2012 United States presidential election in Nebraska

The 2012 United States presidential election in Nebraska took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Voters chose five electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, against Republican challenger and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan.

Prior to the election, Nebraska was considered to be a state that Romney would win or a safe red state. Although statewide elections aren't competitive, Nebraska is one of only two states (along with Maine) which splits its electoral votes based on the winner of each congressional district. The winner of the statewide vote receives two electoral votes and the remaining 3 electoral votes are awarded based on the winner of each congressional district.

Mitt Romney won Nebraska's statewide vote, taking 59.80% of the vote to Barack Obama's 38.03%, a margin of 21.77%, a noticeable improvement over McCain's 15% margin in 2008.

Romney also won all 3 congressional districts, thus winning all 5 of the state's electoral votes. This was a change from 2008, when the state as a whole had voted for Republican John McCain but Democrat Barack Obama still won an electoral vote from the state. Nebraska's 2nd congressional district, home to Omaha, had split with the rest of the state and awarded one of Nebraska's electoral votes to a Democratic presidential nominee for the first time since 1964. Nebraska's 2nd congressional district, Indiana, and North Carolina were the only sources of electoral votes won by Obama in 2008 that Romney managed to flip. This was the first time in the 21st Century that Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District voted for the overall losing presidential candidate, a feat that would be reprised in 2024.

Obama only won a single county, Thurston, largely due to its majority and increasingly politically active Native American population. He also narrowly lost three of four counties he won in 2008: Douglas, Lancaster, and Saline, home to the cities of Omaha, Lincoln, and Crete, respectively. He became the first Democrat since Grover Cleveland in 1892 to win without carrying Saline County.

As of the 2024 presidential election, this is the last time that the Democrat won Thurston County and the Republican won Douglas or Lancaster County.