2022 US Senate Elections

The 2022 United States Senate elections will be held on November 8, 2022, with 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate being contested in regular elections, the winners of which will serve six-year terms in the United States Congress from January 3, 2023, to January 3, 2029. Senators are divided into three groups, or classes, whose terms are staggered so that a different class is elected every two years. Class 3 senators, who were last elected in 2016, will be up for election again in 2022.

All 34 Class 3 Senate seats are up for election in 2022; Class 3 currently consists of 14 Democrats and 20 Republicans. Two special elections will also be held—in California, to fill the final weeks of Kamala Harris' term, and in Oklahoma, to serve the four remaining years of Jim Inhofe's term.

Six Republican senators, Richard Shelby (Alabama), Roy Blunt (Missouri), Richard Burr (North Carolina), Rob Portman (Ohio), Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma), Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania), as well as one Democratic senator, Patrick Leahy (Vermont), have announced that they are not seeking re-election; 15 Republicans and 13 Democrats are running for re-election.

Numerous other federal, state, and local elections, including the 2022 House elections, will also be held on this date. The winners of this election will serve beginning in the 118th United States Congress. Democrats have held a majority in the Senate since January 20, 2021, following the party's twin victories in the runoffs for Georgia's regularly-scheduled and special 2020 Senate elections, and the inauguration of Democrat Kamala Harris as vice president. There are 48 Democratic senators and two independent senators who caucus with them; with Harris' tie-breaking vote, the Democrats hold an effective 51-seat majority in the chamber.

This will be the first time in U.S. history in which multiple Senate races in the same year are contested between two African-American nominees (Georgia and South Carolina). Three previous elections have taken place with two major-party African-American candidates.

Pennsylvania
Two-term Republican Pat Toomey was re-elected in 2016 with 48.8% of the vote. On October 5, 2020, Toomey announced that he will retire at the end of his term.

Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman easily defeated state representative Malcolm Kenyatta and U.S. representative Conor Lamb in the Democratic primary.

Mehmet Oz, host of The Dr. Oz Show and cardiothoracic surgeon narrowly defeated business executive David McCormick, 2018 U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Bartos, 2018 candidate for Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district Sean Gale, political commentator Kathy Barnette, former U.S. ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands, after a bitter Republican primary.

South Carolina
One-term Republican Tim Scott was appointed in 2013 and won election to his first full term in 2016 with 60.6% of the vote. He said that while he is running for re-election in 2022, it would be his last time. In the Democratic primary, state representative Krystle Matthews defeated author and activist Catherine Fleming Bruce in a runoff. Angela Geter, chairwoman of the Spartanburg County Democratic Party, also ran in the primary.

South Dakota
Three-term Republican and U.S. Senate minority whip John Thune was re-elected in 2016 with 71.8% of the vote and is running for reelection to a fourth term. Thune has been subject to some backlash from former President Trump and his supporters in the state of South Dakota, leading to speculation of a potential primary challenge. He defeated Bruce Whalen, an Oglala Sioux tribal administrator and former chair of the Oglala Lakota County Republican Party in the Republican primary.

The Democratic candidate is author, navy veteran, and assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Northern State University, Brian Bengs, who won the Democratic primary unopposed.

Utah
Two-term Republican Mike Lee was re-elected in 2016 with 68.2% of the vote. He defeated former state representative Becky Edwards as well as businessman and political advisor Ally Isom in the Republican primary.

The Utah Democratic Party has declined to field their own candidate against Lee, and has instead endorsed independent Evan McMullin, a political activist, former Republican, former CIA operations officer, and 2016 presidential candidate.

Vermont
The most senior senator, eight-term Democrat and president pro tempore Patrick Leahy, was re-elected in 2016 with 61.3% of the vote. On November 15, 2021, Leahy announced that he is not seeking re-election to a ninth term.

Vermont's at-large representative, Democrat Peter Welch, is running to succeed Leahy.

Additionally, former United States attorney for the District of Vermont Christina Nolan ran for the Republican nomination, but narrowly lost to former military officer Gerald Malloy.

Washington
Five-term Democrat Patty Murray was re-elected in 2016 with 58.8% of the vote. She is running for re-election to a sixth term.

Republican nurse Tiffany Smiley is running.

Wisconsin
Two-term Republican Ron Johnson was re-elected in 2016 with 50.2% of the vote. He is running for reelection to a third term.

Former Governor Scott Walker has said that he will not run.

Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes is the Democratic nominee.