1996 United States Senate election in Tennessee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 1996 Tennessee United States Senate election was held on November 5, 1996, to elect the U.S. Senator from the state of Tennessee. Republican Senator Fred Thompson ran for re-election to a full six-year term. Thompson defeated the Democratic challenger, Covington lawyer Houston Gordon in the general election.[2] This is the last time that Tennessee voted for a Senate candidate and a presidential candidate of different political parties.
 | |||||||||||||||||
November 5, 1996
| |||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 62.77%  [1] 6.15 pp | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||
 County results Thompson: 50–60% 60—70% 70–80% Gordon: 50–60% 60–70% | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
Candidates
Democratic Party
- Houston Gordon, attorney
Republican Party
- Fred Thompson, incumbent U.S. Senator
Election results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Fred Thompson (Incumbent) | 1,091,554 | 61.37% | +0.93% | |
| Democratic | Houston Gordon | 654,937 | 36.82% | −1.79% | |
| Independent | John Jay Hooker | 14,401 | 0.81% | ||
| Independent | Bruce Gold | 5,865 | 0.33% | ||
| Independent | Robert O. Watson | 5,569 | 0.31% | ||
| Independent | Greg Samples | 4,104 | 0.23% | ||
| Independent | Philip L. Kienlen | 2,173 | 0.12% | ||
| Write-ins | 61 | 0.00% | |||
| Majority | 436,617 | 24.55% | +2.71% | ||
| Turnout | 1,778,664 | ||||
| Republican hold | |||||