Editing Tom Daschle (section)

===2004 Senate election===
{{Main|2004 United States Senate election in South Dakota}}
In the 2004 Senate election, [[John Thune]] defeated Daschle by 4,508 votes, 50.6% to 49.4%.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/2004/2004Stat.htm#41 |title=Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 2, 2004|publisher=clerk.house.gov|access-date=October 26, 2011}}</ref> It was the first time that a Senate party leader had lost a bid for reelection since [[1952 United States Senate elections|1952]], when [[Barry Goldwater]] defeated [[Ernest McFarland]] in Arizona.<ref>{{cite book|title=2014 Almanac of American Politics |last2=Barone|first2=Chuck |last1=McCutcheon|first1=Michael|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|year=2013}}</ref> Senate Majority Leader [[Bill Frist]] visited South Dakota to campaign for Thune, breaking an unwritten tradition that a leader of one party would not actively campaign for the defeat of the other.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dewar |first1=Helen |title=In Break With Tradition, Frist Takes High-Stakes Fight to Daschle's Turf |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2004/04/19/in-break-with-tradition-frist-takes-high-stakes-fight-to-daschles-turf/cba815ae-8b66-4391-96d5-a0cc5f21fe65/ |access-date=12 October 2023 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=19 April 2004}}</ref>

Throughout the campaign, Thune, along with Frist, President [[George W. Bush]], and Vice President Cheney, frequently accused Daschle of being the "chief obstructionist" of Bush's agenda and charged him with using [[filibuster]]s to unjustly block confirmation of several of Bush's nominees. The Republican candidate also drove home his strong support for the war. In a nationally televised debate on [[NBC]]'s ''[[Meet the Press]]'', Thune accused Daschle of "emboldening the enemy" in his skepticism of the [[Iraq War]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Sheryl Gay|last=Stolberg|title=Daschle Defends Iraq Remarks|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=September 20, 2004|access-date=November 25, 2008|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/20/politics/20dakota.html}}</ref>

When the race began in early 2004, Daschle led by 7% in January and February. By May, his lead was just 2% and summer polls showed a varying number of trends: Daschle or Thune led by no more than 2%, but some polls showed a tie. Throughout September, Daschle led Thune by margins of 2–5% while during the entire month of October into the November 2 election, most polls showed that Thune and Daschle were dead even, usually tied 49–49 among likely voters. Some polls showed either Thune or Daschle leading by extremely slim margins.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Stolberg|first=Sheryl Gay|date=2004-11-03|title=Daschle, Democratic Senate Leader, Is Beaten|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/politics/campaign/daschle-democratic-senate-leader-is-beaten.html|access-date=2021-04-08|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>