2002 United States Senate election in Montana

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2002 United States Senate election in Montana
Flag of Montana.svg
  1996 November 5, 2002 2008  
  Max S Baucus.jpg 3x4.svg
Nominee Max Baucus Mike Taylor
Party Democratic Republican
Popular vote204,853103,611
Percentage62.74%31.73%

2002 United States Senate election in Montana results map by county.svg
County results
Baucus:      40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%
Taylor:      40–50%     50–60%

U.S. senator before election

Max Baucus
Democratic

Elected U.S. Senator

Max Baucus
Democratic

The 2002 United States Senate election in Montana was held on November 5, 2002. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Max Baucus won re-election to a fifth term. [1]

Contents

This was one of the six Democratic-held Senate seats up for election in a state that George W. Bush won in the 2000 presidential election.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Results

Democratic primary results [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Max Baucus (incumbent) 66,713 100.00%
Total votes66,713 100.00%

Republican primary

Candidates

Results

Republican primary results [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Mike Taylor 48,169 60.16%
Republican Brad Johnson 14,25217.80%
Republican John McDonald10,11612.63%
Republican Melvin Hanson7,5369.41%
Total votes80,073 100.00%

General election

Candidates

Withdrew

Campaign

The 2002 Montana elections drew national attention when Baucus's opponent, state senator Mike Taylor, accused Baucus of having implied that Taylor was gay in a campaign ad. The ad was paid for by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, though designed by the Baucus campaign. The ad, which alleged that Taylor had embezzled funds from the cosmetology school he once owned, showed footage from the early 1980s of Taylor massaging another man's face while wearing a tight suit with an open shirt. Taylor dropped out of the race and Baucus won with 63 percent of the vote. [3]

Debates

Predictions

SourceRankingAs of
Sabato's Crystal Ball [4] Safe DNovember 4, 2002

Results

General election results [5]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Democratic Max Baucus (incumbent) 204,853 62.74% +13.18%
Republican Mike Taylor 103,61131.73%−12.96%
Libertarian Stan Jones 10,4203.19%N/A
Green Bob Kelleher 7,6532.34%N/A
Total votes326,537 100.00% N/A
Democratic hold

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

See also

References

  1. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on January 7, 2010. Retrieved February 18, 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. 1 2 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on January 11, 2011. Retrieved April 22, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. Gransbery, Jim (October 10, 2002). "Taylor quits Senate race in Montana". Billings Gazette. Archived from the original on December 5, 2006. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
  4. "Senate Races". www.centerforpolitics.org. November 4, 2002. Archived from the original on November 18, 2002. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
  5. "2002 ELECTION STATISTICS". Clerk.house.gov. Retrieved April 12, 2012.