Mel Carnahan won with 50.5% of the vote (1,191,812 votes), ahead of John Ashcroft with 48.4% (1,142,852 votes).
The margin between the first two candidates was 2.1 percentage points (48,960 votes). The party margin (Republican share minus Democratic share) was a Democratic lead of 2.1 points.
Compared with the previous comparable race in the same area, the party margin moved 11.0 points toward Democrats. The winning party changed.
2,361,586 votes were counted in this race, for 6 candidates or options.
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