State By State: Middle America

ARKANSAS

Bush 48% Gore 47%

With 58% of the vote counted

Incumbent GOP Rep. Asa Hutchinson, known for his role as a prosecutor in the House impeachment trial of President Clinton, won re-election.

Arkansas voters rejected the idea of a lottery, along with casinos and charity bingo, even though proceeds were earmarked for education.

ILLINOIS

Bush 39% Gore 58%

With 80% of the vote counted

Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert easily won an eighth term. Other Republicans elected to the House were Henry Hyde, Philip Crane, Gerald Weller, Judy Biggert, Timothy Johnson, Donald Manzullo, Ray LaHood, and John Shimkus.

Democrat Jesse Jackson Jr. also won election to the House, and was joined by Democrats Bobby Rush, William Lipinski, Luis Gutierrez, Rod Blagojevich, Danny Davis, Janice Schakowsky, Jerry Costello, Lane Evans and David Phelps.

INDIANA

Bush 57% Gore 41%

With 90% of the vote counted

Nearly a fifth of voters who identified themselves as Democrats in exit polling picked Bush, helping the GOP candidate win the state.

Four-term Republican Sen. Richard Lugar turned away a challenge from attorney David Johnson, and incumbent Gov. Frank O’Bannon was an easy winner over GOP Rep. David McIntosh.

O’Bannon, 71, sailed past McIntosh in one of the most expensive campaigns in Hoosier state history. The candidates were expected to spend more than $20 million in a race that never was really in doubt. Less than two hours after polls closed, McIntosh conceded and O’Bannon, the first gubernatorial candidate in the nation to know his fate, celebrated at the Indianapolis Convention Center. O’Bannon led 57 percent to 42 percent with 89 percent of the precincts reporting.

Also winning House elections were Democrat Peter Visclosky, Republican Mike Pence, Republican Mark Souder, Republican Steve Buyer, Republican Dan Burton, Republican Brian Kerns, Democrat Baron Hill and Democrat Julia Carson.

IOWA

Bush 48% Gore 49%

With 75% of the vote counted

Green Party candidate Ralph Nader drew 2 percent of the presidential vote, while Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan had 1 percent.

Elected to the House were Republicans Jim Leach, Jim Nussle, Greg Ganske and Thomas Latham, and Democrat Leonard Boswell.

KANSAS

Bush 58% Gore 38%

With 81% of the vote counted

Incumbent GOP Reps. Jerry Moran, Todd Tiahrt and Jim Ryun were reelected, as was incumbent Democratic Rep. Dennis Moore.

LOUISIANA

BUsh 55% Gore 42%

With 90% of the vote counted

Seven Louisiana members of the U.S. House of Representatives were easily re-elected, five of them Republicans: David Vitter, Billy Tauzin, Jim McCrery, John Cooksey and Richard Baker. Democrats William Jefferson and Chris John were also re-elected.

MICHIGAN

Bush 49% Gore 49%

With 45% of the vote counted

Democrat Debbie Stabenow, outspent in an attack-heavy campaign, was neck-and-neck with Republican incumbent Spencer Abraham in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race.

Stabenow, a two-term member of the House, overcame a double-digit deficit in polls a month ago to surge ahead of Abraham at election time.

According to exit polls, a Michigan measure on school vouchers failed despite millions of dollars poured into campaign ads and the backing of a coalition of Roman Catholic churches and blacks worried about the quality of education in inner-city schools. The proposal would have offered vouchers worth an estimated $3,300 to any child living in a district where less than two-thirds of students graduate, whether or not the child was in public school.

Winning election to the House were Republicans Peter Hoekstra, Joseph Knollenberg, Vernon Ehlers, Dave Camp, Nick Smith and Fred Upton, and Democrats David Bonior, James Barcia, Dale Kildee, Lynn Rivers, John Conyers, Carolyn Kilpatrick, Sander Levin and John Dingell.

MINNESOTA

Bush 43% Gore 50%

With 45% of the vote counted

Department store heir Mark Dayton, a Democrat, used millions of dollars of his own money to defeat Republican Sen. Rod Grams, who served a low-profile single term and was beset by a divorce and other personal problems. With Dayton, voters replaced one of the Senate’s most conservative members with a man who is likely to be among the most liberal.

Residents of Ventura, Minn., recently incorporated under the name of Gov. Jesse Ventura, voted to recommend it be renamed St. Augusta. That was the name a priest gave to the original hamlet in the 1800s.

Elected to the House were Democrats Betty McCollum, Martin Sabo, William Luther, Collin Peterson and James Oberstar, and Republicans Jim Ramstad and Gil Gutknecht.

MISSOURI

Bush 54% Gore 44%

With 57% of the vote counted

Voters sent Democratic House leader Dick Gephardt to his 13th term.

Also winning election to the House were Democrats William Clay, Ike Skelton and Karen McCarthy, and Republicans Todd Akin, Roy Blunt, Samuel Graves, Kenny Hulshof and Jo Ann Emerson.

One of the closest races in the nation was in Missouri, where outgoing Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan died in a plane crash last month while campaigning for the U.S. Senate. His successor will be either Democratic State Treasurer Bob Holden or GOP Congressman Jim Talent. Late Tuesday night, the two were separated by less than 10,000 votes out of a total of more than 2 million cast.

Missouri voters went for a measure supporting taxpayer-funded campaigns, approving it by 65 percent with 22 percent of precincts reporting.

NEBRASKA

Bush 62% Gore 34%

With 53% of the vote counted

Nebraska voters approved a measure to define marriage as being for men and women only, aiming to fend off same-sex civil unions similar to those approved this year in Vermont. Nebraska’s proposal also invalidates within the state same-sex unions recognized elsewhere.

Former University of Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne easily held an open House seat for the Republicans with 82 percent of the vote - a rout not unlike some that his teams administered on the gridiron. Incumbent GOP Reps. Doug Bereuter and Lee Terry were re-elected.

Late returns showed former Democratic Gov. Ben Nelson with a slight edge over Republican Attorney General Don Stenberg to fill the open seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey.

NORTH DAKOTA

Bush 62% Gore 32%

With 57% of the vote counted

Cancer-stricken Heidi Heitkamp fell short in her trailblazing bid to be elected the state’s first woman governor. Heitkamp, the Democratic attorney general, was diagnosed with breast cancer in September, had her right breast removed and is undergoing chemotherapy. She lost to banker John Hoeven.

Voters also made hunting and fishing constitutionally protected rights.

OHIO

Bush 51% Gore 45%

With 88% of the vote counted

Green Party candidate Ralph Nader drew 2 percent of the presidential vote, while Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan had 1 percent.

Winning election to the House were Republicans Rob Portman, Steve Chabot, Michael Oxley, Paul Gillmor, Dave Hobson, John Boehner, Pat Tiberi, Deborah Pryce, Ralph Regula, Bob Ney and Steven LaTourette. Democrats elected to the House were Tony Hall, Ted Strickland, Marcy Kaptur, Dennis Kucinich, Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, Sherrod Brown, Thomas Sawyer and James Traficant.

OKLAHOMA

Bush 60% Gore 39%

With 98% of the vote counted

Democrat Brad Carson claimed an open House seat that Republicans had won in their 1994 landslide. The incumbent, Rep. Tom Coburn, retired after adhering to a self-imposed limit of three terms.

Steve Largent, the former Seahawks wide receiver, won re-election as a GOP House representative. Voters also sent incumbent GOP Reps. Wes Watkins, J.C. Watts, Ernest Istook and Frank Lucas back to the House.

SOUTH DAKOTA

Bush 61% Gore 37%

With 61% of the vote counted

Bush beat Gore to pick up South Dakota’s three electoral votes. Pat Buchanan, Harry Browne and Howard Phillips each took 1 percent of the vote.

GOP incumbent Rep. John Thune was re-elected to his House seat.

TEXAS

Bush 60% Gore 37%

With 68% of the vote counted

Bush handily won his home state, and Republican Lt. Gov. Rick Perry was in line for big promotion if the Texas governor could pick up the presidential win.

Actor Noble Willingham, barkeeper on “Walker, Texas Ranger,” lost in his challenge to Democratic Rep. Max Sandlin.

Democrats elected to the U.S. House of Representatives were Max Sandlin, Jim Turner, Ralph Hall, Nick Lampson, Lloyd Doggett, Ruben Hinojosa, Silvestre Reyes, Charles Stenholm, Sheila Jackson Lee, Charlie Gonzalez, Martin Frost, Solomon Ortiz, Ciro Rodriguez, Gene Green and Eddie Johnson.

Republicans elected to the House from Texas were Sam Johnson, Joe Barton, John Culberson, Kevin Brady, Kay Granger, Mac Thornberry, Ron Paul, Larry Combest, Lamar Smith, Tom DeLay, Henry Bonilla and Dick Armey.

WISCONSIN

Bush 48% Gore 48%

With 55% of the vote counted

Green Party candidate Ralph Nader drew 3 percent of the presidential vote. Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan had only 6,839 votes, less than 1 percent.

Voters sent Republicans Paul Ryan, Thomas Petri, Mark Green and James Sensenbrenner to the House, as well as Democrats Tom Barrett and David Obey.