United States Senate election in New York, 1980

United States Senate election in New York, 1980

1974 ← November 2, 1980 → 1986

Nominee Al D'Amato Elizabeth Holtzman Jacob K. Javits Party Republican Democratic Liberal Popular vote 2,699,652 2,618,661 664,544 Percentage 44.9% 43.5% 11.1%

County results

U.S. Senator before election Jacob K. Javits Republican Elected U.S. Senator Al D'Amato Republican

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The 1980 United States Senate election in New York was held on November 2, 1980. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Jacob K. Javits was defeated in the primary, and Republican Al D'Amato won the three way election.

Candidates

Democratic

• Elizabeth Holtzman, U.S. Congresswoman

Liberal

• Jacob K. Javits, incumbent U.S. Senator (registered Republican)

Republican

• Al D'Amato, Town of Hempstead Presiding Supervisor

Campaign

The combined failure to adjust politically to the rightward movement of the GOP and the 1979 diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease) led to a primary challenge. The incumbent was defeated in the primary by Hempstead Presiding Supervisor Alfonse D'Amato on September 9.

D'Amato, also running on the Conservative line, proceeded to defeat Democratic U.S. Representative Elizabeth Holtzman and Javits, who ran on the Liberal Party ticket. In the traditionally liberal state of New York, Javits split the Democratic vote with Holtzman to give D'Amato a close victory.

Results

General election results
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Alfonse D'Amato	2,272,082
	Conservative	Alfonse D'Amato	275,100
	Right to Life	Alfonse D'Amato	152,470
	total	Alfonse D'Amato	2,699,652	44.88
	Democratic	Elizabeth Holtzman	2,618,661	43.54
	Liberal	Jacob K. Javits (Incumbent)	664,544	11.05
	Libertarian	Richard Savadel	21,465	0.36
	Communist	William R. Scott	4,161	0.07
	Workers World	Thomas Soto	3,643	0.06
	Socialist Workers	Victor A. Nieto	2,715	0.045
		Write-in votes	73	0.001
Majority			80,991	1.34
Turnout			6,014,914
	Republican hold		Swing