Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2012

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v t e

On April 4, 2011, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, formally announced his re-election campaign for 2012.^[2][3] His running mate is Vice President Joe Biden^[4] and they will be opposed by candidates from the Republican Party^[5][6] and candidates from other parties. The election will take place on Tuesday, November 6, 2012.

Obama's campaign headquarters are in Chicago and key members of Obama's successful 2008 campaign, such as Jim Messina and David Axelrod, are returning to staff it.^[7] On the day of the announcement, the campaign released a promotional video showing supporters of Obama organizing for the re-election effort.^[5] As The Guardian newspaper noted, this was the first U.S. presidential re-election campaign to use Twitter and Facebook for promotion.^[6]

Early stages

On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. On April 4, 2011, President Obama officially announced his candidacy for re-election.^[6] The announcement was made via an online video titled "It Begins With Us", posted on his campaign website. The President also filled out official forms with the FEC at that time.^[8]

President Obama did not face a significant challenge in the Democratic primaries, with no other candidate on the ballot in all but seven states. On April 3, 2012 Obama won the Maryland and District of Columbia primaries, giving him more than the required 2778 delegates to secure the nomination.^[9]

The campaign is based in Chicago in One Prudential Plaza, instead of in Washington, D.C., where all other modern incumbent presidents had their re-election headquarters.^[10][11] The decision to base the campaign outside of Washington was said to be to build up grassroots support for the re-election.^[12]

On April 30, 2012 the campaign announced that its slogan would be "Forward".^[13]

Campaign staff and policy team

Many key people from the successful 2008 campaign are expected to return. David Axelrod, who was in charge of Media in 2008 and who worked in the White House as a Senior Advisor to the President from 2009 until 2011, returned to Chicago to work on the campaign as the top communications official.^[14] Jim Messina, who worked in the White House as Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations from 2009 until 2011, moved to Chicago to serve as campaign manager.^[15][16][17] Matthew Barzun, the United States Ambassador to Sweden, will serve as finance chairman.^[18] Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, who worked at the Democratic National Committee as an executive director, was named deputy campaign manager.^[19] The other deputy campaign manager is Julianna Smoot, who was the 2008 finance director and was briefly the White House Social Secretary.^[20] Ben LaBolt will serve as national press secretary. LaBolt worked for Sherrod Brown's 2006 Senate campaign, worked as Obama's senate press secretary, worked for the 2008 campaign, worked as a deputy White House Press Secretary, and currently works for Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel,^[19] Katie Hogan, who worked on the 2008 campaign, will serve as deputy press secretary.^[14] Rahm Emanunel is expected to play a role in the campaign. Emanuel served as White House Chief of Staff from January 2009 until October 2010 and worked on President Bill Clinton's successful 1992 and 1996 campaigns.^[21] Rufus Gifford will serve as Finance Director, Elizabeth Lowery will serve as Deputy Finance Director, Jeremy Bird will serve as National Field Director, Marlon Marshall will serve as Deputy National Field Director, Mitch Stewart will serve as battleground state Director, and Elizabeth Jarvis-Shean will serve as Research Director.^[19] Katherine Archuleta was named political director.^[22]

Campaign co-chairs

In February 2012, a list of campaign co-chairs was announced. The co-chairs are^[23]

• Lynnette Acosta – OFA volunteer leader from Florida
• Marc Benioff – CEO of Salesforce.com
• Michael Bennet – U.S. Senator from Colorado
• Julian Castro – Mayor of San Antonio
• Lincoln Chafee – Governor and former U.S. Senator from Rhode Island
• Ann Cherry – Retired teacher and OFA volunteer leader from North Carolina
• Judy Chu – US Representative from the 32nd District of California
• Emanuel Cleaver – US Representative from the 5th District of Missouri
• Bill Daley – Former White House Chief of Staff to President Obama, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce
• Maria Elena Durazo – Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO
• Dick Durbin – U.S. Senator from Illinois
• Rahm Emanuel – Mayor of Chicago
• Russ Feingold – Former U.S. Senator from Wisconsin
• Charles A. Gonzalez – US Representative from the 20th District of Texas
• Loretta Harper – High School Counselor and OFA volunteer leader from Nevada
• Kamala Harris – Attorney General of California
• Sai Iyer – Student at Virginia Commonwealth University and OFA volunteer leader from Virginia
• Caroline Kennedy – Author, President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, daughter of U.S. President John F. Kennedy
• Eva Longoria – Actress and Philanthropist
• Felesia Martin – OFA volunteer leader from Wisconsin
• Vashti McKenzie – African Methodist Episcopal Bishop
• Tom Miller – Attorney General of Iowa
• Kal Penn – Actor, Former White House Associate Director for the Office of Public Engagement
• John Nathman – Retired U.S. Navy Admiral
• Deval Patrick – Governor of Massachusetts
• Federico Pena - Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation and U.S. Secretary of Energy
• Elaine Price – Retired Ohio resident and OFA volunteer leader from Ohio
• Penny Pritzker – Founder and CEO of PSP Capital Partners
• John Register – U.S. Army Veteran and Paralympian
• Jan Schakowsky – US Representative from the 9th District of Illinois
• Jeanne Shaheen – U.S. Senator from New Hampshire
• Joe Solmonese – President of the Human Rights Campaign
• Alan Solow – Partner at DLA Piper LLP and past Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
• Ted Strickland – Former Governor of Ohio
• Antonio Villaraigosa – Mayor of Los Angeles

Fundraising

The campaign began accepting online donations on April 4, 2011, the day Obama announced his candidacy. In the first 24 hours after online donations began to be accepted, over 23,000 online donations of $200 or less were made.^[24] President Obama headlined his first campaign fundraiser in April 2011 in Chicago. He also headlined fundraisers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York in April 2011.^[25] On April 29, 2011, it was announced that Matthew Barzun, the United States Ambassador to Sweden, would serve as finance chairman.^[18] Many sources claim that the campaign may be the first campaign in U.S. history to raise more than one billion dollars.^{[26][27][28][29]} In March 2011, Campaign Chairman Jim Messina asked a group of 450 top donors to raise $350,000.^[30] During the second fundraising quarter of 2011 (the first of the campaign), the campaign raised a record amount of $86,000,000.^[31] As of May 3, 2012, Obama and his team have held 130 fundraisers.^[32]

More than 550,000 individuals donated towards the campaign in the second quarter of 2011, which is a much larger number than the 180,000 individuals who donated to Obama's 2008 campaign during the first half of 2007.^[33] From the beginning of the campaign to December 31, 2011, more than 1.3 million individual donated to the campaign.^[34]The LGBT community has donated a record amount so far to the campaign.^[35] As of March 31, 2012, the campaign has raised $191.7 million.^[36]

On May 10, 2012, Obama attended a fundraiser in the Los Angeles home of actor George Clooney, which raised over $15 million. The fundraiser was initially estimated to raise about $10 million, but after Obama's historic announcement of his support for same-sex marriage, the amount went up significantly. Many believe that the LGBT community and activists will donate historic amounts after his announcement.^[37]

Public perception

Opinion polling

An August 2011 Rasmussen poll found that in a hypothetical race between President Obama and a generic Republican, 48% backed the generic Republican and 40% backed the President.^[38] In a March 2011 Pew poll, Obama held an advantage of 47% to 37%, similar to the lead that former President George W. Bush held over an unnamed Democrat in 2003 and larger than the lead former President Bill Clinton held over an unnamed Republican in 1995.^[39][40]

In February 2012, Obama held a sizable lead over both Mitt Romney (53-43) and Rick Santorum (53-42) nationally.^[41] By the end of March 2012, Obama's lead over Romney had narrowed to approximately 2.4% (46.6-44.2) nationally.^[42]

Endorsements

See also

• Democratic Party presidential candidates, 2012
• 2012 Democratic National Convention

References

External links

• Obama for America, official campaign site
• Biography at WhoRunsGov.com at The Washington Post
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Congressional profile at GovTrack
• Issue positions and quotes at On the Issues
• Financial information at OpenSecrets.org
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at the National Institute for Money in State Politics
• Appearances on C-SPAN programs
• Appearances on Charlie Rose
• Appearances at the Internet Movie Database
• Collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Works by or about Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2012 in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

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