The 2016 United States Senate election in Connecticut was held November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Connecticut, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections.
Incumbent Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal won re-election to a second term in office. Blumenthal's final vote total of 1,008,714 at the time made him the largest vote-receiver in the history of statewide elections in the state. (Blumenthal's record was later broken by then-Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election; Biden received 1,080,680 votes.) He also became the first person to exceed 1 million votes in the history of statewide elections in Connecticut. He remains the highest vote-receiver in the history of statewide elections besides the presidency.
Democratic nomination
Candidates
Declared
- Richard Blumenthal, incumbent U.S. senator
Republican nomination
Declared
- Dan Carter, State Representative
Withdrew at convention
- Jack Orchulli, CEO and co-founder of a Michael Kors apparel company; nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2004
Failed to qualify
- August Wolf, investment executive and former Olympic athlete
Declined
- Larry Kudlow, economist, television personality and columnist
- Linda McMahon, businesswoman, former CEO of WWE, and nominee for U.S. Senate in 2010 and 2012
- Rob Simmons, Stonington first selectman, former U.S. representative and candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010
- Joe Visconti, former West Hartford town Ccuncilor, nominee for CT-01 in 2008 and Independent candidate for governor in 2014
- David Walker, former Comptroller General of the United States and candidate for lieutenant governor in 2014
Republican convention
The Republican state convention was held May 9, 2016, at the Connecticut Convention Center to select candidates for the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. State Representative Dan Carter received the nomination with 76.7% of the delegate vote. Neither Jack Orchulli nor August Wolf received the necessary 15% of the delegate vote necessary to be granted an automatic primary on August 9, 2016. In the first round of voting, Wolf received 179 delegate votes, equalling 15.1% and qualifying for a primary. However, before balloting closed, Orchulli dropped from the race and publicly endorsed Dan Carter, urging his candidates to switch their votes. During the vote switching, an additional 56 delegates that had voted for Wolf also switched their vote, dropping him well below the 15% threshold.
On May 11, 2016, Wolf announced an attempt to force a primary by collecting the signatures of 8,079 registered Republicans by June 7. However, on June 21, 2016, it was announced that Wolf had failed to reach the required signature threshold to force a primary, and he conceded the Republican nomination to Carter as a result.
Endorsements
Dan Carter
General election
Results
By county
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic
- Litchfield (largest city: Torrington)
By congressional district
Blumenthal won all five congressional districts by comfortable double-digit margins.