1976 Minnesota Senate election

Minnesota Senate election, 1976
All 67 seats in the Minnesota Senate; 34 seats needed for a majority
Majority Leader before election; Nick Coleman; Democratic (DFL)	Elected Majority Leader ; Nick Coleman; Democratic (DFL)

The 1976 Minnesota Senate election was held in the U.S. state of Minnesota on November 2, 1976, to elect members to the Senate of the 70th and 71st Minnesota Legislatures. A primary election was held on September 14, 1976. This was the first partisan election of the Senate since 1910.

The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) won a majority of seats, followed by the Independent-Republicans of Minnesota. The new Legislature convened on January 4, 1977.

Results

Summary of the November 2, 1976 Minnesota Senate election results
Party		Candidates	Votes	Seats
Party		Candidates	Votes	No.	%
style="background-color:Template:Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party/meta/color" \|	Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party	65	1,027,602	49	73.13
style="background-color:Template:Republican Party of Minnesota/meta/color" \|	Independent-Republicans of Minnesota	61	721,637	18	26.87
style="background-color:Template:American Party (1969)/meta/color" \|	American Party of Minnesota	2	5,963	0	0.00
style="background-color:Template:Socialist Workers Party (United States)/meta/color" \|	Socialist Workers Party of Minnesota	3	1,680	0	0.00
	Freedom Party	1	1,085	0	0.00
style="background-color:Template:Libertarian Party of Minnesota/meta/color" \|	Libertarian Party of Minnesota	2	922	0	0.00
style="background-color:Template:Independent (politician)/meta/color" \|	Independent	7	33,661	0	0.00
Total				67	100.00
Turnout (out of 2,710,000 eligible voters)^[1]		1,978,590	73.01%	2.70 pp
Source: Minnesota Secretary of State^[2]