United States Senate election in North Carolina, 2004

United States Senate election in North Carolina, 2004
North Carolina
November 2, 2004
 
Nominee Richard Burr Erskine Bowles
Party Republican Democratic
Popular vote 1,791,450 1,632,527
Percentage 51.60% 47.02%

County Results
Senator before election

John Edwards
Democratic

 Elected Senator

Richard Burr
Republican

The 2004 United States Senate election in North Carolina was held on November 2, 2004. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator John Edwards decided to retire from the Senate, ran unsuccessfully for the 2004 Democratic Party presidential nomination, and became his party's vice presidential nominee. Republican Richard Burr won the open seat.

Primaries

Democratic

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

Republican

2004 North Carolina U.S. Senate Republican primary election[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Richard Burr 302,319 87.92 N/A
Republican John Ross Hendrix 25,971 7.55 N/A
Republican Albert Wiley 15,585 4.53 N/A
Turnout 343,875

General election

Candidates

Campaign

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

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

Results

2004 North Carolina U.S. Senate election[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Richard Burr 1,791,450 51.60 +4.58
Democratic Erskine Bowles 1,632,527 47.02 –4.13
Libertarian Tom Bailey 47,743 1.38 –0.46
Nonpartisan Walker F. Rucker (write-in) 362 0.01 N/A
Turnout 2,577,891

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "North Carolina DataNet #46" (PDF). University of North Carolina. April 2008. Retrieved 2009-06-12.