic Caucus can be traced to a number of factors. The Clinton campaign largely ignored organizing for caucuses and rather spent their time getting the vote out in bigger, more crucial states that had more delegates up for grabs. The Obama campaign took advantage of this and it ultimately paid off as caucusgoers in Colorado awarded Obama a more than two-to-one margin of victory. Obama performed extremely well statewide and won nearly every county. Clinton performed the best in Eastern Colorado where she won the more

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

and

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

counties in the Eastern Slope.

References

{{2008Demprimaries

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

2008 Colorado elections

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

2008 Super Tuesday