1992 United States Senate election in Illinois


The 1992 United States Senate election in Illinois was held on November 3, 1992. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Alan J. Dixon decided to run for re-election a third term, but was defeated in the primary against Carol Moseley Braun, who ended up winning the general election.
Braun made history in this election by becoming the first African-American woman ever elected to the U.S Senate, and also the first African-American elected to the U.S Senate as a Democrat.
Primaries were held March 17.

Election information

The primaries and general elections coincided with those for other federal elections, as well as those for state offices.

Turnout

For the primaries, turnout was 35.20%, with 2,064,347 votes cast. For the general election, turnout was 74.84%, with 4,939,557 votes cast.

Democratic Primary

Candidates

Analysis

This defeat shocked observers; at the time no Senator had been defeated in a primary in over a decade and Dixon had a long record of electoral success. He was a moderate Democrat, who recently voted to confirm Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Braun, a black woman and known reformist liberal, got a large share of black, liberal, and women voters.
In addition, she carried Cook County, Illinois, by far the most populated county in the state. Another factor was the third candidate in the race, multi-millionaire attorney Al Hofeld. Hofeld drew away some of the moderate and conservative Democrats who normally supported Dixon. He also spent a lot of money running advertisements attacking Dixon, weakening his support.

Republican primary

ran unopposed in the Republican primary.

General election

Candidates

Major

Moseley Braun won the 1992 Illinois Senate Race by a fairly comfortable margin. Moseley Braun did well as expected in Cook County home of Chicago. Williamson did well in the Chicago collar counties, and most northern parts of the state. Moseley Braun had a surprisingly strong showing in southern Illinois, which Republicans had come to dominate in the last several decades. Braun also did well in Rock Island County.