Incidentally, when was the last time someone won a Senate race with <40% of the vote?
EDIT: I just quickly looked back through the last 30 years of Senate races to 1980, and didn't find any such cases. I'm too lazy to go back earlier than that. I think the closest case may actually be Coleman vs. Franken 2008, where both candidates were at 42%.
New York, 1970, when James Buckley won it for the Conservative Party with 38.8%.
The election in Connecticut the same year also came close, with Lowell Weicker winning with 41.7%.
