A question today from Gus Sperrazza of Washington, D.C.:

"I've read that no Democrat has won a Senate seat in Kansas since 1932. Is that the longest-running drought in the nation? What's the longest one state has gone with one party not winning a seat?"

It's certainly the longest current streak. Kansas Democrat George McGill (D) won a special election in 1930, defeating Republican appointee Henry Allen (who took the seat of Vice President Charles Curtis). McGill then won a full term two years later. But that's the last time a Democrat won a Senate election in Kansas, a streak that has spanned 28 contests. The closest a Democrat has come in recent years was in the Watergate year of 1974, when GOP incumbent Bob Dole nipped Congressman Bill Roy by just 13,000 votes out of nearly 800,000 cast (51-49 percent).

When Mark Begich defeated Sen. Ted Stevens last month in Alaska, it was the first Democratic Senate victory in the state since 1974.

Other recent streaks broken include what had been a total Republican drought in Louisiana, which elected its first GOP senator since Reconstruction in 2004, David Vitter. He's up for re-election in 2010. Similarly, Arkansas Republicans elected their first senator ever in 1996 with Tim Hutchinson, but he lasted only one term.

Here are the rest of the Top 10 leading current Senate streaks after Kansas:

(2) West Virginia —
Last Republican winner: 1956, Chapman Revercomb

(3) Hawaii —
Last Republican winner: 1970, Hiram Fong

(4) Utah —
Last Democratic winner: 1970, Frank Moss

(5) Wyoming —
Last Democratic winner: 1970, Gale McGee

(6) Massachusetts —
Last Republican winner: 1972, Edward Brooke

(7) New Jersey —
Last Republican winner: 1972, Clifford Case

(8) Idaho —
Last Democratic winner: 1974, Frank Church

(9) Maryland —
Last Republican winner: 1980, Charles Mathias

(10) North Dakota —
Last Republican winner: 1980, Mark Andrews

categories: Questions From The Reader

2:05 - December 8, 2008

What is this?

Share