2018
Best Winning: Jon Tester (D-MT): Maryland Matt! That says pretty much all of it, and he didn't kowtow to Kavanaugh either while doing it.
Best Losing: Beto O'Rourke (D-TX): Everyone knows this one.
Worst Winning: Dianne Feinstein (D-CA): Literally lost the official endorsement to a very lackluster and flawed candidate and couldn't even hold the conservative or moderate areas, which should've been a gimme. She got bailed out by name rec in the liberal areas, but she really ought to have taken all 58 by default with no GOP to speak of.
Worst Losing: Bill Nelson (D-FL): Everyone knows this one
2020
Best Winning: Jon Ossoff (D-GA): Really learned his lessons from 2017 and focused on the bread-and-butter, especially with the COVID Relief. It was a narrow win, but iirc Perdue was loaded.
Best Losing: Mark Ronchetti (R-NM): Overperformed like crazy by simply being fairly likable. All these Democrats whowere supposed to do great didn't get as close as he did.
Worst Winning: Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS): Completely pathetic, and even as an incumbent, she still underperformed. Rematches are supposed to be favorable, but the difference was barely there, if at all. I thought about her for worst of 2018 too, but Nelson taking defeat from the jaws of victory is just too much.
Worst Losing: Sara Gideon (D-ME): The only Democrat that couldn't win in a state Biden won easily, and she lost handily because she got tagged for a carpetbagging and did nothing to counter it. Terry Hayes had more substance.
CURRENT
Best Winning: Marco Rubio (R-FL): He was part of the masterful work of the FL GOP
Best Losing: Cheri Beasely (D-NC): She'd be Senator now if she'd just run against Tillis
Worst Winning: Chuck Grassley (R-IA)/Herschel Walker (R-GA)* Severe underperformance and his closest result by far, and Franken was very flawed. Herschel Walker is even worse with all his baggage, propelled over only because of Raff and Kemp's dual popularity. Since he failed to outright lose and the run-off isn't set in stone yet, I'll include him here.
Worst Losing: Don Bolduc (R-NH)/Herschel Walker (R-GA)* Waffling on the election denials and a bunch of other missteps, all while Sununu easily jumped over. Bolduc will easily be replaced by Herschel Walker if Dec. 6th goes as most here expect.
CYCLICAL OVERALL
Best Winner: Jon Tester
Best Loser: Beto O'Rourke
Worst Winner: Cindy Hyde-Smith '20
Worst Loser: Bill Nelson/Herschel Walker
If Herschel Walker wins the runoff he is absolutely out of the running for "Worst Winner" given he won with all the fundamentals going against him. Raphael Warnock would have to run a Bill Nelson 2.0 campaign to lose the race.
