2002 United States Senate election in Delaware

The 2002 United States Senate election in Delaware was held on November 5, 2002. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Biden won re-election to a sixth term, defeating Raymond Clatworthy in a rematch. This is the last Senate election that Biden decreased his percentage of the votes since the previous election and the only time Biden lost Kent County in his seven elections to the Senate.

2002 United States Senate election in Delaware

← 1996 November 5, 2002 2008 →

Nominee Joe Biden Raymond Clatworthy Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 135,253 94,793 Percentage 58.22% 40.80%

County results House district results Biden:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90% Clatworthy:      50–60%

U.S. senator before election Joe Biden Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Joe Biden Democratic

With this election, Biden became the first senator in Delaware to win six terms and became the state's longest-serving senator.

General Election

Candidates

• Joe Biden (D), incumbent Delaware senator running for a sixth consecutive term
• Raymond Clatworthy (R), businessman and nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1996^[1]
• Maurice Barros (IPoD), former department store manager.^[2]
• Raymond T. Buranello (L)^[3]
• Robert E. Mattson (NLP)^[3]

Predictions

Source	Ranking	As of
Sabato's Crystal Ball[4]	Safe D	November 4, 2002

Results

General election results^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Joe Biden (incumbent)	135,253	58.22%	−1.82%
	Republican	Raymond J. Clatworthy	94,793	40.80%	+2.67%
	Independent Party	Maurice Barros	996	0.43%
	Libertarian	Raymond T. Buranello	922	0.40%	−0.82%
	Natural Law	Robert E. Mattson	350	0.15%	−0.47%
Majority			40,460	17.42%	−4.49%
Turnout			232,314
	Democratic hold		Swing

County results

County[6]	Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. Democratic		Raymond J. Clatworthy Republican		Maurice Barros Delaware Independent		Raymond T. Buranello Libertarian		Robert E. Mattson Natural Law		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Kent	16,786	48.82%	17,310	50.35%	158	0.46%	99	0.29%	27	0.08%	34,380
New Castle	91,554	63.02%	52,129	35.88%	711	0.49%	621	0.43%	265	0.18%	145,280
Sussex	26,830	51.11%	25,277	48.15%	215	0.41%	112	0.21%	58	0.11%	52,492
Total	135,253	58.22%	94,793	40.80%	996	0.43%	922	0.40%	350	0.15%	232,152

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Kent (largest city: Dover)

See also

• 2002 United States Senate election