This was the first time that Republicans gained Senate seats while losing House seats, which also occurred in 2018. This also occurred for Democrats in 1914, 1962, and 2022.[3]
This was the most recent election in which a third party won a seat in the Senate until 2006. As of 2024[update], this is also the most recent cycle in which Democrats won Senate elections in Utah and Wyoming, and the most recent in which Republicans won a Senate election in Hawaii.
President Nixon said that rather than violent protests, the best way for the American public to get their opinion heard was by voting:
The most powerful four letter word is a clean word, it’s the most powerful four letter word in the history of men, it's called vote. V-O-T-E. My friends, I say that the answer to those that engage in disruption, to those that shout their filthy slogans, to those that try to shout down speakers, it's not to answer in kind, but go to the polls in election day, and in the quiet of that ballot box, stand up and be counted, the great silent majority of America.
One Republican and four Democrats sought re-election but lost in the primary or general election. One Republican sought election to finish the unexpired term but lost in the special election and one Republican sought election to a full term but lost in the general election.
Incumbent lost re-election. New senator elected. Democratic gain Incumbent resigned January 1, 1971 to give successor preferential seniority. Winner appointed January 2, 1971.
Incumbent retired. New senator elected. Republican hold. Incumbent resigned December 31, 1970 to give successor preferential seniority. Winner appointed January 1, 1971.
Republican Ted Stevens was appointed December 24, 1968 to finish the term of Democrat Bob Bartlett, who had died in office. The open primary was held August 25, 1970, in which Stevens received 40,411 votes (55.91%), Key received 29,459 votes (23.94%), State senator Joe Josephson received 12,730 votes (18.22%) and Fritz Singer (R) received 1,349 votes (1.93%).[5][6] In the November 3, 1970 special election to finish the term, he ran against the Democratic Speaker of the Alaska House of RepresentativesWendell P. Kay. Stevens easily won with almost 60% of the vote.[7]
1970 United States Senate special election in Alaska[1]
Incumbent Republican Paul Fannin decided to run for re-election to a second term, running unopposed in the Republican primary. Fannin defeated Democratic businessman Sam Grossman in the general election.
In 1964, Republican actor George Murphy defeated Democrat and Lyndon B. Johnson's Press Secretary, Pierre Salinger, in a close contest with about 52% of the vote. Murphy faced a primary challenge from billionaire Norton Simon, who took nearly 33% of the vote in the Republican primary. Democrats nominated John V. Tunney after a close-fought contest between Tunney and Representative George Brown Jr..
In the general election, Murphy lost re-election to Tunney by nearly ten points. Murphy's recent surgery and staunch support for the lingering Vietnam War worked against him, as did reports that he had continued to receive a salary from Technicolor after taking office.[10] Tunney's successful Senate race in 1970 was reportedly the inspiration for the 1972 Robert Redford film The Candidate.[11]
1970 United States Senate election in California[1]
Republican Lowell P. Weicker Jr. defeated Democrat Joseph Duffey and incumbent Thomas J. Dodd who ran this time as an independent. Dodd entered the race at the last minute and split the Democratic vote, allowing Weicker to win with only 42% of the vote.
Republican John J. Williams was originally elected in 1946 to the U.S. Senate. Williams was easily re-elected three more times but decided to retire in 1971. Republican Representative William Roth faced Democrat potato farmer Jacob Zimmerman in the general election. Roth defeated Zimmerman by a landslide eighteen percentage points in the general election. He was re-elected in 1976, 1982, 1988, and 1994 before losing re-election to Democrat Tom Carper in 2000. This was despite the state trending Democratic; Roth himself served most of his tenure with future President Joe Biden.
Incumbent Spessard Holland, who served in the Senate since 1946, decided to retire rather than seek a fifth term.[13] Although the Democratic Party had dominated state elections since the Reconstruction Era, Claude R. Kirk Jr. and Edward Gurney, both Republicans, were elected senator and Governor in 1966 and 1968, respectively.[14]
Republican Hiram Fong had served as the inaugural Class 1 senator from the state of Hawaii since 1959. From the state's admission into the union, voters tended to lean Democratic, and this trend only continued over time. Fong initially won election to each of his first two terms with 53% of the vote, but in 1970 he faced backlash from voters for his support of the Vietnam War. Cecil Heftel, owner of a radio conglomerate, won the Democratic nomination.
Fong was narrowly re-elected over Heftel with 52% of the vote in what would prove to be the closest election of his career. This would ultimately mark the last time that Republicans won a U.S. Senate seat in the state of Hawaii or win more than 44% of the vote.
A special election was held to fill the remainder of the term of Republican Everett Dirksen, who had died in office. Republican Ralph Tyler Smith had been appointed to fill the seat after Dirksen's death, and he lost the special election to Democrat Adlai Stevenson III.
1970 United States Senate special election in Illinois[1]
Democrat Vance Hartke was first elected in 1958 over Republican Harold W. Handley with 56% of the vote. He won re-election in 1964 (a landslide year for Democrats) with a lower share of 54%.
In 1970, he faced his closest contest to date against Republican Representative Richard L. Roudebush. Unlike voters in Hawaii, Indiana voters generally supported the Vietnam War, but Hartke opposed the war. This led Roudebush to run a close race that ultimately was decided after a recount. Hartke won by just about 4,200 votes.
This would be Hartke's last win in a U.S. Senate election. In 1976, he was defeated by Republican Richard Lugar.
1970 United States Senate election in Indiana[1][16]
In 1970, Republican J. Glenn Beall ran for re-election to a third term in the U.S. Senate but was defeated by Democrat Joseph Tydings in a landslide, 63-37%. Tydings ran for re-election to a second term in 1970.
Republicans nominated Representative J. Glenn Beall Jr., the son of J. Glenn Beall. Tydings faced a primary challenge from segregationist George P. Mahoney but won with 53% of the vote. However, Republican Glenn Beall Jr. won the general election with nearly 51% of the vote to 48% for Tydings. He would serve just one term, losing in 1976 to Democrat Paul Sarbanes.
Incumbent Democrat Ted Kennedy defeated his challengers. This was Kennedy's first election run since the 1969 Chappaquiddick incident. Kennedy won 62.2%, down from 74.3% that he won in the previous election in 1964; this decrease was due to numerous factors including Chappaquiddick and a far more favorable environment for the Republicans than the Democratic landslide year of 1964.
Other candidates were Lawrence Gilfedder (Socialist Labor) and Mark R. Shaw (Prohibition), a former Prohibition Party candidate for U.S. senator from Massachusetts in 1946, 1952, 1958, 1969, 1962, and 1966. He was the party's candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 1948 and 1956. In 1964, he was the Prohibition Party's candidate for vice-president of the United States.[18]
Incumbent Democrat Stuart Symington was originally elected in 1952 over Republican James P. Kem with 54% of the vote. He won re-election in landslide victories with 66% of the vote in 1958 and 1964. He ran for a fourth term in 1970.
Symington faced little primary opposition. Republican Missouri Attorney GeneralJohn Danforth won the Republican primary. In the general election, Symington led in polling, but Danforth closed the gap during the campaign and ran closely against Symington. Symington defeated Danforth 51-48%. This would be Symington's closest election to the U.S. Senate, and Danforth would succeed him in 1976, serving for three terms.
Democratic incumbent Mike Mansfield, the Senate Majority Leader who was first elected to the Senate in 1952, and was re-elected in 1958 and 1964, ran for re-election. Mansfield won the primary against several opponents, and advanced to the general election, where he was opposed by Harold E. Wallace, a sporting goods salesman and the Republican nominee. While his margin of victory decreased slightly from 1964, Mansfield still managed to defeat Wallace overwhelmingly, winning his fourth and (what would turn out to be his) final term in the Senate.
In the Senate, Cannon was known as a moderate in the Democratic Party. He served as chairman of several committees, including the rules committee and the inaugural arrangements committee. Cannon was nearly defeated for re-election in 1964 by Republican Lieutenant Governor Paul Laxalt in one of the closest election in history. However, he became more popular over the next few years and defeated D.A. William Raggio, whose 1970 senate campaign began his long political career. Raggio ran for the Nevada Senate in 1972 and won. He then served there for decades to come.
Only Burdick filed as a Dem-NPLer, and the endorsed Republican candidate was Thomas S. Kleppe, who was finishing his second and final term as a Representative for North Dakota's second congressional district. Burdick and Kleppe won the primary elections for their respective parties.
One independent candidate, Russell Kleppe, also filed before the deadline.
1970 United States Senate election in North Dakota[1]
Democrat Stephen M. Young had served in the U.S. Senate since 1958 after defeating Republican John W. Bricker in a close election. Young was re-elected in 1964 over Republican Representative Robert Taft Jr., whose father Robert A. Taft represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate from 1939 until his death in 1953. Young opted to retire in 1971.
Taft Jr. faced a tough primary challenge against Ohio governor Jim Rhodes. He won a bitterly-fought primary by just under 6,000 votes to advance to the general election. Democrat Howard Metzenbaum competed in an equally-competitive primary, defeating former astronaut John Glenn. Metzenbaum and Glenn would both later represent Ohio in the U.S. Senate.
Taft Jr. defeated Metzenbaum in a close election, taking nearly 50% of the vote to just above 47% for Metzenbaum. Metzenbaum would defeat Taft Jr. in a rematch election in 1976, serving until 1995 alongside Glenn.
Republican Winston L. Prouty was first elected in 1958, succeeding Republican Ralph Flanders. He was re-elected in 1964 in a realigning period for Vermont politics. Democrat Philip H. Hoff became the state's first Democratic governor since 1853, while William H. Meyer succeeded Prouty in the House of Representatives. Prouty faced a more difficult challenge in 1964 and won with just 53% of the vote.
In 1970, Prouty faced Hoff and Meyer in the general election, with Meyer nominated by the Liberty Union party. Prouty prevailed with 59% of the vote to 40% for Hoff and just 1% for Meyer. He would not serve the full term, as he passed in 1972 and was succeeded by Republican Robert Stafford.
Incumbent Harry F. Byrd Jr. was re-elected to his first full term after winning a race 4 years earlier to finish the remainder of his father's term. He beat George C. Rawlings Jr. (D), a former member of the Virginia House of Delegates, and Ray L. Garland (R), a member of Virginia House of Delegates.
^ abThe Liberal Party in New York nominated Charles Goodell, a Republican, but the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives did not tabulate their votes, totaling 225,793, into the national Republican total.[1]
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