United States Senate election in Pennsylvania, 1976

United States Senate election in Pennsylvania, 1976
November 2, 1976

 
Nominee John Heinz Bill Green
Party Republican Democratic
Popular vote 2,381,891 2,126,977
Percentage 52.4% 46.8%
U.S. Senator before election

Hugh Scott
Republican

 Elected U.S. Senator

John Heinz
Republican

The 1976 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania was held on November 2, 1976. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator and Minority Leader Hugh Scott decided to retire. Republican John Heinz won the open seat.[1]

Background

In December 1975, U.S. senator Hugh Scott announced that he would not seek re-election in 1976 at the age of 75 after serving in Congress for 33 years. Scott listed personal reasons and several "well-qualified potential candidates" for the seat among the reasons of his decision to retire. Other reasons, including his support for Richard Nixon and accusations that he had illegally obtained contributions from Gulf Oil were alleged to have contributed to the decision.[2]

Democratic primary

Candidates

Results

Democratic primary results[5]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic William J. Green III 762,733 68.71
Democratic Jeanette Reibman 345,264 31.10
Democratic Others 2,058 0.19

Republican primary

Candidates

Results

Republican primary results[4]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican H. John Heinz III 358,715 37.73
Republican Arlen Specter 332,513 34.98
Republican George Packard 160,379 16.87
Republican Others 99,074 10.43

General election

Candidates

Campaign

Heinz was the victor in all but nine counties, defeating opponent William Green, who had a 300,000 vote advantage in his native Philadelphia area. Heinz and Green spend $2.5 million and $900,000, respectively, during the ten-month campaign. Much of the money Heinz spent on his campaign was his own, leading to accusations from Green that he was "buying the seat". Heinz replied to this by claiming that the spending was necessary to overcome the Democratic voter registration advantage.[9]

Results

General election results[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Republican H. John Heinz III 2,381,891 52.39% +0.96%
Democratic William J. Green III 2,126,977 46.79% +1.41%
Constitution Andrew J. Watson 26,028 0.57% -1.79%
Socialist Workers Frederick W. Stanton 5,484 0.12% +0.01%
Labor Party Bernard Salera 3,637 0.08% +0.08%
Communist Party Frank Kinces 2,097 0.05% +0.05%
N/A Other 239 0.00% N/A
Totals 4,546,353 100.00%

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Statistics of the Congressional and Presidential Election of November 2, 1976" (PDF). Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Senate Republican leader Hugh Scott won't run in 1976". St. Petersburg Times. December 5, 1975. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
  3. ↑ "GREEN, William Joseph, (born 1938)". Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress. Retrieved August 13, 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 "PA US Senate - R Primary". Our Campaigns. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
  5. ↑ "PA US Senate - D Primary". Our Campaigns. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
  6. ↑ "Heinz, Henry John III (1938–1991)". Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress. Retrieved August 13, 2011.
  7. ↑ "Specter, Arlen (born 1930)". Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
  8. ↑ "Biography of H. John Heinz III". Archives: Biographies. Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  9. ↑ "John Heinz". Gettysburg Times. November 3, 1976. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.