United States Senate election in Georgia, 1996
|
|||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
County results
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
The 1996 United States Senate election in Georgia was held on November 5, 1996. Incumbent Democratic United States Senator Sam Nunn decided to retire instead of seeking a fifth term. The Republican Party nominated Guy Millner, a multi-millionaire businessman who was also the unsuccessful candidate that ran against Zell Miller in the 1994 gubernatorial election. Millner emerged as the victor from a crowded 6-person primary in July 1996. However, Max Cleland, the Secretary of State of Georgia ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.
Libertarian Jack Cashin and Independent Arlene Rubinstein also entered the race, though neither one of them were "serious" candidates. Despite being held by Democrats since 1852, the election for this seat became tightly contested between Cleland and Millner. It was the closest race for that seat since at least 1852. Nonetheless, Max Cleland defeated Guy Millner on November 5. Max Cleland narrowly edged out a victory with 1,103,993 votes (48.87%) to Guy Millner's 1,073,969 votes (47.54%) – a margin of 1.33%. As a result, Max Cleland was sworn-in as a Class 2 United States Senator from Georgia on January 7, 1997.
The Class 2 United States Senate seat had been reliably Democratic, with a member of that party holding it since 1852. Additionally, no Republican had ever held at seat since it was established in 1789. In fact, during the previous election, Sam Nunn was unanimously re-elected and defeated Mike Hicks by an almost 60% margin in 1984. Republican Paul Coverdell narrowly unseated Democrat Wyche Fowler in Georgia's other United States Senate seat in 1992. On October 9, 1995, 4-term incumbent Class 2 Senator Sam Nunn announced his retirement. This left the seat open for the first time since 1972.
...
Wikipedia