Dem 47
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GOP 53
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Which Senators Ran the Best Races?

One way to compare the winning Senate candidates is to see who won by the biggest margin. The trouble with that is that Democrats in very blue states and Republicans in very red states can rack up huge margins, but only due to the tilt of the state. Another way is to compare the performance of the Senate candidate with the presidential candidate in the same state. That provides a good baseline. Here is the list for the Democratic winners (asterisks denote incumbents):

State Democrat Republican Pres Senate Diff
MN Amy Klobuchar* Royce White D+4.2 D+15.7 D+11.5
HI Mazie Hirono* Bob McDermott D+23.1 D+32.7 D+9.6
AZ Ruben Gallego Kari Lake R+5.5 D+2.4 D+7.9
RI Sheldon Whitehouse* Patricia Morgan D+13.8 D+20.0 D+6.3
NY Kristen Gillibrand* Mike Sapraicone D+12.6 D+18.3 D+5.7
NV Jacky Rosen* Sam Brown R+3.1 D+1.6 D+4.7
CT Chris Murphy* Matthew Corey D+14.5 D+18.9 D+4.4
NM Martin Heinrich* Nella Domenici D+6.0 D+10.1 D+4.1
NJ Andy Kim Curtis Bashaw D+5.9 D+9.6 D+3.7
VA Tim Kaine* Hung Cao D+5.8 D+8.9 D+3.2
DE Lisa Rochester Eric Hansen D+14.7 D+17.1 D+2.4
MI Elissa Slotkin Mike Rogers R+1.4 D+0.3 D+1.8
WI Tammy Baldwin* Eric Hovde R+0.9 D+0.8 D+1.7
WA Maria Cantwell* Raul Garcia D+18.2 D+18.5 D+0.2
VT Bernie Sanders* Gerald Malloy D+31.5 D+31.1 R+0.4
CA Adam Schiff Steve Garvey D+20.1 D+17.7 R+2.4
MA Elizabeth Warren* John Deaton D+25.2 D+19.8 R+5.4
MD Angela Alsobrooks Larry Hogan D+28.5 D+11.8 R+16.7

The Maine race is not included because Sen. Angus King (I-ME) is technically an independent and he ran against an actual Democrat as well as an actual Republican, making the comparison more like apples to pineapples than apples to apples. The winner from the table above is Sen. Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN). Kamala Harris carried her state by 4.2 points while Klobuchar carried it by 15.7 points, so Klobuchar didn't win simply because Minnesota is blue, but because she is a popular senator who ran a good campaign. Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) also greatly outpaced Harris, although both of them had weak or deeply flawed opponents, which helped.

Surprisingly, Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) are near the bottom. Both had very weak opponents. Schiff had more money than you could shake a stick at and Warren is the darling of the progressives. Still they couldn't match Harris. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) ranks last, but she ran against a very well known and popular former governor and she was a total unknown when the race started, so she is excused.

Now on to the Republican winners:

State Democrat Republican Pres Senate Diff
UT Caroline Gleich John Curtis R+21.6 R+30.6 R+9.0
WY Scott Morrow John Barrasso* R+45.8 R+51.0 R+5.2
NE Preston Love Pete Ricketts* R+20.5 R+25.2 R+4.7
MS Ty Pinkins Roger Wicker* R+22.9 R+25.6 R+2.7
IN Valerie McCray Jim Banks R+19.0 R+19.9 R+0.9
TN Gloria Johnson Marsha Blackburn* R+29.7 R+29.6 D+0.1
FL Debbie Mucarsel-Powell Rick Scott* R+13.1 R+12.8 D+0.3
WV Glenn Elliott Jim Justice R+41.9 R+41.0 D+0.9
PA Bob Casey* Dave McCormick R+1.7 R+0.2 D+1.5
ND Katrina Christiansen Kevin Cramer* R+36.4 R+32.9 D+3.5
MO Lucas Kunce Josh Hawley* R+18.4 R+13.7 D+4.7
TX Colin Allred Ted Cruz* R+13.7 R+8.5 D+5.2
OH Sherrod Brown* Bernie Moreno R+11.2 R+3.6 D+7.6
MT Jon Tester* Tim Sheehy R+19.9 R+7.1 D+12.8


The regular Nebraska race has been excluded, because the Democrats didn't field a candidate but tacitly supported the independent, Dan Osborn. Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) led the pack, but his Democratic opponent, Caroline Gleich, is a mountaineer, not a serious politician, and she just wanted to bring some attention to preserving Utah's natural beauty. The real winner here is Jon Tester, even if he lost. He managed to do 12.8 points better than Harris in Montana. The message here seems to be that Montana is now so red and so partisan that no Democrat, even a three-term Senator, can withstand that, even against a carpetbagger from Minnesota. Sherrod Brown also did far better than Harris in Ohio, so much so that he might run in the special election in 2026, depending on who Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) appoints to J.D. Vance's seat. (V)



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