Wikipedia

2004 United States Senate election in North Carolina

(Redirected from United States Senate election in North Carolina, 2004)

The 2004 United States Senate election in North Carolina was held on November 2, 2004. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator John Edwards decided to retire from the Senate after one term in order to run unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic Party presidential nomination, and become his party's vice presidential nominee. Republican Richard Burr won the open seat, making it the fifth consecutive election in which partisan control of the seat changed.

2004 United States Senate election in North Carolina
← 1998 November 2, 2004 2010 →
 
Nominee Richard Burr Erskine Bowles
Party Republican Democratic
Popular vote 1,791,450 1,632,527
Percentage 51.60% 47.02%
Burr:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90%
Bowles:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90%
Tie:      40–50%
U.S. senator before election

John Edwards
Democratic

Elected U.S. Senator

Richard Burr
Republican

Primaries

edit

Democratic

edit

Erskine Bowles won the Democratic Party's nomination unopposed. He had been the party's nominee for the state's other Senate seat in 2002.

Republican

edit
Republican primary results[1]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Richard Burr 302,319 87.92%
Republican John Ross Hendrix 25,971 7.55%
Republican Albert Wiley 15,585 4.53%
Total votes 343,875 100.00%

General election

edit

Candidates

edit

Campaign

edit

Both major-party candidates engaged in negative campaign tactics, with Bowles' campaign attacking Burr for special interest donations and his positions on trade legislation, and Burr's campaign attacking Bowles for his connections to the Clinton administration. Both attacks had basis in reality: Burr's campaign raised funds from numerous political action committees and at least 72 of the 100 largest Fortune 500 companies, while Bowles departed from the Clinton administration in the midst of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Burr won the election by 4%. He joined the Senate in January 2005. Bowles went on to become the president of the UNC system.

Predictions

edit
Source Ranking As of
Sabato's Crystal Ball[2] Lean R (flip) November 1, 2004

Polling

edit
Poll source Date(s)
administered 		Sample
size[a] 		Margin
of error 		Richard
Burr (R) 		Erskine
Bowles (D) 		Other /
Undecided
SurveyUSA[3] October 29–31, 2004 616 (LV) ± 4.0% 50% 45% 5%

Results

edit
2004 United States Senate election in North Carolina[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Richard Burr 1,791,450 51.60% +4.58%
Democratic Erskine Bowles 1,632,527 47.02% –4.13%
Libertarian Tom Bailey 47,743 1.38% –0.46%
Nonpartisan Walker F. Rucker (write-in) 362 0.01% N/A
Total votes 3,471,720 100.00% N/A
Republican gain from Democratic

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

edit

See also

edit

Notes

edit
  1. ^ Key:
    A – all adults
    RV – registered voters
    LV – likely voters
    V – unclear

References

edit
  1. ^ a b "North Carolina DataNet #46" (PDF). University of North Carolina. April 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 25, 2008. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
  2. ^ "The Final Predictions". Sabato's Crystal Ball. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
  3. ^ SurveyUSA
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2004_United_States_Senate_election_in_North_Carolina&oldid=1240313933"