The 2010 United States Senate election in Alabama took place on November 2, 2010, alongside other elections to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...

in other states, as well as elections to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

and various state and local elections.

Incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seeking re-ele ...

Republican United States Senator

Richard Shelby Richard Craig Shelby (born May 6, 1934) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Alabama. First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986 as a Democrat who later switched to the Republican Party in 1994, h ...

won re-election to a fifth term.

Background

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal en ...

, Shelby won the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat held by Republican Jeremiah Denton, the first Republican elected to the Senate from Alabama since

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology * Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...

. He won a very close race as the Democrats regained control of the Senate. He was easily re-elected in 1992 even as

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

lost Alabama's electoral votes. On November 9, 1994, Shelby switched his party affiliation to Republican, one day after the Republicans won control of both houses in the midterm elections, giving the Republicans a 53-47 majority in the Senate. He won his first full term as a Republican in 1998 by a large margin, and faced no significant opposition in 2004. Shelby was popular in

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

. A September 2009 poll showed he had a 58% approval rating, with 35% disapproving.

Republican primary

Candidates

* Clint Moser, tea party activist *

, incumbent U.S. Senator

Polling

Results

Democratic primary

Candidates

* William G. Barnes, attorney * Simone De Moore, teacher and soul singer

Polling

Results

General election

Candidates

* William G. Barnes (D), attorney *

(R), incumbent U.S. Senator since 1987

Campaign

Shelby, who switched from Democrat to Republican in the mid 1990s, was a popular senator in Alabama for three decades, first elected in 1986. He has over $17 million in the bank, one of the highest of any candidate in the country. Recently, he became even more popular in his opposition to the

Troubled Asset Relief Program The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a program of the United States government to purchase toxic assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President ...

(TARP) and the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, as the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee. In May, Shelby told reporters "I don't even know who my opponent is."

Predictions

Polling

;Richard Shelby vs. generic Democrat

Fundraising

Results

References

External links

Alabama Secretary of State - Elections

U.S. Congress candidates for Alabama
at

Project Vote Smart Vote Smart, formerly called Project Vote Smart, is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected officials in s ...

Alabama U.S. Senate
from OurCampaigns.com
Campaign contributions
from

Open Secrets ''Open Secrets'' () is a book of short stories by Alice Munro published by McClelland and Stewart in 1994. It was nominated for the 1994 Governor General's Award for English Fiction.Simons, Paula (November 6, 1994). "Munro pulls no punches", ''E ...

Alabama Polls
graph of multiple polls from ''Pollster.com''
Election 2010: Alabama Senate
from Rasmussen Reports
2010 Alabama Senate Race
from

CQ Politics Congressional Quarterly, Inc., or CQ, is part of a privately owned publishing company called CQ Roll Call that produces a number of publications reporting primarily on the United States Congress. CQ was acquired by the Economist Group and combine ...

Race profile
from

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

;Official candidate websites
Richard Shelby for U.S Senate

William G. Barnes for U.S. Senate
{{2010 United States elections

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...