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Nov. 8, 2016 Senate Races

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At Stake: 34 Seats Before Nov. 8: 54R, 44D and 2I. AL - AK - AZ - AR - CA - CO - CT - FL - GA - HI - ID - IL - IN - IA - KS - KY - MD - MO - NV - NH - NY - NC - ND - OH - OK - OR - PA - SC - SD - UT - VT - WA - WI - LA (Dec. 10 runoff)   Democrats Republicans Third Party/Independent Alabama R.Crumpton (D) did not respond Alaska Arizona Arkansas California no Republican candidate Colorado Connecticut Florida Georgia Hawaii B.Schatz (D) did not respond Idaho Illinois D   Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Maryland Missouri Nevada New Hampshire D New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma M.Workman (D) no lit. produced Oregon Pennsylvania South Carolina South Dakota Utah Vermont Washington Wisconsin Louisiana (Dec. 10 runoff) Overview At the top of their list for 2016—after winning the White House—Democrats sought to reclaim the majority in the U.S. Senate.  They anticipated Hillary Clinton would be elected and wanted a majority in the Senate to help her implement her policies (+).  Republicans dashed Democrats' hopes of re-taking the Senate, holding them to a gain of just two seats.  The balance heading into election day was 54R, 44D and 2I.  Of the 34 seats up, 10 were held by Democrats and 24 by Republicans.  There were about half a dozen competitive races.  The balance after Louisiana on Dec. 10, 2016 was 52R, 46D and 2I.  Only two Republican incumbents were defeated. U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth ousted Sen. Mark Kirk in Illinois and Gov. Maggie Hassan bested Sen. Kelly Ayotte by a very narrow margin in New Hampshire.  Other seats targeted by Democrats ended up in the Republican column; in Pennsylvania P.Toomey defeated K.McGinty, in Missouri R.Blunt defeated J.Kander, and in Wisconsin R.Johnson defeated R.Feingold.  North Carolina was closer than expected; R.Burr defeated D.Ross.  In Florida M.Rubio fended off a challenge from P.Murphy.  Other seats eyed by Democrats were settled by wider margins.  In Arizona A.Kirkpatrick lost by 12 percentage points, and in Indiana E.Bayh lost by almost 10 percentage points.  In Ohio T.Strickland fell well short, losing by more than 20 percentage points. After Dec. 10, 2016: 52R, 46D and 2I.

Several More Facts & Figs The most expensive U.S. Senate race in American history unfolded in Pennsylvania where according to the Center for Responsive Politics a total of $188.2 million was spent ($52.8 million by the campaigns and $135.4 million in outside spending).  The next most expensive races were New Hampshire $141.5 million ($38.1 million/$103.3 million); Nevada $128.1 million ($30.9 million/$97.2 million); Florida $110.5 million ($59.9 million/$50.6 million); and North Carolina $97.4 million ($24.2 million/$73.2 million). > The closest Senate race of the cycle was in New Hampshire, where Gov. Maggie Hassan (D) defeated incumbent Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R) by 1,017 votes (354,649 to 353,632) or 0.14% percentage points.  The next closest results were in Pennsyvania (Sen. Toomey by 1.42 percentage points), Nevada (Cortez Masto by 2.43 percentage points), Missouri (Sen. Blunt by 2.79 percentage points) and Wisconsin (Sen. Johnson by 3.36 percentage points. There were also many non-competitive races.  In six states the margin of victory was 40 or more percentage points: HI (51.38%) and NY (43.46%) for the Democrats and North Dakota (61.51%), South Dakota (43.66%), Oklahoma (43.16%) and Utah (41.09%) for the Republicans. Of the 68 major party nominees, 15 were women: 11D (1 incumbent and 10 challengers) and 4R (2 incumbents and 2 challengers).  Six women won: incumbents Patty Murray (D-WA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), as well as Kamala Harris (D-CA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH). The strongest showings by third party or independent candidates were in Alaska, where Joe Miller, running as a Libertarian, attracted 29.2% of the vote and independent candidate Margaret Stock garnered 13.2%.

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