Who Has Won the Most Votes in US Senate Electoral History?

Only three of the Top 10 and nine of the Top 50 vote-getters of all time are currently serving in the chamber

Barbara Boxer’s announcement last week that she would not seek reelection to a fifth term to the U.S. Senate in 2016 means the California Democrat will retire falling just shy of a little-known historical record.

Boxer is currently in second place on the all-time list for the most votes received by any U.S. Senate candidate in history – behind her fellow delegation member of population-rich California, Dianne Feinstein.

Feinstein sits atop the list with 28,706,238 votes cast for her across her five general election victories – approximately 6.9 million more votes than Boxer.

With 2016 being a presidential election cycle, and California’s growing population, Boxer would likely have easily eclipsed that deficit had she decided to run for reelection. (Boxer claimed 6.95 million votes the last time she was on the ballot in a presidential election year – 2004).

Boxer is also second to Feinstein for the most votes received in any single election to the nation’s upper legislative chamber with those 6,955,728 votes in 2004.

Feinstein broke that mark in 2012 when she garnered 7,864,624 votes in a landslide victory.

California also has the #3 ranked U.S. Senator on the all-time vote-getter list – former four-term Democrat Alan Cranston at 15.7 million.

Of course, membership on this list is determined by a variety of factors such as 1) political longevity, 2) winning elections by large margins, 3) representing states with high voter turnout, and, most importantly, 4) representing states with large voting age populations.

As such, the appearance of long-serving (and recently serving) California U.S. Senators at the top of this list should not be surprising given the Golden State’s relatively large population compared to other states at this point in history.

Another key variable, related to longevity, is of course winning elections: only none of the Top 10 vote-getters in history ever lost a general election U.S. Senate contest (New York Republican Jacob Javits, running on the Liberal ballot line in 1980).

(However, 19 of the U.S. Senators who netted at least five million votes did lose at least one race and two such Senators lost at least two contests: New York Conservative/Republican James Buckley (#34, 6.8 million, lost three) and Ohio Republican Robert Taft, Jr. (#59, 5.2 million)).

Following the trio of Californians is Massachusetts Democrat Ted Kennedy at #4 with 13.4 million votes across his nine campaigns – just ahead of the 13.3 million votes won by New York Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan in his four contests.

Rounding out the Top 10 are the aforementioned Javits at #6 (13.2 million), recently retired Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan at #7 (12.0 million), Pennsylvania Republican turned Democrat Arlen Specter at #8 (11.2 million), Texas Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison at #9 (10.5 million), and current three-term Florida Democrat Bill Nelson at #10 (10.4 million).

Only three other U.S. Senate candidates have amassed more than 10 million general election votes during their political careers: New York Democrat Chuck Schumer (10.3 million), New York Republican Alfonse D’Amato (10.3 million), and Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin (10.0 million).

With Boxer frozen at #2, there are still a few long-serving U.S. Senators who are poised to move up the list in 2016 – should they choose to run again – with the aforementioned Schumer leading the way:

● Schumer is currently #11 with 10,368,000 votes. The three-term Empire State Senator would likely jump to fourth place on the list.

● Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski is currently #44 with 6,053,771 votes. The longest serving woman in the history of Congress would land inside the Top 30 assuming she receives the support she traditionally has in past cycles.

● Washington Democrat Patty Murray is currently #60 with 5,165,795 votes. The four-term Senator could reach the Top 35 with a victory in the upcoming cycle.

A total of 11 of the 100 U.S. Senators in the 114th Congress have tallied at least five million votes for their seat.

In addition to those mentioned above are Texas Republican John Cornyn at #14 (9.6 million), New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand at #25 (7.6 million), Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow at #33 (6.9 million), and Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown at #62 (5.0 million).

Overall, 63 U.S. Senate candidates have won at least five million votes since the introduction of direct elections a century ago.

Approximately two-thirds of these came from five states: New York (13), California (nine), Pennsylvania (seven), Illinois (six), and Ohio (six).

Michigan and Texas have produced four U.S. Senators with five-plus million votes, with New Jersey at three, Florida, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin with two, and Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington with one each.

Nineteen U.S. Senators in the 114th Congress currently own the record in their state for the most votes received in elections to the chamber including five Democrats mentioned above: Dianne Feinstein, Bill Nelson, Dick Durbin, Barbara Mikulski, and Patty Murray.

Also holding statewide records are Republicans Richard Shelby of Alabama, John McCain of Arizona, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Orrin Hatch of Utah, and Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Democrats Harry Reid of Nevada, Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Pat Leahy of Vermont.

That said, the record holders for some states have been out of office for many years, such as DFLer Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, Democrat Sam Nunn of Georgia, Republican Carl Curtis of Nebraska, and Democrat William Proxmire of Wisconsin.

Interestingly, two U.S. Senators who were ousted in the 2014 cycle are the record holders for the most votes won in their respective states: Mark Udall of Colorado (2.1 million, in just two contests) and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana (3.0 million).

Most Votes Won in U.S. Senate Elections by State Record-Holder

State	Senator	Party	Votes
Alabama	Richard Shelby*	Democrat/Republican	4,660,412
Alaska	Ted Stevens	Republican	1,017,131
Arizona	John McCain*	Republican	4,500,809
Arkansas	Dale Bumpers	Democrat	1,925,718
California	Dianne Feinstein*	Democrat	28,706,238
Colorado	Mark Udall	Democrat	2,175,252
Connecticut	Chris Dodd	Democrat	3,852,886
Delaware	Joe Biden	Democrat	1,028,942
Florida	Bill Nelson*	Democrat	10,403,486
Georgia	Sam Nunn	Democrat	3,954,723
Hawaii	Daniel Inouye	Democrat	2,113,743
Idaho	Mike Crapo*	Republican	1,082,715
Illinois	Dick Durbin*	Democrat	10,030,641
Indiana	Dick Lugar	Republican	7,323,781
Iowa	Chuck Grassley*	Republican	4,576,525
Kansas	Bob Dole	Republican	2,776,728
Kentucky	Mitch McConnell*	Republican	4,340,100
Louisiana	Mary Landrieu	Democrat	3,040,996
Maine	Susan Collins*	Republican	1,446,486
Maryland	Barbara Mikulski*	Democrat	6,053,771
Massachusetts	Ted Kennedy	Democrat	13,403,673
Michigan	Carl Levin	Democrat	12,002,515
Minnesota	Hubert Humphrey	DFL	4,334,847
Mississippi	Thad Cochran*	Republican	3,423,875
Missouri	Kit Bond	Republican	4,348,227
Montana	Max Baucus	Democrat	1,348,697
Nebraska	Carl Curtis	Republican	1,206,400
Nevada	Harry Reid*	Democrat	1,529,326
New Hampshire	Judd Gregg	Republican	897,915
New Jersey	Frank Lautenberg	Democrat	6,840,352
New Mexico	Pete DeConcini	Republican	1,717,250
New York	Daniel Patrick Moynihan	Democrat	13,349,930
North Carolina	Jesse Helms	Republican	5,004,331
North Dakota	Quentin Burdick	Democrat	988,839
Ohio	John Glenn	Democrat	9,095,083
Oklahoma	Jim Inhofe*	Republican	3,118,120
Oregon	Ron Wyden*	Democrat	3,208,399
Pennsylvania	Arlen Specter	Republican/Democrat	11,234,326
Rhode Island	Claiborne Pell	Democrat	1,440,747
South Carolina	Strom Thurmond	Democrat/Republican	3,505,175
South Dakota	Tom Daschle	Democrat	725,976
Tennessee	Lamar Alexander*	Republican	3,320,526
Texas	Kay Bailey Hutchison	Republican	10,536,814
Utah	Orrin Hatch*	Republican	2,905,583
Vermont	Pat Leahy*	Democrat	976,465
Virginia	John Warner	Republican	5,361,845
Washington	Patty Murray*	Democrat	5,165,795
West Virginia	Robert Byrd	Democrat	3,663,223
Wisconsin	William Proxmire	Democrat	5,339,064
Wyoming	Mike Enzi*	Republican	553,592

* Denotes U.S. Senator who is still in office. Table compiled by Smart Politics.

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