Election Name: | 2002 United States Senate election in Maine |
Country: | Maine |
Type: | presidential |
Ongoing: | no |
Previous Election: | 1996 United States Senate election in Maine |
Previous Year: | 1996 |
Next Election: | 2008 United States Senate election in Maine |
Next Year: | 2008 |
Election Date: | November 5, 2002 |
Image1: | 2008 Susan Collins 2 by 3 crop.jpg |
Nominee1: | Susan Collins |
Party1: | Republican Party (United States) |
Popular Vote1: | 295,041 |
Percentage1: | 58.44% |
Nominee2: | Chellie Pingree |
Party2: | Democratic Party (United States) |
Popular Vote2: | 209,858 |
Percentage2: | 41.56% |
U.S. Senator | |
Before Election: | Susan Collins |
Before Party: | Republican Party (United States) |
After Election: | Susan Collins |
After Party: | Republican Party (United States) |
The 2002 United States Senate election in Maine was held November 5, 2002. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins won re-election to a second term.
Pingree attacked Collins for supporting the Bush tax cuts.[1] Both candidates opposed the Iraq War in the fall of 2002.[2] However, Collins then supported the congressional resolution to attack Iraq, while Pingree opposed it.[3]
Collins, a popular moderate, was supported by health care groups, environmentalists and gay rights advocates. She handily defeated Pingree in one of the first U.S. Senate elections in which both major parties nominated women in U.S. history.[4]