Ray Bonis Collection of Oliver North for U. S. Senate Campaign Materials

The 1994 election in Virginia for U.S. Senate took place amidst a heated political climate. Conservatives were in an uproar over President Bill Clinton's social agenda, which included the signage of James Brady's gun control legislation in 1993, the implementation of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy to allow homosexuals in the military, and the attempt, as Republicans saw it, to "socialize" health care. The Virginian senatorial election embodied all of this tension and then some due to the running of Oliver North as the Republican candidate. In the late 1980s North was scrutinized for his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair where he admitted to approving the sale of weapons to Iran in exchange for hostages while using the profits to fund the Contras, the rightwing Nicaraguan insurgent group. Although North was convicted on three counts of felonies, charges were dropped in 1990 due to complications regarding witness testimony.

As a result of his involvement in the scandal and his extreme conservative views, North did not receive universal support from the Republican Party. Although he won the Republican Party nomination, he faced fellow Republican J. Marshall Coleman running as an independent and endorsed by the senior U.S. Senator from Virginia, Republican John Warner. Coleman ended up winning approximately 230,000 votes that would have presumably gone to North. Democratic incumbent Sen. Charles S. Robb won the race with less than 50% of the vote. Robb himself of the subject of moral scrutiny due to the publicizing of an affair he had with former Miss Virginia, Tai Collins, and for alleged drug use. Gov. Doug Wilder briefly entered the race as an independent adding to the drama.