N.C. tops in Senate competitiveness

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 19:02:27 -0400

Since 1990, the most competitive Senate races in the country have been in North Carolina.

An analysis by the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota found that the last seven races here were decided by an average of six percentage points — the lowest in the nation.

The next closest states were Minnesota (6.4), New Jersey (7.5) and Missouri (8.4). Every other state had more than a 10 percent average margin.

The national average of the 344 Senate races was 22.8 percentage points. Nationally, less than a third were decided by less than 10 points, while all of North Carolina's races were below that cutoff.

The least competitive state was North Dakota, which had no competitive races during that period of time.

The closest win in North Carolina was Lauch Faircloth's in 1992, which was decided by four points. The biggest win was Elizabeth Dole's in 2002, when the margin was 8.6 points.

(That was closely followed by Kay Hagan's 8.5 point defeat of her in 2008.)

As a Dome tipster points out, the races prior to 1990 were not much less competitive, either.

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N.C. tops in Senate competitiveness