white Catholics supported Romney by a majority of 59 to 40 percent.

President Obama will be inaugurated Monday, January 21, 2013 in Washington, D.C. He will then serve his second and final term as president. It is unclear what Romney will do next. His wife, Ann Romney, said in October that if Romney lost, he would not run again. Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney’s senior adviser, said, “I think he wants to spend a lot of time with his grandkids.” Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan won his congressional district in Wisconsin and will return to the U.S. House of Representatives and resume his duties as chairman of the House Budget Committee.

Meanwhile, the Democrats maintained their majority in the U.S. Senate while Republicans still control the U.S. House. Iowa elected four incumbents to the U.S. House of Representatives: Democrat Bruce Braley of District 1, District 2 Democrat Dave Loebsack, Republican Tom Latham from District 3, and Republican Steve King of District 4.

Republicans kept control of the Iowa House and Democrats still have a majority in the Iowa Senate.

November 15, 2012 News 3President Obama wins reelection over Romney

President Barack Obama waves to his supporters with his family in Chicago after claiming victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney. AP Images

Carolina VonKampenCopy Editor

Incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, won reelection November 6 against their Republican challengers, Governor Mitt Romney and Representative Paul Ryan.

President Obama won over 60 million votes while Romney trailed with under 58 million. Both of these numbers are down from 2008’s popular vote, when Obama won over 66 million votes and John McCain earned over 58 million votes. The Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson and his running mate Jim Gray collected a little over one million votes but received no electoral votes.

Obama collected 303 electoral votes and Romney received 206 electoral votes. Obama won the key battleground state of Ohio and received its 18 electoral votes. Obama also won the other battleground states of Iowa, Colorado, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Nevada. Obama was declared the winner of Florida on November 10. Florida officials attributed the delay due to the counting of absentee, overseas, provisional, and military ballots.

The electoral college is the official method through which presidents are elected in the United States. In December, members of the electoral college meet and cast ballots for the winner of their

state’s popular vote. These ballots are then counted in the Senate in January and the results are officially announced. In the case of a tie or if neither candidate wins the required votes, the U.S. House would elect the president and the U.S. Senate would elect the vice-president.

Obama’s victory indicates a change in the U.S. electorate. Key groups that Obama carried were minorities, women, and youth. Non-whites made up 28 percent of the electorate and largely supported Obama: 71 percent of Hispanics and 93 percent of blacks voted for Obama. Romney won among white voters by 20 percent. 60 percent of

voters under the age of 30, a group that made up 19 percent of the vote, supported Obama this year. This number is less than the 66 percent of the vote Obama captured in 2008 from this age group, and 37 percent of the youth vote went to Romney this year. More seniors voted for Romney. Romney received 56 percent of the senior vote while Obama received 44 percent of votes from this group. Obama won the women’s vote by 11 percentage points, although married women backed Romney by seven points. 52 percent of men voted for Romney and 45 percent for Obama.

Catholics supported Obama by a majority of 50 to 48 percent, but