2016 Senate Election

Election Run Up
The 2016 Senate election was run by Debbie Stabenow (MI) for the Democrats and David Vitter (LO) for the Republicans. The incumbent President was Mitt Romney, having won the 2012 Presidential election against ex-President Hillary Clinton. During the last 4 years, America had gone from a successful, growing economy, to a flailing and shrinking economy due to the 2015 economic rescission over a stalling Chinese economy.

Debates
There were four debates for the 2014 Senate Election, held in four states perceived as some of the closest swing states by political analysts. CNN hosted one of the four, whilst Fox hosted two and MNSBC one. The debates were held in Jefferson (Missouri - CNN), Carson (Nevada - Fox), Springfield (Illinois - Fox) and Tallahassee (Florida - MNSBC). Instant reaction suggested that the Democrats won the debates in Jefferson, Carson and Tallahassee, but that it was too close to call in Springfield.

Polling
Polling of the Senate race was limited, but suggested that the swing would be towards the Democrats.

Final Polling
This map was released in the final week of the campaign. It suggested

Campaign Stops
Reed spent his final five days visiting Maine, Georgia, Nebraska, Montana and Idaho. Risch spent his final days in Iowa, Alaska, Colorado, New Hampshire and Mississippi.

Exit Poll
ABC released this exit poll map, with probability of control. This suggested that there was a less than 10% chance the Republicans would retain control, with he most likely outcome being 52 (D) to 48 (R), with a 21.2% chance. The chance of a 50-50 tie was 9.7%. If this exit poll was accurate, Maine would be the most marginal of the night, where a handful of votes could swing it either way. It supported earlier polling that incumbent Republicans were doing worse than their untried counterparts.

Final Results


The final results of the night gave the Democrats control of the Senate. The only 'upset' of the night was the result from Texas, where Republican incumbent John Cornyn was defeated by Democrat David Alameel, despite an 86% probability that the Republicans would retain it. The final result was, as the likeliest result suggested, 52 Democrats to 48 Republicans.