<Tr> <Td> 2012 </Td> <Td> 54.8% 164,676 </Td> <Td> 40.8% 122,640 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2016 </Td> <Td> 51.3% 163,387 </Td> <Td> 36.6% 116,454 </Td> </Tr> <P> Alaska regularly supports Republicans in presidential elections and has done so since statehood . Republicans have won the state's electoral college votes in all but one election that it has participated in (1964). No state has voted for a Democratic presidential candidate fewer times . Alaska was carried by Democratic nominee Lyndon B. Johnson during his landslide election in 1964, while the 1960 and 1968 elections were close . Since 1972, however, Republicans have carried the state by large margins . In 2008, Republican John McCain defeated Democrat Barack Obama in Alaska, 59.49% to 37.83% . McCain's running mate was Sarah Palin, the state's governor and the first Alaskan on a major party ticket . Obama lost Alaska again in 2012, but he captured 40% of the state's vote in that election, making him the first Democrat to do so since 1968 . </P> <P> The Alaska Bush, central Juneau, midtown and downtown Anchorage, and the areas surrounding the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus and Ester have been strongholds of the Democratic Party . The Matanuska - Susitna Borough, the majority of Fairbanks (including North Pole and the military base), and South Anchorage typically have the strongest Republican showing . As of 2004, well over half of all registered voters have chosen "Non-Partisan" or "Undeclared" as their affiliation, despite recent attempts to close primaries to unaffiliated voters . </P>

Alaska became the 50th state in what year