Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin is not seeking reelection. Key 2014 Senate races for defense

Hold on to your hats: 2014’s competitive Senate races could have big implications for defense on Capitol Hill.

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee is not seeking reelection. One of the Senate’s most outspoken Republican hawks is taking heat from his right. And a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan is vying to unseat an incumbent senator.


Here’s POLITICO’s guide to the top Senate races that could affect defense policy.

Michigan

Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, announced last year he would not seek reelection in 2014, a major blow to defense on Capitol Hill.

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Rep. Gary Peters, who lost a 2002 race for state attorney general by a slim margin, has emerged as Democrats’ candidate of choice to replace Levin.

But Republicans, eager to capitalize on Levin’s retirement, see the seat as a potential pickup. And they’re rallying around former Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land after other high-profile candidates — Reps. Mike Rogers and Dave Camp — passed on the race.

A recent survey by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling showed Land with a single-digit lead over Peters.

Arkansas

Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor is fending off a challenge from Republican Rep. Tom Cotton, a young and ambitious Iraq and Afghanistan veteran. Cotton, elected to Congress in 2012, has seen his profile rise among conservatives.

( PHOTOS: Senators up for election in 2014)

The race has been heated. Pryor and Cotton blasted each other with ads during October’s government shutdown. Pryor’s spots called Cotton’s stance “reckless,” while Cotton went on the air with commercials slamming Pryor for his support of the Affordable Care Act.

A December poll conducted for the Citizens United Political Victory Fund showed Prior trailing Cotton among likely Arkansas voters, 48 percent to 41 percent.

If Cotton topples Pryor, he’ll add another veteran to the Senate, where the ranks of senators with military experience have been thinning dramatically.

Georgia

Sen. Saxby Chambliss’s surprise retirement announcement early last year has set off a heated Republican primary race with a lengthy roster of candidates, including Reps. Paul Broun, Phil Gingrey and Jack Kingston, as well as former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel and businessman David Perdue.

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The winner of the May 20 primary will face nonprofit CEO Michelle Nunn, the daughter of former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, a former Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Nunn associated herself with Chambliss’s call for intervention in Syria last year, a move that put her at odds with each of the Republican primary contenders. The race has become an interesting test case for how Syria could be used as a campaign wedge. Handel went up with a radio ad slamming Nunn for supporting military action there, tying her to President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

The Senate seat in Georgia is a must-win for Republicans if they want to gain the six seats necessary to win back the majority.

South Carolina

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham is feeling pressure from the right. Conservatives argue that Graham, one of the Hill’s most outspoken hawks, has reached across the aisle too often on immigration and other key issues. And his recent trip to Egypt at the request of President Barack Obama has particularly drawn the ire of the tea party.

Graham faces three challengers: state Sen. Lee Bright, businessman Richard Cash and PR consultant Nancy Mace, who in 1999 was the first woman to graduate from The Citadel.

While it’s unlikely that any of Graham’s challengers could unseat him — each faces a significant challenge in fundraising and at the polls — the race is forcing Graham to make a more stringent case to South Carolina’s voters.

The state’s primary is June 10. If no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held June 24.

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