Just throwing this out there, but polling (including PPP) fairly consistently showed Dole ahead of her rivals until about four months before the election.
That's true, and North Carolina has had a lot of One Term Senators (John Edwards, Lauch Faircloth, Liz Dole, Terry Sanford) as of recent.
John Edwards ran for VP the same year he would've run for re-election. He probably would've won again had he run for senate in 2004.
Liddy Dole made a huge gaffe late in the campaign and suffered from Barack Obama's reverse coatails in 2008.
Terry Sanford ran for re-election at the age of 75 and stopped campaigning for all of October because of a
heart surgery.
Launch Faircloth lost because I don't know. His defeat actually helps your point.
