Elected to the United States Senate in 2008

Distribution of seats

A total of 100 seats

Dem .: 57
Independent (Dem) : 2
GOP : 41

The elections to the Senate of the United States took place on 4 November, 2008. Of the 35 seats available for election, 23 were Republicans and 12 Democrats before the election . The Democrats won eight additional seats from the Republicans. The term of office of the elected ran from January 3, 2009 to January 3, 2013 or January 3, 2015.

Starting position

In the 2006 election , Democrats and Republicans each won 49 seats. The Democratic Group, however, had a majority in the 110th Senate , as it also had two independent senators ( Joe Lieberman and Bernie Sanders ). 33 of the 35 seats that were filled in 2008 were regular elections ( Class II ). For the first time since 1996, two Senate elections were held in two states at the same time: In Wyoming , incumbent Mike Enzi ran for regular re-election, while a special election to succeed the late Senator Craig Thomas ( Class I ) was held. Trent Lott , Republican Senator for Mississippi , announced his resignation in November 2007. His successor Roger Wicker , appointed on an interim basis by Governor Haley Barbour , ran for election on November 4th, as did Senator Thad Cochran .

Open seats

Before the elections, five incumbents had already announced that they would not run again:

Wayne Allard from Colorado (Republican)
Larry Craig from Idaho (Republican)
Pete Domenici from New Mexico (Republican)
Chuck Hagel from Nebraska (Republican)
John Warner of Virginia (Republican)

Result

Parties		Seats				be right
Parties		2006	2008	+/-	Strength	be right	%
	Democrats	49	57	+8	57%	64,888,090	52.9%
	republican	49	41	−8	41%	51,952,981	42.3%
	Other parties	2	2	0	2%	5,745,222	4.69%
total		100	100	0	100.0%	122,586,293	100.0%
Source: Clerk of the House Election Statistics 2008

Change of seats

The Democrats won eight previously Republican Senate seats:

Alaska (to Mark Begich )
Colorado (to Mark Udall )
Minnesota (to Al Franks )
New Hampshire (to Jeanne Shaheen )
New Mexico (to Tom Udall )
North Carolina (to Kay Hagan )
Oregon (to Jeff Merkley )
Virginia (to Mark Warner )

New Republican Senators

The new candidates for the Republican Party prevailed in two states. Mike Johanns was elected Senator for Nebraska, Jim Risch Senator for Idaho.

Election in Minnesota

In the Minnesota election, Republican incumbent Norm Coleman was a few hundred votes ahead of Al Franks after the initial count with around 2.9 million valid votes . Such a close election result requires a recount under Minnesota regulations. This gave Franconia an advantage of 225 votes over Coleman. Coleman then appealed. The review by a district court and the evaluation of additional postal votes resulted in a lead of 312 votes. After this result was confirmed by the Minnesota Supreme Court on June 30, 2009, Coleman declared that he would not have any further legal remedies and congratulated Franken on his election victory. After Governor Tim Pawlenty signed the credentials , Franken was sworn in on July 7, 2009 in the Senate.

Web links

Democratic Senate Committee (DSCC)
Republican Senate Committee (NRSC)
SWP dossier on the US presidential and congressional elections ( Memento of May 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

swell

↑ Judgment of the Minnesota Supreme Court ( January 1, 2010 memento in the Internet Archive )
↑ Pat Doylen (Star Tribune): At last, a second senator for Minnesota (July 1, 2009)

[1] Judgment of the Minnesota Supreme Court ( January 1, 2010 memento in the Internet Archive )

[2] Pat Doylen (Star Tribune): At last, a second senator for Minnesota (July 1, 2009)