United States Senate elections, 1978

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Republican holds Republican pickups Democratic holds Democratic pickups

The United States Senate election, 1978 was an election for the United States Senate 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.

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 (D-CO), Dick Clark (D-IA), William Hathaway (D-ME), Wendell Anderson (D-MN), and Thomas McIntyre (D-NH). These were partially balanced by Democratic defeats of Edward Brooke (R-MA) and Robert Griffin (R-MI), and captures of Republican open seats in Nebraska, New Jersey, and Oklahoma.

[edit] Senate contests in 1978

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

State	Incumbent	Party	Status	Opposing Candidates
Alabama	John Sparkman	Democratic	Retired, Democratic victory	Howell Heflin (Democratic) 94.0% Jerome B. Couch (Independent) 6.0%
Alabama¹	Maryon Pittman Allen	Democratic	Defeated in Primary, Democratic victory	Donald W. Stewart (Democratic) 54.9% James D. Martin (Republican) 43.2%
Alaska	Ted Stevens	Republican	Re-elected, 75.6%	Donald W. Hobbs (Democratic) 24.1%
Arkansas	Kaneaster Hodges, Jr.	Democratic	Retired, Democratic victory	David Pryor (Democratic) 76.6% Tom Kelly (Republican) 16.2% John J. Black (Independent) 7.2%
Colorado	Floyd K. Haskell	Democratic	Defeated, 40.3%	William L. Armstrong (Republican) 40.3%
Delaware	Joe Biden	Democratic	Re-elected, 58.0%	James H. Baxter (Republican) 41.0%
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%
Iowa	Dick Clark	Democratic	Defeated, 47.9%	Roger Jepsen (Republican) 51.1%
Kansas	James B. Pearson	Republican	Retired, Republican victory	Nancy Landon Kassebaum (Republican) 53.9% William R. Roy (Democratic) 42.4%
Kentucky	Walter Huddleston	Democratic	Re-elected, 61.0%	Louis Guenthner (Republican) 36.9% Anthony A. McCord (American) 2.1%
Louisiana	Bennett Johnston Jr.	Democratic	Re-elected in primary
Maine	William Hathaway	Democratic	Defeated, 33.9%	William Cohen (Republican) 56.6% Hayes E. Gahagan (Independent) 7.4%
Massachusetts	Edward Brooke	Republican	Defeated, 44.8%	Paul Tsongas (Democratic) 55.1%
Michigan	Robert P. Griffin	Republican	Defeated, 47.9%	Carl Levin (Democratic) 52.1%
Minnesota²	Muriel Humphrey	Democratic	Retired, Republican victory	David Durenberger (Republican) 61.4% Bob Short (Democratic) 34.5%
Minnesota	Wendell Anderson	Democratic	Defeated, 40.4%	Rudy Boschwitz (Republican) 56.6%
Mississippi	James O. Eastland	Democratic	Retired, Republican victory	Thad Cochran (Republican) 45.1% Maurice Dantin (Democratic) 31.8% Charles Evers (Independent) 22.9%
Montana	Paul G. Hatfield	Democratic	Defeated in Primary, Democratic victory	Max Baucus (Democratic) 55.7% Larry Williams (Republican) 44.3%
Nebraska	Carl Curtis	Republican	Retired, Democratic victory	J. James Exon (Democratic) 67.6% Donald Shasteen (Republican) 32.3%
New Hampshire	Thomas J. McIntyre	Democratic	Defeated, 48.5%	Gordon J. Humphrey (Republican) 50.7%
New Jersey	Clifford P. Case	Republican	Defeated in Primary, Democratic victory	Bill Bradley (Democratic) 55.3% Jeffrey Bell (Republican) 43.1%
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 victory	David L. Boren (Democratic) 65.5% Robert B. Kamm (Republican) 32.9%
Oregon	Mark Hatfield	Republican	Re-elected, 61.6%	Vernon Cook (Democratic) 38.3%
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 victory	Larry Pressler (Republican) 66.8% Don Barnett (Democratic) 33.2%
Tennessee	Howard Baker	Republican	Re-elected, 55.5%	Jane Eskind (Democratic) 40.3%
Texas	John Tower	Republican	Re-elected, 49.8%	Bob Krueger (Democratic) 49.3%
Virginia	William L. Scott	Republican	Retired, Republican victory	John Warner (Republican) 50.2% Andrew P. Miller (Democratic) 49.8%
West Virginia	Jennings Randolph	Democratic	Re-elected, 50.5%	Arch A. Moore, Jr. (Republican) 49.5%
Wyoming	Clifford Hansen	Republican	Retired, Republican victory	Alan K. Simpson (Republican) 62.2% Raymond B. Whitaker (Democratic) 37.8%