who won the popular vote in the 2012 presidential election
United States presidential election, 2012 Obama defeated Romney, winning a majority of both the popular vote and the Electoral College. Obama won 51.1% of the popular vote compared to Romney's 47.2%, while Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson won just under 1% of the vote. Obama was the first incumbent since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 to win reelection with fewer electoral votes and a lower popular vote percentage than had been won in the previous election, and was also the first two-term president since Ronald Reagan to win both his presidential bids with a majority of the nationwide popular vote.
United States House of Representatives elections, 2010 Republicans regained control of the chamber they had lost in the 2006 midterm elections, picking up a net total of 63 seats and erasing the gains Democrats made in 2006 and 2008. Although the sitting U.S. President's party usually loses seats in a midterm election, the 2010 election resulted in the highest loss of a party in a House midterm election since 1938,[6][7] and the largest House swing since 1948.[8] This also happened to be the Republicans' largest gain in House seats since 1938.[9] Republicans gained the most in New York state where they picked up six seats, defeating five incumbents and winning an open Democratic district. The heavy Democratic Party losses were attributed to anger with President Obama, opposition to the Affordable Care Act, large budget deficits and the weak economy.[10][11][12] This was also the third consecutive midterm election in a president's first term where the Republican Party has made gains in the House of Representatives, as well as the second consecutive midterm election where party control of the said chamber changed hands. Notable freshmen included future Senators Cory Gardner, Todd Young, James Lankford, and Tim Scott, future Governor of Delaware John Carney, future Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney, future Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, future Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas Tim Griffin, and future Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry.