Why did Obama win Indiana in '08?

[Schiff for Senate]

Another obvious factor is that Obama was from next-door IL and was a Midwestern son.

Hot take: if it was Clinton who was the Democratic nominee instead of McCain, IN goes red by over a point.

Then there's obviously massive outperformance in NWIN and the Rust Belt and rural areas generally, as others mentioned.

And the reasoning behing why the suburbs weren't crucial to Obama's win is faulty. Yes, he did equal to or worse than Biden in the Indianpolis area, but that's not the point - the point is, he did much better than John Kerry (we're comparing 2004 to 2008, not 2008 to 2020, and suburbs were redder in 2004 than they were in 2008 and redder in 2008 than they were in 2020 - the point is, the latter fact is irrelevant since we aren't discussing 2020, we're discussing 2004). Yes, Hamilton County was Trump+5 despite being McCain+22. But compare that to 2004, when it was Bush+49. Similarly, while Marion was Obama+28 and Biden+29, it wasn't nearly as blue in 2004 and it really trended massively to the left in 2008. (In 2004, it was just Kerry+2.) These counties swung massively to the left in 2008, and of course, they've some have further bluened since then. Obviously their bluening up has not had much of an effect because of how the entire rest of the state has trended rightward, but the suburbs were a big part of Obama's win.

[Schiff for Senate]

If Obama really won the general election in Indiana owing to its proximity to Chicago, why is it that Hillary won the Indiana primary, when a myriad of Democratic Hoosiers live in the 1st congressional district, where the Chicago media market exerts its biggest influence?

Primary performance isn’t the same as general election unless by that same definition, Ted Cruz would have been a better fit for Wisconsin than Trump was vs Hillary

Yeah. I'm guessing Obama won some moderates/right-wingers who didn't vote in the Democratic primary and would've backed McCain over Clinton.