 Clinton won the election in November 2000 with 55 percent of the vote to Lazio's 43 percent.As of 2020, this is the last time a Republican earned more than forty percent of the vote in a New York Senate election.When four-term Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan announced his retirement in November 1998, his previously safe U.S. Senate seat became open in the 2000 U.S. Senate elections.