As no candidate achieved the threshold of a 40 percent plurality, Wilson and first-place candidate Luke Hopkins faced each other in a runoff election.

He won a 48 percent plurality of the vote rather than an outright majority, and was forced into a runoff with Mr. Blount.

In the Seventh District, another Republican, Charles Boustany, won with a 39 percent plurality.

Woodrow Wilson won only a 42 percent plurality in 1912, in a three-way election.

By contrast, the Quinnipiac poll found that a 44 percent plurality approved of the way the Supreme Court is handling its job.

He ran as an independent, and as a result his campaign divided the Democrats and allowed Cochran to win the senate seat with a 45 percent plurality.

Cavasso won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2004 over three challengers, receiving a forty-three percent plurality of the primary vote.

And a recent Gallup poll even found a 43 percent to 37 percent plurality thinking Mr. Bush would do the better job on this issue.

That would lay to rest the 43 percent plurality that has dogged him since his splintered victory in 1992.

It has been a year since he took office, winning a nearly 37 percent plurality running against a split opposition.