United States Senate elections, 1970

1968 ←

November 3, 1970

→ 1972

35 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's seat	Montana	Pennsylvania
Last election	58 seats	42 seats
Seats won	54	44
Seat change	-4	+2
Popular vote	25,402,791	19,326,064
Percentage	52.4%	39.9%
Swing	3.1%	6.6%

Republican holds

Republican gains

Democratic holds

Democratic gains

Conservative gain

Independent hold

Majority Leader before election

Mike Mansfield
Democratic

Elected Majority Leader

Mike Mansfield
Democratic

The 1970 United States Senate election was an election for the United States Senate which was a midterm election in the term of President Richard Nixon. Nixon's "Southern strategy" was effective at taking several seats from the Democrats, in spite of this being a midterm election. The Democrats lost a net of three seats, while the Republicans and the Conservative Party of New York picked up one net seat each, and former Democrat Harry F. Byrd, Jr. was re-elected as an independent.

The Republicans picked up one open seat in Ohio, and defeated incumbents Al Gore, Sr. of Tennessee, Joseph D. Tydings of Maryland, and Thomas J. Dodd of Connecticut (Dodd had been censured by the Senate for using campaign funds for personal use). Democrats picked up the seats of Ralph Tyler Smith of Illinois and George Murphy of California. Conservative James L. Buckley defeated liberal Republican incumbent Charles E. Goodell of New York and a Democratic challenger.

1 Results summary
2 Getting out the vote
3 Complete list of races
4 Senate composition before and after elections
5 See also
6 References

Results summary

Parties		Total Seats			Popular Vote
Parties		1968	1970	+/-	Vote	%
	Democratic Party	58	54	-4	25,402,791	52.40%
	Republican Party	42	44	+2	19,326,064	39.87%
	Others	0	2	+2	3,749,605	7.73%
Total		100	100	-	48,478,460	100.0%

Source: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk

Getting out the vote

Nixon said that rather than violent protests, the best way for the American public to get their opinion heard is by voting.

"The most powerful four letter word is a clean word, it’s the most powerful four letter word in the history of men, its called vote. V-O-T-E. My friends, I say that the answer to those that engage in disruption, to those that shout their filthy slogans, to those that try to shot down speakers, it's not to answer in kind, but go to the polls in election day, and in the quiet of that ballot box, stand up and be counted, the great silent majority of America."^[1]

Complete list of races

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

State	Incumbent	Party	Result	Opposing Candidates
Alaska Special (Class 2)	Ted Stevens	Republican	Elected to finish term, 59.6%	Wendell P. Kay (Democratic) 40.4%
Arizona	Paul Fannin	Republican	Re-elected, 56.0%	Sam Grossman (Democratic) 44.0%
California	George Murphy	Republican	Lost re-election, 44.3% Democratic gain	John V. Tunney (Democratic) 53.9% Robert Scheer (Peace and Freedom) 0.9% Charles C. Ripley (American Independent) 0.9%
Connecticut	Thomas J. Dodd	Democratic	Lost re-election, 24.5% Republican gain	Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. (Republican) 41.7% Joseph Duffey (Democratic) 33.8%
Delaware	John J. Williams	Republican	Retired Republican hold	William V. Roth, Jr. (Republican) 58.8% Jacob Zimmerman (Democratic) 40.1%
Florida	Spessard Holland	Democratic	Retired Democratic hold	Lawton Chiles (Democratic) 53.9% William C. Cramer (Republican) 46.1%
Hawaii	Hiram Fong	Republican	Re-elected, 51.6%	Cecil Heftel (Democratic) 48.4%
Illinois Special (Class 3)	Ralph Tyler Smith	Republican	Lost election to finish term, 42.2% Democratic gain	Adlai Stevenson III (Democratic) 57.4%
Indiana	Vance Hartke	Democratic	Re-elected, 50.1%	Richard L. Roudebush (Republican) 49.9%
Maine	Edmund Muskie	Democratic	Re-elected, 61.9%	Neil S. Bishop (Republican) 38.3%
Maryland	Joseph Tydings	Democratic	Lost re-election, 48.1% Republican gain	John Glenn Beall, Jr. (Republican) 50.7%
Massachusetts	Ted Kennedy	Democratic	Re-elected, 62.1%	Josiah A. Spaulding (Republican) 37.0%
Michigan	Philip Hart	Democratic	Re-elected, 66.8%	Lenore Romney (Republican) 32.9%
Minnesota	Eugene McCarthy	Democratic	Retired Democratic hold	Hubert Humphrey (Democratic) 57.8% Clark MacGregor (Republican) 41.6%
Mississippi	John C. Stennis	Democratic	Re-elected, 88.4%	William R. Thompson (Independent) 11.6%
Missouri	Stuart Symington	Democratic	Re-elected, 51.1%	John Danforth (Republican) 48.1% Gene Chapman (American Independent) 0.8% E. J. DiGirolamo (Independent) 0.04%
Montana	Mike Mansfield	Democratic	Re-elected, 60.5%	Harold E. Wallace (Republican) 39.5%
Nebraska	Roman Hruska	Republican	Re-elected, 52.5%	Frank B. Morrison (Democratic) 47.5%
Nevada	Howard Cannon	Democratic	Re-elected, 57.7%	William J. Raggio (Republican) 41.2%
New Jersey	Harrison A. Williams	Democratic	Re-elected, 54.0%	Nelson G. Gross (Republican) 42.2%
New Mexico	Joseph Montoya	Democratic	Re-elected, 52.3%	Anderson Carter (Republican) 46.6%
New York	Charles Goodell	Republican	Lost election to finish term, 24.3% Conservative gain	James L. Buckley (Conservative) 38.8% Richard Ottinger (Democratic) 36.8%
North Dakota	Quentin N. Burdick	Democratic	Re-elected, 61.3%	Thomas S. Kleppe (Republican) 37.8%
Ohio	Stephen M. Young	Democratic	Retired Republican gain	Robert A. Taft, Jr. (Republican) 49.7% Howard Metzenbaum (Democratic) 47.5%
Pennsylvania	Hugh Scott	Republican	Re-elected, 51.4%	William G. Sesler (Democratic) 45.4%
Rhode Island	John O. Pastore	Democratic	Re-elected, 67.5%	John McLaughlin (Republican) 31.5%
Tennessee	Al Gore, Sr.	Democratic	Lost re-election, 47.4% Republican gain	Bill Brock (Republican) 51.3%
Texas	Ralph Yarborough	Democratic	Lost renomination Democratic hold	Lloyd Bentsen (Democratic) 53.5% George H. W. Bush (Republican) 46.4%
Utah	Frank Moss	Democratic	Re-elected, 56.2%	Laurence J. Burton (Republican) 42.5% Clyde B. Freeman (American Independent) 1.4%
Vermont	Winston L. Prouty	Republican	Re-elected, 58.9%	Philip H. Hoff (Democratic) 40.2%
Virginia	Harry F. Byrd, Jr.	Independent	Re-elected, 53.5%	George Rawlings (Democratic) 31.2% Ray Garland (Republican) 15.3%
Washington	Henry M. Jackson	Democratic	Re-elected, 82.4%	Charles W. Elicker (Republican) 16.0% Bill Massey (Socialist Workers) 0.9% E.S. "Pinky" Fisk (Buffalo) 0.7%
West Virginia	Robert Byrd	Democratic	Re-elected, 77.6%	Elmer H. Dodson (Republican) 22.4%
Wisconsin	William Proxmire	Democratic	Re-elected, 70.8%	John E. Erickson (Republican) 28.5%
Wyoming	Gale W. McGee	Democratic	Re-elected, 55.8%	John S. Wold (Republican) 44.2%

Senate composition before and after elections

Senate composition before the elections
D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
D
D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R
R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R

Senate composition in the next Congress
I	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
D
D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R
R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	C

Key:	C=Conservative	D=Democratic	I=Independent	R=Republican
	Majority

	divider

References

^ http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1970/Apollo-13/12303235577467-2/#title "1970 Election: 1970 Year in Review, UPI.com"

United States Senate elections

Pre-17th Amendment	1788 1790 1792 1794 1796 1798 1800 1802 1804 1806 1808 1810 1812 1814 1816 1818 1820 1822 1824 1826 1828 1830 1832 1834 1836 1838 1840 1842 1844 1846 1848 1850 1852 1854 1856 1858 1860 1862 1864 1866 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912

Post-17th Amendment	1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016

Others: Special elections Disputes See also: House elections Presidential elections Gubernatorial elections