In his bid for a fourth term in the Senate, Democrat James R. Sasser (1936- ) ran for re-election in 1994 against the Republican candidate Bill Frist (1952- ). In one of the largest upsets in the November 1994 general elections, Frist defeated Sasser by approximately 14 percentage points. Soon after this unexpected defeat, President Bill Clinton nominated Sasser as the United States Ambassador to China.