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Elections in Alaska |
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The 1968 United States Senate election in Alaska took place on November 5, 1968. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Ernest Gruening ran for a second full term in office but finished behind Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives Mike Gravel in the Democratic primary. Gruening launched an write-in bid for the seat in the general election, but finished third to Gravel and Republican former Anchorage mayor Elmer Rasmuson.
Gravel would later lose the primary in 1980 to Gruening's grandson Clark.
This would be the first of 3 times where the incumbent holder of Alaska's Class 3 U.S. Senate seat was defeated in the primary while running for re-election.
Future Senator Ted Stevens also ran in the Republican primary, but lost to Rasmuson by around 1,000 votes. When incumbent Democratic Class 2 Senator Bob Bartlett died that December, Governor Wally Hickel appointed Stevens to the vacant seat, giving Stevens a seniority advantage of 10 days over the incoming Gravel.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Mike Gravel | 17,971 | 52.9 | |
Democratic | Ernest Gruening (incumbent) | 16,015 | 47.1 | |
Total votes | 33,986 | 100.00 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Elmer Rasmuson | 10,320 | 53.1 | |
Republican | Ted Stevens | 9,111 | 46.9 | |
Total votes | 19,431 | 100.00 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Mike Gravel | 36,527 | 45.13% | ||
Republican | Elmer Rasmuson | 30,286 | 37.42% | ||
Write-in | Ernest Gruening (incumbent) | 14,118 | 17.44% | ||
Total votes | 80,931 | 100.00% | |||
Democratic hold | Swing | ||||
Theodore Fulton Stevens Sr. was an American politician and lawyer who served as a U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1968 to 2009. He was the longest-serving Republican Senator in history at the time he left office, surpassing Strom Thurmond in 2007, though his record was later surpassed on January 13, 2017, by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. Hatch was overtaken in 2023 by Chuck Grassley. He was the president pro tempore of the United States Senate in the 108th and 109th Congresses from January 3, 2003, to January 3, 2007, and was the third U.S. Senator to hold the title of president pro tempore emeritus. He was previously Solicitor of the Department of the Interior from September 1960 to January 1961.
Edward Lewis "Bob" Bartlett, was an Alaska politician and a member of the Democratic Party.
Ernest Henry Gruening was an American journalist and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, Gruening was the governor of the Alaska Territory from 1939 until 1953, and a United States Senator from Alaska from 1959 until 1969.
The 1980 United States Senate elections were held on November 4, coinciding with Ronald Reagan's victory in the presidential election. The 34 Senate seats of Class 3 were contested in regular elections. Reagan's large margin of victory over incumbent Jimmy Carter gave a huge boost to Republican Senate candidates, allowing them to flip 12 Democratic seats and win control of the chamber for the first time since the end of the 83rd Congress in January 1955.
The 1970 United States Senate elections was an election for the United States Senate. It took place on November 3, with the 33 seats of Class 1 contested in regular elections. Special elections were also held to fill vacancies. These races occurred in the middle of Richard Nixon's first term as president. The Democrats lost a net of three seats, while the Republicans and the Conservative Party of New York picked up one net seat each, and former Democrat Harry F. Byrd Jr. was re-elected as an independent.
The 1968 United States Senate elections were elections for the United States Senate. Held on November 5, the 34 seats of Class 3 were contested in regular elections. They coincided with the presidential election of the same year. Although Richard Nixon won the presidential election narrowly, the Republicans picked up five net seats in the Senate. This saw Republicans win a Senate seat in Florida for the first time since Reconstruction.
The 1958 United States Senate elections were elections for the United States Senate which occurred in the middle of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's second term. Thirty-two seats of Class 1 were contested in regular elections, the new state of Alaska held its first Senate elections for its Class 2 and 3 seats, and two special elections were held to fill vacancies.
The Alaska Statehood Act was introduced by Delegate E.L. Bob Bartlett and signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on July 7, 1958. As a result, Alaska became the 49th U.S. state on January 3, 1959. The law was the culmination of a multi-decade effort by many prominent Alaskans, including Bartlett, Ernest Gruening, Bill Egan, Bob Atwood, and Ted Stevens.
Elmer Edwin Rasmuson was an American banker, philanthropist and politician in the territory and state of Alaska. He led the family business, National Bank of Alaska, for many decades as president and later chairman. He also served as Mayor of Anchorage from 1964 to 1967 and was the Republican nominee for United States Senator from Alaska in the 1968 election, losing the general election to Mike Gravel.
The Alaska Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in Alaska, headquartered in Anchorage.
Clark S. Gruening is an attorney and Democratic Party politician from the U.S. state of Alaska. He is chiefly known as the second of three persons to defeat the incumbent holder of Alaska's Class 3 United States Senate seat in the primary election.
The 2008 United States Senate election in Alaska was held on November 4, 2008. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator and former President pro tempore Ted Stevens ran for re-election to a eighth term in the United States Senate. It was one of the ten Senate races that U.S. Senator John Ensign of Nevada, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, predicted as being most competitive. The primaries were held on August 26, 2008. Stevens was challenged by Democratic candidate Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage and son of former U.S. Representative Nick Begich.
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.
Electoral history of Mike Gravel, Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives (1965–1966), United States Senator from Alaska (1969–1981), candidate for the 1972 Democratic Party Vice Presidential nomination and 2008 Democratic and later Libertarian Presidential nomination
The 2002 United States Senate election in Alaska was held on November 5, 2002. Incumbent Republican United States Senator Ted Stevens ran for and won a seventh term in the United States Senate. He faced perennial candidate Frank Vondersaar, the Democratic nominee, journalist Jim Sykes, the Green Party nominee, and several other independent candidates in his bid for re-election. Ultimately, Stevens crushed his opponents to win what would be his last term in the Senate, allowing him to win the highest percentage of the vote in any of his elections.
The 2004 United States Senate election in Alaska took place on November 2, 2004, alongside other elections to the United States Senate in other states as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives, various state and local elections, and the presidential election of that year. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Anchorage, sought election to her first full term after being appointed by her father Frank Murkowski to serve out the rest of the latter's unexpired term when he resigned in December 2002 to become Governor of Alaska. Her main challenger was Democratic former governor Tony Knowles, her father's predecessor as governor. Murkowski won by a slight margin.
The 2010 Alaska gubernatorial election took place on November 2, 2010. Former Governor Sarah Palin did not run, having resigned in July 2009. Incumbent Governor Sean Parnell, who as lieutenant governor succeeded Palin following her resignation, announced that he would seek a full term.
The 1974 United States Senate election in Alaska took place on November 5, 1974. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Mike Gravel was re-elected to a second term in office, defeating Republican State Senator Clyde "C.R." Lewis. As of 2022, it is the last time the Democrats or a person not named Murkowski have won the Class 3 Senate seat in Alaska.
The 1962 United States Senate election in Alaska took place on November 6, 1962. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Ernest Gruening ran for a second term in office and defeated Republican nominee, Anchorage lawyer, former Interior Solicitor & former U.S. Attorney Ted Stevens.
The 1958 United States Senate elections in Alaska were held November 25, 1958. The elections were held in anticipation of Alaska's admission as the forty-ninth State in the union, effective January 3, 1959. The state held two simultaneous elections to determine their first senators.