The 2004 North Carolina Senate Election, a contest between former HW Bush secretary of labor Elizabeth Dole and former Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles resulted in a strong 8.6% win for Dole in the contest to succeed retiring Senator Jesse Helms.
With Dole easilly consolidating Republican support early, and Bowles failing to do the same with democrats until mid-october the race had a clear lean throughout the campaign—despite this, there was a near spending parity between the candidates.
Further, at times the campaign got incredibly personal, with Dole criticizing Bowles' wife for shipping Jobs overseas to which Bowles respondend with and angry face-on ad showing racecar driver Junior Johnson saying he wouldn't let the Republicans "run Erskine Bowles into the wall.”
Further, Dole criticized Bowles for not having Plans as detailed as her own and worked hard to tie him tp the Clintons, for his part, he ran away from association with the former President and First Lady-turned-NY Senator
In the end, Elizabeth Dole won by 9%, underunning Bush's 2000 Margin by 4%, but still winning a seat in the senate over frm Clinton Chief of Staff Bowles.