United States Senate election in New York, 1992

November 3, 1992



Nominee	Al D'Amato	Robert Abrams
Party	Republican	Democratic
Popular vote	3,166,994	3,086,200
Percentage	49.0%	47.8%

County Results

Senator before election

Al D'Amato
Republican

Elected Senator

Al D'Amato
Republican

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The 1992 United States Senate election in New York took place on November 3, 1992 alongside other elections to the United States Senate in other states as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Al D'Amato won re-election to a third term.

Candidates 1
- Democratic 1.1
- Republican 1.2
Campaign 2
Results 3
References 4

Candidates

Democratic

Robert Abrams, New York State Attorney General and former Borough president of the Bronx

Republican

Al D'Amato, incumbent U.S. Senator

Campaign

Early in the campaign, environmentalist attorney, Laurance S. Rockefeller, Jr. nephew of the former governor Nelson, tried to challenge D'Amato in the Republican primary,^[1] but fell short of the required signatures to get onto the primary ballot. D'Amato summarily went unchallenged.

The Democratic primary campaign featured State Attorney General Robert Abrams, former U.S. Congresswoman and 1984 vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, Reverend Al Sharpton, Congressman Robert J. Mrazek, and New York City Comptroller and former Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman. Abrams was considered the early front-runner.^[2] Ferraro emphasized her career as a teacher, prosecutor, congresswoman, and mother, and talked about how she was tough on crime.^[3] Ferraro drew attacks from the media and her opponents over her husband John Zaccaro's finances and business relationships.^[4]

Ferraro became the front-runner, capitalizing on her star power from 1984 and using the campaign attacks against her as an explicitly feminist rallying point for women voters.^[4] As the primary date neared, her lead began to dwindle under the charges, and she released additional tax returns from the 1980s to try to defray the attacks.^[5] Holtzman ran a

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^ Purdum, Todd S. (1992-07-12). "JULY 5-11: Rockefeller vs. D'Amato; A Powerful Political Name Reappears in New York". The New York Times.
^ Kolbert, Elizabeth (1991-10-21). "In Senate Campaign, Ferraro Picks Up Where She Left Off".
^ Braden, Maria (1996). Women Politicians and the Media. Lexington, Kentucky:
^ ^a ^b Mitchell, Alison (1992-09-01). "For Ferraro, Cheers of '84 Are Still Resonating".
^ Blumenthal, Ralph (1992-09-11). "Ferraro Releases Tax Returns for 2 Missing Years to Offset Attacks by Rivals".
^ Mitchell, Alison (1992-08-27). "Holtzman Draws Criticism From Feminists Over Ads".
^ ^a ^b Lurie, Leonard (1994). Senator Pothole: The Unauthorized Biography of Al D'Amato.
^ ^a ^b
^
^ ^a ^b Verhovek, Sam Howe (1992-10-01). "Abrams Gets A Concession From Ferraro".
^ ^a ^b Manegold, Catherine S. (1992-11-01). "Ferraro Gets An Apology From Abrams".
^ Attorney General Abrams to Quit To Join a Law Firm in Manhattan. New York Times. September 9, 1993.
^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=3497
^ http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1992election.pdf

References

General election results^[13]^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Al D'Amato	2,652,822
	Conservative	Al D'Amato	289,258
	Right to Life	Al D'Amato	224,914
	total	Al D'Amato	3,166,994	49.0
	Democratic	Robert Abrams	2,943,001
	Liberal	Robert Abrams	143,199
	total	Robert Abrams	3,086,200	47.8
	Libertarian	Norma Segal	108,530	1.7
	New Alliance	Mohammad T. Mehdi	56,631	0.9
	Natural Law	Stanley Nelson	23,747	0.4
	Socialist Workers	Eddie Warren	16,724	0.3

Results

Abrams was also criticized for calling D'Amato a fascist, and he narrowly lost the general election as a result of these controversies.^[12]

After Abrams emerged as the nominee, the Democrats remained divided. In particular, Abrams spent much of the remainder of the campaign trying to get Ferraro's endorsement.^[11] Ferraro, enraged and bitter after the nature of the primary,^[7]^[10] ignored Abrams and accepted Bill Clinton's request to campaign for his presidential bid instead. She was eventually persuaded by state party leaders into giving an unenthusiastic endorsement with just three days to go before the general election, in exchange for an apology by Abrams for the tone of the primary.^[11]

^[10] Ferraro did not concede she had lost for two weeks.^[8] In the September 15, 1992 primary, Abrams edged out Ferraro by less than percentage point, winning 37 percent of the vote to 36 percent.^[9] In an unusual election-eve television broadcast, Ferraro talked about the ethnic slurs made against her as an Italian-American.^[8]^[7] The final debates were nasty, and Holtzman in particular constantly attacked Ferraro's integrity and finances.[6]

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United States Senate election in New York, 1992