2002 United States Senate election in Massachusetts

The 2002 United States Senate election in Massachusetts took place on November 5, 2002. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator John Kerry won re-election to a fourth term against Libertarian Michael Cloud, with no Republican filing to run. Kerry won every county, congressional district, municipality, and precinct in the state.

2002 United States Senate election in Massachusetts

← 1996 November 5, 2002 2008 →

Nominee John Kerry Michael Cloud Party Democratic Libertarian Popular vote 1,605,976 369,807 Percentage 80.03% 18.43%

County results Municipality results Precinct results Kerry:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90%

U.S. senator before election John Kerry Democratic Elected U.S. Senator John Kerry Democratic

The lack of a Republican Party candidate caused Cloud to receive the largest percentage of votes for a U.S. Senate candidate in the Libertarian Party's history at that time, though this record has since been eclipsed by Joe Miller in Alaska in 2016 and Ricky Dale Harrington Jr. in Arkansas in 2020. Cloud also won the largest number of raw votes for a Libertarian candidate at the time, since eclipsed by Harrington.

Kerry's support for the invasion of Iraq also prompted a late write-in challenge by anti-war candidate Randall Forsberg.

Democratic primary

Democratic primary results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	John F. Kerry (Incumbent)	615,517	99.35%
	Write-in		3,979	0.65%
Total votes			619,496	100.00%

General election

Candidates

• Michael Cloud (Libertarian)
• Randall Forsberg, anti-war activist (Independent, write-in)
• John Kerry, incumbent U.S. Senator since 1985 (Democratic)

Predictions

Source	Ranking	As of
Sabato's Crystal Ball[1]	Safe D	November 4, 2002

Results

2002 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts^[2][3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	John Kerry (incumbent)	1,605,976	80.03%	27.29
	Libertarian	Michael Cloud	369,807	18.43%	N/A
	Independent	Randall Forsberg (write-in)	24,898	1.24%	N/A
	Write-in		6,077	0.30%	0.24
Total votes			2,006,758	100.00%

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Barnstable (largest municipality: Barnstable)
• Essex (largest municipality: Lynn)
• Hampden (largest municipality: Springfield)
• Plymouth (largest municipality: Brockton)
• Worcester (largest municipality: Worcester)

See also

• 2002 United States Senate elections