James M. Jeffords won with 50.3% of the vote (106,505 votes), ahead of Jan Backus with 40.6% (85,868 votes).
The margin between the first two candidates was 9.8 percentage points (20,637 votes). The party margin (Republican share minus Democratic share) was a Republican lead of 9.8 points.
Compared with the previous comparable race in the same area, the party margin moved 20.6 points toward Republicans. The winning party changed.
211,672 votes were counted in this race, for 7 candidates or options.
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