United States Senate elections, 1992

United States Senate elections, 1992

November 3, 1992

Class III (34 of the 100) seats in the United States Senate and two mid-term vacancies from Class I 51 seats needed for a majority   Majority party Minority party   Leader George Mitchell Bob Dole Party Democratic Republican Leader's seat Maine Kansas Last election 56 seats 44 seats Seats before 57 43 Seats won 57 43 Seat change Popular vote 34,736,076 31,355,972 Percentage 49.2% 44.4% Swing 1.9% 2.7% Seats up 21 15

Democratic gain   One Democratic hold, one gain   Democratic hold   Republican hold   Republican gain

Majority Leader before election George Mitchell Democratic Elected Majority Leader George Mitchell Democratic

The United States Senate elections, 1992 was an election for the United States Senate that coincided with the victory of Bill Clinton in the presidential election. Despite the presidential victory, Democrats did not gain any seats in the Senate.

Democratic victories over Republicans John F. Seymour (CA) and Bob Kasten (WI) were cancelled out by the defeats of Democrats Wyche Fowler (GA) and Terry Sanford (NC). The election of four new Democratic women to the Senate was notable (referred to in the press as the "Year of the Woman"). Due to a special election in California, both of California's Senate seats were up for election in 1992. These seats were won by Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

Democrat Carol Moseley Braun (IL), became the first African-American woman to serve in the United States Senate.

Results summary

Parties		Total Seats				Popular Vote
		1990	Before this election	This election	+/-	Vote	%
	Democratic	56	57	57		34,736,076	49.20%
	Republican	44	43	43		31,355,972	44.41%
	Libertarian	-	-	-	-	986,617	1.40%
	Others	-	-	-	-	3,523,610	4.99%
Total		100	100	100	-	70,602,275	100.0%

Source: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk

Change in Senate composition

Before the elections

As a result of the elections

Gains and losses

Democratic gains

• California: Sen. John F. Seymour (R-CA) was defeated in a special election by former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein. Seymour had been appointed to the seat by Governor Pete Wilson following Wilson's resignation from the Senate after his election as governor.
• Wisconsin: Sen. Bob Kasten (R-WI) survived a close call in his first re-election bid in 1986, but was upset in his bid for a third term by State Senator Russ Feingold. Feingold had won the Democratic primary as an underdog against two millionaire opponents thanks to an effective series of quirky campaign advertisements, and he repeated the same formula in the general election against Kasten.

Republican gains

• Georgia: In the initial balloting, Sen. Wyche Fowler (D-GA) narrowly led former Republican State Senator Paul Coverdell in the general election, but he failed to gain 50% of the vote thanks to the strong showing of the Libertarian candidate. Fowler faced Coverdell in a run-off in Dec. 1992 and lost as both parties spent a good amount of time and resources on the run-off campaign.
• North Carolina: Sen. Terry Sanford (D-NC) became the third straight incumbent to lose this seat after one term when he was defeated by Democrat-turned-Republican Lauch Faircloth. Faircloth's victory was aided by Sanford's health scares and the considerable political organization of the state's other senator, Jesse Helms (R-NC).

Later change

In 1993, Democratic Senator Lloyd Bentsen (TX) resigned to become U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. His Democratic replacement, Bob Krueger, lost a special election to Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison. This election was held in June 1993 and so is not included in the party balance numbers in this article.

Complete list of races

A bolded state name indicates an article about that state's election.

See also

• United States elections, 1992
  • United States presidential election, 1992
  • United States House of Representatives elections, 1992
• 102nd United States Congress
• 103rd United States Congress