The 1994 United States Senate election in New York was held November 8, 1994. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan won re-election to a fourth term.
Al Sharpton, civil rights activist, Baptist minister and talk show host
Results[]
Democratic primary results
Party
Candidate
Votes
%
Democratic
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (incumbent)
526,766
74.72%
Democratic
Al Sharpton
178,231
25.28%
Total votes
704,997
100.00%
Republican primary[]
Candidates[]
Bernadette Castro, CEO of Castro Convertibles
Henry Hewes, real estate developer and perennial candidate
Results[]
Republican primary results
Party
Candidate
Votes
%
Republican
Bernadette Castro
12,300
62.91%
Republican
Henry Hewes
7,251
37.09%
Total votes
19,551
100.00%
General election[]
Candidates[]
Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D), incumbent U.S. Senator
Bernadette Castro (R), CEO of Castro Convertibles
Campaign[]
1994 was significant for the Republican Revolution, mostly as a referendum against President Bill Clinton and his health care plan, and was seen as a tough year for Democratic incumbents. Moynihan, however, was New York State's most popular politician at the time, and ran ahead of all other Democrats competing statewide.[1]
Republican Castro was running for office for the first time and had trouble raising funds due to being seen as unlikely to win; at times during the race she trailed by up to 30 percentage points.[1] She portrayed herself as a fiscally conservative, socially moderate Republican in the mold of Governor of New Jersey Christine Todd Whitman, and attempted to portray Moynihan as excessively liberal and prone to government spending.[1] But Moynihan repeated his past strong performance among upstate voters, in addition to the usual Democratic strongholds in New York City.[1]