The 2008 United States Senate election in Kentucky was held on November 4, 2008. Minority Leader and incumbent Republican U.S. Senator

Mitch McConnell Addison Mitchell McConnell III (born February 20, 1942) is an American politician and retired attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Kentucky and the Senate minority leader since 2021. Currently in his seventh term, McConne ...

won re-election to a fifth term. Although

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

lost Kentucky by a 16.22% margin to

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...

in the presidential election which occurred simultaneously, McConnell more narrowly kept his seat with a 5.94% margin against businessman Bruce Lunsford. This was a greatly reduced margin from when he won re-election in 2002 with a 29.4% margin.

Background

In 2007 Kentucky's unpopular Republican Governor,

Ernie Fletcher Ernest Lee Fletcher (born November 12, 1952) is an American physician and politician. In 1998, he was elected to the first of three consecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives; he resigned in 2003 after being elected the 60th ...

, lost his re-election bid. The Democrats took control of both Houses of Congress in the 2006 mid-term elections and in October Chuck Schumer acknowledged they were aiming for McConnell's seat.

State auditor State auditors (also known as state comptrollers, state controllers, state examiners, or inspectors general) are fiscal officers lodged in the executive or legislative branches of U.S. state governments who serve as external auditors, financial ...

Crit Luallen Eugenia Crittenden Blackburn "Crit" Luallen (born July 21, 1952) is an American politician who served as the 56th lieutenant governor of Kentucky from November 13, 2014, to December 8, 2015. Luallen previously served as Kentucky State Auditor. ...

was considered a top contender for the Democratic nomination, but she decided to remain as auditor. Lunsford was asked to run by Kentucky Governor

Steve Beshear Steven Lynn Beshear (born September 21, 1944) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 61st governor of Kentucky from 2007 to 2015. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1974 to 1980, was the state's 44th atto ...

. Seven candidates competed for the Democratic Primary nomination. The primaries for both parties took place on May 20, 2008 in which Lunsford took more than 50%.

Republican primary

Candidates

* Daniel Essek *

, incumbent U.S. Senator

Results

Democratic primary

Candidates

* Michael Cassaro *

Greg Fischer Gregory Edward Fischer (born January 14, 1958) is an American businessman, entrepreneur and 2nd mayor of Louisville Metro. In 2019, he was elected vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and served as its president in 2020. Fischer ra ...

, businessman * Bruce Lunsford, former Kentucky Secretary of Commerce and candidate for

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

and

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

* James Rice * Kenneth Stepp * David Williams * David Wylie

Results

General election

Candidates

* Bruce Lunsford (D), businessman *

(R), incumbent U.S. Senator

Campaign

In October Lunsford and McConnell were statistically tied in the polls. Larry Sabato, director of the

University of Virginia Center for Politics The University of Virginia Center for Politics (CfP) is a nonpartisan organization based in Charlottesville, Virginia, that seeks to increase civic knowledge and involvement among all citizens. It was founded in 1998 by professor and political a ...

, said "If Lunsford is actually doing this well, its got to be because the public is so upset by the economic meltdown and may be blaming the legislative leaders." A debate scheduled for October 7 hosted by the

League of Women Voters The League of Women Voters (LWV or the League) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan political organization in the United States. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include registering voters, providing voter information, and advocating for vot ...

was canceled when incumbent McConnell decided not to participate even though Lunsford announced he wanted to debate. On November 2, 2008, media outlets such as

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

noted that the website of

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

had reported that anti-McConnell flyers questioning the senator's sexuality as well as the reasons for his 1967 military discharge were being distributed in Kentucky.

Predictions

Polling

Results

Results breakdown

References

External links

Kentucky State Board of Elections

U.S. Congress candidates for Kentucky
at Project Vote Smart * –

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 combined ...

Kentucky U.S. Senate
from ''OurCampaigns.com'' * – ''2008 Race Tracker'' * –

OpenSecrets OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks data on campaign finance and lobbying. It was created from a merger of the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) and the National Institute on Money in Politics (NIMP). ...

* – graph of multiple polls from Pollster.com * Official campaign websites ** – Democratic nominee *
Mitch McConnell for Senate
– Republican nominee {{2008 United States elections

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

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 pow ...

Background

Republican primary

Candidates

Results

Democratic primary

Candidates

Results

General election

Candidates

Campaign

Predictions

Polling

Results

Results breakdown

See also

References

External links