sentences:  2008 United States Senate election in Minnesota
  
  The 2008 United States Senate election in Minnesota took place on November 4, 2008.After a legal battle lasting over eight months, the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) candidate, Al Franken, defeated Republican incumbent Norm Coleman in one of the closest elections in the history of the Senate, with Coleman's Senate predecessor Dean Barkley taking third place.