United States Senate elections, 1972

United States Senate elections, 1972

November 7, 1972
34 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate 51 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Mike Mansfield Hugh Scott Party Democratic Republican Leader since January 3, 1961 September 24, 1969 Leader's seat Montana Pennsylvania Seats before 54 44 Seats after 56 42 Seat change 2 2 Popular vote 17,199,567 19,821,203 Percentage 45.5% 52.4% Swing 6.9% 12.5% Seats up 14 19 Races won 16 17   Third party Fourth party   Party Independent Conservative (N.Y.) Seats before 1 1 Seats after 1[1] 1 Seat change Seats up 0 0 Races won 0 0
Results, with special elections      Democratic gain      Democratic hold      Republican gain      Republican hold
Majority Leader before election Mike Mansfield Democratic Elected Majority Leader Mike Mansfield Democratic

The 1972 United States Senate elections coincided with the landslide re-election of Republican President Richard Nixon. Despite Nixon's victory, Democrats increased their majority by two seats. After the elections, Democrats held 56 seats and Republicans held 42 seats, with 1 Conservative and 1 independent Senator. These were the first elections in which all citizens at least 18 years of age (instead of 21 and older) could vote due to the 1971 passage of the 26th Amendment.

Results summary

Parties		Total seats									Popular vote
		Incum- bents	Not up	This election					Result	+/-	Vote	%
				Up	Re- elected	Held	Gained	Lost
	Democratic	54	40	14	8	2	6	4	56	2	17,199,567	45.49%
	Republican	44	24	20	13	1	4	6	42	2	19,821,203	52.42%
	Independent	1	1	0	0	0			1		318,238	0.84%
	Conservative (N.Y.)	1	1	0	0	0			1		42,348	0.11%
	Others	0	0	0	0	0			0		470,090	1.24%
Total		100	66	34	21	3	10	10	100		37,809,098	100.0%

Source: Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives (1973). "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 7, 1972" (PDF). U.S. Government Printing Office.

Gains and losses

Democratic pickups included open seats in Kentucky and South Dakota, and defeats of Senators Gordon L. Allott of Colorado, J. Caleb Boggs of Delaware, Jack Miller of Iowa, and Margaret Chase Smith of Maine.

Republican pickups included open seats in New Mexico, North Carolina, and Oklahoma, and the defeat of incumbent William B. Spong, Jr. of Virginia.

Change in Senate composition

Race summaries

Alabama

Alaska

Arkansas

Colorado

Delaware

Delaware election

Nominee Joe Biden J. Caleb Boggs Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 116,006 112,844 Percentage 50.5% 49.1%

County results

U.S. Senator before election J. Caleb Boggs Republican Elected U.S. Senator Joe Biden Democratic

Incumbent Republican J. Caleb Boggs ran for a third term. Boggs faced off against Joe Biden, a New Castle County Councilman. Though Senator Boggs was expected to easily win a third term over the then-unknown Biden, it ended up being the closest Senate election in 1972, and Biden narrowly beat out Boggs by a little over three thousand votes, winning what would be his first of seven terms.

Longtime Delaware political figure and Republican incumbent Senator J. Caleb Boggs was considering retirement, which would likely have left U.S. Representative Pete du Pont and Wilmington Mayor Harry G. Haskell, Jr. in a divisive primary fight. To avoid that, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon helped convince Boggs to run again with full party support.^[4]

No other Democrat wanted to run against Boggs besides Biden, a New Castle County Councilman.^[5] Biden's campaign had virtually no money and was given no chance of winning.^[6] It was managed by his sister Valerie Biden Owens (who would go on to manage his future campaigns as well) and staffed by other members of his family, and relied upon handed-out newsprint position papers.^[7] Biden did receive some assistance from the AFL-CIO and Democratic pollster Patrick Caddell.^[5] Biden's campaign issues focused on withdrawal from Vietnam, the environment, civil rights, mass transit, more equitable taxation, health care, the public's dissatisfaction with politics-as-usual, and "change".^[5][7]

During the summer Biden trailed by almost 30 percentage points,^[5] but his energy level, his attractive young family, and his ability to connect with voters' emotions gave the surging Biden an advantage over the ready-to-retire Boggs.^[8] Biden won the November 7, 1972 election in an upset by a margin of 3,162 votes.^[7]

At the time of the election Biden was a little less than 30 years old; age 30 is a constitutional requirement for the U.S. Senate, and he reached that on November 20, in time for the Senate term beginning January 3. After his election he became the sixth-youngest Senator in history.^[9]

Georgia

Georgia (Special)

Idaho

Illinois

Illinois election

Nominee Charles Percy Roman Pucinski Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 2,867,078 1,721,031 Percentage 62.21% 37.35%

U.S. Senator before election Charles H. Percy Republican Elected U.S. Senator Charles H. Percy Republican

Incumbent Republican Charles H. Percy sought re-election. Percy was opposed by: Democratic nominee Roman Pucinski, a Congressman from Illinois's 11th congressional district, Edward C. Gross (SL) and Arnold Becchetti (C). Percy handily won a second term.

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maine election

Nominee William Hathaway Margaret Chase Smith Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 224,270 197,040 Percentage 53.2% 46.8%

U.S. Senator before election Margaret Chase Smith Republican Elected U.S. Senator William Hathaway Democratic

Incumbent Republican Margaret Chase Smith ran for re-election to a fifth term, but was defeated by Democrat William Hathaway, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine's 2nd congressional district.

Massachusetts

Massachusetts election

Nominee Edward Brooke John J. Droney Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 1,505,932 823,278 Percentage 63.53% 34.73%

Results by town. Red indicates towns carried by Edward Brooke, blue indicates towns carried by John J. Droney.

U.S. Senator before election Edward Brooke Republican Elected U.S. Senator Edward Brooke Republican

Incumbent Republican Edward Brooke, first elected in 1966 as the first African-American elected to the Senate by popular vote.^[12], defeated his challengers, among them: John J. Droney, the Middlesex County District Attorney.^[13]

Michigan

Minnesota

Minnesota election

Nominee Walter F. Mondale Phil Hansen Party DFL Republican Popular vote 981,320 742,121 Percentage 56.67% 42.86%

U.S. Senator before election Walter F. Mondale DFL Elected U.S. Senator Walter F. Mondale DFL

Incumbent Democrat Walter Mondale, who was originally appointed in 1964 (to fill the vacancy create when Hubert Humphrey was elected to the office of Vice President) and elected to a full term in 1966, defeated Republican challenger Phil Hansen.

Mississippi

Mississippi election

Nominee James Eastland Gil Carmichael Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 375,102 249,779 Percentage 58.1% 38.7%

U.S. Senator before election James Eastland Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Thad Cochran Republican

Montana

Montana election

Nominee Lee Metcalf Hank Hibbard Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 163,609 151,316 Percentage 51.95% 48.05%

U.S. Senator before election Lee Metcalf Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Lee Metcalf Democratic

Incumbent Democrat Lee Metcalf, who was first elected to the Senate in 1960 and was re-elected in 1966, ran for re-election. After winning the Democratic primary, he moved on to the general election, where he faced Hank Hibbard, a State Senator and the Republican nominee. Following a close campaign, Metcalf managed to narrowly win re-election to his third term in the Senate over Hibbard.

Nebraska

Nebraska election

Nominee Carl Curtis Terry Carpenter Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 301,841 265,922 Percentage 53.16% 46.84%

U.S. Senator before election Carl Curtis Republican Elected U.S. Senator Carl Curtis Republican

Incumbent Republican Carl Curtis won re-election.

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

North Carolina

North Carolina election

Nominee Jesse Helms Nick Galifianakis Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 795,247 677,293 Percentage 54.0% 46.0%

U.S. Senator before election B. Everett Jordan Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Jesse Helms Republican

Oklahoma

Oregon

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Carolina (Special)

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Vermont (Special)

Vermont election

January 7, 1972 (1972-01-07)

Nominee Robert Stafford Randolph T. Major Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 45,888 23,842 Percentage 64.4% 33.4%

U.S. Senator before election Robert Stafford Republican Elected U.S. Senator Robert Stafford Republican

The special election was held January 7, 1972. Incumbent Republican Robert Stafford, appointed in September 1971 to fill the vacancy created by the death of Winston L. Prouty, successfully ran for re-election to the remainder of Prouty's term in the United States Senate. Stafford defeated Democratic candidate Randolph T. Major. Bernie Sanders, the Liberty Union candidate,^[20] was later elected to this seat in 2006, serving as an Independent.

Virginia

Virginia election

Turnout	44.7%[21]
Nominee William L. Scott William Spong, Jr. Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 718,337 643,963 Percentage 51.5% 46.1%
U.S. Senate election results map. Red denotes counties/districts won by Scott. Blue denotes those won by Spong.
U.S. Senator before election William B. Spong, Jr. Democratic Elected U.S. Senator William Lloyd Scott Republican

West Virginia

Wyoming

See also

• United States elections, 1972
  • United States gubernatorial elections, 1972
  • United States presidential election, 1972
  • United States House of Representatives elections, 1972
• 92nd United States Congress
• 93rd United States Congress

References

External links

• Clerk of the United States House of Representatives. "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 7, 1972" (PDF). United States Government Printing Office. Retrieved April 4, 2015 – via Clerk.house.gov.