The 2012 United States Senate election in Rhode Island was on November 6, 2012, alongside the

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

, and various state and local elections. In the 2006 Senate election, former

Attorney General of Rhode Island The attorney general of Rhode Island is the chief legal advisor of the government of the State of Rhode Island and oversees the State of Rhode Island Department of Law. The attorney general is directly elected every four years. The current atto ...

Sheldon Whitehouse Sheldon Whitehouse (born October 20, 1955) is an American lawyer and politician serving since 2007 as the junior United States senator from Rhode Island. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 1993 to 1998 as the United States Att ...

defeated one-term Republican incumbent

Lincoln Chafee Lincoln Davenport Chafee ( ; born March 26, 1953) is an American politician. He was mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island, from 1993 to 1999, a United States Senator from 1999 to 2007, and the 74th Governor of Rhode Island from 2011 to 2015. He was a ...

. Chafee had been appointed to the Senate in 1999 when his father, the incumbent senator

John Chafee John Lester Hubbard Chafee ( ; October 22, 1922 – October 24, 1999) was an American politician and officer in the United States Marine Corps. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 66th Governor o ...

died. He then won election to a first term in 2000. Whitehouse won 53.52% of the vote in 2006. Incumbent Democratic Senator

was reelected to a second term in a landslide by a 30-point margin of 65% - 35%. This election was the first time since

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

that the election for Rhode Island's Class 1 Senate seat did not feature a member of the Chafee family.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Declared

, incumbent U.S. Senator

Unsuccessful

* Todd Giroux, contractor and Independent candidate for governor in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

Declared

* Barry Hinckley, president and co-founder of software company Bullhorn

Declined

* Joseph Almond,

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln (na ...

town administrator *

Scott Avedisian Scott Avedisian (born January 16, 1965) is an American politician and the former Republican mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island, the third largest city in the state after Providence and Cranston. Avedisian represented Ward 1 in the Warwick City Co ...

, Mayor of

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

Donald Carcieri Donald Louis Carcieri ( ; ; born December 16, 1942) is an American politician and corporate executive who served as the 73rd Governor of Rhode Island from January 2003 to January 2011. Carcieri has worked as a manufacturing company executive, a ...

, former

Governor of Rhode Island The governor of Rhode Island is the head of government of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and serves as commander-in-chief of the state's Army National Guard and Air National Guard. The current governor is Dan McKee, a member of the Democrati ...

* Giovanni Cicione, former chairman of the

Rhode Island Republican Party The Rhode Island Republican Party is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in Rhode Island. Elected officials Members of Congress U.S. Senate * None Both of Rhode Island's U.S. Senate seats have been held by Democrats since 2007 ...

* Brendan Doherty, former Rhode Island state police superintendent (running for a U.S. House seat) * Leo Fontaine, Mayor of

Woonsocket Woonsocket ( ), is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 43,240 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, making it the sixth largest city in the state. Being Rhode Island's northernmost city, Woonsoc ...

Allan Fung Allan Wai-Ket Fung (born February 25, 1970) is an American attorney and politician who served as the mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island, from 2009 to 2021. Fung, who is of Chinese descent, was the first Chinese American mayor in Rhode Island. He wa ...

, Mayor of Cranston *

John Robitaille The 2010 Rhode Island gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 2010. It was preceded by the primary election on September 14, 2010. Incumbent Republican governor Donald Carcieri was term-limited in 2010. The non-partisan ''Cook Politica ...

, businessman and nominee for Governor in 2010

Polling

Results

Independent

Candidates

Declined

* Alan Hassenfeld, former

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...

CEO

General election

Predictions

Debates

Complete video of debate
October 24, 2012 -

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Polling

Results

By county

=Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

= *

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

(largest municipality:

) *

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

(largest city:

) *

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay * Newport (Vietnam), a United States Army and Army of t ...

(largest municipality:

) *

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

(largest municipality:

South Kingstown South Kingstown is a town in, and the county seat of, Washington County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 31,931 at the 2020 census. South Kingstown is the second largest town in Rhode Island by total geographic area, behind New ...

)

By congressional district

Whitehouse won both congressional districts.

References

External links

Rhode Island Board of Elections

at

OnTheIssues On the Issues or OnTheIssues is an American non-partisan, non-profit organization providing information to American voters on American candidates, primarily via their website. The organization was started in 1996, went non-profit in 2000, and is ...

Campaign contributions
at

OpenSecrets.org OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks and publishes data on campaign finance and lobbying, including a revolving door database which documents the individuals who have worked in both the public sector and ...

Outside spending
at

Sunlight Foundation The Sunlight Foundation was an American 501(c)(3) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that advocated for open government. The organization was founded in April 2006 with the goal of increasing transparency and accountability in the United States ...

Official campaign websites (Archived)
Barry Hinckley for U.S. Senate

Sheldon Whitehouse for U.S. Senate
{{2012 United States elections 2012 Rhode Island elections

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

Democratic primary

Candidates

Declared

Unsuccessful

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

Declared

Declined

Polling

Results

Independent

Candidates

Declined

General election

Predictions

Debates

Polling

Results

By county

=Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

By congressional district

See also

References

External links