The Influences Of Minority Groups On Barack Obama’s Victory In2012United States Presidential Election

This thesis aims at studying influences of American minority groups on PresidentObama’s final victory in such a universally watched event as the2012US presidentialelection to fully understand their role in the present US society.In the introduction, reasons for topic selection, literature review, researchmethods and structure of the thesis are briefly introduced. Chapter1provides somebackground information of three emerging American minority groups concerning theirgrowing population and increasing political participation in society. With a quickreview of the2012US presidential election in chapter2and by accessing itsbackground, results and characteristics, we get a clearer picture of this big event in theUS. Chapter3to chapter5are the main body of this thesis, in which large amount ofdata from different polls and surveys are used to conduct detailed studies on thepolitical performances of minority groups as a whole and on the participation of eachgroup in each state to measure their influences from different perspectives. To realizethe goal of this thesis, three “very swing” and rather influential states with moreelectoral votes, namely Florida, Ohio and Virginia, are chosen specifically to analyzethe performances of minority groups in the election. By examining how PresidentObama won in these key swing states which have decisive power over the final resultof the election under the influences of minority groups, we can accordingly find outtheir important role in Obama’s successful re-election in the country.In the Conclusion part, the role played by minority groups with differentcharacteristics in the presidential election is further summarized as assisting Obama toachieve the final result while certain amount of White votes are still necessary forensuring his victory. In the end, advantages and disadvantages of the thesis arepointed out with suggestions on directions of further studies on the topic.