1994 United States Senate election in New York
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The 1994 United States Senate election in New York was held November 8, 1994. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan won re-election to a fourth term. As of 2024[update], this is the last time a man has won the Class 1 Senate seat from New York.
November 8, 1994
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County results Moynihan: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% Castro: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Democratic Primary
Candidates
- Daniel Patrick Moynihan, incumbent U.S. Senator
- Al Sharpton, civil rights activist, Baptist minister and talk show host
Results

- 50–60%
- 60–70%
- 70–80%
- 80–90%
- 90–100%
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Daniel Patrick Moynihan (incumbent) | 526,766 | 74.72% | |
| Democratic | Al Sharpton | 178,231 | 25.28% | |
| Total votes | 704,997 | 100.00% | ||
Conservative Primary
Candidates
- Bernadette Castro, CEO of Castro Convertibles
- Henry Hewes, real estate developer and perennial candidate
Results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Bernadette Castro | 12,300 | 62.91% | |
| Conservative | Henry Hewes | 7,251 | 37.09% | |
| Total votes | 19,551 | 100.00% | ||
General election
Candidates
- Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D/L), incumbent U.S. Senator
- Bernadette Castro (R/C), CEO of Castro Convertibles
Campaign
1994 was significant for the Republican Revolution, mostly as a referendum against President Bill Clinton and his health care plan, and was seen as a tough year for Democratic incumbents. Moynihan, however, was New York State's most popular politician at the time, and ran ahead of all other Democrats competing statewide.[3]
Republican Castro was running for office for the first time and had trouble raising funds due to being seen as unlikely to win; at times during the race she trailed by up to 30 percentage points.[3] She portrayed herself as a fiscally conservative, socially moderate Republican in the mold of Governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman, and attempted to portray Moynihan as excessively liberal and prone to government spending.[3] But Moynihan repeated his past strong performance among upstate voters, in addition to the usual Democratic strongholds in New York City.[3]
Results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Patrick Moynihan | 2,528,387 | 52.78 | ||
| Liberal | Patrick Moynihan | 118,154 | 2.47 | ||
| Total | Patrick Moynihan (Incumbent) | 2,646,541 | 55.25 | ||
| Republican | Bernadette Castro | 1,711,760 | 35.73 | ||
| Conservative | Bernadette Castro | 276,548 | 5.77 | ||
| Total | Bernadette Castro | 1,988,308 | 41.51 | ||
| Right to Life | Henry Hewes | 95,954 | 2.00 | ||
| Independence | Ismael Betancourt, Jr. | 26,650 | 0.56 | N/A | |
| Libertarian | Norma Segal | 17,991 | 0.38 | ||
| Socialist Workers | Naomi Craine | 14,892 | 0.31 | ||
| Majority | 658,233 | 13.74 | −22.16 | ||
| Total votes | 4,790,336 | 100.00 | |||
| Democratic hold | |||||