Election 1976 Results
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1976 Senate election results by state and county
Jimmy Carter won the presidency while Democrats took 22 of the 33 Senate seats up, though so many incumbents lost that the party's majority barely changed.
33 Senate races were held in 1976. Democrats won 21 and Republicans 11, and 1 went to neither party.
The closest were Ohio (D+3.0), California (R+3.3) and Vermont (R+4.7). 14 seats changed party: Arizona to the Democrats, California to the Republicans, Hawaii to the Democrats, Indiana to the Republicans, Maryland to the Democrats, Missouri to the Republicans, Nebraska to the Democrats, New Mexico to the Republicans, New York to the Democrats, Ohio to the Democrats, Rhode Island to the Republicans, Tennessee to the Democrats, Utah to the Republicans and Wyoming to the Republicans.
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 1976 Senate elections
Carter, a former Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider after Watergate, narrowly beat Gerald Ford. In the Senate, Democrats won 22 races and Republicans 11, but seats changed hands in both directions and the Democratic majority stayed about the same. Nine incumbents lost. In California, S.I. Hayakawa, a semanticist and former president of San Francisco State, beat John Tunney. In New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan unseated James Buckley. Howard Metzenbaum beat Robert Taft Jr. in Ohio, and Jim Sasser beat Bill Brock in Tennessee. In Indiana, Richard Lugar beat Vance Hartke, and in Wyoming Malcolm Wallop unseated Gale McGee. Orrin Hatch beat Frank Moss in Utah, and Paul Sarbanes took Maryland from J. Glenn Beall Jr. Democrats also gained Arizona with Dennis DeConcini and Nebraska with Edward Zorinsky, while Republican John Danforth won Missouri and John Chafee took Rhode Island. In Pennsylvania, John Heinz won an open seat by 5.6 points. The class of 1976 included several senators who would serve for decades, among them Hatch, Lugar and Moynihan.
Every race
| State | Democrat | Votes | Republican | Votes | Others | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona flip | Dennis Deconcini | 400,334 (54.0%) | Sam Steiger | 321,236 (43.3%) | 19,640 | D+10.7 |
| California flip | John V. Tunney | 3,502,862 (46.9%) | S. I. Hayakawa | 3,748,973 (50.2%) | 218,751 | R+3.3 |
| Connecticut | Gloria Schaffer | 561,018 (41.2%) | Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. | 785,683 (57.7%) | 14,965 | R+16.5 |
| Delaware | Thomas C. Maloney | 98,042 (43.6%) | William V. Roth, Jr. | 125,454 (55.8%) | 1,299 | R+12.2 |
| Florida | Lawton Chiles | 1,799,518 (63.0%) | John Grady | 1,057,886 (37.0%) | 130 | D+26.0 |
| Hawaii flip | Spark M. Matsunaga | 162,305 (53.7%) | William Quinn | 122,724 (40.6%) | 17,063 | D+13.1 |
| Indiana flip | Vance Hartke | 868,522 (40.2%) | Richard G. Lugar | 1,275,833 (59.0%) | 16,832 | R+18.9 |
| Maine | Edmund S. Muskie | 292,704 (60.2%) | Robert A. G. Monks | 193,489 (39.8%) | D+20.4 | |
| Maryland flip | Paul S. Sarbanes | 772,101 (56.6%) | J. Glenn Beall, Jr. | 530,439 (38.9%) | 62,750 | D+17.7 |
| Massachusetts | Edward M. Kennedy | 1,726,657 (69.3%) | Michael S. Robertson | 722,641 (29.0%) | 41,957 | D+40.3 |
| Michigan | Donald W. Riegle, Jr. | 1,831,031 (52.5%) | Marvin L. Esch | 1,635,087 (46.8%) | 24,294 | D+5.6 |
| Minnesota | Hubert H. Humphrey | 1,290,736 (67.5%) | Jerry Brekke | 478,602 (25.0%) | Paul Helm (American) 125,612 (6.6%) |
D+42.5 |
| Mississippi | John C. Stennis | 554,433 (100.0%) | none | D+100.0 | ||
| Missouri flip | Warren E. Hearnes | 813,571 (42.5%) | John C. Danforth | 1,090,067 (56.9%) | 10,822 | R+14.4 |
| Montana | John Melcher | 206,232 (64.2%) | Stanley C. Burger | 115,213 (35.8%) | D+28.3 | |
| Nebraska flip | Edward Zorinsky | 313,805 (52.9%) | John Y. McCollister | 279,284 (47.1%) | 221 | D+5.8 |
| Nevada | Howard W. Cannon | 127,214 (63.0%) | David Towell | 63,471 (31.4%) | 11,214 | D+31.6 |
| New Jersey | Harrison A. Williams, Jr. | 1,681,140 (60.7%) | David F. Norcross | 1,054,508 (38.0%) | 35,742 | D+22.6 |
| New Mexico flip | Joseph Montoya | 176,382 (42.7%) | Harrison Schmitt | 234,681 (56.8%) | 1,993 | R+14.1 |
| New York flip | Pat Moynihan | 3,422,594 (54.2%) | James L. Buckley | 2,836,633 (44.9%) | 59,150 | D+9.3 |
| North Dakota | Quentin N. Burdick | 175,772 (62.1%) | Robert Stroup | 103,466 (36.6%) | 3,824 | D+25.5 |
| Ohio flip | Howard M. Metzenbaum | 1,941,113 (49.5%) | Robert Taft, Jr. | 1,823,774 (46.5%) | 155,726 | D+3.0 |
| Pennsylvania | William J. Green | 2,126,977 (46.8%) | H. John Heinz III | 2,381,891 (52.4%) | 37,485 | R+5.6 |
| Rhode Island flip | Richard P. Lorber | 167,665 (42.0%) | John H. Chafee | 230,329 (57.7%) | 912 | R+15.7 |
| Tennessee flip | James R. Sasser | 751,180 (52.5%) | Bill Brock | 673,231 (47.0%) | 7,635 | D+5.4 |
| Texas | Lloyd Bentsen | 2,199,956 (56.8%) | Alan Steelman | 1,636,370 (42.2%) | 37,904 | D+14.6 |
| Utah flip | Frank Moss | 241,948 (44.8%) | Orrin Hatch | 290,221 (53.7%) | 7,939 | R+8.9 |
| Vermont | Thomas P. Salmon | 85,682 (45.3%) | Robert T. Stafford | 94,481 (50.0%) | 8,897 | R+4.7 |
| Virginia | Elmo Zumwalt | 596,009 (38.3%) | none | Harry F. Byrd Jr. (Independent) 890,778 (57.2%) |
Ind. +18.9 | |
| Washington | Henry M. Jackson | 1,071,219 (71.8%) | George M. Brown | 361,546 (24.2%) | 58,346 | D+47.6 |
| West Virginia | Robert C. Byrd | 566,359 (100.0%) | none | D+100.0 | ||
| Wisconsin | William Proxmire | 1,404,324 (72.6%) | Stanley York | 521,902 (27.0%) | 8,957 | D+45.6 |
| Wyoming flip | Gale McGee | 70,558 (45.4%) | Malcolm Wallop | 84,810 (54.6%) | R+9.2 |
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.