United States Senate elections, 1974

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Republican holds Republican pickups Democratic holds Democratic pickups

The U.S. Senate election, 1974 was an election for the United States Senate 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.

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 future Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid by 624 votes. The election also produced other close results; Milton Young (R-ND) won reelection against Democrat William Guy by only 186 votes and Henry Bellmon (R-OK) won reelection against Democrat Ed Edmondson by half a percent of the vote.

A notable first term Senator was former astronaut John Glenn (D-OH), who defeated sitting Senator Howard Metzenbaum in a primary and went on to win the general election. Other notable freshman included Wendell Ford, the future Senate Whip, and Gary Hart, who would run for president in 1984 and 1988.

[edit] Senate contests in 1974

State	Incumbent	Party	Status	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	Defeated in Primary, Democratic victory	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%
Colorado	Peter H. Dominick	Republican	Defeated, 39.5%	Gary Hart (Democratic) 57.2%
Connecticut	Abraham A. Ribicoff	Democratic	Re-elected, 63.7%	James A. Brannen III (Republican) 34.3%
Florida	Edward J. Gurney	Republican	Retired, Democratic victory	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%	Dick Lugar (Republican) 46.4%
Iowa	Harold Hughes	Democratic	Retired, Democratic victory	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	Defeated, 44.1%	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 victory	Paul Laxalt (Republican) 47.0% Harry Reid (Democratic) 46.6%
New Hampshire¹	Norris Cotton	Republican	Retired, Republican victory	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 victory	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	Defeated in Primary, Democratic victory	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 victory	Jake Garn (Republican) 50.0% Wayne Owens (Democratic) 44.1%
Vermont	George Aiken	Republican	Retired, Democratic victory	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%

¹ Election was contested; Wyman was seated, then resigned so that a new election could take place. Norris Cotton held the seat temporarily until a new special election in 1975 selected Durkin.