Senate News & Analysis
ALABAMA -- Jeff Sessions (R), elected 1996 (52%), 2002 (59%) and 2008 (63%). The last Democratic Senate nominee to receive even 40 percent of the vote in Alabama was Roger Bedford nearly 20 years ago. Safe Republican.
ALASKA -- Mark Begich (D), elected 2008 (48%). Daniel S. Sullivan,…
KENTUCKY -- Mitch McConnell (R), elected 1984 (50%), 1990 (52%), 1996 (55%), 2002 (65%), 2008 (53%). Senate Minority Leader McConnell beat primary challenger Matt Bevin surprisingly easily, but Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes is a more challenging opponent. Early polling consistently suggested that Grimes was running about…
NORTH CAROLINA -- Kay Hagan (D), elected 2008 (53%). Given the GOP’s recent victories in the state, Hagan certainly knew that she would have a serious challenge. State House Speaker Thom Tillis won the Republican nomination without a runoff, allowing him to avoid further attacks from the right and…
Three and a half months ago, I wrote about the state of the fight between the Republican establishment’s pragmatic conservative candidates and tea party/libertarian/anti-establishment conservatives.
I concluded the results were mixed and it was too early to call a winner, though I also noted, “it’s already clear…
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Democratic opponent, state Sen. Brad Hutto, wants you to know two things: He has a path to victory against the two-term Republican, and it doesn’t require him to run from traditional Democratic positions.
“I’m not a Blue Dog,” Hutto said proudly during a recent…
Senate races in North Carolina and Arkansas have been underway for months. But as primary season comes to an end, the fight for a Senate majority in 2015 is starting to reach a full sprint nationally.
Republicans in Alaska will choose their nominee next Tuesday, but the general…
The media’s narrative about Congress is clear: It is unproductive, members care only about getting re-elected and they have failed to do their jobs.
So it should come as no surprise that Americans believe Congress has been unproductive, that members don’t care about doing the right thing, but…
President Barack Obama’s slumping job approval rating isn’t doing Democrats any favors in the party’s quest to hold a majority in the Senate. But without a handful of Democratic retirements, the Senate likely wouldn’t be in play at all.
Republicans need a net gain of six Senate seats…
The Senate race in Montana continues to slip away from the Democrats. Burdened by plagiarism allegations, appointed-Sen. John Walsh, D, will not seek election to a full term in November.
Democratic chances of holding the seat against At-Large Rep. Steve Daines, R, might improve slightly with a…
My last column, which argued President Barack Obama’s situation going into his second midterm closely resembled President George W. Bush’s standing going into his second midterm, is reinforced in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
When I filed the column on Monday, I used the…