1994 United States Senate special election in Tennessee

For related races, see 1994 United States Senate elections.

For the other Senate election in Tennessee held in parallel, see 1994 United States Senate election in Tennessee.

The 1994 United States Senate special election in Tennessee was held November 8, 1994. Incumbent Democratic Senator Al Gore resigned from the Senate following his election as Vice President of the United States in 1992, and this led to the 1993 appointment of Harlan Mathews and the subsequent special election.^[2] Mathews did not seek election to finish the unexpired term, and Representative Jim Cooper subsequently became the Democratic nominee. However, the Republican nominee Fred Thompson won the seat in a decisive victory.

1994 United States Senate special election in Tennessee

← 1990 November 8, 1994 1996 →
Turnout	56.62%[1]
Nominee Fred Thompson Jim Cooper Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 885,998 565,930 Percentage 60.44% 38.61%
County results Thompson:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80% Cooper:      50–60%      60–70%
U.S. senator before election Harlan Mathews Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Fred Thompson Republican

The election was held concurrently with the regular Class 1 Tennessee Senate election, in which Republican Bill Frist defeated incumbent Democrat Jim Sasser. As a result of Thompson and Frist's simultaneous victories in Tennessee, the two elections marked the first time since 1978 that both Senate seats in a state have flipped from one party to the other in a single election cycle. The next time this was repeated was in Georgia in 2021 where both the regular election and the special election went from incumbent Republicans to Democrats.

Major candidates

Democratic

• Jim Cooper, U.S. Representative

Republican

• Fred Thompson, attorney and actor

Election results

General election results^[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Fred Thompson	885,998	60.44%	+30.63%
	Democratic	Jim Cooper	565,930	38.61%	−29.12%
	Independent	Charles N. Hancock	4,169	0.28%
	Independent	Charles Moore	2,219	0.15%
	Independent	Terry Lytle	1,934	0.13%
	Independent	Kerry Martin	1,719	0.12%
	Independent	Jon Walls	1,532	0.10%
	Independent	Hobart Lumpkin	1,184	0.08%
	Independent	Don Schneller	1,150	0.08%
	Write-ins		27	0.00%
Majority			320,068	21.83%	−16.08%
Turnout			1,465,862
	Republican gain from Democratic

See also

• 1994 United States Senate election in Tennessee
• 1994 United States Senate elections
• 1994 Tennessee gubernatorial election