Election Name: | 2002 United States Senate election in Massachusetts |
Country: | Massachusetts |
Type: | presidential |
Ongoing: | no |
Previous Election: | 1996 United States Senate election in Massachusetts |
Previous Year: | 1996 |
Next Election: | 2008 United States Senate election in Massachusetts |
Next Year: | 2008 |
Election Date: | November 5, 2002 |
Image1: | John Kerry headshot with US flag (2).jpg |
Nominee1: | John Kerry |
Party1: | Democratic Party (United States) |
Popular Vote1: | 1,605,976 |
Percentage1: | 80.03% |
Nominee2: | Michael Cloud |
Party2: | Libertarian Party (United States) |
Popular Vote2: | 369,807 |
Percentage2: | 18.43% |
Map Size: | 250px |
U.S. Senator | |
Before Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
After Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
The 2002 United States Senate election in Massachusetts took place on November 5, 2002. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator John Kerry won re-election to a fourth term against Libertarian Michael Cloud, with no Republican filing to run.
The lack of a Republican Party candidate caused Cloud to receive the largest percentage of votes for a U.S. Senate candidate in the Libertarian Party's history at that time, though this record has since been eclipsed by Joe Miller in Alaska in 2016 and Ricky Dale Harrington Jr. in Arkansas in 2020. Cloud also won the largest number of raw votes for a Libertarian candidate at the time, since eclipsed by Harrington.
Kerry's support for the invasion of Iraq also prompted a late write-in challenge by anti-war candidate Randall Forsberg.