United States Senate elections, 1994

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██ Republican holds ██ Republican pickups ██ Democratic holds ██ Democratic pickups

The U.S. Senate election, 1994 was an election in which the Republican Party was able to take control of the Senate from the Democrats by mobilizing voters discontented with congressional incumbents and the early presidency of Bill Clinton.

The Republicans captured eight seats from the Democrats, including the seats of sitting Sens. Harris Wofford (D-Pa.) and James R. Sasser (D-Tenn.), as well as six open seats in Arizona, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Notably, since Sasser's defeat coincided with the special election to replace Albert A. Gore Jr. (who had left the Senate to become Vice President), the delegation of Tennessee changed from two Democrats to two Republicans in one election.

This defeat changed control of the Senate from Democrats to Republicans for the first time since 1986. In combination with the first change of control in the United States House of Representatives since 1954 and the Republicans' net gain of twelve governor's seats; this is sometimes called the Republican revolution. Minority leader Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) became majority leader, while on the Democratic side, the new minority leader was Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), previous majority leader George J. Mitchell (D-Maine) having left the Senate.

Initially, the balance was 52-48 in favor of Republicans, but after the power change, Democrats Richard C. Shelby of Alabama and Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado switched parties, bringing the balance to 54-46 before the resignation of Robert W. Packwood of Oregon and his replacement by Democrat Ron Wyden returned the balance to 53-47.

[edit] Senate contests in 1994

State	Incumbent	Party	Status	Opposing Candidates
Arizona	Dennis DeConcini	Democrat	Retired: Republican victory, 54 - 40 - 7	Jon Kyl (Republican) Sam Coppersmith (Democrat) Scott Grainger (Libertarian)
California	Dianne G. B. Feinstein	Democrat	Re-elected, 47 - 45	Michael Huffington (Republican)
Connecticut	Joseph I. Lieberman	Democrat	Re-elected, 67 - 31	Jerry Labriola (Republican)
Delaware	William Roth	Republican	Re-elected, 56 - 43	Charles Oberly (Democrat)
Florida	Connie Mack	Republican	Re-elected, 70 - 30	Hugh Rodham (Democrat)
Hawaii	Daniel K. Akaka	Democrat	Re-elected, 72 - 24	Maria Hustace (Republican)
Indiana	Richard G. Lugar	Republican	Re-elected, 67 - 31	Jim Jontz (Democrat)
Maine	George J. Mitchell	Democrat	Retired: Republican victory, 60 - 37	Olympia J. Snowe (Republican) Thomas Andrews (Democrat)
Maryland	Paul S. Sarbanes	Democrat	Re-elected, 59 - 41	William Brock (Republican)
Massachusetts	Edward M. Kennedy	Democrat	Re-elected, 58 - 41	W. Mitt Romney (Republican)
Michigan	Donald W. Riegle Jr.	Democrat	Retired: Republican victory, 52 - 43	Spencer Abraham (Republican) Milton R. Carr (Democrat)
Minnesota	David Durenberger	Republican	Retired: Republican victory, 49 - 44 - 5	Rod Grams (Republican) Ann Wynia (Democrat) Dean Barkley (Reform)
Mississippi	C. Trent Lott Jr.	Republican	Re-elected, 69 - 31	Ken Harper (Democrat)
Missouri	John Danforth	Republican	Retired: Republican victory, 60 - 36	John D. Ashcroft (Republican) Alan Wheat (Democrat)
Montana	Conrad R. Burns	Republican	Re-elected, 62 - 38	Jack Mudd (Democrat)
Nebraska	D. Robert Kerrey	Democrat	Re-elected, 55 - 45	Jan Stoney (Republican)
Nevada	Richard H. Bryan	Democrat	Re-elected, 53 - 43	Hal Furman (Republican)
New Jersey	Frank R. Lautenberg	Democrat	Re-elected, 50 - 47	Chuck Haytaian (Republican)
New Mexico	Jesse F. "Jeff" Bingaman Jr.	Democrat	Re-elected, 54 - 46	Colin McMillan (Republican)
New York	Daniel Patrick Moynihan	Democrat	Re-elected, 55 - 42	Bernadette Castro (Republican)
North Dakota	Kent Conrad	Democrat	Re-elected, 58 - 42	Ben Clayburgh (Republican)
Ohio	Howard M. Metzenbaum	Democrat	Retired: Republican victory, 53 - 39 - 8	R. Michael DeWine (Republican) Joel Z. Hyatt (Democrat) Joseph Slovenec
Oklahoma¹	David L. Boren	Democrat	Resigned: Republican victory, 55 - 40	James Inhofe (Republican) Dave McCurdy (Democrat)
Pennsylvania²	Harris Wofford	Democrat	Defeated, 49 - 47	Richard J. Santorum (Republican)
Rhode Island	John H. Chafee	Republican	Re-elected, 64 - 36	Linda Kushner (Democrat)
Tennessee	James R. Sasser	Democrat	Defeated, 57 - 42	William H. Frist (Republican)
Tennessee³	Harlan Mathews	Democrat	Retired: Republican victory, 61 - 39	Fred Thompson (Republican) Jim Cooper (Democrat)
Texas⁴	Kay Bailey Hutchison	Republican	Re-elected, 61 - 38	Richard W. Fisher (Democrat)
Utah	Orrin G. Hatch	Republican	Re-elected, 69 - 28	Patrick Shea (Democrat)
Vermont	James M. Jeffords	Republican	Re-elected, 50 - 41	Jan Backus (Democrat)
Virginia	Charles S. Robb	Democrat	Re-elected, 46 - 43 - 11	Oliver North (Republican) J. Marshall Coleman
Washington	T. Slade Gorton III	Republican	Re-elected, 55 - 45	Ron Sims (Democrat)
West Virginia	Robert C. Byrd	Democrat	Re-elected, 69 - 31	Stan Klos (Republican)
Wisconsin	Herbert H. Kohl	Democrat	Re-elected, 58 - 41	Robert Welch (Republican)
Wyoming	Malcolm Wallop	Republican	Retired: Republican victory, 58.7 - 39.5	Craig Thomas (Republican) Mike Sullivan (Democrat)

¹ special election held due to resignation of David L. Boren (D-Okla.) -- next regular election held in 1996.
² Wofford was appointed on May 8, 1991, and elected in a special election on November 5, 1991, following the death of H. John Heinz III (R-Penn.)
³ special election held due to resignation of Albert A. Gore Jr. (D-Tenn.) to become Vice-President -- next regular election held in 1996.
⁴ Hutchison was elected in a special election on June 5, 1993, following the resignation of Lloyd Bentsen to become Secretary of the Treasury under Bill Clinton.