The '2002 United States Senate election' featured a series of fiercely-contested elections 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. Senators who were elected in 1996, known as Senate Class 2, were seeking reelection or retiring. The election was held November 5, 2002.
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 in which the party in control of the White House gained Congressional seats (the others were 1902, 1934, and 1998).
Even worse for the Democrats, the elections were held just a little under fourteen months after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Thus the elections were heavily overshadowed by the war on terror, the impending war with Iraq, and President George W. Bush's high approval ratings. This gave Republicans a key advantage, as the focus of the campaign was on foreign, rather than domestic, issues.

Contents

Results summary

Notable races

Democratic gains

Republican gains

Democratic holds

Republican holds

Senate contests in 2002

Senate composition before and after elections

References

See also

External links

Results summary

'Summary of the 2002 United States Senate election results'

Parties		Breakdown			Total Seats			Popular Vote		Total Candidates
		Up	Elected	Not Up	2000	'2002	+/-	Vote	%	General1
Republican Party	20	22	29	49	'51'	+2	21,428,784	51.312%	37
Democratic Party	14	12	36	50	48	-2	18,665,605	44.695%	32
Independent	-	-	1	1	1	0	405,982	0.972%	9
Libertarian Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	755,872	1.810%	20
	Constitution Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	32,185	0.077%	3
	Independence Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	46,135	0.110%	2
Green Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	129,475	0.310%	8
	Reform Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	175,107	0.419%	3
	Socialist Workers Party	-	-	-	-	-	-	2,702	0.006%	1
	Other parties	-	-	-	-	-	-	75,339	0.180%	10
	Write-in	-	-	-	-	-	-	44,576	0.107%	-
'Total'		'34'	'34'	'66'	'100'	'100'	'-'	'41,761,762'	'100.0%'	'125'
Source: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk

¹ Includes candidates from Louisiana's General Election, not run-off. Totals do not include participating voters who declined to cast a vote for U.S. Senate.

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), a Vietnam War veteran and triple amputee, 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 and/or high disapproval of his opponent, John Ashcroft, 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, died in a plane crash. Most 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 and may affect Sununu's 2008 re-election prospects.

Senate contests in 2002

Winning candidate in 'bold'

Republican pickups in ''

Democratic pickup in ''

Retiring Senator in ''

State	Incumbent	Party	Status	Opposing Candidates
Alabama	'Jeff Sessions'	Republican	Re-elected, 58.6%	Susan Parker (Democrat) 39.8% Jeff Allen (Libertarian) 1.5%
Alaska	'Ted Stevens'	Republican	Re-elected, 78%	Frank J. Vondersaar (Democrat) 11% Jim Sykes (Green) 8% Jim Dore (AI) 3% Leonard Karpinski (Libertarian) 1%
Arkansas	Tim Hutchinson	Republican	Defeated, 46.1%	'Mark Pryor' (Democrat) 53.9%
Colorado	'Wayne Allard'	Republican	Re-elected, 50.7%	Tom Strickland (Democrat) 45.8% Douglas “Dayhorse” Campbell (Constitution) 1.5% Rick Stanley (Libertarian) 1.5% John Heckman (Concerns of People) 0.5%
Delaware	'Joe Biden'	Democratic	Re-elected, 58.2%	Raymond J. Clatworthy (Republican) 40.8% Maurice Barros (IPD) 0.4% Raymond T. Buranello (Libertarian) 0.4% Robert E. Mattson (Natural Law) 0.2%
Georgia	Max Cleland	Democratic	Defeated, 45.9%	'Saxby Chambliss' (Republican) 52.7% Claude Thomas (Libertarian) 1.4%
Idaho	'Larry E. Craig'	Republican	Re-elected, 65%	Alan Blinken (Democrat) 33% Donovan Bramwell (Libertarian) 2%
Illinois	'Richard J. Durbin'	Democratic	Re-elected, 60.3%	Jim Durkin (Republican) 38% Steven Burgauer (Libertarian) 1.6%
Iowa	'Tom Harkin'	Democratic	Re-elected, 54.2%	Greg Ganske (Republican) 43.8% Tim Harthan (Green) 1.1% Richard J. Moore (Libertarian) 0.9%
Kansas	'Pat Roberts'	Republican	Re-elected, 82.5%	Steven A. Rosile (Libertarian) 9.1% George Cook (Reform) 8.4%
Kentucky	'Mitch McConnell'	Republican	Re-elected, 64.7%	Lois Combs Weinberg (Democrat) 35.3%
Louisiana	'Mary Landrieu'	Democratic	Re-elected in runoff, 51.7%	Suzanne Haik Terrell (Republican) 48.3%
Maine	'Susan M. Collins'	Republican	Re-elected, 58.4%	Chellie Pingree (Democrat) 41.6%
Massachusetts	'John Kerry'	Democratic	Re-elected, 80%	Michael E. Cloud (Libertarian) 18.4%
Michigan	'Carl Levin'	Democratic	Re-elected, 60.6%	Andrew Raczkowski (Republican) 37.9% Eric Borregard (Green) 0.8% John S. Mangopoulos (Reform) 0.4% Doug Dern (Natural Law) 0.3%
Minnesota	Paul Wellstone	Democratic-Farmer-Labor	Deceased: Republican victory	'Norm Coleman' (Republican) 49.5% Walter Mondale (DFL) 47.3% Jim Moore (Independence) 2% Paul Wellstone (DFL) 0.5% Ray Tricomo (Green) 0.4% Miro Drago Kovatchevich (Constitution) 0.1%
Mississippi	'Thad Cochran'	Republican	Re-elected, 85.6%	Shawn O'Hara (Reform) 15.4%
Missouri1	Jean Carnahan	Democratic	Defeated, 48.7%	'Jim Talent' (Republican) 49.8% Tamara A. Millay (Libertarian) 1% Daniel Romano (Green) 0.6%
Montana	'Max Baucus'	Democrat	Re-elected, 62.7%	Mike Taylor (Republican) 31.7% Stan Jones (Libertarian) 3.2% Bob Kelleher (Green) 2.3%
Nebraska	'Chuck Hagel'	Republican	Re-elected, 82.8%	Charlie A. Matulka (Democrat) 14.6% John J. Graziano (Libertarian) 1.5% Phil Chase (Independent) 1.1%
New Hampshire	Bob Smith	Republican	Defeated in primary: Republican victory	'John E. Sununu' (Republican) 50.8% Jeanne Shaheen (Democrat) 46.4% Ken Blevens (Libertarian) 2.2%
New Jersey	Robert Torricelli	Democratic	Withdrew: Democratic victory	'Frank Lautenberg' (Democrat) 53.9% Douglas Forrester (Republican) 44% Ted Glick (Green) 1.2% Elizabeth Macron (Libertarian) 0.6% Norman E. Wahner (NJ Conservative) 0.3% Gregory Pason (Socialist) 0.1%
New Mexico	'Pete Domenici'	Republican	Re-elected, 65%	Gloria Tristani (Democrat) 35%
North Carolina	Jesse Helms	Republican	Retired: Republican victory	'Elizabeth Dole' (Republican) 53.6% Erskine Bowles (Democrat) 45% Sean Haugh (Libertarian) 1.5%
Oklahoma	'Jim Inhofe'	Republican	Re-elected, 57.3%	David Walters (Democrat) 36.3% James Germalic (Independent) 6.4%
Oregon	'Gordon H. Smith'	Republican	Re-elected, 56.2%	Bill Bradbury (Democrat) 39.6% Dan Fitzgerald (Libertarian) 2.4% Lon Mabon (Constitution) 1.7%
Rhode Island	'John F. Reed'	Democratic	Re-elected, 78.4%	Robert G. Tingle (Republican) 21.6%
South Carolina	Strom Thurmond	Republican	Retired: Republican victory	'Lindsey Graham' (Republican) 54.4% Alex Sanders (Democrat) 44.2% Ted Adams (Constitution) 0.8% Victor Kocher (Libertarian) 0.6%
South Dakota	'Tim Johnson'	Democratic	Re-elected, 49.6%	John R. Thune (Republican) 49.5% Kurt Evans (Libertarian) 0.9%
Tennessee	Fred Thompson	Republican	Retired: Republican victory	'Lamar Alexander' (Republican) 54% Bob Clement (Democrat) 44%
Texas	Phil Gramm	Republican	Retired: Republican victory	'John Cornyn' (Republican) 55.3% Ron Kirk (Democrat) 43.3% Scott Lanier Jameson (Libertarian) 0.8% Roy H. Williams (Green) 0.6%
Virginia	'John Warner'	Republican	Re-elected, 82.6%	Nancy Spannaus (Independent) 9.7% Jacob Hornberger, Jr. (Independent) 7.1%
West Virginia	'Jay Rockefeller'	Democratic	Re-elected, 63.1%	Jay Wolfe (Republican) 36.9%
Wyoming	'Michael B. Enzi'	Republican	Re-elected, 73%	Joyce Jansa Corcoran (Democrat) 27%

¹ special election due to death of Mel Carnahan; Talent was defeated for reelection in 2006.

Senate composition before and after elections

'107th Congress Senate Composition'

'108th Congress Senate Composition'

'Color Key:' 'Republicans' 'Independent' 'Democrats'

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

★ United States House elections, 2002

External links

★ CNN results

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