It was an off-year election with a popular former governor facing an opponent who had never before held elective office. The race was for the U.S. Senate, not a governor’s mansion, but there were similarities aplenty to this year’s gubernatorial race in Virginia – the underdog was a relative unknown, the favorite took the race for granted, and an issue emerged in the fall that gave the underdog a shot at victory.
The state was Pennsylvania, the year was 1991, the race was for the Senate seat vacated by the death of John Heinz in an airplane crash, and the candidates were former Republican Governor Dick Thornburgh, then serving as U.S. Attorney General, and Democrat Harris Wofford, a former college president and past chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
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