Democracy in Action - Campaign Literature Archive 2014 Senate Races

Democracy in Action « Campaign Literature Archive Main Page « 2014 Senate Races

Nov. 4, 2014 Senate Races

	Gov.	Sen.
2021	x
2020	x	x
2019	x
2018	x	x
2017	x	x
2016	x	x
2015	x
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989

...some of these pages still need notes.
At Stake: 36 Seats

Before Nov. 4: 53D, 45R and 2I.

AL - AK - AR - CO - DE - GA - HI(s) - ID - IL - IA - KS - KY - LA - ME - MA - MI - MN - MS - MT - NE - NH - NJ - NM - NC - OK - OK(s) - OR - RI - SC - SC(s) - SD - TN - TX - VA - WV - WY

	Democrats	Republicans	Third Party/Independent
Alabama	[no Democratic candidate]

Alaska R+

Arkansas R+

Colorado R+

Delaware

Georgia

Hawaii (s)

Idaho

Illinois

Iowa R+

Kansas	[Dem. nominee Chad Taylor withdrew Sept. 3]

Kentucky

Louisiana R+

Maine		[missing Sen. Susan Collins]

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Montana R+

Nebraska

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

North Carolina R+

Oklahoma

Oklahoma (s)

Oregon

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Carolina (s)

South Dakota R+

Tennessee

Texas

Virginia

West Virginia R+

Wyoming

Thank you to the many people who have helped make this page possible.

After Nov. 4/Dec. 6: 54R, 44D, 2I.

Thirty-six U.S. Senate seats at stake in 2014.

Margin of Victory in Percentage Points

25.01 +	20.01-25.0	15.01-20.0	10.01-15.0	5.01-10.0	0-5.0	0-5.0	5.01-10.0	10.01-15.0	15.01-20.0	20.01-25.0	25.01 +
RI 41.34 HI 42.07	MA 23.88	OR 18.86	MN 10.24 IL 10.68 NM 11.12 MI 13.28 NJ 13.51 DE 13.60		VA 0.81 NH 3.24	NC 1.56* CO 1.94* AK 2.13*	GA 7.68 IA 8.34*	KS 10.62 LA 11.87*	KY 15.47 SC 15.48 AR 17.07* MT 17.72*	SD 20.86* MS 22.01 SCs 24.02	TX 27.20 WV 27.65* TN 30.00 ID 30.66 NE 32.85 ME 36.96 OKs 38.87 OK 39.46 WY 54.74 AL 94.50

*Seat changed parties.

Several More Facts & Figs

Republicans needed a net gain of six seats to gain control of the Senate. They gained nine seats. The map favored the GOP; Democrats were defending six seats in states Mitt Romney had won by large margins in 2012: Alaska (54.8 to 40.8), Arkansas (60.6 to 36.9), Louisiana (57.8 to 40.6), Montana (55.4 to 41.7), South Dakota (58.0 to 39.9) and West Virginia (62.3 to 35.5). They lost in all of those as well as North Carolina, which Romney narrowly won (50.4 to 48.4), plus Colorado and Iowa.

Five incumbent U.S. Senators were defeated, all Democrats: Mark Begich (AK), Mark Pryor (AR), Mark Udall (CO), Kay Hagan (NC), and Mary Landrieu (LA).

Thirteen new U.S. Senators were elected. There were 12 new Republicans: Dan Sullivan (AK), Tom Cotton (AR), Cory Gardner (CO), David Perdue (GA), Joni Ernst (IA), Bill Cassidy (LA), Steve Daines (MT), Ben Sasse (NE), Thom Tillis (NC), James Lankford (OK), Mike Rounds (SD) and Shelley Moore Capito (WV). Gary Peters (MI) was the lone new Democrat.

According to OpenSecrets.org (>), the most expensive Senate race occurred in North Carolina, where the campaigns spent $34.7 million and outside groups spent $80.5 million for a total of $115.2 million. Eight other races tallied more than $50 million in total spending: Colorado ($101.8 million), Iowa ($85.3 million), Kentucky ($81.7 million), Arkansas ($66.3 million), Louisiana ($59.6 million, Alaska ($57.6 million), New Hampshire ($55.5 million), and Michigan ($51.4 million).

The closest Senate race of the cycle was in Virginia, where Ed Gillespie (R) fell just short of upsetting Sen. Mark Warner (D).

Of the 70 major party nominees, 15 were women (21.4%): 10 of 34 Democrats or 29.4% (3 incumbents, 4 open seat and 3 challengers) and 5 of 36 Republicans or 13.9% (1 incumbent, 3 open seat and 1 challenger). Two incumbent women were defeated (Hagan and Landrieu) and one women won an open seat (Capito). None of the four women challengers won. In two races, both major party nominees were women (ME, WV).

The strongest showing by a third party or independent candidate was Greg Orman (I) in Kansas. The Democratic nominee running against Sen. Pat Roberts (R) dropped out at the filing deadline.

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Content Overview

Three themes stand out in the 2014 literature: 1) Candidates of all parties agree Washington is broken. 2) With few exceptions, literature from Republican candidates has strong language against Obamacare. A few examples: "Voted more than 100 times to stop Obamacare and wrote legislation to repeal it." [Thad Cochran]. "Voted against Obamacare 23 times" [Lamar Alexander]. "Lindsey Graham fought against Obamacare from Day One and has repeatedly voted against it in the U.S. Senate." "Senator Inhofe is leading the charge against ObamaCare. This is the most dangerous liberal scheme ever perpetuated by Big Liberal Government. It must be gutted, repealed, defunded and replaced." 3) The Democratic literature does not have a lot to say about Obamacare; a major theme was protecting Social Security and Medicare.