President Obama won reelection by what most considered a "large margin," but what exactly pushed Obama to a decisive victory.
According to CNN's early exit polls, 73 percent of voters were white, 13 percent African American, 10 percent Latino and 3 percent Asian.
Hispanics
According to Latino Decisions, 75 percent of Latinos nationwide voted for Obama.
"Romney suffered from both an outreach problem to Latino voters as well as a policy agenda that just did not resonate with the Latino electorate," the blog said." A robust 56% of Latino voters nationally did not feel that Romney "cares much" about the Latino community, with another 18% feeling as though the Romney campaign was "hostile" toward the Latino community. Conversely, 66% of Latinos indicated that President Obama "cares about" the Latino community."
The Latino vote has had the Republican party rethinking its direction.
"The Republican Party has to understand the fastest growing part of the American population, has to be open to and listening to people who are going to be a major part of our future, and unless we do that, we're going to be a minority party," added former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, speaking on the CBS "This Morning" show.
Pollster Matt Barreto of the Latino Decisions said Romney's performance was the worst among Republican candidates.
"The numbers we saw for Romney were really among the worst numbers for a Republican candidate," Barreto said in an interview with Southern California Public Radio. "And the most important point is that if you compare it to 2004 - that was only eight years ago - George W. Bush got 40 percent. Then it went down to 31 percent for McCain, then it went down to 24 for Romney. So that means consecutive years of losing seven points, eight points, of the Latino vote. I think that the more worrisome trend for Republicans, because it wasn't so long ago that we got 40 percent."
African Americans
Barreto said "that the results in Ohio were a result of the black vote coming out in high numbers."
"There are other states that Obama won, I would say, more comfortably: Michigan,Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania," Barreto said. "They have huge black populations The minority vote overall in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania by itself delivered those states to Obama. You add all those states up together and you have like 126 electoral college votes. So there is no doubt that those nine states will continue to be under the microscope. The Republican can't afford to lose those 126 electoral college votes; they are already giving up the entire West Coast. It would be extremely difficult for them to win any future elections."
CNN's exit polls said 93 percent of African-American voters voted for Obama.
Women
Throughout this election, Romney and his Republican counterparts lost footing with women voters, who made up 53 percent of the electorate, as the clock continued to run out. In the end, 55 percent of women voted for Obama.
Romney's record shows that he has always flip-flopped on the issue of abortion and birth control. According to the Romney campaign, Romney pro-life and believe that abortion is a "problem." Romney believes that life begins at conception that the "right next step" is for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. Romney also said he would end federal aid to Planned Parenthood.
The National Organization for Women said they are looking forward to working with Obama and his administration in "making tangible, identifiable progress in achieving women's rights and equality for all in the United States of America."
"In a truly pivotal election, women voters rejected the Romney-Ryan war on women and chose moving forward over taking a giant step backward," the organization said in a release. "Women demonstrated that civil rights are for everyone, including same-sex couples, and that reproductive rights are hardly a diversion from the dominant issues of jobs and the deficit -- they are a central issue in our lives, part of our basic health care and an essential aspect of our economic well-being."
Un-married women overwhelmingly voted for Obama - 67 percent to Romney's 31 percent.
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