2014 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia, District 1
Republican David McKinley, who had represented West Virginia's 1st congressional district since 2011, was re-elected in 2012. While McKinley had expressed some interest in running for Senate, he later declared he would not run. He filed for re-election to his House seat on January 15, 2014.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia, District 1
Glen Gainer III, the West Virginia State Auditor, sought the Democratic nomination unopposed.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia, District 2
Republican Shelley Moore Capito, who had represented West Virginia's 2nd congressional district since 2001, won her seventh term in Congress with almost 70 percent of the vote in 2012. She announced that she would not run for re-election, so that she could run for the United States Senate seat held by retiring Democrat Jay Rockefeller.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia, District 3
Rahall was considered one of the most "endangered" House Democrats by the House Democratic campaign committee. Rahall was endorsed by the National Rifle Association's Political Victory Fund.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia, District 3
The National Right to Life Committee, West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, and West Virginians for Life, all of which had previously supported Rahall, supported Jenkins in 2014, and the West Virginia Coal Association endorsed Jenkins in September 2014. Jenkins supports the repeal of Obamacare, and states that he would replace the law.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia, District 3
As of September 18, 2014, the race was rated a "toss up" by both University of Virginia political professor Larry Sabato, of Sabato's Crystal Ball, and Stu Rothenberg of the Rothenberg Political Report. As of October 2, managing editor Kyle Kondik of Sabato's Crystal Ball said the race was still a toss-up, calling it "Super close, super expensive and super nasty."


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia, District 3
A Fox News op-ed opined in October that Jenkins "offers Republicans the most credible nominee the party has had since the mid-'90s. In a race that will see as much advertising by third-party organizations as any House race in the country, the winner will be the candidate who voters believe will do the most to take on President Obama's War on Coal and the EPA."


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia, District 3
Through October 6, 2014, 16,340 ads had appeared on broadcast television, the second-highest number of ads of any district in the U.S.  By mid-October 2014, it was anticipated that $12.8 million could be spent on ads in the race by Election Day. Rahall outspent Jenkins in the election by a two-to-one ratio.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia, District 3
Time listed a Rahall ad in its article: "Here Are 5 of The Most Dishonest Political Ads of 2014," and The Washington Post ran an article regarding the same Rahall ad entitled: "A sleazy attack puts words in the other candidate's mouth".


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia, District 3
Jenkins won the election, defeating incumbent Rahall in November 2014 with 55.3% of the vote to Rahall's 44.7%.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia, District 3, Democratic primary
In 2014, Democrat Nick Rahall, who had represented West Virginia in Congress since 1977, ran for re-election to the 3rd District seat, after having considered running for the Senate but instead deciding to run for re-election. Veteran Richard Ojeda ran against Rahall for the Democratic nomination, but lost.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia, District 3, Republican primary
For the Republicans, State Senator Evan Jenkins, who switched parties in July 2013, ran for the seat against Rahall. Jenkins ran unopposed in the Republican primary. State Senator Bill Cole, who had considered a run for the seat himself, was Jenkins' campaign chairman. Snuffer considered running again, but did not file.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in West Virginia, District 3, Republican primary
In July 2013, Jenkins switched to the Republican Party in preparation for his run at the seat. On switching parties, Jenkins stated that: "West Virginia is under attack from Barack Obama and a Democratic Party that our parents and grandparents would not recognize." In 2012, West Virginia's 3rd district went for Mitt Romney 66-32 percent.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin
The 2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin were held on Tuesday, November 4, 2014, to elect the eight U.S. Representatives from the state of Wisconsin, one from each of the state's eight congressional districts. The elections coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices, including an election for Governor of Wisconsin.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, Overview
Results of the 2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin by district:


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, District 1
In 2012, Republican incumbent Paul Ryan defeated Democrat Rob Zerban, a former member of the Kenosha County Board and entrepreneur; 2012 was the closest election of Ryan's congressional career. Zerban is running again in 2014. Amar Kaleka, a documentary film maker and the son of a victim of the 2012 Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting, also ran for the Democratic nomination, but lost in the primary.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, District 2
Democratic incumbent Mark Pocan has represented the district since 2013. This district has a PVI of D+17.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, District 3
Democratic incumbent Ron Kind has represented the district since 1996. He was re-elected with 64% of the vote in 2012 and the district has a PVI of D+5.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, District 4
Democratic incumbent Gwen Moore has represented the district since 2005. She was re-elected with 72% of the vote in 2012 and the district has a PVI of D+23.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, District 4
Former State Senator and convicted felon Gary George ran against her in the Democratic primary., losing by a substantial margin.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, District 5
Republican incumbent Jim Sensenbrenner has represented the district since 1978. He was re-elected with 67.72% of the vote in 2012 and the district has a PVI of R+13.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, District 5
Chris Rockwood, an electrical engineer who previously ran as a Democratic candidate for the Wisconsin State Assembly, is the Democratic nominee.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, District 6
The sixth district is represented by Republican Tom Petri, who is retiring.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, District 6
For the Republicans, State Senator Glenn Grothman, State Representative Duey Stroebel and State Senator Joe Leibham sought the nomination. Wisconsin State Senate Majority Leader Scott L. Fitzgerald chose not to run; and Scott Walker aide John Hiller and former Dodge County Sheriff Todd Nehls had been discussed as potential candidates, but did not run. Grothman won the primary but Petri has refused to endorse him, going as far as saying that Democratic nominee Mark Harris had done "a fine job" as County Executive. Grothman has declined to participate in debates and has turned down requests for interviews.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, District 6
Democratic Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris is the Democratic Party nominee.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, District 6
The general election will also feature Gus Fahrendorf, of Neenah, as the nominee of the Libertarian Party.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, District 7
The seventh district is represented by Republican Sean Duffy. Ashland businesswoman and City Council member Kelly Westlund is the 2014 Democratic nominee.


2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, District 8
The eighth district is represented by Republican Reid Ribble. Ron Gruett (pronounced 'grit'), a professor of physics and chemistry, is the Democratic nominee.


2014 United States Men's Curling Championship
The 2014 Labatt United States Men's Curling Championship was held from March 1 to 8 at the IceWorks Skating Complex in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was held in conjunction with the 2014 United States Women's Curling Championship.


2014 United States Men's Curling Championship, Road to the Nationals
A total of ten teams qualified to participate in the men's national championship through the High Performance Program, through the World Curling Tour Order of Merit, or through a challenge round.


2014 United States Men's Curling Championship, Teams
Ten teams participated in the national championship. The teams are listed as follows:


2014 United States Men's Curling Championship, Round robin results
All draw times are listed in Eastern Standard Time (UTC−7).


2014 United States Men's Curling Championship – Qualification
Qualification for the 2014 United States Men's Curling Championship consisted of three different paths. Four teams qualified directly through the High Performance Program or the Order of Merit system. The number of the remaining entrants to the national championships was cut down to six teams through a challenge round held in early January.


2014 United States Men's Curling Championship – Qualification, Qualification system
Teams can qualify to participate in the men's national championship through the High Performance Program, through the World Curling Tour Order of Merit, or through a challenge round.


2014 United States Men's Curling Championship – Qualification, Qualification system
Two spots in the nationals were awarded to two teams on the United States Curling Association's High Performance National Program. The teams qualified through the High Performance Program were those skipped by John Shuster and Pete Fenson. Two more spots were awarded to the top two men's teams on the World Curling Tour Order of Merit standings table at the year's end. The teams qualified through the Order of Merit were those skipped by Heath McCormick and Brady Clark.


2014 United States Men's Curling Championship – Qualification, Qualification system
The remaining six spots in the nationals will be awarded to the teams that earn qualification spots through the challenge round. The challenge round will be held in a triple knockout format.


2014 United States Men's Curling Championship – Qualification, Challenge Round
The challenge round for the men's nationals will be held from January 9 to 12 at the Four Seasons Curling Club in Blaine, Minnesota.


2014 United States Mixed Doubles Curling Championship
The 2014 United States Mixed Doubles Curling Championship was held from December 4-8, 2013 at the Medford Curling Club in Medford, Wisconsin. Joyance Meechai, from New York, and Steve Gebauer, from Minnesota, won the tournament, earning the right to represent the United States at the 2014 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Dumfries, Scotland.


2014 United States Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, Round robin
The 16 teams were split into two pools of 8 teams. Each pool played a round robin and at the end the top two teams advanced to the playoffs. The standings at the end of the round robin phase were:


2014 United States Senate election in Alabama
The 2014 United States Senate election in Alabama took place on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate for Alabama.


2014 United States Senate election in Alabama
Incumbent Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, who served in the position since 1997, ran for re-election to a fourth term in office. As the Democrats did not field a candidate, he was the only candidate to file before the deadline and was therefore unopposed in the Republican primary election and only faced write-in opposition in the general election.


2014 United States Senate election in Alabama
Sessions was re-elected with 97.25% of the vote. The remaining votes were write-ins.


2014 United States Senate election in Alabama, Independents
An independent candidate would have been able to challenge Sessions if at least 44,828 signatures had been submitted by June 3, 2014. None did so.


2014 United States Senate election in Alabama, Miscellaneous
Although Sessions won the seat virtually unopposed, he vacated it on February 9, 2017, to become Attorney General under the Trump administration. This triggered the interim appointment of Luther Strange to fill the vacancy until Democrat Doug Jones won a special election later that year. On November 7, 2019, Sessions announced that he would stand for this US Senate seat again in 2020 when it was due for its regularly-scheduled election, though he was defeated in the runoff primary by football coach Tommy Tuberville, who would go onto win the general election.


2014 United States Senate election in Alaska
The 2014 United States Senate election in Alaska took place on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Alaska, concurrently with the election of the governor of Alaska, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Alaska
Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Begich ran for re-election to a second term in office. Primary elections were held on August 19, 2014. Begich was renominated and the Republicans picked former Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Dan Sullivan.


2014 United States Senate election in Alaska
On November 7, Sullivan held an 8,000-vote lead, which on November 11 had shrunk slightly to 7,991 votes. Multiple media outlets called the race for Sullivan on November 12 and Begich conceded to Sullivan on November 17. Republican Sean Parnell simultaneously lost the gubernatorial election to independent candidate Bill Walker, marking just the fifth time in the last 50 years in which U.S. Senate and gubernatorial incumbents from different political parties were simultaneously defeated in the same state.


2014 United States Senate election in Alaska, Background
Democrat Mark Begich won the 2008 election, defeating six-term Republican incumbent Ted Stevens by just under 4,000 votes. A few days before the election, Stevens had been convicted of a felony, but the case against Stevens was later dismissed by the Justice Department after the election, when serious issues of prosecutorial misconduct emerged. In the 2012 presidential election, Mitt Romney easily won Alaska by 13 points, which made Begich a prime target during an election cycle in which Republicans needed a net gain of six seats to retake control of the Senate.


2014 United States Senate election in Alaska, Democratic–Libertarian–Independence primary
Candidates from the Alaska Democratic Party, Alaska Libertarian Party and Alaskan Independence Party appear on the same ballot, with the highest-placed candidate from each party receiving that party's nomination.


2014 United States Senate election in Alaska, Democratic–Libertarian–Independence primary, Subsequent events
In an upset, the unknown Thom Walker won the Libertarian nomination despite not campaigning and raising no money. Libertarians speculated that he was a Republican "plant" designed to keep a more viable Libertarian from winning the nomination and then taking votes away from the Republican nominee in the general election.


2014 United States Senate election in Alaska, Democratic–Libertarian–Independence primary, Subsequent events
They further speculated that Walker was chosen because he shared a surname with Bill Walker (no relation), who was running as an independent candidate in the 2014 gubernatorial election, and that voters may have been confused because Bill Walker did not appear on the primary ballot and thus they may have voted for Thom Walker in error. This confusion could have extended to the general election, with voters picking Thom Walker for the Senate, thinking he was Bill Walker.


2014 United States Senate election in Alaska, Democratic–Libertarian–Independence primary, Subsequent events
Walker withdrew from the race on August 27, saying that "my work location and schedule will have me out of town, out of contact and off the campaign trail for too long." The Libertarian executive board replaced him as the nominee with Mark Fish.


2014 United States Senate election in Alaska, Democratic–Libertarian–Independence primary, Subsequent events
Alaskan Independence nominee Vic Kohring, who had changed his voter registration from Republican to Alaskan Independence just before the filing deadline, withdrew from the race on September 2 and endorsed Dan Sullivan. The Alaskan Independence Party did not name a replacement nominee before the deadline for them to do so had passed.


2014 United States Senate election in Alaska, General election, Debates
Begich and Sullivan participated in a televised debate regarding fisheries on August 27, 2014, at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Another televised debate concerning natural resources was held on October 1 in Kodiak, Alaska.


2014 United States Senate election in Arkansas
The 2014 United States Senate election in Arkansas was held on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of Arkansas, concurrently with the election of the Governor of Arkansas, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Arkansas
Incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Pryor ran for re-election to a third term in office. He was unopposed in the Democratic primary; U.S. Representative Tom Cotton was also unopposed for the Republican nomination. While the race was initially expected to be close, Cotton prevailed by a margin of 56.5%-39.4%. The Associated Press called the race for Cotton immediately after the polls closed. This marked the first time since Reconstruction that Republicans held both Senate seats in Arkansas, and the Arkansas congressional delegation was entirely Republican. Elected at age 37, Cotton surpassed Connecticut's Chris Murphy as the youngest incumbent senator at that time and was until the election of Josh Hawley in 2019.


2014 United States Senate election in Arkansas, Background
Arkansas Attorney General Mark Pryor was first elected to the Senate in 2002, defeating first-term Republican incumbent Tim Hutchinson. He was re-elected with 80% of the vote in 2008 as he was unopposed by a Republican candidate. He faced competition only from Green Party nominee Rebekah Kennedy, who won the largest share of the vote of any Green Party candidate in a Senate race in history. Of the 88 previous occasions when an incumbent senator was re-elected without major party opposition and then went on to contest the following general election, all 88 were successfully re-elected.


2014 United States Senate election in Arkansas, Background
Heading into the 2014 Cotton vs. Pryor matchup, only 17 House freshmen had been elected to the U.S. Senate over the last century, and just two in the last 40 years. In the 2014 cycle, Cotton and Montana's Steve Daines became the 18th and 19th freshmen to win U.S. Senate races since 1914.


2014 United States Senate election in Arkansas, Background
The election was originally thought to be extremely close- a claim backed up by polling, but Tom Cotton ended up winning in a landslide against the incumbent, by nearly 17 points.


2014 United States Senate election in Colorado
The 2014 United States Senate election in Colorado was held on November 4, 2014 to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Colorado, concurrently with the election of the Governor of Colorado, other elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Udall ran for re-election to a second term, but lost to Republican U.S. Representative Cory Gardner by a margin of 1.9 percent.


2014 United States Senate election in Colorado
As of 2021, this is the last time the Republicans won a U.S. Senate election in Colorado.


2014 United States Senate election in Colorado, Democratic primary
Mark Udall was the only Democrat to file to run, and thus at the Democratic state assembly on April 12, 2014, he was renominated unopposed.


2014 United States Senate election in Colorado, Republican primary
At the Republican state assembly on April 12, 2014, Cory Gardner received 73% of the votes of over 3,900 delegates. Neither Randy Baumgardner nor Tom Janich received the required 30% make the ballot and thus Gardner received the party's nomination.


2014 United States Senate election in Delaware
The 2014 United States Senate election in Delaware was held on November 4, 2014 to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Delaware, concurrently with other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Delaware
Incumbent Democratic Senator Chris Coons ran for re-election to a first full term in office. He was unopposed for the Democratic nomination and defeated Republican businessman Kevin Wade in the general election.


2014 United States Senate election in Delaware, Background
Democratic Senator Joe Biden was re-elected to a seventh term in 2008, defeating Republican political commentator Christine O'Donnell by 65% to 35%. At the same time, he was elected Vice President of the United States and resigned his Senate seat to be sworn-in as Vice President in January 2009. Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner appointed Biden's longtime aide Ted Kaufman to the seat until a special election was held in November 2010. In the election, Christine O'Donnell ran again and upset U.S. Representative and former Governor Mike Castle in the Republican primary to face Democrat Chris Coons, who had run unopposed for his party's nomination. In the general election, Coons defeated O'Donnell by 57% to 40% and was sworn-in later that month.


2014 United States Senate election in Delaware, General election, Results
Coons easily won the election to a full term, with 56% of the vote. Coons was projected the winner right when the polls closed in Delaware. Wade conceded defeat at 8:32 P.M. EST.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia
The 2014 United States Senate election in Georgia was held on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Georgia, concurrently with the election of the Governor of Georgia, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia
Incumbent Republican senator Saxby Chambliss announced on January 25, 2013, that he would not run for re-election, making this an open-seat race. After a close and contentious primary campaign, businessman David Perdue and U.S. Representative Jack Kingston advanced to a runoff for the Republican nomination, which was narrowly won by Perdue. The Democratic primary was decisively won by Points of Light CEO Michelle Nunn, the daughter of former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn. Also running was Libertarian nominee Amanda Swafford, a former Flowery Branch City Councilwoman.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia
If no candidate received a majority of the vote, a runoff would have been held between the top two finishers on January 6, 2015, after the 114th Congress had been sworn in, but in the end David Perdue defeated Michelle Nunn by a margin of 7.7%.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, Republican primary
In the early stages of the Republican primary campaign, the field was deemed a "clown car" by The Hill due to the prominence of far-right candidates within it. During September 2013, several Republicans considered buying ads against Paul Broun's campaign, due to him being seen as unelectable. The primary was held on May 20, 2014. No candidate won more than 50% of the vote, so a runoff was held between the top two candidates, David Perdue and Jack Kingston. The 30.6 percent won by Perdue is the lowest ever for a first-place finisher in a Georgia U.S. Senate primary by either party in state history.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, Republican primary, Runoff
The runoff was held on July 22, 2014, which Perdue won with 50.9% of the vote. Kingston was perceived as the more conservative candidate in the race, but Perdue defeated him, largely due to strong support from business-friendly voters residing in the Atlanta suburbs. The runoff was noted for the large amount of advertisements run by both campaigns that focused around comparing their opponent to a baby.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, Democratic primary, Campaign
With Democratic Congressman John Barrow passing on the race, Nunn consulted with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee about possibly running, as well as with Georgia political figures such as Shirley Franklin, Roy Barnes, and Andrew Young. Though she was little known to voters, Democrats embraced the hope that Nunn, with her executive experience as well as family name, could make their party once again competitive in-state.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, Democratic primary, Campaign
On July 22, 2013, Nunn declared herself a candidate for U.S. Senate. She said: "Our opportunity is to define ourselves. I'm going to talk a lot about the deficit. Neither side of the equation is really tackling that. I think people are really tired of the mudslinging and the silliness of this." If elected, Nunn would have become the 29th Georgian elected to the U.S. Senate or U.S. House with a family member who previously served in Congress, and the first since her father (who is the grandnephew of Carl Vinson).


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, Democratic primary, Campaign
She raised $1.7 million in campaign funds during the third quarter of 2013, more than twice that of any Republican running. She followed that with a $1.6 million fourth quarter and a $2.4 million first quarter of 2014, again the most of anyone in the race.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, Democratic primary, Campaign
On May 20, 2014, Nunn won the Democratic primary for the Senate seat with 75 percent of the vote, having skipped many of the debates and public forums where three other little-known candidates appeared.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, General election, Campaign
Following the conclusion of the two primaries, the race was set up as being between two self-described political "outsiders" with well-known-in-state political family names, each seeking to reach moderate and independent voters.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, General election, Campaign
In July 2014, National Review, a conservative media outlet, reported on a leaked Nunn campaign memo from December 2013 which made frank recommendations on strategy for Nunn's path to victory in Georgia. The leaked memo said that likely attack lines against Nunn would include that she was a "lightweight", "too liberal", and "not a 'real' Georgian".


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, General election, Campaign
The memo said that Nunn should feature images of her and her family in rural settings in order to connect with rural voters, and suggested that Nunn focus on African American clergy to raise enthusiasm for her candidacy among African American voters and that Nunn focus her efforts on Jews and Asians to raise money.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, General election, Campaign
First Lady Michelle Obama campaigned on behalf of Nunn, as part of an effort to increase African-American voter turnout in midterm elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, General election, Campaign
Nunn's stump speech emphasized an appeal to bipartisanship. She received support and donations from former Republican senators Richard Lugar and John Warner, both of whom were close to her father, and support from former Georgia Senator and Governor Zell Miller, a Democrat who had endorsed Republicans over the previous decade. Nunn's campaign commercials used photographs of herself and President George H. W. Bush, who founded Points of Light, together in campaign commercials and she mentioned him often on the campaign trail.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, General election, Campaign
However, in June 2014, Bush sent out a fundraising letter that, while not mentioning her by name, called on Republican donors to support the Republican nominee, and in September 2014, Bush endorsed Perdue. In October 2014, Bush emphatically objected to Nunn continuing to use a photograph of him in her campaign, saying that such actions were disrespectful. Points of Light chair Neil Bush neither endorsed nor opposed her candidacy, but did label as "shameful" an advertisement approved by Perdue that used a past episode to say that Points of Light "gave money to organizations linked to terrorists."


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, General election, Campaign
As the campaign moved on, Nunn made her father a focal point, staging joint appearances with him at military bases and saying that she would emulate his bipartisan approach to legislating. She has also said that she would seek a seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee that he once chaired.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, General election, Campaign
Perdue stated that he entered politics out of concern for the rising national debt. He supported repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act. He also supported a constitutional balanced budget amendment and comprehensive tax reform. In addition, he pledged to limit himself to two terms in the Senate, if elected.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, General election, Campaign
Perdue[he] represent[s] and touted his business experience, and particularly his experience at Dollar General, saying, "We added about 2,200 stores, created almost 20,000 jobs and doubled the value of that company in a very short period of time. Not because of me, but because we listened to our customers and employees." He received the endorsement of the National Federation of Independent Business. But he was hurt during the campaign by revelations that he had in the past been an enthusiastic supporter of outsourcing. Nunn targeted past pre-political statements of Perdue where he had said he was "proud of" his outsourcing efforts, and for the job losses that followed the final closure of Pillowtex.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, General election, Policy positions
Perdue supported repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act. He supported a constitutional balanced budget amendment and comprehensive tax reform. He pledged to limit himself to two terms in the Senate, if elected.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, General election, Policy positions
Nunn supported abortion rights. Nunn believed that members of Congress should be forced to pass a budget each year, or forfeit their pay. Nunn supported expanding federally mandated background checks to include all local sales to prevent the possibility that mentally ill persons would be able to buy a firearm. Nunn said that going forward, some aspects of the Affordable Care Act should be fixed rather than the whole law being eliminated. She criticized Georgia's refusal to accept Medicaid expansion under the act.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, General election, Policy positions
Following the start-up problems with the associated HealthCare.gov website, Nunn broke with the Obama administration and said that the individual mandate portion of the law should be delayed. Nunn supported the 2013 Senate immigration plan that would have allowed illegal immigrants to stay in the United States while waiting for American citizenship. Nunn favored construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. She opposed the Obama administration's proposed cuts to defense spending. On the topic of same-sex marriage, Nunn said she personally favored it, but that the decision should be made on a state-by-state basis.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, General election, Debates
Perdue and Nunn held debates on August 21, October 7, October 26, and November 2.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, General election, Fundraising
David Perdue has funded more than $1.9 million of his campaign personally; the second-largest total of any Senate candidate. A total of $23,355,844 was raised by the candidates for this race, of which a total of $22,917,058 was spent by the campaigns.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, General election, Spending
This Senate race, as many others across the United States, was heavily influenced by outside PACs and organizations who support various candidates. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was expected to spend almost $50 million on elections in 2014. More than $4.6 million has been spent on advertising in the Georgia race by outside groups so far.


2014 United States Senate election in Georgia, Results, Results breakdown
Perdue's victory was part of a series of Republican victories across the nation. Nunn failed to improve on Obama's losing percentages in the state from two years earlier and any changes in the state's demographics were not enough for Democrats to prevail. Nevertheless, Nunn took credit for making the party competitive in the otherwise inhospitable South: "We put Georgia in play. We have reminded people what a two-party system looks like." Nunn's efforts to appeal to white voters was largely unsuccessful, with her not achieving 25% of the white vote, with conventional wisdom at the time stating that a Democrat needed 30% of the white vote to win.


2014 United States Senate election in Idaho
The 2014 United States Senate election in Idaho was held on November 4, 2014 to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Idaho, concurrently with the election of the Governor of Idaho, other elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Idaho
Incumbent Republican Senator Jim Risch ran for re-election to a second term in office. In primary elections held on May 20, 2014, Risch was renominated and the Democrats nominated attorney Nels Mitchell. Risch defeated Mitchell by a landslide in the general election.


2014 United States Senate election in Illinois
The 2014 United States Senate election in Illinois took place on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Illinois, concurrently with the election of the Governor of Illinois, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Illinois
Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin ran for re-election to a fourth term. He was unopposed in the Democratic primary. The Republicans nominated State Senator and perennial candidate for higher office Jim Oberweis.


2014 United States Senate election in Illinois
Durbin defeated Oberweis and Libertarian Sharon Hansen with 53.5% of the vote, the smallest vote total of any of his Senate elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Illinois, Election information
The primaries and general elections coincided with those for House and those for state offices.


2014 United States Senate election in Illinois, Election information, Background
Dick Durbin was first elected to the Senate in 1996 and was re-elected by increasingly larger margins in 2002 and 2008. He has served as Senate Majority Whip since 2007 and sought a fourth term in office.


2014 United States Senate election in Illinois, Election information, Turnout
For the primary election, turnout was 15.77%, with 1,183,429 votes cast. For the general election, turnout was 48.16%, with 3,603,519 votes cast.


2014 United States Senate election in Illinois, General election, Results
Durbin won the election, despite winning only 14 of Illinois' 102 counties.


2014 United States Senate election in Iowa
The 2014 United States Senate election in Iowa was held on November 4, 2014. Incumbent Democratic Senator Tom Harkin did not run for reelection to a sixth term in office.


2014 United States Senate election in Iowa
U.S. Representative Bruce Braley was unopposed for the Democratic nomination; the Republicans nominated State Senator Joni Ernst in a June 3 primary election. Douglas Butzier, who was the Libertarian nominee, died on October 14 in a single engine plane crash near Key West, Iowa. He was the pilot and the only person aboard the plane. He still appeared on the ballot, alongside Independents Bob Quast, Ruth Smith and Rick Stewart. Ernst defeated Braley in the general election. This was the first open Senate seat in Iowa since 1974.


2014 United States Senate election in Iowa, Democratic primary
Bruce Braley ultimately faced no opposition in his primary campaign and became the Democratic nominee on June 3, 2014.


2014 United States Senate election in Iowa, Republican primary
The Republican primary was held on June 3, 2014. If no candidate won more than 35% of the vote, the nominee would have been chosen at a statewide convention. It would have been only the second time in 50 years that a convention picked a nominee and the first time since 2002, when then-State Senator Steve King won a convention held in Iowa's 5th congressional district to decide the Republican nominee for Congress. Having the nominee chosen by a convention led to fears that the increasingly powerful Ron Paul faction of the state party, led by Party Chairman A. J. Spiker, could have nominated an unelectable candidate.


2014 United States Senate election in Iowa, Republican primary
The convention was scheduled to be held on June 14 but was then moved to July 12. Republican leaders, including Governor Terry Branstad and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, as well as four of the candidates for the nomination, criticized the move.


2014 United States Senate election in Iowa, Republican primary
Candidates Sam Clovis, Joni Ernst, Matthew Whitaker and David Young signed a letter to the Republican Party of Iowa asking them to move the convention date back, saying that "Essentially gifting [Bruce] Braley an additional 30 days to campaign in a vacuum, while reducing our nominee's time to raise funds and campaign as the general election candidate by an entire month – only serves to strengthen Braley's viability". Spiker responded that the move was necessary to accommodate the 27-day period that the Iowa Secretary of State's office requires to certify the results of the primary.


2014 United States Senate election in Iowa, Republican primary
Spiker reiterated his position in September 2013, rejecting calls for a vote by the central committee to move the convention date. He said that nominating a candidate before the primary had been certified would break state law, "which outlines that a ballot vacancy does not exist until the canvass is completed and certified."


2014 United States Senate election in Iowa, Republican primary
Secretary of State Matt Schultz was highly critical of Spiker, saying that "no political party should use the excuse of the final date of the statewide canvass to determine the date of its special nominating convention. Furthermore, to state that it is necessary to hold a special nominating convention after the conclusion of the state canvass is not only misleading, it is false." Following efforts by members of the central committee to call a special meeting to move the date back to June, Spiker agreed and a meeting was held on September 23.


2014 United States Senate election in Iowa, Republican primary
The central committee voted 16–1 to move the convention date back to June 14. Statewide Republican leaders and activists and members of the National Republican Senatorial Committee believe that the real reason for the attempt to delay the convention was to give the Ron Paul faction time to organize an insurgent effort to push through a candidate they support, which could have even be Spiker himself or State Party Co-chair David Fischer. The infighting has been traced back to the failure of the NRSC and allies of Governor Branstad and Senator Grassley to recruit a "top-tier" candidate for the race.


2014 United States Senate election in Iowa, Republican primary
Ernst received widespread attention for a campaign ad she released in March 2014 where she employed a tongue-in-cheek comparison between her experience castrating pigs and her ability to cut "pork" in Congress. Many found the ad to be humorous and it was spoofed by late-night comedians including Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert, while some found it to be in bad taste. Before the ad aired, Ernst had struggled in fundraising, and two polls of the Republican primary taken in February 2014 had shown her in second place, several points behind opponent Mark Jacobs. After it aired, a Suffolk University poll in early April showed her with a narrow lead and a Loras College poll showed her essentially tied with Jacobs. By May, she was being described by the media as the "strong front-runner".


2014 United States Senate election in Iowa, Republican primary
In May 2014, Roll Call reported that the Republican primary campaign had become a proxy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, with Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio supporting Ernst, Rick Perry endorsing Whitaker and Rick Santorum backing Clovis. Jacobs, who had no such high-profile endorsements, ran as the "outsider".


2014 United States Senate election in Iowa, Republican primary
Ultimately, Ernst won the primary with 56% of the vote, negating the need for a convention.


2014 United States Senate election in Iowa, General election, Debates
On August 29, Ernst and Braley announced their agreement to hold three televised debates in Davenport, Des Moines, and Sioux City, the first debate on September 28, the second on October 11, and the last on October 16.


2014 United States Senate election in Kansas
The 2014 United States Senate election in Kansas was held on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Kansas, concurrently with other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Kansas
Incumbent Republican Senator Pat Roberts was re-elected to a fourth term against Independent Greg Orman and Libertarian nominee Randall Batson. The Democratic nominee, Chad Taylor, withdrew from the race.


2014 United States Senate election in Kansas, Republican primary
Roberts gained negative press attention after criticism that he did not own a home in Kansas, with some comparing the situation to that of former Indiana Senator Richard Lugar, who lost a 2012 Senate primary after a similar residency controversy. Roberts owns a home in Alexandria, Virginia. The primary was held August 5, 2014.


2014 United States Senate election in Kansas, Republican primary
Primary opponent Milton R. Wolf, a radiologist, was under investigation by a state medical ethics board for posting X-ray images of dead patients with macabre commentary to Facebook.


2014 United States Senate election in Kansas, General election, Campaign
On September 3, Democratic nominee Chad Taylor withdrew from the race. On September 4, Kris Kobach, the Republican Kansas Secretary of State, announced that Taylor would remain on the ballot because state law demands he declare himself "incapable of fulfilling the duties of office if elected" in order to be removed, which he did not do. Taylor challenged the decision, and on September 18 the Kansas Supreme Court decided that his name would be taken off the ballot.


2014 United States Senate election in Kansas, General election, Campaign
On the same day, Kobach demanded the chairman of the Democratic Party name a replacement in eight days, saying he will consider litigation to force the party if they refuse.


2014 United States Senate election in Kansas, General election, Campaign
A registered Democrat with family ties to Republican Governor Sam Brownback's campaign also filed a petition with the Kansas Supreme Court on September 18 to force the Democratic Party to name a new candidate. Kobach ordered ballots to be mailed to overseas voters on September 20 without a Democratic candidate, but included a disclaimer that another ballot will be sent if the Democratic Party names a replacement candidate.


2014 United States Senate election in Kansas, General election, Campaign
The state district court in Shawnee County  threw out the petition, meaning no replacement for Taylor needed to be named.


2014 United States Senate election in Kansas, General election, Campaign
In the 2002 Senate election, Roberts also had no Democratic opponent.


2014 United States Senate election in Kansas, General election, Campaign
Roberts defeated Orman in the general election, winning reelection to a fourth term in office.


2014 United States Senate election in Kansas, General election, Campaign
If Orman had been elected, the U.S. Senate would have had three independent Senators for the first time in the chamber's history. This—and the question of whom Orman would choose to caucus with if elected—were very large questions in the electoral contest, and because the Kansas race was showing tight in the polls, a subject of considerable national political discourse as well.


2014 United States Senate election in Kentucky
The 2014 United States Senate election in Kentucky took place on November 4, 2014 to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the Commonwealth of Kentucky, concurrently with elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Kentucky
Incumbent Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, ran for re-election to a sixth term. He faced Democratic nominee and Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes and Libertarian nominee David Patterson in the general election.


2014 United States Senate election in Kentucky
The race was initially seen as a possible pickup opportunity for Democrats, largely due to McConnell's unpopularity among Kentucky voters. The Cook Political Report considered the race a toss-up and the Rothenberg Political Report considered the race to "lean Republican." McConnell ultimately defeated Grimes by a larger-than-expected margin of 56.2% to 40.7%.


2014 United States Senate election in Kentucky, Republican primary
Immediately after a secret recording of Mitch McConnell and his campaign staff was released to Mother Jones, McConnell expressed concerns about what he saw as a threat from the left. David Adams, a Kentucky Tea Party activist who was seeking a Republican opponent to McConnell, told The New York Times that McConnell's fears about "threats from the left" were misplaced. Adams said: "It's going to come from the right. The fact that he's coming unglued about this thing should make clear to observers that he may not be ready for the challenge that lies ahead."


2014 United States Senate election in Kentucky, Republican primary
McConnell won the primary with 60.2% of the vote. According to analysis by the University of Minnesota, this is the lowest voter support for a Kentucky U.S. Senator in a primary by either party since 1938.


2014 United States Senate election in Kentucky, Democratic primary
In late 2012 and early 2013, media speculation focused on the possibility of a challenge to incumbent Mitch McConnell from actress and Tennessee resident Ashley Judd, who was raised in Kentucky. Judd later announced that she would not seek the Democratic nomination. On April 9, Mother Jones magazine released a tape of a private meeting between McConnell and, allegedly, his aides reviewing opposition research and tactics to use against Judd. At the February strategy session, McConnell referred to the early stages of his re-election bid as the "Whac-A-Mole period of the campaign" and he and aides discussed attacking Judd's religious views as well as her struggle with depression.


2014 United States Senate election in Kentucky, Democratic primary
Alison Lundergan Grimes, the sitting Secretary of State, entered the primary race with the encouragement of former President Bill Clinton, a friend of Grimes's father, a former Kentucky politician. On May 20, 2014, she won the Democratic primary with 77% of the vote. Her father's involvement in the campaign has been noted as a factor in the race because of his personal political history and fundraising connections he brings.


2014 United States Senate election in Kentucky, Libertarian primary, Results
Patterson won the Libertarian primary on March 1, 2014. While he ran unopposed, all Libertarian Party candidates must defeat None of the above (NOTA) in the primary operated by the Libertarian Party of Kentucky. He became an official ballot-listed candidate on August 11 after submitting over 9,100 signatures.


2014 United States Senate election in Louisiana
The 2014 United States Senate election in Louisiana was held on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Louisiana. As no candidate won a majority of the vote, a runoff was held on December 6, 2014.


2014 United States Senate election in Louisiana
Incumbent Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu ran for re-election to a fourth term in office against Republican U.S. Representative Bill Cassidy and several other candidates.


2014 United States Senate election in Louisiana
Under Louisiana's jungle primary system, all candidates appear on the same ballot, regardless of party and voters may vote for any candidate, regardless of their party affiliation. Louisiana is the only state that has a jungle primary system (California and Washington have a similar "top two primary" system). Since no candidate received a majority of the vote in the primary election, a runoff election was held on December 6 between the top two candidates, Landrieu and Cassidy.


2014 United States Senate election in Louisiana
In the December 6 runoff, Cassidy defeated Landrieu by 56% to 44%, settling the fate of the final Senate seat of the 2014 midterm elections. Cassidy's victory gave the Republicans 54 seats in the 114th Congress. Cassidy became the first Republican to hold this seat in 132 years, after William Pitt Kellogg left office in 1883. It also became the first time since the resignation of William Pitt Kellogg in 1872 that both US senate seats from Louisiana were represented by Republicans.


2014 United States Senate election in Louisiana, Background
Elections in Louisiana, with the exception of U.S. presidential elections, follow a variation of the open primary system called the jungle primary. Candidates of any and all parties are listed on one ballot; voters need not limit themselves to the candidates of one party. Unless one candidate takes more than 50% of the vote in the first round, a run-off election is then held between the top two candidates, who may in fact be members of the same party. This scenario occurred in the 7th District congressional race in 1996, when Democrats Chris John and Hunter Lundy made the runoff for the open seat, and in 1999, when Republicans Suzanne Haik Terrell and Woody Jenkins made the runoff for Commissioner of Elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Maine
The 2014 United States Senate election in Maine took place on November 4, 2014. Incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins, who has served in the position since 1997, won reelection to a fourth term in office with 68% of the vote. The primary elections were held on June 10, 2014.


2014 United States Senate election in Maine, Republican primary, Campaign
Maine Republican Party Chairman Rick Bennett was critical of Erick Bennett's campaign, stating that he did not believe Erick would get the necessary signatures to get on the ballot. After making it clear the two men are not related, Rick felt that this would be due to Erick's views as expressed on his Facebook page. These included referring to U.S. Representative Mike Michaud as a "closet homo" and criticism of Nelson Mandela, comparing him to Stalin and Karl Marx. Furthermore, Erick Bennett was convicted in 2003 of assaulting his wife, which was upheld by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, though he maintains his innocence. Rick Bennett stated that Erick's views "do not represent the views of the Republican Party".


2014 United States Senate election in Maine, Republican primary, Campaign
Erick Bennett announced before the primary filing deadline on March 17 that he had left the Republican Party and would run as an independent. Maine law, however, requires that an independent candidate must have not been in a political party by March 1 of the election year in order to run as an independent, meaning Bennett cannot legally run as such. The Kennebec Journal has reported that Bennett is a write-in candidate for the Republican nomination.


2014 United States Senate election in Maine, Republican primary, Campaign
On April 3, 2014, Collins' campaign announced the joint endorsement of Bath Iron Works' labor unions, which the campaign claimed was the first time the unions issued a joint endorsement as well as the first time they endorsed a Republican candidate for federal office.


2014 United States Senate election in Maine, Independents
To qualify as an independent candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maine, a candidate needs to submit at least 4,000 valid signatures to the secretary of state by June 1. Any independent candidate must not have been enrolled in a political party after March 1 of the year the election occurs.


2014 United States Senate election in Maine, Independents
Former Republican candidate Erick Bennett announced just before the March 17 primary filing deadline that he had left the Republican Party and would run as an independent, but Maine law required him to have unenrolled as a Republican by March 1 to do so. Therefore, he could not legally run as an independent.


2014 United States Senate election in Maine, General election, Background
Heading into the 2014 cycle, only 12 U.S. Senate elections had involved two major party female nominees in U.S. history.


2014 United States Senate election in Maine, General election, Results
The election was not close, with Collins winning all 16 of Maine's counties, each by a margin of at least 24 percentage points.


2014 United States Senate election in Massachusetts
The 2014 United States Senate election in Massachusetts was held on November 4, 2014 to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, concurrently with the election of the Governor of Massachusetts, other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Massachusetts
Incumbent Democratic Senator Ed Markey ran for re-election to a first full term in office. (Markey was elected in a special election in 2013 to fill the vacant seat created by long-time incumbent John Kerry, who resigned that year to become U.S. Secretary of State) Primary elections were held on September 9, 2014. Markey was unopposed for the Democratic nomination; Hopkinton Selectman Brian Herr was also unopposed for the Republican nomination.


2014 United States Senate election in Massachusetts, Background
Incumbent Democratic Senator John Kerry, serving since 1985, had planned to run for re-election to a sixth term, but on December 15, 2012 it was announced that the long-time Massachusetts senator and 2004 presidential nominee would be nominated as United States Secretary of State under President Barack Obama. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick appointed Mo Cowan as a temporary replacement for Kerry after he was confirmed as Secretary of State and therefore resigned his senate seat. There was a special election on June 25, 2013 to finish the term, which was won by Ed Markey, the 37-year Democratic incumbent from Massachusetts's 5th congressional district.


2014 United States Senate election in Michigan
The 2014 United States Senate election in Michigan was held on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Michigan, concurrently with the election of the governor of Michigan, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Michigan
Incumbent Democratic Senator Carl Levin decided to retire instead of running for re-election to a seventh term. Primary contests took place on August 5, 2014, with U.S. Representative Gary Peters and former Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land unopposed on the Democratic and Republican primary ballots, respectively. Peters defeated Land in the general election, becoming the only freshman Democratic senator in the 114th Congress. This was the first open seat election in Michigan since 1994 and only the second since 1976.


2014 United States Senate election in Michigan, Republican primary
After Terri Lynn Land declared her candidacy in June 2013, Republicans attempted to recruit U.S. Representative Dave Camp and Oakland County District Court Judge Kimberly Small to run instead. Camp, after earlier having said that he was not interested in running, reconsidered it, and Land indicated that she would consider dropping out if Camp decided to run. Republicans were initially reluctant to rally around Land, but after Camp and Small declined to run, other Republicans like U.S. Representative Justin Amash and Holland Mayor Kurt Dykstra also said no, and a late attempt to convince cardiologist Rob Steele to run failed, Land emerged as the de facto nominee.


2014 United States Senate election in Michigan, General election, Campaign
Early on, the open seat was considered to be competitive. But various missteps by the Land campaign as well as Land's reluctance to appear in public after suffering a meltdown in front of the media in May weighed down the Land campaign, allowing Peters to open up a consistent lead in the polls beginning in September. The Republican establishment effectively gave up on Land's campaign the following month.


2014 United States Senate election in Michigan, General election, Debates
Peters agreed to four debates; Land did not respond to invitations. Negotiations between the Land and Peters campaigns broke down over the format of proposed debates between the two candidates.


2014 United States Senate election in Michigan, General election, Results
Peters was declared the winner right when the polls closed in Michigan.


2014 United States Senate election in Michigan, Post-election
Land would end up paying a fee of $66,000 to the Federal Election Commission for a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act related to the 2014 campaign.


2014 United States Senate election in Michigan, Post-election
Peters would run again in 2020 to retain the Senate seat he won, while Land would go on to win a seat on the Board of Governors for Wayne State University in the same year.


2014 United States Senate election in Minnesota
The 2014 United States Senate election in Minnesota was held on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Minnesota, concurrently with the election of the Governor of Minnesota, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Minnesota
Incumbent Democratic–Farmer–Labor Senator Al Franken ran for re-election to a second term. Primary elections were held on August 12, 2014, in which Franken was renominated and the Republicans picked financial executive Mike McFadden. In the general election, Franken defeated him and Independence Party nominee Steve Carlson and Heather Johnson of the Libertarian Party with 53% of the vote.


2014 United States Senate election in Minnesota, Background
Franken challenged incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman in 2008. When the initial count was completed on November 18, Franken was trailing Coleman by 215 votes. This close margin triggered a mandatory recount. After reviewing ballots that had been challenged during the recount and counting 953 wrongly rejected absentee ballots, the State Canvassing Board officially certified the recount results with Franken holding a 225-vote lead.


2014 United States Senate election in Minnesota, Background
On January 6, 2009, Coleman's campaign filed an election contest and on April 13, a three-judge panel dismissed Coleman's Notice of Contest and ruled that Franken had won the election by 312 votes. Coleman's appeal of the panel's decision to the Minnesota Supreme Court was unanimously rejected on June 30, and he conceded the election. Franken was sworn in as Minnesota's junior senator on July 7, 2009.


2014 United States Senate election in Minnesota, Background
Because Franken's margin of victory was so slim, the seat was initially thought to be a top target for Republicans, but Politico reported in a May 2013 article that Franken's high approval rating, his large war chest, and the Republicans' struggle to find a top-tier candidate meant that Franken was the "heavy favorite" in the 2014 election.


2014 United States Senate election in Minnesota, Republican primary
At the Republican State Convention on May 30–31, 2014, after ten ballots, Mike McFadden received the party's endorsement. Chris Dahlberg, Monti Moreno, Julianne Ortman and Phillip Parrish had all sought the endorsement but withdrew in favor of McFadden. Only Jim Abeler continued in the race and contested the August primary against McFadden. David Carlson did not participate in the Convention after a dispute with party leadership over nominating petitions. He, Patrick D. Munro and Ole Savior also appeared on the ballot.


2014 United States Senate election in Minnesota, Independence primary
The Independence Party of Minnesota state convention was held on May 17, 2014 at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Businessman Kevin Terrell won the party's endorsement, but lost the primary to Steve Carlson. Carlson did not ask for an endorsement from the Independence Party and self-identifies with the Tea party. For their part, the Independence Party has disowned Carlson, who has defended Todd Akin's controversial "legitimate rape" comments and said that George Zimmerman "provided a valuable service" by killing Trayvon Martin.


2014 United States Senate election in Minnesota, Libertarian convention
The Libertarian Party of Minnesota state convention was held on April 26, 2014 in Maple Grove.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi
The 2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi was held on November 4, 2014 to elect a member of the United States Senate. Incumbent Republican Senator Thad Cochran, first elected in 1978, ran for reelection to a seventh term. Primary elections were held on June 3, 2014. The Republican primary required a runoff between Cochran and Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel on June 24, 2014. After narrowly winning the runoff, Cochran defeated Democratic nominee Travis Childers, a former congressman, with 60% of the vote.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Background
Thad Cochran was first elected to the Senate with a plurality of the vote in a three-way race in 1978. He was reelected with at least 61% of the vote in 1984, 1990, 1996, 2002, and 2008.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Background
Cochran was the last incumbent senator up for reelection in 2014 to declare whether he would run, causing widespread speculation that he would retire. Despite being urged to declare his intentions, Cochran said in August 2013, "I don't have a fixed date. But [I will decide] by the end of the year. You don't want to rush into these things." On November 12, he announced that he would reveal his plans by the end of the month. On December 6, he confirmed that he would run.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Background
Cochran's fundraising ability, powerful Senate committee assignments, and very high approval ratings meant that he was considered "unbeatable". Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole said that "in the very likely event that he does [run], we don't foresee a major Democratic challenger emerging." Had he chosen to retire, a "stampede" was predicted in the Republican primary and Democrats believed that a "properly positioned" candidate could have been competitive in the general election.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Republican primary
The United States Senate Republican primary election in Mississippi, 2014 took place on June 3, 2014. Incumbent Republican Senator Thad Cochran, who had served in the position since 1978, ran for reelection to a seventh term. He was challenged for the nomination by State Senator Chris McDaniel, a Tea Party supporter, and Thomas Carey. Cochran and McDaniel received 49.0% and 49.5% of the vote, respectively. Since no candidate won a majority, a June 24 runoff election ensued.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Republican primary
Cochran defeated McDaniel in the runoff, 51% to 49%. Controversially, Cochran's campaign invited Democrats to vote in the runoff, and Cochran-affiliated super PACs used racially charged themes in their primary ads, particularly the super-PAC All Citizens for Mississippi, which was funded (according to F.E.C. filings) by a super-PAC affiliated with former governor Haley Barbour.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Republican primary, Primary campaign
Chris McDaniel declared his candidacy on October 17, 2013. He was immediately endorsed by the Club for Growth and Jim DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund. McDaniel was initially thought to have no chance of beating Cochran in the primary, as summed up by the Jackson Free Press, who remarked that if McDaniel challenged Cochran, it would be the "beginning of [the] end of [his] political career". Republican lobbyist Henry Barbour, the nephew of former governor Haley Barbour, said: "I think he will get his head handed to him, and that will be what he deserves. [ But] it's a free country." Rather, McDaniel was believed to have declared his candidacy in the hope that Cochran wouldn't run, so that he could get "first crack" at the support of Tea Party groups and donors ahead of a competitive primary.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Republican primary, Primary campaign
Although the race was initially considered uncompetitive, McDaniel proved a serious challenger. Polling showed the lead swinging between the two and it eventually became a "50%-50% race".


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Republican primary, Primary campaign
The race was considered a marquee establishment-versus-Tea Party fight and significant because Mississippi is the poorest state and Cochran's seniority and appropriating skills contrasted with the junior status of the rest of the state's congressional delegation. McDaniel was endorsed by politicians including Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum and organizations including Citizens United, Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, Madison Project, National Association for Gun Rights, Senate Conservatives Fund and Tea Party Express. By contrast, the Republican establishment rallied around Cochran, who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association and National Right to Life.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Republican primary, Primary campaign
The race was described as "nasty" and full of "bizarre" twists. McDaniel's campaign attacked Cochran for being "an out-of-touch, big-spending Washington insider" and Cochran's replied that "McDaniel's voting record in the state Senate does not match his conservative rhetoric." Each side accused the other of distortions and outright lies.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Republican primary, Primary campaign
Cochran ran on his incumbency, seniority and the fact that he would become the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee if the Republicans retook control of the Senate. In addition to ideological differences, the race also highlighted geographic divides in the state Republican Party.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Republican primary, Tea Party blogger scandal
In May 2014, a scandal emerged when Clayton Thomas Kelly, a McDaniel supporter, allegedly entered a nursing home where Cochran's bedridden wife was living and took pictures of her. Kelly posted the images as part of a video on his blog, intending to advance the rumor that Cochran was having affairs while his wife was receiving care. Four people were arrested in connection with the incident. The connection to the McDaniel campaign was disputed. One of the arrested included McDaniel ally Mark Mayfield, who was vice chairman of the state's Tea Party. In response, McDaniel said, "the violation of the privacy of Mrs. Cochran [was] out of bounds for politics and reprehensible."


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Republican primary, Race card scandal
A second scandal emerged during the primary when racially charged pro-Cochran ads used such "code words" as "food stamps". Charges first surfaced that a small group of elderly Democratic women activists calling themselves Citizens for Progress were behind the controversy, but later facts as well as money trails show that money exchanged hands multiple times between Citizens for Progress and Mississippi Conservatives PAC.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Republican primary, Race card scandal
After the fallout of the primary election, Missouri Republican Party chairman Ed Martin wrote an op-ed calling for the censure of Henry Barbour for his role in the funding of racially themed ads. He also called for Barbour's censure at an RNC summer meeting in Chicago.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Republican primary, Race card scandal
Senator Ted Cruz appeared on the Mark Levin Show to discuss the Mississippi primary. He called for an investigation, saying, "the ads they ran were racially charged false attacks".


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Republican primary, Primary election results
The presence of a third candidate, Thomas Carey, opened the possibility that neither Cochran nor McDaniel would win a majority. Indeed, no candidate did, so a runoff between McDaniel and Cochran was required, and was held on June 24. The runoff was generally seen as advantageous to McDaniel.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Republican primary, Primary election results
After the election, the Hinds County Sheriff's Office announced it was investigating three McDaniel supporters who were locked inside the local courthouse, where primary ballots were held, on election night.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Republican primary, Primary election results, Runoff election
The runoff was scheduled for June 24, three weeks after the primary. Despite trailing in most of the polls, Cochran won with 51% of the vote to McDaniel's 49%. McDaniel once again won big in his native Pine Belt and in the heavily populated suburban Memphis DeSoto County, but Cochran got a surge in votes from African Americans who took advantage of the mixed primary. Many credited Cochran's win to the increase in black voters. Cochran won by 3,532 votes in the most Democratic, African-American precincts in Hinds County (the state's largest county, and home to Jackson). These precincts made up nearly half of Cochran's margin of victory.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, Democratic primary
Former Congressman Travis Childers had stated that he was interested in running, particularly if Cochran retired. With Cochran facing a competitive primary, Childers announced in February 2014 that he was running. Childers won the Democratic primary with 74% of the vote.


2014 United States Senate election in Mississippi, General election, Campaign
Childers described himself as a "moderate to conservative" Democrat, highlighting his vote against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and his opposition to new gun-control measures, abortion and same-sex marriage.


2014 United States Senate election in Montana
The 2014 United States Senate election in Montana took place on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate from Montana, concurrently with other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Montana
Democratic Senator Max Baucus, who had announced he would retire and not seek a seventh term, resigned in February 2014 in order to accept an appointment as United States Ambassador to China. Democrat John Walsh, the Lieutenant Governor of Montana, who was already running for Baucus' seat when Baucus was named to the ambassadorship, was appointed to replace Baucus by Governor Steve Bullock.


2014 United States Senate election in Montana
Walsh won the Democratic primary on June 3, but withdrew from the race on August 7, 2014 due to allegations that he had plagiarized a term paper while attending the Army War College. Democrats selected Amanda Curtis, a state representative from Butte, to replace Walsh as the party's nominee at a convention in Helena on August 16. Steve Daines, the incumbent U.S. Representative from Montana's at-large congressional district, easily won the Republican nomination. This was the first open seat election since Baucus was first elected in 1978.


2014 United States Senate election in Montana
Daines defeated Curtis 57.9% to 40.0%, while Libertarian Roger Roots won 2.2%. Daines and Arkansas' Tom Cotton became just the 18th and 19th U.S. House freshmen to win U.S. Senate races over the last 100 years, and just the third and fourth over the last 40 years. He became the first Republican to win this Senate seat since 1913.


2014 United States Senate election in Montana, Democratic convention
Because Walsh withdrew, a nominating convention was held to pick a new nominee prior to August 20. The state party called a convention for August 16, and voting delegates were members of the State Central Committee, specifically: "one chair and one vice chair from each existing county central committee; one state committeeman and one state committeewoman from each county central committee; all voting members of the State Party Executive Board; the president of each chartered organization of the Montana Democratic Party; Montana State House leadership, and Montana State Senate leaders, and all Democrats currently holding statewide or federal office."


2014 United States Senate election in Montana, Democratic convention, Candidates
Momentary buzz was created by a movement to draft actor Jeff Bridges for the nomination, with over 1,000 people signing a petition on Change.org and a Twitter account, DudeSenator, being created online. Bridges, who lives part-time and owns property in the Paradise Valley south of Livingston, Montana, declined the offer on the Howard Stern show, noting the disapproval of his wife. Other news outlets noted that he also was not registered to vote in Montana.


2014 United States Senate election in Nebraska
The 2014 United States Senate election in Nebraska took place on November 4, 2014. Incumbent Republican Senator Mike Johanns did not run for re-election to a second term. Republican nominee Ben Sasse defeated Democratic nominee David Domina to succeed him.


2014 United States Senate election in New Hampshire
The 2014 United States Senate election in New Hampshire was held on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of New Hampshire, concurrently with the election of the Governor of New Hampshire, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in New Hampshire
Incumbent Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen ran for re-election to a second term in office. Primary elections were held on September 9, 2014. Shaheen was unopposed for the Democratic nomination and the Republicans nominated former U.S. Senator Scott Brown, who represented Massachusetts from 2010 to 2013.


2014 United States Senate election in New Hampshire
Brown sought to become only the third person in history and the first in 135 years to represent more than one state in the United States Senate. Waitman T. Willey represented Virginia from 1861 to 1863 and West Virginia from 1863 to 1871 and James Shields represented Illinois from 1849 to 1855, Minnesota from 1858 to 1859 and Missouri in 1879. Since the 17th Amendment, which mandated the popular election of senators as opposed to selection by state legislatures, was ratified in 1913, Brown would have been the first person popularly elected as a U.S. senator in two different states.


2014 United States Senate election in New Hampshire
Shaheen defeated Brown by 51.5% to 48.2%, making him the first man to lose two Senate races to women, as he had lost his 2012 reelection bid in Massachusetts to Elizabeth Warren.


2014 United States Senate election in New Hampshire, Republican primary
The Republican primary for this election was much more highly contested than the respective Democratic one, with Scott Brown beating out Jim Rubens and Bob Smith for the Republican nomination.


2014 United States Senate election in New Hampshire, General election, Results
The race was close throughout the night. However, with 57% of the vote in MSNBC was comfortable enough with Shaheen's lead to declare her the victor. Brown called Shaheen to concede at 11:32 P.M. EST. Shaheen won with a 3.3% margin of victory over Brown, securing a majority of the votes cast by over 1%.


2014 United States Senate election in New Jersey
The 2014 United States Senate election in New Jersey was held on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of New Jersey. Incumbent Democratic Senator Cory Booker, first elected in a special election the previous year, defeated Republican nominee Jeff Bell to win a first full term in office.


2014 United States Senate election in New Jersey, Republican primary
2013 nominee Steve Lonegan announced in his concession speech that he would not run again for the seat in the 2014 race. The top-tier candidates for the Republican primary, Thomas Kean Jr. and Jay Webber also declined to run in early January 2014, leaving Jon Bramnick and Michael J. Doherty as the remaining candidates with established credentials and fundraising abilities able to start a United States Senate campaign. On January 9, 2014, Brian D. Goldberg, a West Orange resident and New Jersey businessman, announced that he would seek the Republican nomination. The following week, on January 17, 2014, both Bramnick and Doherty announced that they would not be running for United States Senate.


2014 United States Senate election in New Jersey, Republican primary
On January 27, 2014, Freehold Township businessman Richard J. "Rich" Pezzullo announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination. Pezzullo had previously run for the US Senate in 1996 as the Conservative Party candidate. On February 4, 2014, conservative political consultant Jeff Bell announced his bid for the nomination. Bell was the nominee for the Senate in 1978, having defeated incumbent senator Clifford Case in the Republican primary and was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination in 1982. Ramapo College professor Murray Sabrin, who ran for the Senate in 2000 and 2008, announced another run on February 13. Former FBI agent Robert Turkavage, who ran as an Independent candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2012, had declared his candidacy. However, he got stuck in a traffic jam when he attempted to turn in his petitions shortly before the deadline, and was forced to withdraw.


2014 United States Senate election in New Jersey, Republican primary
On March 4, Richard Pezzullo won the Union County Convention on the first ballot, going on to then win the line in Camden County and Republican stronghold Monmouth County. Opponent Brian Goldberg won the party lines in conventions in Ocean, Atlantic, Cumberland, Mercer, and Somerset Counties. Murray Sabrin won only the Middlesex line, and Jeffrey Bell made no convention appearances and contested no lines. Three candidates – Brian Goldberg, Richard Pezzullo and Murray Sabrin – claimed the Burlington county line, though only Goldberg claimed to have won the line. Goldberg was given the county line with no convention in Essex, Passaic, and Hudson Counties. Robert Turkavage won the convention in Hunterdon County, but the line transferred to Goldberg after Turkavage dropped out of the race.


2014 United States Senate election in New Jersey, Republican primary
Jeff Bell received significant support from the conservative American Principles Fund, who ran a direct mail operation that cost over $80,000, and the National Organization for Marriage, a conservative traditional marriage group, who paid for $6,000 of automated calling.


2014 United States Senate election in New Mexico
The 2014 United States Senate election in New Mexico was held on November 4, 2014 to elect a member of the United States Senate. Incumbent Democratic Senator Tom Udall won reelection to a second term.


2014 United States Senate election in North Carolina
The 2014 United States Senate election in North Carolina took place on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of North Carolina, concurrently with other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. On May 6, 2014, the primary took place.


2014 United States Senate election in North Carolina
Incumbent Democratic Senator Kay Hagan ran for re-election to a second term in office. She faced Republican Thom Tillis, the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, and Libertarian Sean Haugh, his party's nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2002, in the general election. Tillis defeated Hagan by about 45,000 votes and a margin of 1.6%. This made the election the second-closest race of the 2014 Senate election cycle, behind only the election in Virginia.


2014 United States Senate election in North Carolina, Republican primary, Candidates
The eight Republican candidates on the 2014 U.S. Senate primary ballot were the most in party history in North Carolina, more than the seven on the ballot in the 2002 Republican primary won by Elizabeth Dole.


2014 United States Senate election in North Carolina, General election, Outside spending
In July 2014, Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer calculated that as of the end of June, more than $26 million had been spent by outside advocacy groups on the election, with $17 million of it attacking Hagan or supporting Tillis and less than $9 million supporting Hagan or attacking Tillis. By contrast, outside groups spent $25 million during the entire 2008 election. He reported that only $11.4 million had been reported to the FEC, with the rest of the "dark money" coming from groups that did not have to disclose their donors. 27% of the money spent supporting Tillis came from groups required to disclose their donors whereas 69% of the money supporting Hagan did so.


2014 United States Senate election in North Carolina, General election, Outside spending
Opensecrets.org placed the final cost of outside spending at $8.5 million for Hagan and $35.5 million attacking Tillis, and $13.7 million for Tillis and $20.9 million attacking Hagan, placing the totals by candidate at $44 million for Hagan, and $34.6 million for Tillis.


2014 United States Senate election in North Carolina, General election, Debates
Three televised debates between the candidates were held: the first on September 3 moderated by Norah O'Donnell of CBS, the second on October 7 moderated by George Stephanopoulos of ABC, and the third (the only one to feature Sean Haugh) on October 9 moderated by Jon Evans of WECT-TV.


2014 United States Senate election in North Carolina, General election, Debates
Video of the first debate is available , with the second  and the third


2014 United States Senate election in Oklahoma
The 2014 United States Senate election in Oklahoma took place on November 4, 2014 to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Oklahoma, concurrently with the special election to Oklahoma's other Senate seat, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Oklahoma
Incumbent Republican Senator Jim Inhofe was running for re-election to a fourth term in office. He won the Republican primary against several minor candidates; Democratic nominee Matt Silverstein, an insurance agency owner, was unopposed for his party's nomination.


2014 United States Senate election in Oklahoma, Democratic primary, Endorsements
Silverstein was unopposed for the Democratic nomination, so no primary was held.


2014 United States Senate election in Oregon
The 2014 United States Senate election in Oregon took place on November 4, 2014 to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Oregon, concurrently with the election of the Governor of Oregon, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Oregon
Incumbent Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley successfully ran for reelection to a second term. despite it being a national midterm Republican wave, this was actually his best Senate election in terms of margin of victory, winning by almost 20%. Primary elections were held on May 20, 2014. Merkley easily won the Democratic nomination, while the Republicans nominated pediatric neurosurgeon Monica Wehby. Initially, the race was considered potentially competitive, but Wehby's campaign collapsed after she faced multiple allegations of stalking and harassment from former partners, and was found to have plagiarized portions of her campaign website.


2014 United States Senate election in Oregon, Background
Democrat Jeff Merkley, the Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives, had narrowly defeated two-term Republican incumbent Gordon H. Smith with 49% of the vote in 2008.


2014 United States Senate election in Oregon, Independents
The filing deadline for independent candidates is August 26, 2014. In order to qualify, a candidate must submit 17,893 signatures of registered voters or obtain signatures from at least 1,000 electors at a valid assembly of electors.


2014 United States Senate election in Rhode Island
The 2014 United States Senate election in Rhode Island was held on November 4, 2014 to elect a member of the United States Senate from the State of Rhode Island, concurrently with the election of the Governor of Rhode Island, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in Rhode Island
Incumbent Democratic Senator Jack Reed ran for and won reelection to a fourth term in office. Reed won a higher share of the overall vote in his state than any other Democratic Senate candidate or incumbent Democratic United States Senator during the 2014 elections. On the same day that Reed won a fourth term in the United States Senate with more than 70 percent of the vote, national Democrats lost nine seats in the concurrent U.S. Senate elections, thereby costing them control of the chamber.


2014 United States Senate election in Rhode Island, Background
Then-U.S. Representative Jack Reed was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996 to succeed retiring Democratic incumbent Claiborne Pell, the longest-serving Senator in Rhode Island's history. Reed defeated Treasurer of Rhode Island Nancy Mayer in a landslide and was re-elected by even larger majorities against casino pit manager Robert Tingle in 2002 and 2008.


2014 United States Senate election in Rhode Island, Background
Rhode Island has elected U.S. Senators into the majority party of the subsequent Congress more than any other state in the nation over the last 100 years at 77 percent of the time.


2014 United States Senate election in South Carolina
The 2014 United States Senate election in South Carolina took place on November 4, 2014, concurrently with a special election for South Carolina's other Senate seat, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in South Carolina
Incumbent Republican Lindsey Graham won reelection to a third term. He faced Democratic state senator Brad Hutto and Independent Thomas Ravenel in the general election. He defeated both of them by a 15-point margin.


2014 United States Senate election in South Carolina, Republican primary
Of all the Republican senators up for re-election in the 2014 cycle, Graham was considered one of the most vulnerable to a primary challenge, largely due to his low approval ratings and reputation for working with and compromising with Democrats. He expected a primary challenge from conservative activists, including the Tea Party movement, and Chris Chocola, president of the Club for Growth, indicated that his organization would support a primary challenge if an acceptable standard-bearer emerged.


2014 United States Senate election in South Carolina, Republican primary
However, a serious challenger to Graham failed to emerge and he was widely viewed as likely to win, which has been ascribed to his "deft maneuvering" and "aggressive" response to the challenge.


2014 United States Senate election in South Carolina, Republican primary
He befriended potential opponents from the state's congressional delegation and helped them with fundraising and securing their preferred committee assignments; he assembled a "daunting multimillion-dollar political operation" dubbed the "Graham machine" that built six regional offices across the state and enlisted the support of thousands of paid staffers and volunteers, including over 5,000 precinct captains; he assembled a "staggering" campaign warchest and "blanketed" the state with positive ads; he focused on constituent services and local issues; and he refused to "pander" to the Tea Party supporters, instead confronting them head-on, arguing that the Republican party needs to be more inclusive.


2014 United States Senate election in South Carolina, Independent
In March 2014, with only controversial businessman and prankster Jay Stamper running for the Democrats, Dick Harpootlian, former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, had stated that business leaders were working on an effort to recruit a potential independent candidate to run in case Graham was defeated in the primary. Such a "contingency" plan was rendered moot by the entry of Democratic state senator Brad Hutto into the race.


2014 United States Senate election in South Carolina, Independent
Former Republican state treasurer Thomas Ravenel had confirmed that was considering running for the Senate as an Independent and was likely to do so if Lindsey Graham won the Republican primary. In April 2014, with Graham polling strongly in the primary, Ravenel announced he would run. He officially announced his candidacy on July 4.


2014 United States Senate election in South Carolina, General election, Debates
Graham initially declined to debate his opponents. A spokesman said that his campaign was "in discussions with other groups, as well as looking at the schedule." Hutto said that Graham is "terrified at the thought of defending his own record in a public debate" and Ravenel said Graham's decision was "highly arrogant and disrespectful." Graham claimed he refused to debate because of the presence of third-party candidate Thomas Ravenel, a convicted felon. He ultimately agreed to debate Hutto alone on October 27.


2014 United States Senate election in South Carolina, General election, Fundraising
The following are Federal Election Commission disclosures for the pre-primary reporting period.


2014 United States Senate election in South Dakota
The 2014 United States Senate election in South Dakota took place on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of South Dakota, concurrently with the election of the Governor of South Dakota, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.


2014 United States Senate election in South Dakota
Incumbent Democratic Senator Tim Johnson decided to retire instead of running for re-election to a fourth term in office. As a result, this was the 1st open seat election since 1978. With Mike Rounds' election, Republicans held both of South Dakota's Senate seats for the first time since 1987 and gave South Dakota an all GOP congressional delegation for the first time since 1963.


2014 United States Senate election in South Dakota
Businessman Rick Weiland ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination, while the Republicans picked former Governor of South Dakota Mike Rounds. Also running were two independent candidates: former Republican U.S. Senator Larry Pressler, who served three terms in the Senate from 1979 to 1997, and former Republican state senator Gordon Howie.


2014 United States Senate election in South Dakota, General election, Campaign
Rounds was widely seen as the front runner throughout the campaign. However, he faced ongoing criticism on the election trail for his possible involvement with the State's ongoing EB-5 visa investigation, concerning the conflict of interest that Rounds' administration had when administering the EB-5 program. State officials misused funds to pay for their salaries, did not disclose that they owned companies which they gave contracts to, directed money towards companies that went bankrupt and arranged for loans from unknown sources from shell companies located in tax havens.


2014 United States Senate election in South Dakota, General election, Campaign
In October 2014, Rounds admitted that he had approved a $1 million state loan to meat-packing company Northern Beef shortly after learning that Secretary of Tourism and State Development Richard Benda had agreed to join the company, with Benda then getting another $600,000 in loans that was ultimately used to pay his own salary. Benda committed suicide in October 2013, days before a possible indictment over embezzlement and grand theft charges.


2014 United States Senate election in South Dakota, General election, Campaign
Columnist Jonathan Ellis of the Argus Leader called Rounds' fundraising "anemic" compared to the amount of outside money coming into the state on Weiland's side, and criticized the entire Rounds campaign as "more suited for sheriff of Mayberry County than U.S. Senate."


2014 United States Senate election in Tennessee
The 2014 United States Senate election in Tennessee took place on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate from the State of Tennessee. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander defeated Democrat Gordon Ball and was re-elected to a third term in office with 61.9% of the vote against 31.9%. Lamar Alexander narrowly kept Shelby County in his column, home to Memphis. Shelby County has not voted Republican on a presidential level since 1988.


2014 United States Senate election in Tennessee, Background
Alexander was reelected with 65.1% of the vote in the 2008 election. Alexander stepped down from his leadership role as Republican Conference Chairman of the United States Senate in 2011, but announced that he would seek reelection to a third term. Nashville businessman, counseling executive and former 2012 U.S. Senate candidate Larry Crim filed his announcement of candidacy with the Secretary of the United States Senate in January 2013.


2014 United States Senate election in Tennessee, Republican primary
Although Alexander was initially thought to be vulnerable to a primary challenge from the right, he worked to avoid this and ultimately did not face a high-profile challenger. He declared his intention to run early, quickly won the endorsement of Governor Bill Haslam, every living former Tennessee Republican Party Chairman and the state's entire Republican congressional delegation (except scandal-hit Scott DesJarlais). He also raised a large amount of money and worked to avoid the mistakes of ousted Senators Bob Bennett and Richard Lugar by trying to stay in touch with his constituents, especially in East Tennessee. Moreover, out-of-state conservative organizations such as the Senate Conservatives Fund made little effort to defeat Alexander.