United States Senate elections, 1976

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Republican holds Republican pickups Democratic holds Democratic pickups Independent holds

The United States Senate election, 1976 was an election for the United States Senate that coincided with Democratic Jimmy Carter's election to the presidency. Almost half of the seats being decided in this election changed parties, but Carter's narrow victory did not produce decisive gains for the Democrats, and the balance of the chamber remained the same.

Democrats took open seats in Arizona, Hawaii, Nebraska, and defeated incumbents John Glenn Beall, Jr. of Maryland, James L. Buckley of New York's Conservative Party , Robert Taft, Jr. of Ohio, and Bill Brock of Tennessee. Republicans took open seats in Missouri and Rhode Island, and defeated five incumbents: John V. Tunney of California, Vance Hartke of Indiana, Joseph Montoya of New Mexico, Frank Moss of Utah, and Gale McGee of Wyoming.

[edit] Senate contests in 1976

A bolded state name indicates an article about that state's election.

State	Incumbent	Party	Status	Opposing Candidates
Arizona	Paul Fannin	Republican	Retired, Democratic victory	Dennis DeConcini (Democratic) 54.0% Sam Steiger (Republican) 43.3% Allan Norwitz (Libertarian) 1.0%
California	John V. Tunney	Democratic	Defeated, 46.9%	S. I. Hayakawa (Republican) 50.2%
Connecticut	Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.	Republican	Re-elected, 57.7%	Gloria Schaffer (Democratic) 41.2%
Delaware	William V. Roth, Jr.	Republican	Re-elected, 55.8%	Thomas C. Maloney (Democratic) 43.6%
Florida	Lawton Chiles	Democratic	Re-elected, 63.0%	John Grady (Republican) 37.0%
Hawaii	Hiram Fong	Republican	Retired, Democratic victory	Spark Matsunaga (Democratic) 53.7% William F. Quinn (Republican) 40.6%
Indiana	Vance Hartke	Democratic	Defeated, 40.5%	Dick Lugar (Republican) 58.8%
Maine	Edmund Muskie	Democratic	Re-elected, 60.2%	Robert A. G. Monks (Republican) 39.8%
Maryland	John Glenn Beall, Jr.	Republican	Defeated, 38.8%	Paul Sarbanes (Democratic) 56.5%
Massachusetts	Ted Kennedy	Democratic	Re-elected, 69.3%	Michael S. Robertson (Republican) 29.0% Carol Henderson Evans (Socialist Workers) 1.1% H. Graham Lowry (U.S. Labor) 0.6%
Michigan	Philip Hart	Democratic	Retired, Democratic victory	Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (Democratic) 52.5% Marvin L. Esch (Republican) 46.8%
Minnesota	Hubert Humphrey	Democratic	Re-elected, 67.5%	Gerald W. Brekke (Republican) 25.0% Paul Helm (Independent) 6.6%
Mississippi	John C. Stennis	Democratic	Unopposed
Missouri	Stuart Symington	Democratic	Retired, Republican victory	John Danforth (Republican) 56.9% Warren E. Hearnes (Democratic) 42.5% Lawrence Petty (Independent) 0.6%
Montana	Mike Mansfield	Democratic	Retired, Democratic victory	John Melcher (Democratic) 64.2% Stanley C. Burger (Republican) 35.8%
Nebraska	Roman Hruska	Republican	Retired, Democratic victory	Edward Zorinsky (Democratic) 52.4% John Y. McCollister (Republican) 47.5%
Nevada	Howard Cannon	Democratic	Re-elected, 63.0%	David Towell (Republican) 31.4%
New Jersey	Harrison A. Williams	Democratic	Re-elected, 60.7%	David A. Norcross (Republican) 38.0%
New Mexico	Joseph Montoya	Democratic	Defeated, 42.7%	Harrison Schmitt (Republican) 56.8%
New York	James L. Buckley	Republican¹	Defeated, 44.9%	Daniel Patrick Moynihan (Democratic) 54.2%
North Dakota	Quentin N. Burdick	Democratic	Re-elected, 62.1%	Robert Stroup (Republican) 36.6%
Ohio	Robert Taft, Jr.	Republican	Defeated, 46.5%	Howard Metzenbaum (Democratic) 49.5%
Pennsylvania	Hugh Scott	Republican	Retired, Republican victory	H. John Heinz III (Republican) 52.4% William J. Green, III (Democratic) 46.8%
Rhode Island	John O. Pastore	Democratic	Retired, Republican victory	John Chafee (Republican) 57.7% Richard P. Lorber (Democratic) 42.0%
Tennessee	Bill Brock	Republican	Defeated, 47.0%	Jim Sasser (Democratic) 52.5%
Texas	Lloyd Bentsen	Democratic	Re-elected, 56.8%	Alan Steelman (Republican) 42.2%
Utah	Frank Moss	Democratic	Defeated, 44.8%	Orrin Hatch (Republican) 53.7%
Vermont	Robert Stafford	Republican	Re-elected, 50.0%	Thomas P. Salmon (Democratic) 45.3%
Virginia	Harry F. Byrd, Jr.	Independent	Re-elected, 57.2%	Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. (Democratic) 38.3%
Washington	Henry M. Jackson	Democratic	Re-elected, 71.8%	George M. Brown (Republican) 24.2%
West Virginia	Robert Byrd	Democratic	Re-elected, 99.9%
Wisconsin	William Proxmire	Democratic	Re-elected, 72.2%	Stanley York (Republican) 27.0%
Wyoming	Gale W. McGee	Democratic	Defeated, 45.4%	Malcolm Wallop (Republican) 54.7%