Hillary Clinton 2008 presidential campaign

The 2008 presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton, then junior United States senator from New York, was announced on her website on January 20, 2007. Hillary Clinton was previously the First Lady of the United States and First Lady of Arkansas prior to her election as U.S. Senator from New York. She is also the wife of former President Bill Clinton. Clinton was the source of much media speculation since having expressed interest in being a candidate in the 2008 presidential election since at least October 2002.

Following her announcement of an exploratory committee and candidacy filing on January 20, 2007, with the FEC, she began fundraising and campaigning activities. For several months Clinton led opinion polls among Democratic candidates by substantial margins until Senator Barack Obama pulled close to or even with her. Clinton then regained her polling lead, winning many polls by double digits; by autumn 2007 she was leading all other Democratic candidates by wide margins in national polls. She placed third in the Iowa caucus behind Barack Obama and John Edwards, and trailed considerably in polls shortly thereafter in New Hampshire before staging a comeback and finishing first in the primary there. She went on to win a plurality of votes in Nevada, but won fewer delegates in Nevada than Obama, then lost by a large margin in South Carolina. On Super Tuesday, Clinton won the most populous states, including California and New York, while Obama won more states total. The two earned a nearly equal number of delegates and a nearly equal share of the total popular vote. Clinton then lost the next 12 caucuses and primaries to Obama, and lost the overall delegate lead to him for the first time. After an increasingly aggressive round of campaigning, Clinton broke the string of losses with wins in the Rhode Island, and Ohio primaries.

Clinton subsequently lost in Wyoming, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon, and won in Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Puerto Rico, and South Dakota. On the final day of primaries on June 3, 2008, Obama had gained enough pledged- and super-delegates to become the presumptive nominee; she then suspended her campaign on June 7, 2008, and endorsed Barack Obama. If nominated, she would have been the first female to be the presidential nominee by a major party in American history. If elected, she would have been the first female or former First Lady to become president. She also would’ve been the first incumbent senator since John F. Kennedy (honor went to Barack Obama) to become president.

While losing the delegate count, and thus the nomination, she earned more popular votes than Barack Obama (though unlike Clinton's name, Obama's name wasn't on the ballot in the 2008 Michigan Democratic primary; had all of the "Uncommitted" votes in the Michigan primary been counted as votes for Obama, Obama would have very narrowly won the popular vote as well). In the general election, Barack Obama defeated Senator and Republican nominee John McCain of Arizona, and nominated Clinton as the 67th Secretary of State, an office in which she served until February 2013.

In the 2016 election, Clinton would go on to become the Democratic presidential nominee, but was defeated by Republican nominee Donald Trump.