1980 United States Senate election in Nevada

1980 United States Senate election in Nevada

←  1974 November 4, 1980 1986  →

Nominee Paul Laxalt Mary Gojack Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 144,224 92,129 Percentage 58.52% 37.38%

County results Laxalt:      50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%

U.S. senator before election Paul Laxalt Republican Elected U.S. Senator Paul Laxalt Republican

The 1980 United States Senate election in Nevada was held on November 4, 1980. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Paul Laxalt won re-election to a second term. As of 2025, this is the last time that the Republicans have won the Class 3 Senate seat from Nevada. 42 years later Laxalt's grandson and former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt would run to take this senate seat in 2022, but narrowly lost to incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto.

Major candidates

Democratic

• Mary Gojack, former State Senator (1974–1978) and former State Assemblywoman (1972–1974) ^[1]

Republican

• Paul Laxalt, incumbent U.S. Senator since 1974 and former Governor (1967–1971)

Results

General election results ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Paul Laxalt (incumbent)	144,224	58.52%	+11.55%
	Democratic	Mary Gojack	92,129	37.38%	−9.22%
	Libertarian	Allen Hacker	6,920	2.81%
	None of These Candidates		3,163	1.28%
Majority			52,095	21.14%	+20.77%
Turnout			246,436
	Republican hold		Swing

See also

• 1980 United States Senate elections

References

1. "Our Campaigns - Candidate - Mary L. Gojack".
2. "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 4, 1980" (PDF). clerk.house.gov. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 20, 2022.