Reagan's coattails
When Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United States in the 1980 election, his victory was accompanied by the change of 11 seats in the U.S. Senate from Democratic to Republican hands. This resulted in a Republican majority in the Senate for the first time since 1955.
The most stunning defeat was that of U.S. Sen. George S. McGovern (D-S.D.), a prominent liberal Democrat who had been the party's nominee for president in 1972. McGovern lost his bid for a fourth term in the Senate to U.S. Rep. James Abdnor (R-S.D.)
Other Democratic losses in the Senate that year:
- U.S. Sen. John A. Durkin (D-N.H.) lost his bid for a second term to Republican Warren B. Rudman. Durkin resigned his seat in December and Rudman was appointed to fill out the remaining few days of Durkin's term.
- U.S. Sen. John C. Culver lost his bid for a second term in the Senate to Republican Charles E. Grassley.
- U.S. Sen. Richard B. Stone (D-Fla.) lost in the Democratic primary to William D. Gunter Jr.. Gunter lost the general election to Republican Paula Hawkins.
- U.S. Sen. M. R. "Mike" Gravel (D-Alaska), the senator who in 1971 had entered the full text of the Pentagon Papers into the official record of the Senate Subcommittee of Public Buildings and Grounds, was unexpectedly defeated in the Democratic primary to Clark Gruening, who lost the general election to Republican Frank H. Murkowski.
