Harman Patil (Editor)

United States Senate election in Minnesota, 1996

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
1,098,430
  
901,194

50.3%
  
41.3%

Start date
  
November 5, 1996

901,194
  
152,328

41.3%
  
7.0%

United States Senate election in Minnesota, 1996 httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Winner
  
Paul Wellstone

The 1996 United States Senate election in Minnesota was held on November 5, 1996. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone won re-election to a second term.

Contents

Primary elections

The primary election was held on September 10, 1996.

Major candidates

  • Dean Barkley (Reform), attorney
  • Rudy Boschwitz (Republican), former U.S. Senator
  • Paul Wellstone (Democratic), incumbent U.S. Senator
  • Campaign

    Boschwitz filed to run a rematch against Wellstone. The incumbent was an unapologetic liberal. Rudy released ads accusing Wellstone of being "embarrassingly liberal" and calling him "Senator Welfare". Boschwitz accused Wellstone of supporting flag burning, a move that some believe possibly backfired. Like the 1990 election, Wellstone had a massive grassroots campaign which inspired college students, poor people and minorities to get involved in politics for the very first time. Prior to that accusation, Boschwitz had significantly outspent Wellstone on campaign advertising and the race was closely contested, but Wellstone went on to beat Boschwitz by a nine-point margin in a three way race (Dean Barkley received 7%).

    References

    United States Senate election in Minnesota, 1996 Wikipedia