 In 2008, the county voted for Barack Obama by a 52.4% margin over John McCain, with Obama winning by 25.8% over McCain statewide.Obama won the county by an even larger margin of 53.6% in the 2012 election.The Mahican (Muh-he-ka-neew) Native American tribe lived in the area that now makes up Berkshire County until the early 18th century, when the first English settlers and frontiersmen appeared and began setting up farms and homesteads.