The Green Papers
2008 Senatorial Primaries at a Glance


 

This "at a glance" look at the primary in each State simply lists the winner (and, in many cases, the candidate who came in second) in each Primary in chronological order.

boldface followed by (inc) indicates the incumbent


 
2008 Senatorial Primaries at a Glance
Date State Democrat
Democrat
Republican
Republican
     Winner % Second %      Winner % Second %
Tuesday 5 February 2008 Illinois   Durbin (inc) U       Sauerberg D Martin  
Tuesday 4 March 2008 Texas   Noriega N Kelly     Cornyn (inc)      
Tuesday 11 March 2008 Mississippi   Fleming L O'Hara     Cochran (inc) P    
Tuesday 1 April 2008 Mississippi R         R        
Tuesday 8 April 2008 Texas R Noriega N Kelly   R Cornyn (inc)      
Tuesday 6 May 2008 North Carolina   Hagan D Neal     Dole (inc)      
Tuesday 13 May 2008 Nebraska   Kleeb L Raimondo     Johanns      
West Virginia   Rockefeller (inc)         Wolfe U    
Tuesday 20 May 2008 Arkansas   Pryor (inc) U              
Kentucky   Lunsford N Fischer     McConnell (inc)      
Oregon   Merkley 45 Novick 42   Smith (inc)      
Tuesday 27 May 2008 Idaho   LaRocco L Archuleta     Risch L Syme  
Tuesday 3 June 2008 Alabama   Figures L Swanson     Sessions (inc)      
Iowa   Harkin (inc) P       Reed 35 Eichhorn 35
Montana   Baucus U       Kelleher 36 Lange 23
New Jersey   Lautenberg (inc) D Andrews     Zimmer 46 Pennacchio 40
New Mexico   Udall U       Pearce N Wilson  
South Dakota   Johnson (inc) P       Dykstra L Kephart  
Tuesday 10 June 2008 Arkansas R         R        
Maine   Allen         Collins (inc) P    
South Carolina   Reed 35 Eichhorn 35   Graham (inc) L Witherspoon  
Virginia   Warner P       Gilmore P    
Tuesday 17 June 2008 South Dakota                    
Tuesday 24 June 2008 North Carolina R         R        
South Carolina R Conley N Cone   R Graham (inc) L Witherspoon  
Tuesday 15 July 2008 Alabama R Figures L Swanson   R Sessions (inc)      
Georgia   Vernon Jones (40.4%) and Jim Martin (34.4%) proceed to 5 August runoff   Chambliss (inc) U    
Tuesday 29 July 2008 Oklahoma   Rice D Rogers     Inhofe (inc)      
Tuesday 5 August 2008 Georgia R Martin D Jones   R        
Kansas   Slattery L Jones     Roberts (inc) P    
Michigan   Levin (inc) U       Hoogendyk U    
Thursday 7 August 2008 Tennessee   Tuke 32 Davis 21   Alexander (inc) U    
Tuesday 12 August 2008 Colorado   Udall U       Schaffer U    
Tuesday 19 August 2008 Wyoming   Class 1/Special: Carter (N) v. Goodenough; Class 2: Rothfuss (L) v. Hamburg   Class 1/Special: Barrasso (U); Class 2/Regular: Enzi (U)
Tuesday 26 August 2008 Alaska   Begich         Stevens (inc) L Cuddy  
Oklahoma R         R        
Saturday 6 September 2008 Louisiana                    
Tuesday 9 September 2008 Delaware   Biden (inc) P       O'Donnell P    
Minnesota   Franken L Faris     Coleman      
New Hampshire   Shaheen         Sununu (inc)      
Rhode Island   Reed (inc)         Tingle U    
Tuesday 16 September 2008 Massachusetts   Kerry (inc) L O'Reilly     Beatty U    
Saturday 4 October 2008 Louisiana   Landrieu (inc) P       Kennedy P    
 
 

Key

  • If a candidate wins 75.5% or more of the primary vote, the second place finisher is not listed.
  • U means that this candidate ran in the primary unopposed (that is, with no other candidates appearing on the ballot but him/her). Please note that write-ins do NOT count as such "other candidates on the ballot" but the appearance of "Uncommitted" (or equivalent, such as "None of the Above") on a ballot DOES.
  • L indicates a landslide majority [60.5 to 75.4% of the primary vote] for the winner.
  • D indicates a decisive majority [52.5 to 60.4% of the primary vote] for the winner.
  • N indicates a narrow majority [50.0(+1 vote) to 52.4% of the primary vote] for the winner.
  • Where a winning (or, in a runoff State, leading) candidate has failed to gain at least a majority of the primary vote, the winner(leader) of the primary and the candidate who came in second are both listed with their respective percentages of the primary vote rounded up or down to the nearest whole integer.
  • C indicates the Party's nominee was chosen by a Party-run process other than the Primary (State Convention, Party Central Committee or equivalent).
  • P indicates Primary cancelled / nomination by default because nominee was the only candidate to have filed for this Party's Primary for this office. P also applies to nominees-to-be by apparent Party consensus (i.e. no opposition at an ensuing Convention).
  • R indicates any Runoff which has been scheduled for this date.
 


  2008 General Election Home  
 
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  Gubernatorial Popular Vote by Party  
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  Close Contests Summary - Decision by 2% or less  
  Contests Where No Candidate Received a Majority  
 
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  Contests to Watch and Polling Data  
 
2008 Primaries and Runoffs for Statewide offices/Congress
  Alphabetically   --   Chronologically   --   Poll Closing Times  
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  Senators by 'Class'  
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  Gubernatorial Primaries at a Glance   --   Senatorial Primaries at a Glance  
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  Open Governor's Chairs, Senate and House Seats (the incumbent is not running for re-election)  
  Governor's Chairs, Senate, and U.S. House Seats with no incumbent running for them  
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  2008 Partisan Composition by State  
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  Political Parties  
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  Senate Electoral Classes  
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  1976-2004 Presidential Election State Voting Trends  
  Relative Political Party Strength in each State per Federal/State Elections  
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  Explanation of the Debate Scoring System