United States Senate elections, 2002
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The 2002 United States Senate election was a fiercely-contested race that resulted in a victory for the Republican Party, which gained two seats and thus a narrow majority from the Democratic Party in the United States Senate.
The Democrats had originally hoped to do well, as four veteran Republicans and no Democrats had retired this year, and open seats are always viewed as the most competitive. However, the open seats were all in the South, and the Republicans found fairly strong candidates who were able to hold all four. Together with gains made in the House of Representatives, it was one of the few mid-term elections in the last one hundred years that the party in control of the White House gained Congressional seats (the other years were 1902, 1934, and 1998).
Contents
Results summary
| Parties | Breakdown | Total Seats | Popular Vote | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up | Elected | Not Up | 2000 | '''2002 | align="center" | Vote | % | ||
| Republican Party | 20 | 22 | 29 | 49 | 51 | valign="top" | 21,428,784 | 53.44% | |
| Democratic Party | 14 | 12 | 36 | 50 | 48 | valign="top" | |||
| 18,665,605 | 46.56% | ||||||||
| Independent | valign="top" | ||||||||
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| 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Libertarian Party | valign="top" | ||||||||
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| Constitution Party | valign="top" | ||||||||
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| Independence Party | valign="top" | ||||||||
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| Reform Party | valign="top" | ||||||||
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| Socialist Workers Party | valign="top" | ||||||||
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| Total | 34 | 34 | 66 | 100 | 100 | - | 100.0% | ||
| Source: [Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk] | |||||||||
Notable races
Democratic gains
- Arkansas: Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-AR), who was personally unpopular, perhaps due to divorcing his wife and marrying a young staffer, was defeated by Democratic challenger Mark Pryor, Arkansas Attorney General and the son of a popular former Senator and Governor.
Republican gains
- Georgia: Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA) was defeated by Representative Saxby Chambliss in a tough campaign marked by attacks on Cleland's stance on a Department of Homeland Security. Local Georgia issues may also have played a role in the campaign, with Republicans also taking the governorship over unhappiness with the Georgia state flag.
- Missouri: Sen. Jean Carnahan (D-MO) had been appointed to the Senate after her husband, Mel Carnahan, had narrowly won the 2000 election posthumously. How much Mel Carnahan's victory had been due to sympathy following his death was unclear, but his wife was unable to hold the seat, losing narrowly to former Congressman Jim Talent.
- Minnesota: Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-MN), in the middle of a tough fight against former St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman, abruptly died in a plane crash. Many observers expected that this would lead to a sympathy boost for his replacement, liberal stalwart and former Vice President Walter Mondale, but the Democrats received negative press after Wellstone's funeral was marked by political speeches, and Coleman won a close race.
Democratic holds
- South Dakota: The Democratic Party also invested heavily in South Dakota to keep Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) in office by 500 votes over Republican challenger John Thune, who accused Johnson and Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) of pushing liberal policies that were different from the promises they made to South Dakota voters. Thune's strategy would work successfully when he defeated Daschle himself in 2004.
- New Jersey: Democratic incumbent Robert Torricelli (D-NJ) was dogged by scandal, and eventually quit the race so that the party could replace him with a better candidate, retired Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), who went on to win. Republicans challenged this late replacement of a weak candidate, but were not successful in the courts.
- Louisiana: Republicans ran several candidates at once against incumbent Mary Landrieu (D-LA), hoping to push her vote below 50% and force a runoff in December (according to Louisiana law). They did force a runoff, but Republican Suzanne Haik Terrell narrowly lost the runoff.
Republican holds
- New Hampshire: Incumbent Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) had previously quit and rejoined the Republican party in a dispute over his candidacy in the 2000 presidential election, and Republican leaders pushed the candidacy of Congressman John E. Sununu. He defeated Smith in the primary and went on to defeat Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, the retiring governor, in the general election. In this senate race, local Republican officials violated election laws by trying to jam the phones of the Democrat's "Get Out The Vote" efforts; the officials went to prison in a case that reverberated into 2006.
Senate contests in 2002
| State | Incumbent | Party | Status | Opposing Candidates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Jeff Sessions | Republican | Re-elected, 59 - 40 | Susan Parker (Democrat) |
| Alaska | Ted Stevens | Republican | Re-elected, 78 - 11 - 8 | Frank J. Vondersaar (Democrat) Jim Sykes (Green) |
| Arkansas | Tim Hutchinson | Republican | Defeated, 54 - 46 | Mark Pryor (Democrat) |
| Colorado | Wayne Allard | Republican | Re-elected, 51 - 46 | Tom Strickland (Democrat) |
| Delaware | Joe Biden | Democrat | Re-elected, 58 - 41 | Raymond J. Clatworthy (Republican) |
| Georgia | Max Cleland | Democrat | Defeated, 46 - 53 | Saxby Chambliss (Republican) |
| Idaho | Larry E. Craig | Republican | Re-elected, 65 - 33 | Alan Blinken (Democrat) |
| Illinois | Richard J. Durbin | Democrat | Re-elected, 60 - 38 | Jim Durkin (Republican) |
| Iowa | Tom Harkin | Democrat | Re-elected, 54 - 44 | Greg Ganske (Republican) |
| Kansas | Pat Roberts | Republican | Re-elected, 83 - 9 - 8 | Steven A. Rosile (Libertarian) George Cook (Reform) |
| Kentucky | Mitch McConnell | Republican | Re-elected, 65 - 35 | Lois Combs Weinberg (Democrat) |
| Louisiana | Mary Landrieu | Democrat | Re-elected, 52 - 48 (in runoff) | Suzanne Haik Terrell (Republican) |
| Maine | Susan M. Collins | Republican | Re-elected, 58 - 42 | Chellie Pingree (Democrat) |
| Massachusetts | John Kerry | Democrat | Re-elected, 80 - 18 | Michael E. Cloud (Libertarian) |
| Michigan | Carl Levin | Democrat | Re-elected, 60 - 38 | Andrew Raczkowski (Republican) |
| Minnesota | Paul Wellstone | Democrat (DFL) | Deceased: Republican victory, 49 - 47 | Norm Coleman (Republican) Walter Mondale (Democrat [DFL]) |
| Mississippi | Thad Cochran | Republican | Re-elected, 85 - 15 | Shawn O'Hara (Reform) |
| Missouri1 | Jean Carnahan | Democrat | Defeated, 50 - 49 | Jim Talent (Republican) |
| Montana | Max Baucus | Democrat | Re-elected, 63 - 32 | Mike Taylor (Republican) |
| Nebraska | Chuck Hagel | Republican | Re-elected, 83 - 15 | Charlie A. Matulka (Democrat) |
| New Hampshire | Bob Smith | Republican | Lost primary: Republican victory, 51 - 46 | John E. Sununu (Republican) Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat) |
| New Jersey | Robert Torricelli | Democrat | Withdrew: Democratic victory, 54 - 44 | Frank R. Lautenberg (Democrat) Douglas R. Forrester (Republican) |
| New Mexico | Pete Domenici | Republican | Re-elected, 65 - 35 | Gloria Tristani (Democrat) |
| North Carolina | Jesse Helms | Republican | Retired: Republican victory, 54 - 45 | Elizabeth Dole (Republican) Erskine Bowles (Democrat) |
| Oklahoma | Jim Inhofe | Republican | Re-elected, 57 - 36 - 6 | David Walters (Democrat) James Germalic (Independent) |
| Oregon | Gordon H. Smith | Republican | Re-elected, 56 - 40 | Bill Bradbury (Democrat) |
| Rhode Island | John F. Reed | Democrat | Re-elected, 78 - 22 | Robert G. Tingle (Republican) |
| South Carolina | Strom Thurmond | Republican | Retired: Republican victory, 54 - 44 |
Lindsey Graham (Republican) Alex Sanders (Democrat) |
| South Dakota | Tim Johnson | Democrat | Re-elected, 50 - 49 | John R. Thune (Republican) |
| Tennessee | Fred Thompson | Republican | Retired: Republican victory, 54 - 44 | Lamar Alexander (Republican) Bob Clement (Democrat) |
| Texas | Phil Gramm | Republican | Retired: Republican victory, 55 - 43 | John Cornyn (Republican) Ron Kirk (Democrat) |
| Virginia | John Warner | Republican | Re-elected, 83 - 10 - 7 | Nancy Spannaus (Independent) Jacob G. Hornberger, Jr. (Independent) |
| West Virginia | Jay Rockefeller | Democrat | Re-elected, 63 - 37 | Jay Wolfe (Republican) |
| Wyoming | Michael B. Enzi | Republican | Re-elected, 73 - 27 | Joyce Jansa Corcoran (Democrat) |
1 special election due to death of Mel Carnahan -- next regular election to be held in 2006
Senate composition before and after elections
| 107th Congress Senate Composition | 108th Congress Senate Composition | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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References
- Robert M. Sanders; "How Environmentally-Friendly Candidates Fared in the Congressional Elections of 2002: A Time of Green Anxiety?" International Social Science Review, Vol. 79, 2004
See also
External links
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