As Smart Politics previously reported, more than 170 losing major party U.S. Senate nominees in the direct election era have come back to claim their party’s nomination a second time around, with more than five dozen eventually winning a seat in the chamber. At least one losing U.S. Senate nominee from 49 states eventually clawed his or her way back onto a subsequent general election ballot for the office…except in Michigan. None of the state’s losing 34 nominees since 1916 ever successfully came back and won their party’s nomination in a race for the nation’s upper legislative chamber. Michigan’s next U.S. Senate race won’t be until 2018, but, with that track record, it seems unlikely GOPers Pete Hoekstra (2012 nominee) or Terri Land (2014) will get another chance to win a seat for the GOP. Michigan Republicans have lost 13 of the last 14 U.S. Senate contests since 1976.

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