Election 1962 Results
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1962 Senate election results by state and county
Democrats won 22 of the Senate seats up in Kennedy's midterm and gained ground, helped by the Cuban missile crisis that broke weeks before the vote.
34 Senate races were held in 1962, plus 5 special elections. Democrats won 23 and Republicans 11.
The closest were South Dakota (D+0.2), Indiana (D+0.6) and Alabama (D+1.7). 6 seats changed party: Colorado to the Republicans, Connecticut to the Democrats, Indiana to the Democrats, Maryland to the Democrats, South Dakota to the Democrats and Wisconsin to the Democrats.
Early projection, based on early and incomplete polling: the likely matchups, each weighted by the betting markets' odds of both nominations, not a result. Each county is its 2024 presidential margin moved by its state's projected swing; set a national vote and every state, district and county moves by the same amount from our projection. Colours run in 100 steps from a safe Republican to a safe Democratic margin. Boundaries: US Census Bureau.
About the 1962 Senate elections
The Cuban missile crisis came in late October 1962, and voters rallied around the president. Democrats won 22 Senate races to the Republicans' 11 and made a net gain, taking seats in Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, South Dakota and Wisconsin while losing Colorado. It was the first time in decades that the president's party had gained Senate seats in a midterm. In Indiana, Birch Bayh beat three-term senator Homer Capehart by 0.6 points. George McGovern won South Dakota by 0.2 points, and Abraham Ribicoff took Connecticut. Gaylord Nelson unseated Alexander Wiley in Wisconsin. In Massachusetts, the president's youngest brother, Edward Kennedy, won a special election for his old seat. The South was changing. In Alabama, Lister Hill, in the Senate since 1938, beat Republican James Martin by just 1.7 points, an early sign of Republican growth in the region. In Colorado, Republican Peter Dominick unseated John Carroll.
Every race
| State | Democrat | Votes | Republican | Votes | Others | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Lister Hill | 201,937 (50.9%) | James D. Martin | 195,134 (49.1%) | 8 | D+1.7 |
| Alaska | Ernest Gruening | 33,827 (58.1%) | Ted Stevens | 24,354 (41.9%) | D+16.3 | |
| Arizona | Carl Hayden | 199,217 (54.9%) | Evan Mecham | 163,388 (45.1%) | D+9.9 | |
| Arkansas | J. William Fulbright | 214,867 (68.7%) | Kenneth Jones | 98,013 (31.3%) | D+37.4 | |
| California | Richard B. Richards | 2,452,839 (43.4%) | Thomas Kuchel | 3,180,483 (56.3%) | 14,630 | R+12.9 |
| Colorado flip | John Carroll | 279,586 (45.6%) | Peter H. Dominick | 328,655 (53.6%) | 5,203 | R+8.0 |
| Connecticut flip | Abraham Ribicoff | 527,522 (51.3%) | Horace Seely-Brown | 501,694 (48.7%) | D+2.5 | |
| Florida | George A. Smathers | 657,633 (70.0%) | Emerson Rupert | 281,381 (30.0%) | 193 | D+40.1 |
| Georgia | Herman Talmadge | 306,250 (100.0%) | none | D+100.0 | ||
| Hawaii | Daniel Inouye | 136,294 (69.4%) | Ben Dillingham | 60,067 (30.6%) | D+38.8 | |
| Idaho | Frank Church | 141,657 (54.7%) | Jack Hawley | 117,129 (45.3%) | D+9.5 | |
| Idaho (special) flip | Gracie Pfost | 126,398 (49.1%) | Len B. Jordan | 131,279 (50.9%) | R+1.9 | |
| Illinois | Sidney R. Yates | 1,748,007 (47.1%) | Everett Dirksen | 1,961,202 (52.9%) | 7 | R+5.8 |
| Indiana flip | Birch Bayh | 905,491 (50.3%) | Homer E. Capehart | 894,547 (49.7%) | D+0.6 | |
| Iowa | E.B. Smith | 376,602 (46.6%) | Bourke Hickenlooper | 431,364 (53.4%) | R+6.8 | |
| Kansas | K.L. Smith | 223,630 (35.9%) | Frank Carlson | 388,500 (62.4%) | 10,102 | R+26.5 |
| Kansas (special) | Paul L. Aylward | 260,756 (42.5%) | James B. Pearson | 344,689 (56.2%) | 7,805 | R+13.7 |
| Kentucky | Wilson W. Wyatt | 387,440 (47.2%) | Thruston B. Morton | 432,648 (52.8%) | R+5.5 | |
| Louisiana | Russell B. Long | 318,838 (75.6%) | Taylor W. O'Hearn | 103,066 (24.4%) | D+51.1 | |
| Maryland flip | Daniel Brewster | 439,723 (62.0%) | Edward T. Miller | 269,131 (38.0%) | 1 | D+24.1 |
| Massachusetts (special) | Ted Kennedy | 1,162,611 (55.4%) | George Cabot Lodge | 877,669 (41.9%) | 56,805 | D+13.6 |
| Missouri | Edward Long | 663,301 (54.4%) | Crosby Kemper | 555,330 (45.6%) | D+8.9 | |
| Nevada | Alan Bible | 63,443 (65.3%) | William B. Wright | 33,749 (34.7%) | D+30.6 | |
| New Hampshire | Alfred Catalfo Jr. | 90,444 (40.3%) | Norris Cotton | 134,035 (59.7%) | R+19.4 | |
| New Hampshire (special) flip | Thomas McIntyre | 117,612 (52.3%) | Perkins Bass | 107,199 (47.7%) | D+4.6 | |
| New York | James B. Donovan | 2,289,324 (40.1%) | Jacob Javits | 3,272,417 (57.4%) | 141,377 | R+17.2 |
| North Carolina | Sam J. Ervin | 491,520 (60.4%) | Claude L. Greene Jr. | 321,635 (39.6%) | D+20.9 | |
| North Dakota | William Lanier | 88,032 (39.3%) | Milton R. Young | 135,705 (60.7%) | R+21.3 | |
| Ohio | Frank J. Lausche | 1,843,813 (61.6%) | John M. Briley | 1,151,292 (38.4%) | D+23.1 | |
| Oklahoma | Mike Monroney | 353,890 (53.2%) | B. Hayden Crawford | 307,964 (46.3%) | 2,859 | D+6.9 |
| Oregon | Wayne Morse | 344,716 (54.2%) | Sig Unander | 291,587 (45.8%) | 250 | D+8.4 |
| Pennsylvania | Joseph S. Clark | 2,238,383 (51.1%) | James E. Van Zandt | 2,134,649 (48.7%) | 10,443 | D+2.4 |
| South Carolina | Olin D. Johnston | 178,712 (57.2%) | W.D. Workman Jr. | 133,930 (42.8%) | 5 | D+14.3 |
| South Dakota flip | George McGovern | 127,458 (50.1%) | Joe Bottum | 126,861 (49.9%) | D+0.2 | |
| Utah | David S. King | 151,656 (47.6%) | Wallace F. Bennett | 166,755 (52.4%) | R+4.7 | |
| Vermont | W. Robert Johnson | 40,134 (33.1%) | George D. Aiken | 81,241 (66.9%) | R+33.9 | |
| Washington | Warren Magnuson | 491,365 (52.1%) | Richard Christensen | 446,204 (47.3%) | 5,660 | D+4.8 |
| Wisconsin flip | Gaylord Nelson | 662,342 (52.6%) | Alexander Wiley | 594,846 (47.2%) | 2,980 | D+5.4 |
| Wyoming (special) | John J. Hickey | 50,329 (42.2%) | Milward Simpson | 69,043 (57.8%) | R+15.7 |
Margin: the Democrat's share of all votes minus the Republican's. Margins are Democrat minus Republican, of all votes. Certified results, from the states' own archives, the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, Heideman (2026) and Algara & Amlani (2021). By county: "As they were" draws each county as it stood on election day; "Today's" shares the old votes among today's counties by area. County boundaries: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5). How these results were checked.