John McCain's lead diminished and then disappeared; for several weeks Obama even led Missouri polls.

[4] However, John McCain's campaign managed to close the gap and most polls showed a dead tie on and before Election Day.

Although Bill Clinton of neighboring Arkansas won the state with ease during both of his elections in 1992 and 1996, Al Gore and John Kerry considered Missouri a lost cause and did not campaign much there.

[38] On Election Day, McCain clung to a tiny lead, with absentee and provisional ballots yet to be counted.

Obama was already a familiar face to St. Louis-area voters, since the St. Louis metro area spills into Illinois.

Obama was also able to carry Boone County, home to the large college town of Columbia (Missouri's fifth-largest city and home of the state's flagship University of Missouri campus), and Jefferson County, which consists of the southern St. Louis suburbs such as Arnold and Festus.

Many, if not all, of these counties that Clinton won in the Missouri Primary ended up voting for McCain in the general election.

However, these counties are very similar in character to Yellow Dog Democrat areas in neighboring Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Obama lost by an almost two-to-one margin in Southwest Missouri, a Republican stronghold for the better part of a century.

This region is entrenched in the Bible Belt and embedded with deep pockets of social conservatives that includes Springfield and Joplin.

Even Bill Clinton could not win Southwest Missouri in 1992 despite the fact that he won the state by double digits.

Rural Northern Missouri voted against Obama by a three-to-two margin; this region warmly supported Bill Clinton in both of his bids.

The region takes in the Lead Belt, the Bootheel and the Ozark Plateau and includes the largest city of Cape Girardeau, a booming college town but also a conservative, upper-middle class community that votes overwhelmingly Republican.

Southeast Missouri is socially conservative but economically liberal, consistently electing Democrats at the local and state levels.

Obama was allowed to request a recount under state law since preliminary results showed a difference of less than 1% of the votes.

As of 2020, this is the closest a Northern Democrat has come to winning Missouri since John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts did so in 1960, as the previous three Democratic presidential candidates to win the state were all from the South (Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, Jimmy Carter of Georgia, and Bill Clinton of Arkansas).

This was the first presidential election that a Democrat won without winning the state of Missouri, a feat Obama would repeat in 2012, as well as his former running mate Joe Biden in 2020.

During the same election, Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon defeated U.S. Representative Kenny Hulshof in a landslide for the Governor's Mansion.

Republicans were, however, able to hold on to the U.S. House seat in Missouri's 9th Congressional District that was vacated by Hulshof in his unsuccessful gubernatorial bid.

Furthermore, upon the 2008 election, Democrats controlled all statewide offices but one; Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder was the sole Republican.

Democrats also picked up the office of State Treasurer that was vacated by Republican Sarah Steelman in her unsuccessful bid for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.