United States Senate election in Mississippi, 2006

United States Senate election in Mississippi, 2006

2000 ← November 7, 2006 → 2008

Nominee Trent Lott Erik R. Fleming Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 388,399 213,000 Percentage 63.58% 34.87%

County results

U.S. Senator before election Trent Lott Republican Elected U.S. Senator Trent Lott Republican

The 2006 United States Senate election in Mississippi was held on November 7, 2006. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Trent Lott won re-election to a fourth term.

Democratic primary

Candidates

• Erik R. Fleming, Mississippi State Representative
• Bill Bowlin, perennial candidate
• James O'Keefe, businessman
• Catherine Starr, activist

Results

Democratic primary results[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage
	Democratic	Erik R. Fleming	46,185	44.07%
	Democratic	Bill Bowlin	23,175	22.11%
	Democratic	James O'Keefe	20,815	19.86%
	Democratic	Catherine Starr	14,629	13.96%
Totals			104,804	100%

Democratic primary runoff results[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage
	Democratic	Erik R. Fleming	19,477	64.99%
	Democratic	Bill Bowling	10,490	35.01%
Totals			29,967	100%

General election

Candidates

• Erik R. Fleming (D), State Rep.
• Trent Lott (R), incumbent U.S. Senator
• Harold Taylor (L)

Campaign

Lott ran for re-election without facing any opposition in his party's primary. While it had been speculated that Lott might retire after his home was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, he instead chose to run for re-election. Fleming is an African American, which represents 37% of the state's population. However, no African American has ever been elected to statewide office. The last black U.S. Senator was Hiram Revels, who was appointed and took office in 1870. Fleming got little help from the DSCC, which only donated $15,000 to his campaign.^[3]

Results

General election results
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Trent Lott (inc.)	388,399	63.58
	Democratic	Erik R. Fleming	213,000	34.87
	Libertarian	Harold Taylor	9,522	1.56
Majority			175,399	28.71
Turnout			591,178
	Republican hold		Swing

References

• Election Results

1. ^ State Rec
2. ^ Our Campaigns - MS US Senate-D Primary Run-Off Race - Jun 27, 2006
3. ^ FOXNews.com - Fleming runs low-budget Miss. challenge of Cochran - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum

Further reading

• Orey, Byron D'Andra. "Racial Threat, Republicanism, and the Rebel Flag: Trent Lott and the 2006 Mississippi Senate Race," National Political Science Review July 2009, Vol. 12, pp. 83-96