Romney defeated Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and several other candidates to win his party's nomination in the 2012 Republican primaries.

In the first election held in the House of Representatives since the round of redistricting following the 2010 United States census, Democrats picked up eight seats but failed to gain a majority, despite winning the popular vote.

Following the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, the 2012 election season became the most expensive in American history.

The legislation, passed by the Wisconsin Legislature on June 29, 2011, primarily impacted the following areas: collective bargaining, compensation, retirement, health insurance, and sick leave of the state's public sector employees.

Akin's comments had a far-reaching political impact, changing a focus of campaigns across the country onto the so-called "War on Women.

"[6][7] Another widely covered comment was that of Indiana State Treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who said that pregnancy from rape was "something that God intended".

A number of observers later identified Mourdock's and Akin's comments as a principal factor in their respective election losses.

[9] The major foreign policy controversy during the final weeks of the campaign was the September attack on the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya by a heavily armed group.

Democratic incumbent president Barack Obama was re-elected, defeating Republican former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

A special election in Oregon's 1st congressional district was held on January 31 to determine a replacement for David Wu, who resigned in August 2011.

The winners of these two special elections (Suzanne Bonamici from Oregon, Ron Barber from Arizona) both ran in attempts to keep their seats.

New Jersey congressman Donald M. Payne died in March 2012 while Michigan's Thaddeus McCotter resigned in July 2012.

Only one state governorship changed hands: In North Carolina, Republican Pat McCrory was elected to replace the retiring Democratic governor Bev Perdue.

Meanwhile, Republicans won the Wisconsin Senate which was briefly under Democratic control after the 2012 recall elections, and both chambers of the Arkansas legislature for the first time since 1874.

Governor-elect Alejandro García Padilla, who had been critical of the process, then sent a message to President Obama, asking him to reject the results because of their ambiguity.

[16] On November 8, 2012, Washington, D.C. newspaper The Hill published an article saying that Congress will also likely ignore the results of the referendum due to the circumstances behind the votes.