2006 United States Senate election in Rhode Island

2006 United States Senate election in Rhode Island

← 2000 November 7, 2006 2012 →

Nominee Sheldon Whitehouse Lincoln Chafee Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 206,109 179,001 Percentage 53.52% 46.48%

County results Municipality results Whitehouse:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80% Chafee:      50–60%      60–70%

U.S. senator before election Lincoln Chafee Republican Elected U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse Democratic

Elections in Rhode Island
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v t e

The 2006 United States Senate election in Rhode Island was held on November 7, 2006. Incumbent Republican Lincoln Chafee sought re-election to a second full term in office, the seat he had held since 1999 when he was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the death of his father John Chafee. He lost to Democratic nominee, former state Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse by a 7-point margin.^[1] Lincoln Chafee later left the Republican Party in September 2007 before running successfully as an Independent for Governor of Rhode Island in 2010.

Whitehouse carried Providence County, which contains approximately 60% of the state's population, with 59% to Chafee's 41%. Chafee's strongest showing was in Washington County (South County), where he took 55% of the vote against Whitehouse's 45%. After the election, when asked by a reporter if he thought his defeat would help the country by giving Democrats control of Congress, Chafee replied, "to be honest, yes."^[2]

As of 2023^[update], this was the last time the Republican candidates won the counties of Bristol and Washington in a statewide election. Democrats won this Senate seat for the first time since 1970; this also marked the first time since that election that the winner of Rhode Island's Class 1 Senate seat was not a member of the Chafee family. Chafee would go on to run for governor and was elected in 2010. Sheldon Whitehouse's inauguration or swearing-in marked the first time since the resignation of John Pastore in 1976 that Democrats held both Senate seats from Rhode Island.