2002 United States Senate election in Maine

2002 United States Senate election in Maine

←  1996 November 5, 2002 2008  →

Nominee Susan Collins Chellie Pingree Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 295,041 209,858 Percentage 58.44% 41.56%

County results Municipality results Collins:     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%     >90% Pingree:     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80% Tie:

U.S. senator before election Susan Collins Republican Elected U.S. Senator Susan Collins Republican

The 2002 United States Senate election in Maine was held November 5, 2002. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins won re-election to a second term.

Candidates

Democratic

• Chellie Pingree, State Senator and Senate Majority Leader

Republican

• Susan Collins, incumbent U.S. Senator since 1997

General election

Campaign

Pingree attacked Collins for supporting the Bush tax cuts. ^[1] Both candidates opposed the Iraq War in the fall of 2002. ^[2] However, Collins then supported the congressional resolution to attack Iraq, while Pingree opposed it. ^[3]

Collins, a popular moderate, was supported by health care groups, environmentalists and gay rights advocates. She handily defeated Pingree in one of the first U.S. Senate elections in which both major parties nominated women in U.S. history. ^[4]

Debate

2002 United States Senate election in Maine debate

No.	Date	Host	Moderator	Link	Republican	Democratic
Key:  P Participant  A Absent  N Not invited  I Invited  W  Withdrawn
					Susan Collins	Chellie Pingree
1	Oct. 19, 2002	Maine Public	Barbara Cariddi Charlotte Renner	C-SPAN	P	P

Predictions

Source	Ranking	As of
Sabato's Crystal Ball [5]	Likely R	November 4, 2002

Results

General election results ^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Susan Collins (incumbent)	295,041	58.44%	+9.25%
	Democratic	Chellie Pingree	209,858	41.56%	−2.31%
Majority			85,183	16.87%	+11.57%
Turnout			504,899	100.00%	N/A
	Republican hold

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Androscoggin (largest city: Lewiston)
• Cumberland (largest municipality: Portland)
• Kennebec (largest city: Augusta)

See also

• 2002 United States Senate election

References

1. Griffin, Walter (October 30, 2002). "Senate rivals clash on federal tax cuts". Bangor Daily News– via news.google.com.
2. "Collins, Pingree oppose invasion". Sun Journal. AP. August 24, 2002 – via news.google.com.
3. Griffin, Walter (October 23, 2002). "Collins, Pingree divided on Iraq". Bangor Daily News– via news.google.com.
4. "CNN.com - Collins wins re-election in Maine, CNN projects - Nov. 6, 2002". edition.cnn.com.
5. "Senate Races". www.centerforpolitics.org. November 4, 2002. Archived from the original on November 18, 2002. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
6. "2002 ELECTION STATISTICS". clerk.house.gov.