Politics
| Year | Republican | Democratic |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 36.9% 1,981,158 | 61.8% 3,319,237 |
| 2004 | 44.48% 2,345,946 | 54.82% 2,891,550 |
| 2000 | 42.58% 2,019,421 | 54.60% 2,589,026 |
| 1996 | 36.81% 1,587,021 | 54.32% 2,341,744 |
| 1992 | 34.34% 1,734,096 | 48.58% 2,453,350 |
| 1988 | 50.69% 2,310,939 | 48.60% 2,215,940 |
| 1984 | 56.17% 2,707,103 | 43.30% 2,086,499 |
| 1980 | 49.65% 2,359,049 | 41.72% 1,981,413 |
| 1976 | 50.10% 2,364,269 | 48.13% 2,271,295 |
| 1972 | 59.03% 2,788,179 | 40.51% 1,913,472 |
| 1968 | 47.08% 2,174,774 | 44.15% 2,039,814 |
| 1964 | 40.53% 1,905,946 | 59.47% 2,796,833 |
| 1960 | 49.80% 2,368,988 | 49.98% 2,377,846 |
In the past, Illinois was a critical swing state leaning marginally towards to the Republican Party. This has changed and the state has supported Democratic presidential candidates since 1992. John Kerry easily won the state's 21 electoral votes in 2004 by a margin of 11 percentage points with 54.8% of the vote. Traditionally, Chicago, East Saint Louis, and the Illinois portion of the Quad Cities have tended to vote heavily Democratic, along with the Central Illinois population centers of Peoria, Champaign-Urbana and Decatur.
Rural districts have tended to vote more heavily Republican, and the southern half of the state has historically tended Republican since the 1920s. The Republican Party was strongest in southern Illinois during the sixties and seventies when Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford won all areas of southern Illinois, with the exception of East St. Louis, three to one.
Read more about this topic: Government Of Illinois
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.”
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976)
“All is politics in this capital.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The politics of the exile are fever,
revenge, daydream,
theater of the aging convalescent.
You wait in the wings and rehearse.
You wait and wait.”
—Marge Piercy (b. 1936)