The 2012 Missouri gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 2012, to elect the
Governor
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
of
Missouri
Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
. Incumbent Democratic Governor
Jay Nixon
Jeremiah Wilson "Jay" Nixon (born February 13, 1956) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the List of governors of Missouri, 55th governor of Missouri from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic P ...
won re-election against the Republican nominee, businessman
Dave Spence
Dave Spence (born February 28, 1958) is an American corporate executive and politician. He was the Republican nominee for governor of Missouri in the 2012 election, losing the general election to incumbent Democrat Jay Nixon.
Early life and ...
, despite incumbent President
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 ...
losing Missouri on the same day to Republican nominee
Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025 and as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 ...
. , this is the last time a Democrat won the governorship of Missouri to date. This is also the last time that a governor and lieutenant governor of different political parties were simultaneously elected in Missouri. Primary elections took place on August 5, 2012.
Democratic primary
Candidates
Nominee
*
Jay Nixon
Jeremiah Wilson "Jay" Nixon (born February 13, 1956) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the List of governors of Missouri, 55th governor of Missouri from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic P ...
, incumbent governor
Eliminated in primary
* William Campbell
* Clay Thunderhawk
Results
Republican primary
Candidates
Nominee
*
Dave Spence
Dave Spence (born February 28, 1958) is an American corporate executive and politician. He was the Republican nominee for governor of Missouri in the 2012 election, losing the general election to incumbent Democrat Jay Nixon.
Early life and ...
, businessman
Eliminated in primary
* Bill Randles, businessman and corporate defense lawyer
* Fred Sauer, investment executive and
anti-abortion
Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its Abortion by country, legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in r ...
activist
* John Weiler
Polling
Results
Libertarian primary
Candidates
* Jim Higgins, former officer of the
Libertarian Party of Missouri
The Libertarian Party of Missouri is the Missouri affiliate of the Libertarian Party. The state chair is Dustin Coffell. The party has been an established party in Missouri with ballot access since 1992 due to the state's threshold of vote perce ...
[
]
Denied ballot access
* Leonard Steinman[
]
Results
General election
Debates
Complete video of debate
C-SPAN
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...
, September 21, 2012
Predictions
Polling
Republican primary
General election
Results
Nixon won by a comfortable 12.3% margin, though this was somewhat closer than his 2008 victory. Even with President 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 ...
losing the state by a nine-point margin, Nixon and Senator Claire McCaskill
Claire Conner McCaskill (; born July 24, 1953) is an American former politician who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Missouri from 2007 to 2019 and as State Auditor of Missouri, state auditor of Missouri from 1999 to ...
both won reelection easily. Like his Senatorial colleague, Nixon was able to get a huge number of votes from rural areas. Both Nixon and McCaskill were declared the winners of their respective races even before the known Democratic strongholds of St. Louis
St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...
and Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...
came in.
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic
* Audrain (largest city: Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
)
*Clark
Clark is an English language surname with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland, ultimately derived from the Latin ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educated ...
(largest city: Kahoka)
* Knox (largest city: Edina
EDINA is a centre for digital expertise, based at the University of Edinburgh as a division of the Information Services Group.
Services
EDINA front and back ends, front-end services (those accessed directly by the user) are available free at ...
)
*Lewis
Lewis may refer to:
Names
* Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name
* Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname
Music
* Lewis (musician), Canadian singer
* " Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohe ...
(largest city: Canton
Canton may refer to:
Administrative divisions
* Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries
* Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French
Arts and entertainment
* Canton (band), an It ...
)
*Mississippi
Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
(largest city: Charleston)
*Monroe
Monroe or Monroes may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Monroe (surname)
* Monroe (given name)
* James Monroe, 5th President of the United States
* Marilyn Monroe, actress and model
Places United States
* Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorp ...
(largest city: Monroe City)
Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican
*Andrew
Andrew is the English form of the given name, common in many countries. The word is derived from the , ''Andreas'', itself related to ''aner/andros'', "man" (as opposed to "woman"), thus meaning "manly" and, as consequence, "brave", "strong", "c ...
(largest city: Savannah
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...
)
* Atchison (largest city: Tarkio)
* Benton (largest city: Warsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
)
*Caldwell
Caldwell may refer to:
People
* Caldwell (surname)
* Caldwell (given name)
* Caldwell First Nation, a federally recognized First Nation in southern Ontario, Canada
Places
Great Britain
* Caldwell, Derbyshire, a hamlet
* Caldwell, Ea ...
(largest city: Hamilton
Hamilton may refer to:
* Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States
* ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda
** ''Hamilton'' (al ...
)
* Camden (largest city: Osage Beach)
*Carter
Carter(s), or Carter's, Tha Carter, or The Carter(s), may refer to:
Geography United States
* Carter, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Carter, Mississippi, an unincorporated community
* Carter, Montana, a census-designated place
* Carter ...
(largest city: Van Buren)
*Cass
Cass may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Cass (surname), a list of people
* Cass (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Big Cass, ring name of wrestler William Morrissey
* Cass, in British band Skunk Anansie
* Cass, ...
(largest city: Harrisonville)
*Cedar
Cedar may refer to:
Trees and plants
*''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae
* Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar
Places United States
* Cedar, Arizona
...
(largest city: El Dorado Springs)
* Crawford (largest city: Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
)
*Dallas
Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
(largest city: Buffalo
Buffalo most commonly refers to:
* True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo
* Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo
* Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...
)
* Daviess (largest city: Gallatin)
* Dent (largest city: Salem)
*Douglas
Douglas may refer to:
People
* Douglas (given name)
* Douglas (surname)
Animals
* Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking
* Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil ...
(largest city: Ava
Ava or AVA may refer to:
Places Asia and Oceania
* Ava Kingdom, in upper Burma from 1364 to 1555
** Inwa, formerly Ava, the capital of Ava Kingdom
** Earl of Ava, a British colonial earldom in Burma
* Ava, Iran, Gilan Province, a village
* Iva ...
)
*Gentry
Gentry (from Old French , from ) are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. ''Gentry'', in its widest connotation, refers to people of good social position connected to Landed property, landed es ...
(largest city: Albany)
*Howell
Howell may refer to:
Places
In the United States
* Howell, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Howell, Evansville, a neighborhood in Indiana
* Howell, Michigan, a city in Livingston County
* Howell County, Missouri
* Howell, Missouri, a ...
(largest city: West Plains)
* Laclede (largest city: Lebanon
Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...
)
*Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincoln (na ...
(largest city: Troy
Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...
)
* Livingston (largest city: Chillicothe)
* Maries (largest city: Belle)
*Morgan
Morgan may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Morgan – A Suitable Case for Treatment'', also called ''Morgan!'', a 1966 comedy film
* ''Morgan'' (2012 film), an American drama
* ''Morgan'' (2016 film), an American science fiction thriller
* ...
(largest city: Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...
)
*Oregon
Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
(largest city: Thayer Thayer may refer to:
Places
;United States
* Thayer, Illinois
* Thayer, Indiana
* Thayer, Iowa
* Thayer, Kansas
* Thayer, Michigan
* Thayer, Missouri
* Thayer, Nebraska
*Thayer, West Virginia
* Thayer County, Nebraska
* Thayer Street, Providence, ...
)
*Ozark
The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, as well as a small area in the southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cov ...
(largest city: Gainesville)
* Phelps (largest city: Rolla)
*Polk
DNA polymerase kappa is a DNA polymerase that in humans is encoded by the ''POLK'' gene. It is involved in translesion synthesis
DNA repair is a collection of processes by which a cell (biology), cell identifies and corrects damage to the ...
(largest city: Bolivar)
* Pulaski (largest city: Fort Leonard Wood
Fort Leonard Wood is a United States Army, U.S. Army training installation located in the Missouri The Ozarks, Ozarks. The main gate is located on the southern boundary of the city of St. Robert, Missouri, St. Robert. The post was created in De ...
)
* Ripley (largest city: Doniphan)
* St. Clair (largest city: Appleton City)
*Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
(largest city: Licking
Licking is the action (philosophy), action of passing the tongue over a surface, typically either to deposit saliva onto the surface, or to collect liquid, food or minerals onto the tongue for ingestion, or to animal communication, communicate w ...
)
* Vernon (largest city: Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
)
* Webster (largest city: Marshfield)
By congressional district
Nixon won five of eight congressional districts, including three that elected Republicans.
See also
* 2012 United States gubernatorial elections
United States gubernatorial elections were held in 12 states (including a 2012 Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election, recall election in Wisconsin on June 5) and two territories. Of the eight Democratic Party (United States), Democratic and fo ...
* 2012 United States Senate election in Missouri
The 2012 United States Senate election in Missouri was held on November 6, 2012, concurrently with the 2012 presidential election, elections to the United States Senate in other states, elections to the United States House of Representatives, a ...
* 2012 United States House of Representatives elections in Missouri
* 2012 United States presidential election in Missouri
The 2012 United States presidential election in Missouri took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 United States presidential election, in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Missouri voters chose 10 elec ...
* 2012 Missouri lieutenant gubernatorial election
* 2012 Missouri Attorney General election
* 2012 Missouri State Treasurer election
* 2012 Missouri Secretary of State election
* Political party strength in Missouri
References
External links
Elections
from the Missouri Secretary of State
Campaign sites (archived)
Jay Nixon for Governor
Dave Spence for Governor
Jim Higgins for Governor
{{2012 United States elections
Missouri
Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
Governor
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
2012
2012 was designated as:
*International Year of Cooperatives
*International Year of Sustainable Energy for All
Events January
*January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins.
* January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...
2012 in Missouri
November 2012 in the United States