1980 United States Senate election in Alaska

The 1980 United States Senate election in Alaska was held on November 4, 1980. Incumbent Democratic United States Senator Mike Gravel ran for a third term in the United States Senate, but lost in the Democratic primary to Clark Gruening, a former state representative who was the grandson of Ernest Gruening, whom Gravel had defeated twelve years prior in an election for the same seat. Gruening later went on to lose the general election to Republican nominee Frank Murkowski, a banker.

1980 United States Senate election in Alaska

November 4, 1980
 
Nominee Frank Murkowski Clark Gruening
Party Republican Democratic
Popular vote 84,159 72,007
Percentage 53.69% 45.93%

Results by state house district
Murkowski:      50–60%      60–70%
Gruening:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%

U.S. senator before election

Mike Gravel
Democratic

Elected U.S. Senator

Frank Murkowski
Republican

After the loss of Gravel's seat, no Alaska Democrat would win a congressional race again until Mark Begich's narrow victory in Alaska's 2008 Senate election.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.