Team Obama Takes Victory Lap
President Barack Obama’s campaign team took a final victory lap this afternoon, boasting of statistics in battleground states that brought their candidate a resounding victory on Tuesday.
A successful coalition of Hispanic, black and female voters delivered wins in key battleground states, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina emphasized in a conference call with reporters.
Messina declared that Obama won a “record” 71 percent of the Latino vote. He said minority turnout increased to 28 percent this cycle, while women maintained their same percentage as in 2008.
“The issues that Latino voters care about, like everyone else, are the economy, jobs, education,” Messina said. “But they watched the Republican party in the primary use them as a political football.”
In Florida, Messina claimed that Obama won a majority of Cuban voters, a traditionally conservative sector of the Hispanic vote. Messina predicted that Obama would be declared the winner of the Sunshine State’s 29 electoral votes later today, bringing the total to 332 electoral votes.
Meanwhile in Colorado, the Hispanic vote increased from 13 percent to 14 percent.
African-American voters came out stronger for the president than four years ago, particularly in Ohio, where their percentage climbed from 11 percent to 15 percent. Messina said Obama garnered 90 percent to 97 percent of the support of black voters in every battleground state.
In Virginia, Messina claimed that the percentage of youth voters increased over the past four years from 61 percent to 66 percent.