The 1996 United States Senate election in Minnesota was held on November 5, 1996. Incumbent Democrat

Paul Wellstone Paul David Wellstone (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002) was an American academic, author, and politician who represented Minnesota in the United States Senate from 1991 until he was killed in a plane crash near Eveleth, Minnesota, in 2002. A ...

won reelection to a second term defeating former Republican Senator

Rudy Boschwitz Rudolph Ely Boschwitz (born November 7, 1930) is an American politician and businessman who served as a United States senator from Minnesota from 1978 until 1991. Boschwitz is a member of the Republican Party. He was born in Berlin to a Jewis ...

in a rematch.

Primary elections

The primary election was held on September 10, 1996.

DFL

Republican

General election

Major candidates

Dean Barkley Dean Malcolm Barkley (born August 31, 1950) is an American attorney and politician who briefly served as a United States Senator from Minnesota from 2002 to 2003 as a member of the Independence Party of Minnesota. The founder and chair of the ...

(Reform), attorney *

(Republican), former U.S. Senator *

(Democratic), incumbent U.S. Senator

Campaign

Wellstone had unseated the two-term senator Boschwitz in the 1990 election. Boschwitz filed for a rematch. He released ads calling Wellstone "embarrassingly liberal" and "Senator Welfare", and accused Wellstone of supporting flag burning, a move some believe backfired. As in 1990, Wellstone had a massive

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

campaign that inspired college students, poor people and minorities to get involved in politics for the first time. Boschwitz significantly outspent Wellstone on campaign advertising and the race was closely contested, but Wellstone defeated Boschwitz by a nine-point margin in a three-way race. Dean Barkley received 7% of the vote and was appointed by Governor Jesse Ventura to serve the last few months of Wellstone's term after Wellstone died in a plane crash 11 days before the 2002 election.

Results

References

{{US Third Party Election 1996 Minnesota elections

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over t ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...