Whitehouse Beats Back Flanders' Challenge for U.S. Senate Seat

Whitehouse Beats Back Flanders' Challenge for U.S. Senate Seat

Sitting U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has defeated former RI Supreme Court Justice Bob Flanders to retain the Senate seat.

Whitehouse ran a campaign on preserving the tenants of Obamacare and used a money advantage to get his message out. Flanders who started the race with little name recognition ran on a message that he would work across the political aisle and be a bi-partisan compromiser.

But, Flanders trailed Whitehouse badly in both the June and October polls conducted by Harvard's John Della Volpe.

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While Whitehouse won, the Democrats lost between two and five seats in the Senate. Three races Florida, Montana and Arizona are still to close to call as of 7:30 am on Wednesday.

Whitehouse outspent Flanders by a margin of 5 to 1.

Whitehouse raised $6,542,975.98, spent $5,312,657.94, and still has $2,047,493.97 cash-on-hand according to Federal Eelection Commission data.

In contrast, Flanders raised $1,131,604.82, spent $1,071,327.52 and on through October 17 had just $58,391.22 cash-on-hand.