United States Senate election in Illinois, 1992

United States Senate election in Illinois, 1992

November 3, 1992

Nominee Carol Moseley Braun Richard S. Williamson Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 2,631,229 2,162,833 Percentage 53.0% 43.0%

U.S. Senator before election Alan J. Dixon Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun Democratic

The 1992 United States Senate election in Illinois was held on November 3, 1992. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Alan J. Dixon decided to run for re-election a third term, but was defeated in the primary against Carol Moseley Braun, who ended up winning the general election.

Democratic Primary

Candidates

• Carol Moseley Braun, Cook County Recorder of Deeds and former State Representative
• Alan J. Dixon, incumbent U.S. Senator
• Albert Hofeld, attorney

Results

Democratic Primary, United States Senate, 1992[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Carol Moseley Braun	557,694	38.0
	Democratic	Alan J. Dixon (Incumbent)	504,077	35.0
	Democratic	Albert Hofeld	394,497	18.0

Analysis

This defeat shocked observers; at the time no Senator had been defeated in a primary in over a decade and Dixon had a long record of electoral success. He was a moderate Democrat, who recently voted to confirm Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.^[2] Braun, a black woman and known reformist liberal, got a large share of black, liberal, and women voters ("The Year of the Woman"). In addition, she carried Cook County, Illinois, by far the most populated county in the state. Another factor was the third candidate in the race, multi-millionaire attorney Al Hofeld. Hofeld drew away some of the moderate and conservative Democrats who normally supported Dixon. He also spent a lot of money running advertisements attacking Dixon, weakening his support.

General election

Candidates

Major

• Carol Moseley Braun (D), Cook County Recorder of Deeds, former State Rep.
• Richard S. Williamson (R), former Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs

Minor

• Kathleen Kaku (SW)
• Chad Koppie (I)
• Alan J. Port (NA)
• Andrew B. Spiegel (L)
• Charles A. Winter (NL)

Results

1992 Illinois U.S. Senate Election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Carol Moseley Braun	2,631,229	53.3
	Republican	Richard S. Williamson	2,126,833	43.1
	Independent	Chad Koppie	100,422	2.0
	Libertarian	Andrew B. Spiegel	34,527	0.7
	Natural Law	Charles A. Winter	15,118
	New Alliance	Alan J. Port	12,689
	Socialist Workers	Kathleen Kaku	10,056
	Populist	John Justice	8,656
	Democratic hold		Swing

References

1. "IL US Senate - D Primary Race - Mar 17, 1992". Ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
2. Charles Babington and Dan Balz (2005-08-17). "Democrats Feel Heat From Left On Roberts". The Washington Post (Washington Post Company). p. A01. Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice, said [...] 'History shows us that voters turned on Alan Dixon for his vote on Clarence Thomas and voters gave Arlen Specter the toughest reelection of his life.'