United States Senate elections, 1996

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November 5, 1996

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Class 2 (33 of the 100) seats in the United States Senate
and one mid-term vacancy from Class 3
51 seats needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	Trent Lott	Tom Daschle
Party	Republican	Democratic
Leader's seat	Mississippi	South Dakota
Last election	52 seats	48 seats
Seats before	53	47
Seats won	55	45
Seat change	2	2
Popular vote	24,211,395	23,490,651
Percentage	49.4%	47.9%
Swing	0.5%	3.9%
Seats up	19	15

Democratic gain

Democratic hold

Republican hold

Republican gain

Majority Leader before election

Trent Lott
Republican

Elected Majority Leader

Trent Lott
Republican

The United States Senate elections, 1996 coincided with the presidential election, in which Democrat Bill Clinton was re-elected President.

Despite the re-election of Clinton and Gore, and despite Democrats picking up a net two seats in the elections to the United States House of Representatives held the same day, the Republicans had a net gain of two seats in the Senate, following major Republican gains two years previously in the 1994 elections. As such, Clinton became the first president re-elected since Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 to win either of his terms without any Senate coattails.

The Republicans captured open seats in Alabama, Arkansas, and Nebraska. In South Dakota, Democrat Tim Johnson narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Larry Pressler.

The 1996 election marked the first time since 1980 that the Republican party made gains in the Senate for at least two consecutive election cycles.

Does not include Oregon's January 1996 special election, which was not held at the same time as this election.

Sources:

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Wikipedia