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 County results Cleland: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% Millner: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% | |||||||||||||||||
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The1996 United States Senate election in Georgia was held on November 5, 1996. IncumbentDemocraticUnited States SenatorSam Nunn decided to retire instead of seeking a fifth term. Democratic Secretary of StateMax Cleland won the open seat over Republican businessmanGuy Millner.
Primary elections were held on July 9. Cleland won the Democratic primary unopposed. Millner, a multi-millionaire who had been the nominee for governor in1994, faced a six-man field including State SenatorsClint Day andJohnny Isakson. Millner and Isakson advanced to a run-off, which Millner won narrowly on August 6.
Cleland won narrowly with 48.9% of the vote, which was only possible because the Democratic legislature hadrepealed the run-off majority requirement after the1992 Senate election, when SenatorWyche Fowler lost after leading the initial November election with a plurality. This was the closest race for this seat since the passage of theSeventeenth Amendment, which requires popular elections. It was the second-closest race of the1996 United States Senate elections afterthe election in Louisiana.
A Democrat would not be elected to a full term in the United States Senate from Georgia again until2020.[a]This election was the first open-seat United States Senate election in Georgia since1956 and the first open-seat United States Senate election in Georgia to this seat since1932.
The Class 2 United States Senate seat had been reliably Democratic, with a member of that party holding it since 1852. Additionally, no Republican had ever held the seat since it was established in 1789. In fact, Senator Sam Nunn defeated Mike Hicks by an almost 60% margin in1984 and faced no opponent in the1990 election.
However, Georgia politics had become increasingly hospitable to the Republican Party. In1992, RepublicanPaul Coverdell narrowly unseated DemocratWyche Fowler to take Georgia's other Senate seat. On October 9, 1995, Nunn announced his retirement,[1] leaving the seat open for the first time since 1972.
After the retirement of Sam Nunn, Democrats began seeking a successor for him. Eventually, Secretary of State of Georgia Max Cleland entered the race. Cleland was the only Democratic candidate to file for election, thus he became the nominee by default on July 9, 1996.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Guy Millner | 187,177 | 41.91% | |
| Republican | Johnny Isakson | 155,141 | 34.73% | |
| Republican | Clint Day | 83,610 | 18.72% | |
| Republican | Paul Broun | 11,979 | 2.68% | |
| Republican | Bruce Hatfield | 6,117 | 1.37% | |
| Republican | Dean Parkison | 2,631 | 0.59% | |
| Total votes | 446,655 | 100.00% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Guy Millner | 169,240 | 52.76% | |
| Republican | Johnny Isakson | 151,560 | 47.24% | |
| Total votes | 320,800 | 100.00% | ||
After the Republican primary, Guy Millner emerged as the nominee. Charles Bullock, a political scientist at theUniversity of Georgia, noted that defeated rivalJohnny Isakson was more likely to win the moderate vote due to his pro-choice views on abortion. Several polls earlier that year showed Cleland defeating both Millner and Isakson. In contrast to Isakson's opinion, Guy Millner was opposed to abortion except in the case of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.Zell Miller was appointed to the Class 3 seat in 2000 followingPaul Coverdell's death and later elected in thespecial election; Johnny Isakson was later elected to that same seat after Miller retired in2004. Opponent Max Cleland quickly labeled Millner as an extremist, saying that "I think people in this state want to elect a moderate ... not an extremist, not an ideologue, and not somebody hung up on some ideological agenda." In response, Millner began campaigning on other issues to capture more moderate voters.[2]
On Election Day, Democratic nominee Max Cleland narrowly won against Republican Guy Millner. It was one of the closest U.S. Senate elections in Georgia history. Cleland received 49% of the vote to Millner's 48%. Libertarian candidate Jack Cashin obtained 4%, while only eight people voted for Independent Arlene Rubinstein. Since the Democratic-controlledGeorgia General Assembly changed the run-off rules after the1992 Senate election to only require a runoff if the winning candidate received less than 45% of the vote, no runoff was required. Republicans, once they took control of the General Assembly in 2005, changed the law back to require a run-off if less than 50% of the vote was received.[3]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Max Cleland | 1,103,993 | 48.87% | |
| Republican | Guy Millner | 1,073,969 | 47.54% | |
| Libertarian | Jack Cashin | 81,262 | 3.60% | |
| Independent | Arlene Rubinstein | 8 | 0.00% | |
| Majority | 30,024 | 1.33% | ||
| Turnout | 2,259,232 | |||
Following the election, Max Cleland was sworn in as a United States senator on January 3, 1997. After one term, Max Cleland faced a toughre-election bid in 2002. However, this time he was defeated by RepublicanSaxby Chambliss. Cleland did not pursue public office after 2002, but campaigned forJohn Kerry in 2004 and was selected byPresident of the United StatesBarack Obama to serve on theAmerican Battle Monuments Commission starting in 2009. The Republican candidate in 1996, Guy Millner, ran forgovernor of Georgia again in1998, but lost to DemocratRoy Barnes. Millner did not seek public office again after his defeat in 1998.
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