United States Senate elections, 1978

United States Senate elections, 1978

1976 ← November 7, 1978 → 1980

36 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 38 seats Seats won 58 41 Seat change 3 3 Popular vote 14,362,402 13,520,147 Percentage 50.6% 47.6% Swing 3.1% 6.1%

Democratic holds   Democratic gains   Republican holds   Republican gains

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

The United States Senate election of 1978 in the middle of Democratic President Jimmy Carter's term. The Democrats lost a net of three seats to the Republicans, leaving the balance of the chamber 58-41 in favor of the Democrats.

Republican gains

Republicans took three open seats, including one in Minnesota (a special election was called after the death of Hubert Humphrey (D-MN)), as well as in Mississippi and South Dakota. They also defeated five Democratic incumbents: Floyd Haskell (Colorado), Dick Clark (Iowa), William Hathaway (Maine), Wendell Anderson (Minnesota), and Thomas McIntyre (New Hampshire). The two Republican victories in Minnesota saw the state's Senate delegation change from two Democrats to two Republicans in the same election.

Democratic gains

The Republican gains were offset by Democratic defeats of Edward Brooke (Massachusetts) and Robert Griffin (Michigan), and captures of Republican open seats in Nebraska, New Jersey, and Oklahoma.

Results summary

Summary of the 1978 United States Senate election results

Parties		Total Seats			Popular Vote
		1976	1978	+/-	Vote	%
	Democratic Party	61	58	-3	14,362,402	50.60%
	Republican Party	38	41	+3	13,520,147	47.63%
	Independent	1	1	0	299,624	1.06%
	American Party	0	0	0	35,168	0.12%
	Prohibition Party	0	0	0	34,951	0.12%
	Socialist Worker's Party	0	0	0	29,796	0.10%
	Libertarian Party	0	0	0	25,071	0.09%
	Others	0	0	0	79,479	0.28%
Total		100	100	-	28,386,638	100.0%
Source: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk

Complete list of races

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

State	Incumbent	Party	Result	Opposing Candidates
Alabama	John Sparkman	Democratic	Retired Democratic hold	Howell Heflin (Democratic) 94.0% Jerome B. Couch (Prohibition) 6.0%
Alabama Special: Class 3	Maryon Pittman Allen	Democratic	Interim appointee lost nomination to finish term Democratic hold	Donald W. Stewart (Democratic) 55.1% James D. Martin (Republican) 43.3% Michael R. A. Erdey (Libertarian) 0.8% A. J. Killingsworth (Prohibition) 0.8%
Alaska	Ted Stevens	Republican	Re-elected, 75.6%	Donald W. Hobbs (Democratic) 24.1% Write-in 0.3%
Arkansas	Kaneaster Hodges, Jr.	Democratic	Retired Democratic hold	David Pryor (Democratic) 76.5% Tom Kelly (Republican) 16.3% John J. Black (Independent) 7.2% Write-in (Under) 0.1%
Colorado	Floyd K. Haskell	Democratic	Lost re-election, 40.3% Republican gain	William L. Armstrong (Republican) 58.7% Vedder V. Dorn (United States Party) 0.7% John Shue (National Statesman) 0.3%
Delaware	Joe Biden	Democratic	Re-elected, 58.0%	James H. Baxter (Republican) 41.0% Donald G Gies (American) 1.0%
Georgia	Sam Nunn	Democratic	Re-elected, 83.1%	John W. Stokes (Republican) 16.9%
Idaho	James A. McClure	Republican	Re-elected, 68.4%	Dwight Jensen (Democratic) 31.6%
Illinois	Charles H. Percy	Republican	Re-elected, 53.3%	Alex Seith (Democratic) 45.5% William R. Roy (Libertarian) 0.5% Patricia Grogan (Socialist Workers) 0.5% Gerald Rose (Socialist Labor) 0.2% Write-in 0.005%
Iowa	Dick Clark	Democratic	Lost re-election, 47.9% Republican gain	Roger Jepsen (Republican) 51.1% Gerald Leo Baker (Independent) 0.5% Ben L. Olson (Libertarian) 0.4%
Kansas	James B. Pearson	Republican	Retired Republican hold	Nancy Landon Kassebaum (Republican) 53.9% William R. Roy (Democratic) 42.4% James R. Maher (Conservative) 3.0% Russell Mikels (Prohibition) 0.7%
Kentucky	Walter Huddleston	Democratic	Re-elected, 61.0%	Louis Guenthner (Republican) 36.9% Anthony A. McCord (American) 2.1% Write-In 0.00009%
Louisiana	Bennett Johnston Jr.	Democratic	Re-elected in primary
Maine	William Hathaway	Democratic	Lost re-election, 33.9% Republican gain	William Cohen (Republican) 56.6% Hayes E. Gahagan (Independent) 7.4% John J. Jannace (Independent) 1.5% Plato Truman (Independent) 0.6%
Massachusetts	Edward Brooke	Republican	Lost re-election, 44.9% Democratic gain	Paul Tsongas (Democratic) 55.1% Write-in 0.09%
Michigan	Robert P. Griffin	Republican	Lost re-election, 47.9% Democratic gain	Carl Levin (Democratic) 52.1% Write-in 0.01%
Minnesota Special: Class 1	Muriel Humphrey	Democratic	Interim appointee retired Republican gain	David Durenberger (Republican) 61.4% Bob Short (Democratic) 34.6% Paul Helm (American) 2.9% Christine Frank (Socialist) 0.7% Frederick Hewitt (Libertarian) 0.3% Write-in 0.06%
Minnesota	Wendell Anderson	Democratic	Lost re-election, 40.4% Republican gain	Rudy Boschwitz (Republican) 56.6% Sal Carlone (American) 1.5% William Peterson (Socialist Workers) 0.6% Brian John Coyle (Public Interest Independent) 0.5% Jean T. Brust (Workers) 0.2% Leonard Richards (Libertarian) 0.2% Write-in 0.005%
Mississippi	James O. Eastland	Democratic	Retired Republican gain	Thad Cochran (Republican) 45.3% Maurice Dantin (Democratic) 31.8% Charles Evers (Independent) 22.6% Henry Kirksey (Independent) 0.3%
Montana	Paul G. Hatfield	Democratic	Lost renomination Democratic hold	Max Baucus (Democratic) 55.7% Larry Williams (Republican) 44.3%
Nebraska	Carl Curtis	Republican	Retired Democratic gain	J. James Exon (Democratic) 67.6% Donald Shasteen (Republican) 32.3%
New Hampshire	Thomas J. McIntyre	Democratic	Lost re-election, 48.5% Republican gain	Gordon J. Humphrey (Republican) 50.7% Craig Franklin (libertarian) 0.8%
New Jersey	Clifford P. Case	Republican	Lost renomination Democratic gain	Bill Bradley (Democratic) 55.3% Jeffrey Bell (Republican) 43.1% Herbert Harry Shaw (Independent) 0.2% Bill Gahres (Independent) 0.2% Jack Moyers (Independent) 0.2% Robert Bowen (Labor) 0.2% J.M. Carter, Jr. (Independent) 0.2% Jasper C. Gould (Independent) 0.2% William R. Thorn (Independent) 0.1% Paul Ferguson (Independent) 0.1% Alice Conner (Independent) 0.1%
New Mexico	Pete Domenici	Republican	Re-elected, 53.4%	Toney Anaya (Democratic) 46.6%
North Carolina	Jesse Helms	Republican	Re-elected, 54.5%	John Ingram (Democratic) 45.5%
Oklahoma	Dewey F. Bartlett	Republican	Retired Democratic gain	David L. Boren (Democratic) 65.5% Robert B. Kamm (Republican) 32.9% Glenn E. Hager (Independent) 0.5% Riley Donica (Independent) 0.4% Paul Edward Trent (Independent) 0.4% Richard King Carter (Independent) 0.3%
Oregon	Mark Hatfield	Republican	Re-elected, 61.6%	Vernon Cook (Democratic) 38.3% Write-in 0.08%
Rhode Island	Claiborne Pell	Democratic	Re-elected, 75.1%	James G. Reynolds (Republican) 24.9%
South Carolina	Strom Thurmond	Republican	Re-elected, 55.6%	Charles D. Ravenel (Democratic) 44.4%
South Dakota	James Abourezk	Democratic	Retired Republican gain	Larry Pressler (Republican) 66.8% Don Barnett (Democratic) 33.2%
Tennessee	Howard Baker	Republican	Re-elected, 55.5%	Jane Eskind (Democratic) 40.3% Thomas Anderson (Independent) 4.0% Fern Lucius Keasler (Independent) 0.2% Write-in 0.006%
Texas	John Tower	Republican	Re-elected, 49.8%	Bob Krueger (Democratic) 49.3% Luis A. Diaz de Leon (La Raza Unida) 0.8% Miguel Pendas (Socialist Workers) 0.2% Others 0.006%
Virginia	William L. Scott	Republican	Retired Republican hold	John Warner (Republican) 50.2% Andrew P. Miller (Democratic) 49.8% Write-in 0.04%
West Virginia	Jennings Randolph	Democratic	Re-elected, 50.5%	Arch A. Moore, Jr. (Republican) 49.5%
Wyoming	Clifford Hansen	Republican	Retired Republican hold	Alan K. Simpson (Republican) 62.2% Raymond B. Whitaker (Democratic) 37.8%

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 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

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 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

Key:	C=Conservative	D=Democratic	I=Independent	R=Republican	V=Vacant
	Majority
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See also

• United States House of Representatives elections, 1978
• United States gubernatorial elections, 1978