2012 United States presidential election (Bush dies)

The 2012 United States presidential election was the 57th quadrennial presidential election held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. The Republican ticket of John McCain, the former Secretary of Defense, and John Thune, the junior Senator from South Dakota, defeated the Independent-Libertarian ticket of incumbent President Joe Lieberman and his running mate, Wesley Clark, the former Supreme Allied Commander Europe. The Democratic ticket of Vice President John Kerry and his running mate Hillary Clinton, the junior Senator for New York.

McCain won the election primarily because of the divide in the Democratic party that saw incumbent President Joe Lieberman ousted as the party's nominee, replaced by his Vice President, John Kerry. Lieberman refused to concede the election and ran instead as an independent. The Libertarian party also endorsed him during the campaign. In the end, McCain won an outright majority in the electoral college, with 308 votes, compared to Kerry's 198 and Lieberman's 32. This was the worst showing for an incumbent president since 1912. Lieberman was also the first president since 1884 to be denied their party's nomination.