1980 United States Senate election in Alaska

1980 United States Senate election in Alaska

← 1974 November 4, 1980 1986 →

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

U.S. senator before election Mike Gravel Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Frank Murkowski Republican

Elections in Alaska
Federal government Presidential elections 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 Presidential primaries and caucuses Democratic 2008 2016 2020 Republican 2008 2012 2016 U.S. Senate elections 1960 1962 1968 1972 1974 1978 1980 1984 1986 1990 1992 1996 1998 2002 2004 2008 2010 2014 2016 2020 2022 U.S. House elections 1972 1973 (sp:AL) 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020
State government Gubernatorial elections 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 State elections 2006 2010 2012 2016 State Senate elections 2014 2016 2018 2020 State House Elections 2014 2016 2018 2020 Ballot measures 1990 2 1998 2 2008 ACWI 2014 2
Anchorage Mayoral elections 1981 1984 1987 1990 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2018 2021 Propositions 2018 (1)
v t e

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.

After the loss of Gravel's seat, no Alaska Democrat would win a congressional race again until Mark Begich's narrow, protracted triumph in Alaska's 2008 Senate election.^[1]

Democratic primary

Candidates

• Clark Gruening, former Alaska State Representative
• Mike Gravel, incumbent United States Senator
• Michael J. Beasley, perennial candidate

Campaign

First elected in 1968, by 1980 two-term Democratic incumbent Mike Gravel had become noted for a filibuster that attempted to end the draft during the Vietnam War and for including the full text of the Pentagon Papers in the Congressional Record.

Gravel faced a challenging bid for reelection, complicated by the fact that his triumph over Ernest Gruening years prior had made him a pariah in the Alaska Democratic Party. Though Gravel had campaigned to be selected as George McGovern's running mate in the 1972 U.S. presidential election and had easily won reelection to the Senate in 1974, he had never established a strong political base in Alaska.^[2]

The passage of a controversial land bill earlier in the year, as opposed to a compromise bill worked out by fellow Senator Ted Stevens that failed thanks to Gravel two years earlier, further harmed his reelection bid.^[3][4] A group of Democrats, including future governor Steve Cowper, campaigned against Gravel on the land bill issue.^[5]

Gravel's campaign funds, some of which came from political action committees outside the state, also became an issue in the contest.^[4] Another factor may have been Alaska's blanket primary system, which allowed unlimited cross-over voting across parties and from its large unaffiliated electorate;^[5] Republicans believed Gruening would be an easier candidate to defeat in the general election.^[4] The blanket primary had first been used in the 1968 election, and was something Gravel himself was able to capitalize on that year.

Gravel later said that by the time of his primary defeat, he had alienated "almost every constituency in Alaska."^[3] In the August 26 primary Gruening defeated Gravel by 11 percentage points.

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

• Frank Murkowski, president of the Alaska National Bank of the North and former Commissioner of Economic Development
• Art Kennedy
• Morris Thompson, former Bureau of Indian Affairs official
• Don Smith, Anchorage assemblyman
• Donald R. Wright, former president of the Alaska Federation of Natives
• Dave Moe

Results

General election

Results

See also

• 1980 United States Senate elections

References

This page was last edited on 1 January 2021, at 07:15