2002_United_States_Senate_election_in_Massachusetts Knowpia

2002 United States Senate election in Massachusetts
	Kerry: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90%
U.S. senator before election; John Kerry; Democratic	Elected U.S. Senator ; John Kerry; Democratic

The 2002 United States Senate election in Massachusetts took place on November 5, 2002. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator John Kerry won re-election to a fourth term against Libertarian Michael Cloud, with no Republican filing to run.

The lack of a Republican Party candidate caused Cloud to receive the largest percentage of votes for a U.S. Senate candidate in the Libertarian Party's history at that time, though this record has since been eclipsed by Joe Miller in Alaska in 2016 and Ricky Dale Harrington Jr. in Arkansas in 2020. Cloud also won the largest number of raw votes for a Libertarian candidate at the time, since eclipsed by Harrington.

Kerry's support for the invasion of Iraq also prompted a late write-in challenge by anti-war candidate Randall Forsberg.

Democratic primary edit

Democratic primary results
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	John F. Kerry (Incumbent)	615,517	99.35%
	Write-in		3,979	0.65%
Total votes			619,496	100.00%

General election edit

Candidates edit

Michael Cloud (Libertarian)
Randall Forsberg, anti-war activist (Independent, write-in)
John Kerry, incumbent U.S. Senator since 1985 (Democratic)

Predictions edit

Source	Ranking	As of
Sabato's Crystal Ball^[1]	Safe D	November 4, 2002

Results edit

2002 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts^[2]^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	John Kerry (incumbent)	1,605,976	80.03%	27.29
	Libertarian	Michael Cloud	369,807	18.43%	N/A
	Independent	Randall Forsberg (write-in)	24,898	1.24%	N/A
	Write-in		6,077	0.30%	0.24
Total votes			2,006,758	100.00%

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic edit

Barnstable (largest municipality: Barnstable)
Essex (largest municipality: Lynn)
Hampden (largest municipality: Springfield)
Plymouth (largest municipality: Brockton)
Worcester (largest municipality: Worcester)

References edit

^ "Senate Races". www.centerforpolitics.org. November 4, 2002. Archived from the original on November 18, 2002. Retrieved June 25, 2021.
^ "PD43+ >> 2002 U.S. Senate General Election". Massachusetts Elections Division. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
^ Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives (May 1, 2003). "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 5, 2002". U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 19.