1994 United States Senate election in Tennessee

Major candidates

Democratic

• Jim Sasser, incumbent U.S. Senator

Republican

• Bill Frist, heart transplant surgeon from Nashville
• Bob Corker, Businessman from Chattanooga and future Senator for this same seat (2006)
• Steve Wilson
• Harold Sterling, Assessor from Shelby County, Tennessee
• Byron Bush, dentist
• Andrew Benedict

Campaign

Heading into the election, Sasser was a three term incumbent, who had previously won his last two elections with over 60% of the vote. He was also chair of the powerful Senate Budget Committee, and with the incoming retirement of Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine, Sasser was seen as the most likely candidate to succeed him, were he to have won a fourth term

However, there were two unforeseen events that affected the campaign. One was the large scale of discontent that the American people seemed to have toward the first two years of the Clinton administration, especially the proposal for a national healthcare system largely put together and advocated by Clinton's wife, Hillary Clinton. The other was the somewhat unexpected nomination of Nashville heart transplant surgeon Bill Frist for the seat by the Republicans.

Frist, who had never voted until he was 36, was a political unknown and a total novice at campaigning, but was from one of Nashville's most prominent and wealthiest medical families, which gave him some name recognition, as well as adequate enough resources to match the campaign war chest built up by the three-term incumbent, a challenge most "insurgent" candidates find to be impossible. A further factor working to Frist's advantage was a simultaneous Republican campaign by actor and attorney Fred Thompson for the other Tennessee Senate seat, which was open due to Al Gore resigning to become Vice President of the United States.

Another factor in Frist's favor was that Sasser was never seen as possessing much charisma of his own. During the campaign Nashville radio stations were derisive towards Sasser to the point of stating that he could only win "a Kermit The Frog lookalike contest."

In one of the largest upsets in a night of political upsets in the November 1994 U.S. general elections, Frist defeated the incumbent Sasser by 211,062 votes.

Results

References

References

1. (November 8, 1994). "Tennessee Voter Turnout in 1994". Tennessee Secretary of State.
2. "Our Campaigns - Race -".
3. "Our Campaigns - TN US Senate - R Primary Race - Aug 04, 1994".
4. "After 17 Years, Tennessee's Jim Sasser Emerging From Senate Anonymity".
5. MASTERSON, KAREN. (December 24, 2002). "Unanimous vote names Frist new Senate leader". [[Houston Chronicle]].