United States Senate elections, 1980

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Republican holds Republican pickups Democratic holds

The 1980 U.S. Senate elections coincided with Ronald Reagan's election to the Presidency. Reagan's large margin of victory over incumbent Jimmy Carter pulled in many Democratic voters and gave a huge boost to Republican senate candidates.

The Republicans gained a net of twelve seats from the Democrats, the largest swing since 1958, and gained control of the Senate, 53-46. Majority and minority leaders Robert Byrd and Howard Baker exchanged places. This marked the first time since 1954 that the Republican Party controlled one of the Houses of Congress.

Without losing any seats, the Republicans took open seats in Alabama, Alaska, and Florida, and defeated nine incumbents: Herman Talmadge (D-GA), Frank Church (D-ID), Birch E. Bayh II (D-IN), John Culver (D-IA), John A. Durkin (D-NH), Robert Morgan (D-NC), 1972 presidential nominee George S. McGovern (D-SD), Warren Magnuson (D-WA), and Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) (see Reagan's coattails).

Notable new senators included future Vice-President J. Danforth Quayle (R-IN). Alfonse M. D'Amato (R-NY) defeated incumbent liberal Republican icon Jacob Javits in a primary, demonstrating the ascendancy of conservative Republicans.

In 1982, Harrison A. Williams (D-NJ) resigned from the Senate rather than face a vote on his expulsion over the Abscam scandal. He was replaced by Republican Nicholas F. Brady. This is not reflected in the party totals.

[edit] Senate contests in 1980

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

State	Incumbent	Party	Status	Opposing candidate(s)
Alabama	Donald W. Stewart	Democratic	Defeated in primary, Republican victory	Jeremiah Denton (Republican) 50.2% Jim Folsom, Jr. (Democratic) 47.1%
Alaska	Mike Gravel	Democratic	Defeated in primary, Republican victory	Frank Murkowski (Republican) 53.7% Clark Gruening (Democratic) 45.9%
Arizona	Barry Goldwater	Republican	Re-elected, 49.5%	Bill Schulz (Democratic) 48.4% Fred R. Easer (Libertarian) 1.4% Lorenzo Torrez (People Over Politics) 0.4% Josefina Otero (Socialist Workers) 0.4%
Arkansas	Dale Bumpers	Democratic	Re-elected, 59.1%	Bill Clark (Republican) 40.9%
California	Alan Cranston	Democratic	Re-elected, 56.5%	Paul Gann (Republican) 37.1% David Bergland (Libertarian) 2.4% David Wald (Peace & Freedom) 2.4% Jim Griffin (American Ind.) 1.6%
Colorado	Gary Hart	Democratic	Re-elected, 50.3%	Mary E. Buchanan (Republican) 48.7% Earl Higgerson (Statesman) 0.6% Henry John Olshaw (Unaffiliated-American) 0.4%
Connecticut	Abraham A. Ribicoff	Democratic	Retired, Democratic victory	Chris Dodd (Democratic) 56.3% James L. Buckley (Republican) 42.9%
Florida	Richard Stone	Democratic	Defeated in primary, Republican victory	Paula Hawkins (Republican) 51.7% Bill Gunter (Democratic) 48.3%
Georgia	Herman Talmadge	Democratic	Defeated, 49.1%	Mack Mattingly (Republican) 50.9%
Hawaii	Daniel Inouye	Democratic	Re-elected, 77.9%	Cooper Brown (Republican) 18.4%
Idaho	Frank Church	Democratic	Defeated, 48.8%	Steve Symms (Republican) 49.7%
Illinois	Adlai Stevenson III	Democratic	Retired, Democratic victory	Alan J. Dixon (Democratic) 56.0% Dave O'Neal (Republican) 42.5%
Indiana	Birch Bayh	Democratic	Defeated, 46.2%	Dan Quayle (Republican) 53.8%
Iowa	John Culver	Democratic	Defeated, 45.5%	Chuck Grassley (Republican) 53.5%
Kansas	Bob Dole	Republican	Re-elected, 63.8%	John Simpson (Democratic) 36.2%
Kentucky	Wendell H. Ford	Democratic	Re-elected, 65.1%	Mary L. Foust (Republican) 34.9%
Louisiana	Russell B. Long	Democratic	Re-elected in primary
Maryland	Charles Mathias, Jr.	Republican	Re-elected, 66.2%	Edward T. Conroy (Democratic) 33.8%
Missouri	Thomas Eagleton	Democratic	Re-elected, 52.0%	Gene McNary (Republican) 47.7% Martha Pettit (Socialist Workers) 0.3%
Nevada	Paul Laxalt	Republican	Re-elected, 58.5%	Mary Gojack (Democratic) 37.4%
New Hampshire	John A. Durkin	Democratic	Defeated, 47.8%	Warren Rudman (Republican) 52.1%
New York	Jacob K. Javits	Republican	Defeated in primary, Republican victory	Al D'Amato (Republican) 44.9% Elizabeth Holtzman (Democratic) 43.5% Jacob K. Javits (Liberal) 11.0%
North Carolina	Robert Burren Morgan	Democratic	Defeated, 49.4%	John Porter East (Republican) 50.0%
North Dakota	Milton Young	Republican	Retired, Republican victory	Mark Andrews (Republican) 70.3% Kent Johanneson (Democratic) 29.0%
Ohio	John Glenn	Democratic	Re-elected, 68.8%	James E. Betts (Republican) 28.2%
Oklahoma	Henry Bellmon	Republican	Retired, Republican victory	Don Nickles (Republican) 53.5% Andrew Coats (Democratic) 43.5%
Oregon	Bob Packwood	Republican	Re-elected, 52.1%	Ted Kulongoski (Democratic) 44.0%
Pennsylvania	Richard Schweiker	Republican	Retired, Republican victory	Arlen Specter (Republican) 50.5% Pete Flaherty (Democratic) 48.0%
South Carolina	Ernest Hollings	Democratic	Re-elected, 70.4%	Marshall T. Mays (Republican) 29.6%
South Dakota	George McGovern	Democratic	Defeated, 39.4%	James Abdnor (Republican) 58.2% Wayne Peterson (Independent) 2.4%
Utah	Jake Garn	Republican	Re-elected, 73.6%	Dan Berman (Democratic) 25.5%
Vermont	Patrick Leahy	Democratic	Re-elected, 49.8%	Stewart M. Ledbetter (Republican) 48.5%
Washington	Warren G. Magnuson	Democratic	Defeated, 45.8%	Slade Gorton (Republican) 54.2%
Wisconsin	Gaylord Nelson	Democratic	Defeated, 48.3%	Bob Kasten (Republican) 50.2%