Which of these losing senate candidates had the worst campaign?

[Maxwell]

Braley. Udall may have run a single-issue campaign, but it worked: He came within 2 points of winning.

If it worked he would've won.

[Oregreen]

Braley. Udall may have run a single-issue campaign,but it worked it was quite impressive that he came within 2 points of winning.

I also think that Udall had good reasons to focus on women's issues. Colorado IS a moderate/liberal-leaning state. Had he campaigned on how he supported Obama or the Affordable Health Care Act, he would have been toast from the very beginning (because of Obama's unpopularity in Colorado). Of course he shouldn't have run a single-issue campaign, but going negative DID help him get out the liberal vote in Denver and its suburbs (Gardner did not win the Denver suburbs).

[Mr. Smith]

He should've added CIA stuff into it.

But the truth of the matter is more that Gardner had a really good, but deceitful campaign and already looked moderate. Any other Republican would've lost to that "one-note" campaign.

It has to go to Braley, who seemed to be seriously spewing out gaffes left-and-right and would've lost huge in nearly any other state or under any other candidate...because let's face it, Ernst wasn't exactly stellar herself.

Gillespie is still an unknown far as I can tell.

Grimes ran an adequate campaign, but not enough gas was put into it and she seemingly gave up at the end.

Everyone else ran excellent campaigns under the circumstances, two of them definitely wouldn't have lost even in the other GOP-wave elections (I'm obviously referring to Hagan and Begich) and clearly were mere turn-out victims.

[Kraxner]

I'd wouldn't blame Bruce Braley too much considering he was running against a national mood which was a combination of backlash and fatigue against the current democrat party President.  But he did made the impression that he had an dull liberal personality common with the likes of Elizabeth warren, Bernie Sanders, Dennis Kucinich. And not the unapologetic liberal personality thats more common with Al Franken, Alan Grayson, Paul Wellstone.   Against an energetic tea party candidate where the media was super favorable towards her.

[IceSpear]

Braley. Udall may have run a single-issue campaign, but it worked: He came within 2 points of winning.

That's like saying George Allen's campaign "worked" in 2006 because he came within 0.4% of winning. Or maybe the terrible campaign was the reason they both lost in the first place.

Or a better example, saying Bob Casey's non-existent 2012 campaign "worked" because he still won by 9 points. That looks impressive at first glance, until you realize he was leading by ~20 points for most of the year. In fact, what happened to Mark Warner this year likely would've happened to Casey if he wasn't saved by the high turnout presidential electorate.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Terri Lynn Land probably ran the worst Senate campaign, since she had a great opportunity to win but did almost everything she could to lose.  Of these, probably Braley, since he had a long line of gaffes (like making fun of Iowa farmers), or maybe Pryor, since he failed to even break 40%.