President Obama wins re-election

President Barack Obama asked voters for another four years to fix the economy. Last night, America granted Obama his wish by giving him a second term in the White House.

Obama was re-elected last night, having won 290 electoral votes as of 12:20 a.m. Wednesday. This will be the first time an African-American president resides in the White House for two consecutive terms.

The president’s official Twitter account immediately posted a message to supporters. “This happened because of you. Thank you.”

But Obama’s victory was no sure bet for much of the night.

After polls started closing at 7 p.m., Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, seemed to be taking the lead with most of the southeastern and central states. He conquered big states, such as Arizona and Texas, giving him more electoral votes than Obama early on.

But Obama came back by winning most of the northeastern states, including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and many other surrounding states.

The tide started to turn in Obama’s favor when the president not only won his home state of Illinois, but also Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin. Furthermore, Obama snatched Massachusetts away from Romney, the state where Romney was formerly governor.

Even though Romney stopped in Moon Township, Pa., yesterday, Obama still won the electoral votes for the Keystone State.

The election turned blue for good when Obama surpassed 200 electoral votes by winning California’s 55 at 11 p.m. Television networks predicted before midnight that Obama would earn his second term after he had gained 274 electoral votes.

Both campaigns made last-ditch efforts to try and snatch some votes. Romney and Ryan visited Ohio, where they crossed paths with Vice President Joe Biden, as the two campaigns fought for Ohio’s coveted 18 electoral votes.

Pennsylvania became a last-minute contender as well, with Ryan and Romney making stops in the state the week before and even the day of the election. Former President Bill Clinton stumped for Obama the day before the election in Pennsylvania, which held 20 electoral votes.

The narrow race featured a sharply divided country. Obama’s campaign, which was expensive and at times bitter, strayed away from the 2008 theme of hope and change. The election included more than $2 billion spent in campaigning and unprecendented hours of TV ads.

At about 11:15 p.m., when media outlets began to declare Obama’s second term, cries of “four more years” and hoots of elation began to erupt from Organizing for America’s Oakland office. A crowd of about 40 people from the office began to fill the nearby intersection of Forbes Avenue and Atwood Street.

Sarah Procario, a junior political science major who worked for the Obama campaign as a fellow up until Election Day, was among those awaiting the results at the office.

Looking back on the long Election Day, which Procario said began at 5 a.m., she felt pleased with the campaign’s efforts.

“We were expecting to have to push the youth to go vote, but there was actually a really strong turnout,” she said.

About 100 Obama supporters took to the Oakland streets in celebration, holding signs and cheering as they made their way down Forbes Avenue on foot. Car horns blared through the night in unity with celebrators’ messages.

Eliza Kaye, a freshman who is undecided about her major, participated in the street celebration.

Before Kaye descended to the street after the announcement of Obama’s second term, she had been watching the state tallies from her room in Towers. She said that she was “relieved” about Obama’s re-election.

“It was the first election I got to vote in, so I feel like I did my part and played my role in something that made a difference,” Kaye said.

Chris Bonneau, an associate professor of political science at Pitt, said he was not surprised by these election results.

“This is exactly what I was expecting,” Bonneau said.

Looking toward the future of our country, Bonneau said he believes Obama will try to advance his jobs program and decrease unemployment.

Despite Obama being projected to win the election, Romney still had not conceded the election as of 12:20 a.m. Wednesday. The state of Ohio was still tied at this time, and its electoral votes were key to the Republican party in this election, as no Republican candidate has won the election without the support of Ohio.

However, Republicans did, in fact, win in terms of keeping control of the House of Representatives. On the other side of Congress, the Democrats predictably kept control of the Senate.