U.S Senate Elections, 2010 (Andrew's World)

The United States Senate Elections were held on November 2nd, 2010. 34 seats from Class 3 were up for election along with 2 vacancies both from Class 1. Of the 36 senate seats up, Democrats and Republicans were each defending 18 seats. For the Democrats, 13 incumbents were running with 3 retirements and 2 vacancies, while for the Republicans, 12 incumbents were running with 6 retirements.

After the 2008 Senate Elections, Democrats held 58 seats, while Republicans held 40 seats. There were 2 Independent (Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont) that caucused with the Democrats, producing a 60-40 split in favor of the Democrats. However, that changed when Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts died, and a Special Election was held on January 19th, 2010. The special election was considered to be a harbinger for the elections in November, as the special election was surprisingly close. Ultimately, Republican Nominee Scott Brown scored an upset win over the Democratic Nominee, Martha Coakley. The result of this was 57 Democrats, 41 Republicans and 2 Independents that caucused with the Democrats, which now produced a 59-41 split in favor of the Democrats.