United States Senate elections, 1974

United States Senate elections, 1974

1972 ← November 5, 1974 → 1976

34 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate 51 seats needed for a majority   Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Mike Mansfield Hugh Scott James L. Buckley Party Democratic Republican Conservative Leader's seat Montana Pennsylvania New York Last election 56 seats 42 seats 1 seat Seats before 56 42 1 Seats won 60 38 1 Seat change 4 4 Popular vote 22,544,761 16,145,793 822,584 Percentage 55.2% 39.6% 2.0% Swing 9.7% 12.8% 1.9%

Republican holds   Republican pickups   Democratic holds   Democratic pickups

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

The U.S. Senate elections of 1974 were held in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Richard M. Nixon's resignation from the presidency, and Gerald Ford's subsequent pardon of Nixon. These circumstances benefited the Democrats, and they made a net gain of three seats from the Republicans. This became four after the Senate voided the contested election in New Hampshire and Democrat John A. Durkin (D-NH) won a special election. After the special election, Democrats possessed 61 seats to 38 for the Republicans, with one Independent who caucused with the Democrats and one Conservative who caucused with the Republicans. This was the last election to date where a member of a political party other than the Democrats or Republicans had one or more seats in the chamber.

Gains and losses

Democrats won open seats in Vermont and Florida and unseated incumbents Peter H. Dominick (R-CO) and Marlow Cook (R-KY). Republicans took an open seat in Nevada, where Republican Paul Laxalt defeated Harry Reid by 624 votes. The election also produced other close results; Milton Young (R-ND) won reelection against Democrat William L. Guy by only 186 votes and Henry Bellmon (R-OK) won reelection against Democrat Ed Edmondson by half a percent of the vote.

Results summary

Parties		Total Seats									Popular Vote
		Incumbents	Not up	This election					Result	+/-	Vote	%
				Up	Re-elected	Held	Gained	Lost
	Democratic	57	37	20	15	4	4	1	60	3	22,544,761	55.24%
	Republican	41	27	14	8	2	1	4	38	3	16,145,793	39.56%
	Conservative (N.Y.)	1	1	0					1		822,584	2.02%
	Independent	1	1	0					1		199,108	<0.01%
	Others	0							0		1,098,146	2.69%
Total		100	66	35	23	6	5	5	100		40,810,392	100.0%

Source: Election Statistics - U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk

Senate composition before and after elections

Senate composition before the elections 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 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 C

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 D D D D D V 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 R =Republican I =Independent V =Vacant	Majority divider

Complete list of races

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

State	Incumbent	Party	Result	Opposing Candidates
Alabama	James Allen	Democratic	Re-elected, 95.8%
Alaska	Mike Gravel	Democratic	Re-elected, 58.3%	C. R. Lewis (Republican) 41.7%
Arizona	Barry Goldwater	Republican	Re-elected, 58.3%	Jonathan Marshall (Democratic) 41.7%
Arkansas	J. William Fulbright	Democratic	Lost renomination Democratic hold	Dale Bumpers (Democratic) 84.9% John H. Jones (Republican) 15.1%
California	Alan Cranston	Democratic	Re-elected, 60.5%	H. L. Richardson (Republican) 36.2% Jack McCoy (American Independent) 1.7% Gayle M. Justice (Peace and Freedom) 1.6%
Colorado	Peter H. Dominick	Republican	Lost re-election, 39.5% Democratic gain	Gary Hart (Democratic) 57.2%
Connecticut	Abraham A. Ribicoff	Democratic	Re-elected, 63.7%	James H. Brannen III (Republican) 34.3%
Florida	Edward J. Gurney	Republican	Retired Democratic gain	Richard Stone (Democratic) 43.4% Jack Eckerd (Republican) 40.9% John Grady (American) 15.7%
Georgia	Herman Talmadge	Democratic	Re-elected, 71.7%	Jerry Johnson (Republican) 28.2%
Hawaii	Daniel Inouye	Democratic	Re-elected, 82.9%	James D. Kimmel (Independent) 17.1%
Idaho	Frank Church	Democratic	Re-elected, 56.1%	Robert L. Smith (Republican) 42.1%
Illinois	Adlai Stevenson III	Democratic	Re-elected, 62.2%	George M. Burditt (Republican) 37.2%
Indiana	Birch Bayh	Democratic	Re-elected, 50.7%	Richard Lugar (Republican) 46.4%
Iowa	Harold Hughes	Democratic	Retired Democratic hold	John Culver (Democratic) 52.0% David M. Stanley (Republican) 47.3%
Kansas	Bob Dole	Republican	Re-elected, 50.9%	William R. Roy (Democratic) 49.1%
Kentucky	Marlow Cook	Republican	Lost re-election, 44.1% Democratic gain	Wendell Ford (Democratic) 53.5% William E. Parker (American) 2.4%
Louisiana	Russell B. Long	Democratic	Re-elected unopposed
Maryland	Charles Mathias, Jr.	Republican	Re-elected, 57.3%	Barbara Mikulski (Democratic) 42.7%
Missouri	Thomas Eagleton	Democratic	Re-elected, 60.1%	Thomas B. Curtis (Republican) 39.3% Cliff Talmage (Independent) 0.6%
Nevada	Alan Bible	Democratic	Retired Republican gain	Paul Laxalt (Republican) 47.0% Harry Reid (Democratic) 46.6%
New Hampshire	Norris Cotton	Republican	Retired Republican hold	Louis C. Wyman (Republican) 49.7% John A. Durkin (Democratic) 49.7%
New York	Jacob K. Javits	Republican	Re-elected, 45.3%	Ramsey Clark (Democratic) 38.2% Barbara A. Keating (Conservative) 15.9%
North Carolina	Sam Ervin	Democratic	Retired Democratic hold	Robert Burren Morgan (Democratic) 62.1% William E. Stevens (Republican) 37.0%
North Dakota	Milton Young	Republican	Re-elected, 48.4%	William L. Guy (Democratic) 48.3%
Ohio	Howard Metzenbaum	Democratic	Lost renomination Democratic hold	John Glenn (Democratic) 64.6% Ralph J. Perk (Republican) 30.7%
Oklahoma	Henry Bellmon	Republican	Re-elected, 49.4%	Ed Edmondson (Democratic) 48.9%
Oregon	Bob Packwood	Republican	Re-elected, 54.9%	Betty Roberts (Democratic) 44.2%
Pennsylvania	Richard Schweiker	Republican	Re-elected, 53.0%	Peter F. Flaherty (Democratic) 45.9% George W. Shankey (Constitution) 1.1%
South Carolina	Ernest Hollings	Democratic	Re-elected, 69.5%	Gwenyfred Bush (Republican) 28.6%
South Dakota	George McGovern	Democratic	Re-elected, 53.0%	Leo K. Thorsness (Republican) 47.0%
Utah	Wallace F. Bennett	Republican	Retired Republican hold	Jake Garn (Republican) 50.0% Wayne Owens (Democratic) 44.1%
Vermont	George Aiken	Republican	Retired Democratic gain	Patrick Leahy (Democratic) 49.5% Richard W. Mallary (Republican) 46.4%
Washington	Warren G. Magnuson	Democratic	Re-elected, 60.7%	Jack Metcalf (Republican) 36.1% Gene Goosman (American Independent) 2% Clare Fraenzl (Socialist Workers) 0.8% Pat Ruckert (U.S. Labor) 0.4%
Wisconsin	Gaylord Nelson	Democratic	Re-elected, 61.8%	Tom Petri (Republican) 35.8%

See also

• United States House of Representatives elections, 1974
• Watergate Babies