Akin Skates with Lowest Vote Tally Since 1928

U.S. Representative Todd Akin’s 6.0-point victory over John Brunner in Tuesday’s Republican U.S. Senate race in Missouri was the third narrowest GOP primary victory for the office in state history and the lowest percentage for a winning candidate in more than 80 years. Akin won with 36.0 percent of the vote and the last time a victorious Republican primary winner for a Missouri U.S. Senate contest received less than 40 percent was in 1928 when Roscoe Patterson won with 31.4 percent of the vote. The only other GOP winner who received less support on primary day was R.R. Brewster in 1922 with 33.4 percent. The only races decided more closely than Akin’s 6-point win were Herbert Douglas’s 2.3-point win in 1956 over Albert Shoenbeck and Patterson’s 3.4-point win over Nathan Frank in 1928.