Demographic Groups and Votes, 2008

Demographic Groups and Votes, 2008
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A first look at how groups lined up in the presidential election. Almost all groups shifted in a Democratic direction. In that sense the Obama win as very much "across the board". The exceptions: Small towns, late deciders and (interestingly) gays. Gay support was still highly pro-Democratic, just not has high as it was in 2004. (Exit polls found 4% self-identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual and the vote split was 70-27 for Obama.)
There were few significant shifts in the relative ordering of group support, which is some evidence that no substantial restructuring of electoral alignments. If such a restructuring is to occur, it will be during the next four years, not from Tuesday's voting patterns.
For easy legibility, here is an ordering of groups based on 2008 margin:
And here are groups sorted by amount of change in the group's vote margin from 2004 to 2008:

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