Lightning failed to strike Delaware twice in successive election cycles. Longtime Senate stalwart and presidential hopeful Joseph R. Biden easily won reelection to his sixth term over the same challenger he confronted in 1996. Biden, then chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, defeated Republican Raymond Clatworthy by a margin of 58% to 41%, dominating the challenger in every phase of the campaign. Biden faced a newcomer to politics whom he outspent by a wide margin. In 2000, however, powerful Republican incumbent William Roth, then chair of the Senate Finance Committee, lost to challenger Thomas Carper. Roth had faced a popular incumbent governor who, with the help of millions transferred from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, managed to outspend the incumbent. In both cases, money was decisive in a state far more accustomed to retail than wholesale politics.