United States Senate elections, 1976

United States Senate elections, 1976

1974 ← November 2, 1976 → 1978

33 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate 51 seats needed for a majority   Majority party Minority party   Leader Robert Byrd Howard Baker Party Democratic Republican Leader's seat West Virginia Tennessee Last election 61 seats 37 seats Seats before 61 37 Seats won 61 38 Seat change 1 Popular vote 31,790,526 24,562,431 Percentage 53.7% 41.5% Swing 1.5% 1.9%

Republican holds   Republican gains   Democratic holds   Democratic gains   Independent holds

Majority Leader before election Mike Mansfield Democratic Elected Majority Leader Robert Byrd Democratic

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 as well as the United States Bicentennial celebration. 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.

Gains and losses

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. This was also the first election in which the Libertarian Party competed as well, running candidates in 9 of the 33 contested seats.

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.

Results summary

Parties		Total Seats			Popular Vote
		1974	1976	+/-	Vote	%
	Democratic Party	60	61	1	31,790,526	53.72%
	Republican Party	37	38	1	24,562,431	41.51%
	Independent	1	1		1,173,414	1.98%
	American Party	0	0		204,556	0.35%
	Socialist Worker's Party	0	0		125,528	0.21%
	American Independent Party	0	0		110,921	0.19%
	Libertarian Party	0	0		78,588	0.13%
	Others	1	0	1	1,128,043	1.91%
Total		100	100		59,174,007	100.0%
Source: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk

Change in 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	←Majority
	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
R	R	R	R	R	R	R	C	I	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

At the end of the last Congress (2 months later)

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	←Majority
	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	DO	DO
R	R	R	R	R+	R+	R+	V	I	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

At the beginning of the next Congress

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√	←Majority
	D√	DO	DO	D+	D+	D+	D+	D+	D+
RO	R+	R+	R+	R+	R+	R+	R+	I√	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

Key:	C =Conservative, caucusing with Republicans D =Democratic R =Republican I =Independent, caucusing with Democrats V =Vacant √ = Incumbent re-elected O = Party hold: New senator elected from same party + = Party gain: New senator elected from different party

Complete list of races

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

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

See also

• United States presidential election, 1976
• United States House elections, 1976
• United States gubernatorial elections, 1976
• United States Senate elections, 1974
• United States Senate elections, 1978