Tuesday, November 2, 2008, marked a historic day for the United States, the election of the first African-American president of the United States. President-elect Barack Obama won Tuesday’s election by a 6% popular vote advantage and a 186 electoral vote advantage over his Republican contender, John McCain. John McCain promptly delivered his concession speech at 11:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Barack Obama is set to be inaugurated January 20, 2009.

This election was part of a nationwide resurgence of the Democratic party, with the Senate Democrats gaining 7 seats and the House Democrats gaining 23 seats. The election was one of the most contentious in recent years with the primary race beginning nearly two years ago with a multitude of contenders for the nomination of both parties. The Republican race was decided by March 11 of this year, closing after a short but hot race narrowing down to McCain and Huckabee. The Democratic race was a longer and equally heated race, ending with Clinton and Obama.

The presidential race following that had been one of great sway, going back and forth between McCain and Obama. The early race had begun to favor McCain, but as time went on, the polls began to sway, leaning more towards Obama nearly every day. As the race began to come to a close, the polls tightened again, ending on Monday with a nearly prophetic 6% popular vote lead. The final vote breakdown showed massive leads for Obama in various demographic groups as well. Obama was preferred by African-Americans with 95% of their vote, Latinos with 66% of their vote, women with 56% of their vote, first-time voters with 68% of their vote, and voters making less than $100,000 annually with 55% of their vote.