2012 United States Senate elections

• This was the third consecutive election of Class 1 senators where Democrats gained seats.
• This was the third consecutive Senate election held in a presidential election year where the party belonging to the winning presidential candidate gained seats.
• This was the first time since 1936 where a Democratic presidential candidate who won a second term also had Senate coattails in both occasions (although Franklin Roosevelt won a third and fourth term in 1940 and 1944 respectively, he lost Senate seats on both occasions).
• This was the first time since 1964 in which either party had to defend more than two-thirds of the Senate seats up for grabs, but managed to make net gains.[2][3]
• As of 2021 this was the last election who an incumbent lost renomination.
• As of 2021 these are the last elections in a presidential year where a senate seat flipped to a party that failed to carry the state in the presidential election.

Shading indicates party with largest share of that line.

Parties									Total
		Democratic	Republican	Independent	Libertarian	Independence	Green	Others
Before these elections		51	47	2	—	—	—	—	100
Not up		30	37	—	—	—	—	—	67
	Class 2 (2008→2014)	20	13	—	—	—	—	—	33
	Class 3 (2010→2016)	10	24	—	—	—	—	—	34
Up		21	10	2	—	—	—	—	33
	Class 1	21	10	2	—	—	—	—	33
Incumbent retired		6	3	1	—	—	—	—	10
	Held by same party	5	2	—	—	—	—	—	7
	Replaced by other party	1 Independent replaced by 1 Democrat 1 Republican replaced by 1 Independent 1 Democrat replaced by 1 Republican			—	—	—	—	3
	Result	6	3	1	—	—	—	—	10
Incumbent ran		15	7	1	—	—	—	—	23
	Won re-election	15	5	1	—	—	—	—	21
	Lost re-election	1 Republican replaced by 1 Democrat		—	—	—	—	—	1
	Lost renomination but held by same party	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	Lost renomination and party lost	1 Republican replaced by 1 Democrat		—	—	—	—	—	1
	Result	17	5	1	—	—	—	—	23
Total elected		23	8	2	—	—	—	—	33
Net gain/loss		2	2		—	—	—	—	2
Nationwide vote		49,988,282	39,128,301	961,284	956,745	211,794	195,200	2,119,714	93,561,320[1]
	Share	53.43%	41.82%	1.03%	1.02%	0.23%	0.21%	2.27%	100%
Result		53	45	2	—	—	—	—	100
End of this Congress		51	47	2	—	—	—	—	100

The table below gives an overview of some final predictions of the November general elections by several well-known institutes and people. While there were very few mistakes (predictions in the wrong direction; essentially only Montana and North Dakota, by both Sabato's Crystal Ball and FiveThirtyEight), FiveThirtyEight and Princeton Election Consortium had 2-4 races in the Lean categories and no tossups, whereas all other sources had at least eleven races in the middle three categories, and in particular many Tossup races.

Senate seats up for election in 2012
Democrat ran      Democrat retired	Republican ran      Republican retired	Independent ran      Independent retired
No Senate election

Results by county in 2012
30%+ Democratic      40%+ Democratic      50%+ Democratic      60%+ Democratic      70%+ Democratic      80%+ Democratic	30%+ Republican      40%+ Republican      50%+ Republican      60%+ Republican      70%+ Republican      80%+ Republican      90%+ Republican	40%+ Independent      50%+ Independent      60%+ Independent      70%+ Independent

Thirty-three seats were up for election.

Arizona election

Turnout	52.9% (voting eligible)[55]
Nominee Jeff Flake Richard Carmona Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 1,104,457 1,036,542 Percentage 49.2% 46.2%
Election results Red denotes counties/districts won by Flake. Blue denotes those won by Carmona.
U.S. senator before election Jon Kyl Republican Elected U.S. senator Jeff Flake Republican

Three-term incumbent and Senate Minority Whip Republican Jon Kyl, who was re-elected in 2006 with 53% of the vote, announced he would not seek a fourth term in 2012.[4][56] Republican Representative Jeff Flake[57] won the August 28 primary with 69.1% of the vote, against three contenders, including real estate investor Wil Cardon[58] who polled 21.2%. On the Democratic side, former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona[59] won the primary election, which was held August 28, 2012.

Preliminary general election results showed Flake leading 49.7%-45.7%, but 439,961 early votes had yet to be counted.[61] The official results, as tabulated by the Secretary of State, showed a slightly smaller win for Flake. Flake won the election with 49.7% of the vote against Carmona's 46.2% and Victor's 4.6%.[62]

California election

Turnout	55.2% (voting eligible)[55]
Nominee Dianne Feinstein Elizabeth Emken Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 7,864,624 4,713,887 Percentage 62.5% 37.5%
U.S. senator before election Dianne Feinstein Democratic Elected U.S. senator Dianne Feinstein Democratic

Incumbent Democrat Dianne Feinstein was re-elected. The primary election on June 5 took place under California's new blanket primary, where all candidates appear on the same ballot, regardless of party. In the primary, voters voted for any candidate listed, or write-in any other candidate. The top two finishers — regardless of party — advanced to the general election in November, even if a candidate managed to receive a majority of the votes cast in the June primary. In the primary, less than 15% of the total 2010 census population voted. Incumbent Democrat Dianne Feinstein finished first in the blanket primary with 49.5% of the vote. The second-place finisher was Republican candidate and autism activist Elizabeth Emken, who won 12.7% of the vote.

Feinstein and Emken contested the general election on November 6, with Feinstein winning re-election in a landslide, by 62.5% to 37.5%. Feinstein's 7.86 million votes set the all-time record for the most votes cast for one candidate in one state in one election, beating senator Barbara Boxer's 6.96 million votes in 2004. This record was held until the 2016 presidential election in California, when Hillary Clinton won 8.75 million votes in the state.

Connecticut election

Turnout	60.9% (voting eligible)[55]
Nominee Chris Murphy Linda McMahon Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 815,077 637,857 Percentage 55.1% 43.3%
U.S. senator before election Joe Lieberman Independent Elected U.S. senator Chris Murphy Democratic

Incumbent Joe Lieberman, an independent who caucused with the Democratic Party, retired instead of running for re-election to a fifth term.[64] Republican businesswoman Linda McMahon faced Democratic Representative Chris Murphy in the general election and lost, marking two defeats in as many years.[65]

In the 2006 election, incumbent Joe Lieberman was defeated in the Democratic primary by businessman Ned Lamont and formed his own party, Connecticut for Lieberman, winning re-election. Lieberman promised to remain in the Senate Democratic Caucus, but had clashed with Democrats on many significant issues, including his endorsement of Republican 2008 presidential nominee John McCain over Barack Obama.[66] As a result, Lieberman's poll numbers among Democrats had dropped significantly.[67][68]

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal was reportedly considering a run against Lieberman,[69] but instead ran for and won Connecticut's other Senate seat in 2010 after U.S. senator Christopher Dodd announced his retirement.[70]

Lieberman had publicly floated the possibility of running as a Democrat,[71] Republican,[72] or an independent.[73] However, he announced on January 19, 2011, that he would not run for another term.[64]

Susan Bysiewicz was the first to declare herself as a candidate.[74] However, by March 2011 Chris Murphy had raised over $1 million, while Bysiewicz had raised only $500,000. Murphy represented Connecticut's 5th congressional district, which was considered Republican-leaning, and he promoted himself as the most electable candidate against a Republican challenger. Bysiewicz, the former Secretary of the State of Connecticut, enjoyed high name recognition while a statewide officeholder, and had a formidable face-off with Murphy. William Tong, a state representative, joined the race touting his biography as the son of Chinese immigrants working at a Chinese restaurant.[75] In January East Hartford resident Matthew John Oakes announced his candidacy. Oakes pointed to his real life experience being a disabled American, victim of crime, civil rights activist, growing up in the inner-city and being a political outsider for his candidacy.[76]

Wide speculation continued on Linda McMahon, who had a widely publicized race for senator in 2010. She lost the election decisively, but had strong finances and a well-established political organization.[75] McMahon met with her former campaign consultant to review her 2010 results, and said she was leaning towards running. She planned to make a decision regarding another run after the start of 2012. Congressman Chris Shays joined in August 2011, promoting his involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan's military contracting.[77] Shays campaign also gained traction from a series of independent polls showing him beating or in dead heat with the top Democratic contenders in the general election, while those same polls showed McMahon losing handily to each of the top Democratic contenders.[78] The Shays campaign has quickly capitalized on these polls, arguing for the former Congressman's electability while questioning McMahon's electability due to her loss in an open Senate seat contest in 2010 by a large margin despite spending $50 million of her own money, and also citing both her high unfavorable numbers among voters and her poor fundraising.[79]

In July 2012, Shays declared that he would not support McMahon if she won the primary. He said that he had "never run against an opponent that I have respected less—ever—and there are a lot of candidates I have run against," adding that "I do not believe that Linda McMahon has spent the time, the energy to determine what [being] a senator really means." He also said that during the last debate he had with McMahon, "I thought she was embarrassingly clueless" and that "I think she is a terrible candidate and I think she would make a terrible senator." Although he said he would not support Chris Murphy, he expected him to win the Democratic nomination and the general election.[80]

In September 2012, the records of the McMahons' 1976 bankruptcy and specifics of nearly $1 million unpaid debts from the proceeding were published.[81] In days the candidate and her husband announced the "intention to reimburse all private individual creditors that can be located".[82]

Note: Murphy also appeared on the line of the Connecticut Working Families Party and received 37,553 votes on it. His Working Families and Democratic votes have been aggregated together on this table.

Delaware election

Turnout	62.7% (voting eligible)[55]
Nominee Tom Carper Kevin Wade Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 265,374 115,694 Percentage 66.4% 29.0%
U.S. senator before election Tom Carper Democratic Elected U.S. senator Tom Carper Democratic

Incumbent Democrat Tom Carper won re-election to a third term.

Note: The ±% column reflects the change in total number of votes won by each party from the previous election. Neither the vote shares nor the turnout figures account for write-ins. Turnout percentage is the portion of registered voters (632,805 as of January 11, 2012)[86] who voted.

Florida election

Turnout	63.5% (voting eligible)[55]
Nominee Bill Nelson Connie Mack IV Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 4,523,451 3,458,267 Percentage 55.2% 42.2%
U.S. senator before election Bill Nelson Democratic Elected U.S. senator Bill Nelson[87] Democratic

The primary election was held August 14, 2012. Incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson won re-election to a third term, defeating Republican U.S. Representative Connie Mack IV by 13%, winning 55% to 42%. Nelson defeated Mack by over 1 million votes.

From a long way out Nelson appeared to be vulnerable, with some earlier polls showing Mack leading. However, in the last few weeks with new polls conducted it appeared as though Nelson was headed for a victory. The last poll place him 5 percentage points ahead of Mack. In fact Nelson would win easily by 13 percentage points. Nelson performed well in Southeast Florida (the Miami area), Tampa, Gainesville, typically Democratic areas. Nelson however managed to win in areas that lean Republican. For example, Nelson won in Duval County home of Jacksonville, and Volusia County home of Daytona Beach. Nelson's ability to outperform President Obama led to him winning the Election easily. President Obama would still win Florida, but by just about 74,000 votes, and less than a percentage point. Nelson began his third term in the Senate on January 3, 2013.

Hawaii election

Turnout	44.2% (voting eligible)[55]
Nominee Mazie Hirono Linda Lingle Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 269,489 160,994 Percentage 62.6% 37.4%
U.S. senator before election Daniel Akaka Democratic Elected U.S. senator Mazie Hirono Democratic

Incumbent Democrat Daniel Akaka retired instead of running for re-election to a fourth term. Democratic Congresswoman Mazie Hirono defeated former Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle in a rematch of the 2002 Hawaii gubernatorial election.

2012 United States Senate election in Indiana

Turnout	58.5%[89]
Nominee Joe Donnelly Richard Mourdock Andrew Horning Party Democratic Republican Libertarian Popular vote 1,281,181 1,133,621 145,282 Percentage 50.0% 44.3% 5.7%
U.S. senator before election Richard Lugar Republican Elected U.S. senator Joe Donnelly Democratic

Incumbent Republican Richard Lugar ran for re-election to a seventh term, but was defeated in the primary by Tea Party-backed Richard Mourdock. Congressman Joe Donnelly, a moderate Democrat from Indiana's 2nd Congressional District, received his party's nomination after running unopposed in the primary contest, and then defeated both Mourdock and Libertarian Andrew Horning in the general election.

Due to Lugar's unpopularity among some Tea Party voters on his positions regarding illegal immigration, voting to confirm then-U.S. Supreme Court nominees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, the DREAM Act, the START Treaty, some gun control bills, and congressional earmarks, he was challenged by a Tea Party-backed candidate.[90][91]

The Indiana Debate Commission's GOP primary debate with Sen. Richard Lugar and State Treasurer Richard Mourdock was set to air at 7 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 11.[92] In a widely published poll taken March 26 to 28, Lugar was still in the lead, but by the time of a second published poll from April 30 to May 1, Mourdock was leading 48% to 38% for Lugar.

Mourdock defeated senator Lugar in the Republican primary on May 8, 2012.[93][94]

According to Indiana law, Lugar's defeat meant that he would not be permitted to run in the election either as a third party or an independent candidate after he lost the primary.[95]

Mourdock became embroiled in a controversy after stating that pregnancy from rape is "something that God intended". His remarks were made during a debate on October 23, 2012, while explaining his opposition to abortion even in the case of rape. At the debate Mourdock, when asked what his position on abortion was, responded:

"I know there are some who disagree and I respect their point of view but I believe that life begins at conception. The only exception I have to have an abortion is in that case of the life of the mother. I just struggled with it myself for a long time but I came to realize: "Life is that gift from God that I think even if life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen"."[97]

Media speculated that this could affect the outcome of the Senate race and Presidential race[98] and multiple sources noted the similarities with the rape and pregnancy statement controversies in the 2012 United States elections.[99][100]

Responding to the criticism, Mourdock issued a statement saying: "God creates life, and that was my point. God does not want rape, and by no means was I suggesting that he does. Rape is a horrible thing, and for anyone to twist my words otherwise is absurd and sick."[101] He was later quoted at a press conference also saying: "I believe God controls the universe. I don't believe biology works in an uncontrolled fashion."[102] He however refused to issue an apology, even while prominent Republicans, including Sen. John McCain, called for him to do so.[103]

On election night Donnelly won by about six percent. Donnelly performed well in Marion County, home of Indianapolis. Donnelly also won areas with major college campuses, such as Indiana University in Bloomington, Purdue University in Lafayette. Mourdock performed well, as expected in the Indianapolis suburbs, such as Hamilton County. Mourdock conceded defeat to Donnelly at around 11:30 P.M. EST.

2012 United States Senate election in Maine

Nominee Angus King Charlie Summers Party Independent Republican Popular vote 368,724 214,114 Percentage 52.9% 30.7%   Nominee Cynthia Dill Party Democratic Popular vote 91,635 Percentage 13.2%

U.S. senator before election Olympia Snowe Republican Elected U.S. senator Angus King Independent

Despite initially being in the race early on and poised to easily win, popular Republican Olympia Snowe suddenly retired instead of running for re-election to a fourth term. Former Independent Governor Angus King won the open seat. Following senator Joe Lieberman's retirement from the Senate in 2013, King became the second Independent incumbent senator, after Vermont's Bernie Sanders.

Incumbent Olympia Snowe won re-election to a third term in 2006 with 74.01% of the vote over Democrat Jean Hay Bright and independent Bill Slavick. Due to the unpopularity of some of Snowe's votes among conservative voters, namely for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and initial support of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, there was speculation that she would face competition in the 2012 Republican primary from more conservative challengers.[105] The Tea Party Express had promised to aid in a primary against Snowe.[106] There had also been speculation that Snowe would switch parties, though she has always denied this.[107][108][109] By June 2011, Snowe had officially entered her name with signatures to run in the Republican primary, saying, she "would never switch parties".

However, on February 28, 2012, Snowe announced that she would be retiring from the U.S. Senate at the end of her term, citing the "atmosphere of polarization and 'my way or the highway' ideologies has become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions" as the reason for her retirement.[110] Her announcement opened the door for candidates from all parties and creating a much more contested 2012 election.[111]

The primary election was held June 12.[112]

Maryland election

Nominee Ben Cardin Dan Bongino Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 1,402,092 674,649 Percentage 55.4% 26.7%   Nominee Rob Sobhani Party Independent Popular vote 420,554 Percentage 16.6%

U.S. senator before election Ben Cardin Democratic Elected U.S. senator Ben Cardin Democratic

Incumbent Democrat Ben Cardin won re-election to a second term, defeating Republican nominee Dan Bongino and independent Rob Sobhani.

In both 2010 and 2009, National Journal magazine rated Cardin as tied for most liberal senator, based on his voting record. As of June 30, Cardin had $1.8 million in his campaign account.[117]

2012 United States Senate election in Massachusetts

Nominee Elizabeth Warren Scott Brown Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 1,696,346 1,458,048 Percentage 53.7% 46.2%

U.S. senator before election Scott Brown Republican Elected U.S. senator Elizabeth Warren Democratic

Incumbent Republican Scott Brown ran for re-election to a first full term. He had been elected in a special election in 2010 following the death of incumbent Democrat Ted Kennedy. Brown faced no challengers from his own party. For the Democrats, an initial wide field of prospective candidates narrowed after the entry of Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Warren, the architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Warren clinched near-unanimous party support, with all but one of the other Democratic candidates withdrawing following her entrance. After winning her party's nomination, eliminating any need for a primary, she faced Brown in the general election.

The election was one of the most-followed races in 2012 and cost approximately $82 million, which made it the most expensive election in Massachusetts history and the second-most expensive in the entire 2012 election cycle, next to that year's presidential election. This was despite the two candidates' having agreed not to allow outside money to influence the race. Opinion polling indicated a close race for much of the campaign, though Warren opened up a small but consistent lead in the final few weeks. She went on to defeat Brown by over 236,000 votes, 54% to 46%.

Democratic U.S. senator Ted Kennedy was re-elected in 2006, and died on August 25, 2009, from a malignant brain tumor.[119] On September 24, 2009, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick appointed longtime friend of Kennedy and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Paul G. Kirk to succeed Kennedy until a special election could be held.[120] Kirk's appointment was especially controversial, as the Governor's ability to appoint an interim senator was removed during the Romney administration by the Democratic-controlled legislature, as a precaution if senator and presidential nominee John Kerry was elected President in 2004. Laws surrounding Senate appointment were quickly changed following Kennedy's death.[121] The Massachusetts Republican Party sued in an attempt to halt Kirk's appointment, but it was rejected by Suffolk Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly.[122]

In the special election held January 19, 2010, Republican State senator Scott Brown defeated Democratic State Attorney General Martha Coakley in an upset victory.[123] Brown thus became the first Republican to be elected from Massachusetts to the United States Senate since Edward Brooke in 1972 and he began serving the remainder of Kennedy's term on February 4, 2010.[124][125]

Incumbent Scott Brown faced no challenges from within his party. The political action committee National Republican Trust, a group integral to Brown's election in 2010, vowed to draft a challenger for Brown but were unable to find one.[126]

The Massachusetts Democratic Convention was held June 2, 2012, where Warren received 95.77% of delegate votes.[128] As the only candidate with 15% of delegate votes necessary to qualify for the primary ballot, Warren eliminated her challenger Marisa DeFranco, becoming the de facto nominee. The Democratic primary was held September 6, 2012, with Warren running unopposed.[129]

Brown ran as a moderate, stressing his ability to cross party lines and highlighting his votes for the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and to repeal "don't ask, don't tell".[131] Warren campaigned on a platform championing the middle class, and supporting Wall Street regulation. Warren criticized Brown for continually voting with Republican leadership, and argued that he was not the bipartisan moderate he claimed to be.[132][133] A staple of Brown's attack tactics against Warren was his consistent reference to her as "Professor Warren", in attempt to portray her as an elitist academic.[134] Brown faced blowback after the second debate, during which he claimed conservative Antonin Scalia was a "model" Supreme Court Justice, prompting boos from the debate audience.[135]

Warren spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention immediately before Bill Clinton on the penultimate night of the convention. Warren contrasted President Obama's economic plan with Mitt Romney's in the 2012 election and rebuked the Republican Party's economic policy stating: "Their vision is clear: 'I've got mine, and the rest of you are on your own.'" Warren positioned herself as a champion of a beleaguered middle class that, as she said, "has been chipped, squeezed and hammered."[136][137][138] Brown attended the 2012 Republican National Convention, but was not a speaker there. According to Brown, he had rejected an offer to play a larger role, and limited his attendance to a single day because of scheduling demands.[139][140]

Following Todd Akin's controversial "legitimate rape" comments, Brown was the first sitting senator to demand he drop out of the Missouri U.S. Senate race.[141] He also called on his Party to "recognize in its platform that you can be pro-choice and still be a good Republican."[141] Brown's campaign had been endorsed by many Massachusetts Democrats, many of whom were prominently featured in his campaign ads.[142]

In September 2011, a video of Warren explaining her approach to economic policy gained popularity on the internet.[143] In the video, Warren rebuts the charge that asking the rich to pay more taxes is "class warfare", pointing out that no one grew rich in America without depending on infrastructure paid for by the rest of society, stating:[144][145]

There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. ... You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

On July 13, 2012, President Obama sparked a controversy when he echoed her thoughts[146][147] in a campaign speech saying, "Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business—you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."[148][149]

Warren encountered significant opposition from business interests. In August 2012, Rob Engstrom, political director for the United States Chamber of Commerce, claimed that "no other candidate in 2012 represents a greater threat to free enterprise than Professor Warren."[150] She nonetheless raised $39 million for her campaign, the most of any Senate candidate in 2012.[151]

Despite President Obama's winning the state easily, and winning all of the state's counties, this race was fairly close. As expected, Warren performed very well in Suffolk County, which is home to the state's largest city and its capital Boston. Brown performed well in the southern part of the state near Cape Cod. Warren made history by becoming the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate in the state of Massachusetts.

Massachusetts general election[152]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Elizabeth Warren	1,696,346	53.74%	6.6%
	Republican	Scott Brown (Incumbent)	1,458,048	46.19%	4.9%
	All others		2,159	0.07%	0.9%
Majority			236,139	7.48%
Turnout			3,156,553
	Democratic gain from Republican		Swing	6.2%

Michigan election

Nominee Debbie Stabenow Pete Hoekstra Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 2,735,826 1,767,386 Percentage 58.8% 38.0%

U.S. senator before election Debbie Stabenow Democratic Elected U.S. senator Debbie Stabenow Democratic

Incumbent Democrat Debbie Stabenow was re-elected to a third term after being unopposed in the Democratic primary. The Republican nominee was former Congressman Pete Hoekstra. Stabenow defeated Hoekstra by a landslide 21% margin and by almost one million votes.

The GOP primary campaign was mainly a battle between Hoekstra and Durant as they were the most visible in running campaign ads. Despite Durant's attack ads, Hoekstra was leading in the polls for the Republican nomination.[153]

Minnesota election

Nominee Amy Klobuchar Kurt Bills Party Democratic (DFL) Republican Popular vote 1,854,595 867,874 Percentage 65.2% 30.5%

U.S. senator before election Amy Klobuchar Democratic (DFL) Elected U.S. senator Amy Klobuchar Democratic (DFL)

Incumbent Democrat Amy Klobuchar was re-elected to a second term in a landslide, defeating the Republican nominee, State Representative Kurt Bills by almost one million votes, and carrying all but two of the state's counties.

Incumbent Amy Klobuchar was first elected in 2006 to succeed the retiring DFL incumbent Mark Dayton.

The Independence Party of Minnesota did not plan to run a candidate in the general election. Party chairman Mark Jenkins said in November 2011 that he saw the Senate election as "a distraction from having our best and brightest engaged in state legislative races".[156] At the party's convention in June 2012, neither candidate was endorsed although Williams won a majority of the votes and came within two votes of the required 60% needed for the party's endorsement. He proceeded with his run for the Senate but the party focused its attention on state legislative races.[157]

Mississippi election

Turnout	59.7% (voting eligible)[55]
Nominee Roger Wicker Albert N. Gore Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 709,626 503,467 Percentage 57.2% 40.6%
U.S. senator before election Roger Wicker Republican Elected U.S. senator Roger Wicker Republican

Incumbent Republican Roger Wicker won re-election to his first full term over Democrat Albert N. Gore. Former U.S. representative Roger Wicker was appointed by Governor Haley Barbour after then-incumbent Trent Lott retired at the end of 2007. A 2008 special election was later scheduled to determine who would serve the remainder of the term. Then-U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker defeated former Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove with 54.96% of the vote in the special election and will be up for re-election in 2012. This would've been Trent Lott's fifth term as senator had he remained in office.

2012 United States Senate election in Missouri

Nominee Claire McCaskill Todd Akin Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 1,484,683 1,063,698 Percentage 54.8% 39.1%   Nominee Jonathan Dine Party Libertarian Popular vote 164,991 Percentage 6.1%

U.S. senator before election Claire McCaskill Democratic Elected U.S. senator Claire McCaskill Democratic

Incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill was unopposed in her primary and U.S. Representative Todd Akin won the Republican nomination with a plurality in a close three-way race. McCaskill was re-elected to a second term.

Time featured the race in their Senate article. Similar to other races, the article mentioned how McCaskill was fading in pre-election polls, and she was considered the most vulnerable/endangered Democratic incumbent that year. But Akin's comments about a woman's body preventing pregnancy if it was "legitimate rape" quickly shot McCaskill back up, winning her the election.[161][162][163]

The Republican primary, held August 7, 2012, was one of the three most anticipated of summer 2012. This was due to the projected closeness of the Federal races in the 'Show-Me State' in November 2012, and the potential to change the control of the Senate in January 2013.[165] Democrats believed that Todd Akin would be the weakest among the likely challengers for the Senate seat, and ads attacking him as "too conservative" were largely viewed as a veiled support for his nomination.[166][167][168]

While making remarks on rape and abortion on August 19, 2012, Akin made the claim that women victims of what he described as "legitimate rape" rarely experience pregnancy from rape. In an interview aired on St. Louis television station KTVI-TV, Aiken was asked his views on whether women who became pregnant due to rape should have the option of abortion. He replied:

Well you know, people always want to try to make that as one of those things, well how do you, how do you slice this particularly tough sort of ethical question. First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare. If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.[169]

The comments from Akin almost immediately led to uproar, with the term "legitimate rape" being taken to imply belief in a view that some kinds of rape are "legitimate", or alternatively that the many victims who do become pregnant from rape are likely to be lying about their claim. His claims about the likelihood of pregnancy resulting from rape were widely seen as being based on long-discredited pseudoscience with experts seeing the claims as lacking any basis of medical validity.[170][171][172] Akin was not the first to make such claims, but was perhaps one of the most prominent.[173] While some voices such as Iowa congressman Steve King supported Akin,[174] senior figures in both parties condemned his remarks and some Republicans called for him to resign.[175][176][177] In the resulting furor, Akin received widespread calls to drop out of his Senate race from both Republicans and Democrats.[178] Akin apologized after making the comment, saying he "misspoke", and he stated he planned to remain in the Senate race. This response was itself attacked by many commentators who saw the initial comments as representative of his long-held views, rather than an accidental gaffe.

The comment was widely characterized as misogynistic and recklessly inaccurate, with many commentators remarking on the use of the words "legitimate rape".[179][180][181] Related news articles cited a 1996 article in an obstetrics and gynecology journal, which found that 5% of women who were raped became pregnant, which equaled about 32,000 pregnancies each year in the US alone.[182] A separate 2003 article in the journal Human Nature estimated that rapes are twice as likely to result in pregnancies as consensual sex.[183] (See also pregnancy from rape.)

The incident was seen as having an impact on Akin's senate race and the Republicans' chances of gaining a majority in the U.S. Senate,[184] by making news in the week before the 2012 Republican National Convention and by "shift[ing] the national discussion to divisive social issues that could repel swing voters rather than economic issues that could attract them".[185] Akin, along with other Republican candidates with controversial positions on rape, lost due to backlash from women voters.[186]

On October 20, at a fundraiser, Akin compared McCaskill to a dog. After being criticized, Akin's campaign aide wrote on his official Twitter page that if Claire McCaskill "were a dog, she'd be a ‘Bullshitsu.’" The aide later said that he was joking.[187] Akin was caught on tape commenting that "Sen. Claire McCaskill goes to Washington, D.C., to ‘fetch' higher taxes and regulations."[188]

Even though the last poll before the election showed Akin only losing by four percentage points, McCaskill defeated him handily, by a 15.5% margin of victory and a vote margin of 420,985. Both McCaskill and incumbent Governor Jay Nixon, running at the same time, were able to get a large number of votes from rural parts of the state, something President Barack Obama was not able to do. McCaskill and Nixon were declared the winners of their respective races even before the known big Democratic strongholds of St. Louis and Kansas City came in. Akin conceded defeat to McCaskill at 10:38 P.M. Central Time.