United States Senate special election in Indiana, 1990

The 1990 United States Senate special election in Indiana was a special election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

held on November 6, 1990, in order to fill the Class III

Classes of United States Senators

The three classes of United States Senators are currently made up of 33 or 34 Senate seats. The purpose of the classes is to determine which Senate seats will be up for election in a given year. The three groups are staggered so that one of them is up for election every two years.A senator's...

seat in the United States Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

from Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

for the remainder of the term ending January 3, 1993. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Dan Coats

Dan Coats

Daniel Ray "Dan" Coats is the junior United States Senator from Indiana and member of the Republican Party. He was in the United States Senate from from 1989 to 1999, retired, and then returned in 2011....

, who was recently appointed to this seat two years prior, won re-election to serve out the remainder of the term.

Background

During the 1988 presidential election

United States presidential election, 1988

The United States presidential election of 1988 featured no incumbent president, as President Ronald Reagan was unable to seek re-election after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the Twenty-second Amendment. Reagan's Vice President, George H. W. Bush, won the Republican nomination, while the...

, Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

nominee Vice President

Vice President of the United States

The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...

George H.W. Bush selected U.S. Senator

United States Senate

Dan Quayle

James Danforth "Dan" Quayle served as the 44th Vice President of the United States, serving with President George H. W. Bush . He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Indiana....

of Indiana

Indiana

as his vice presidential nominee. The Bush-Quayle ticket defeated the Dukakis

Michael Dukakis

Michael Stanley Dukakis served as the 65th and 67th Governor of Massachusetts from 1975–1979 and from 1983–1991, and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988. He was born to Greek immigrants in Brookline, Massachusetts, also the birthplace of John F. Kennedy, and was the longest serving...

-Bentsen

Lloyd Bentsen

Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Jr. was a four-term United States senator from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ticket. He also served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1955. In his later political life, he was Chairman of the Senate...

ticket in the general election by a 53%-46% margin, capturing 40 states and 426 electoral votes.

In order to assume the Vice Presidency, Quayle was required to resign his seat in the Senate. In preparation for the pending vacancy, Governor

Governor of Indiana

The Governor of Indiana is the chief executive of the state of Indiana. The governor is elected to a four-year term, and responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the functions of many agencies of the Indiana state government. The governor also shares power with other statewide...

Robert D. Orr

Robert Dunkerson Orr was an American political leader and the 45th Governor of Indiana from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party.-Early life:...

appointed four-term U.S. Representative

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

Dan Coats

to fill Quayle's seat on December 12, 1988. Coats was a former aide to Quayle, whom he had succeeded as U.S. Representative for Indiana's 4th congressional district

Indiana's 4th congressional district

Indiana's 4th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Indiana. Based primary in the central part of the state, the district consists of all of Boone, Clinton, Hendricks, Morgan, Lawrence, Montgomery, and Tippecanoe counties and parts of Fountain, Johnson, Marion,...

in 1980. Quayle eventually resigned his Senate seat on January 3, 1989, and Coats was immediately sworn into office.

Campaign

In 1990, a special election was held to decide who would serve the balance of Quayle's term, ending in 1993. Coats faced Democrat

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

Baron Hill

Baron Paul Hill is the former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1999 to 2005 and from 2007 to 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party....

, a state representative

Indiana House of Representatives

The Indiana House of Representatives is the lower house of the Indiana General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Indiana. The House is composed of 100 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. House members serve two-year terms without term limits...

from Seymour

Seymour, Indiana

Seymour was the site of the World's First Train Robbery, committed by the local Reno Gang, on October 6, 1866 just east of town. The gang was put into prison for the robbery, and later hanged at Hangman's Crossing outside of town....

, in the general election. Coats used television commercials that raised questions about Hill's consistency in opposing new taxes, and Hill gained notoriety for walking the length of the state to meet voters.

Background

Campaign

Results

See also