Economic policy actions Other domestic policy actions Foreign policy actions Supreme Court nominations ' '' After winning election to represent the state of Illinois in the Senate in 2004 , Obama announced that he would run for president in February 2007 . In the 2008 Democratic primary , Obama faced Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton . Several other candidates , including Senator Joe Biden of Delaware and former Senator John Edwards , also ran for the nomination , but these candidates dropped out after the initial primaries . In June , on the day of the final primaries , Obama clinched the nomination by winning a majority of the delegates , including both pledged delegates and superdelegates . Obama and Biden , whom Obama selected as his running mate , were nominated as the Democratic ticket at the August 2008 Democratic National Convention
2008 Democratic National Convention
2008 Democratic National Convention
Presidency of Barack Obama