1980 United States Senate election in Wisconsin

1980 United States Senate election in Wisconsin

←  1974 November 4, 1980 1986  →

Nominee Bob Kasten Gaylord Nelson Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 1,106,311 1,065,487 Percentage 50.19% 48.34%

County results Kasten:     50–60%     60–70% Nelson:     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%

U.S. senator before election Gaylord Nelson Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Bob Kasten Republican

The 1980 United States Senate election in Wisconsin was held on November 4, 1980. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson ran for re-election to a fourth term but was defeated by Bob Kasten, a Republican. ^[1]

Republican primary

Candidates

• Doug Cofrin, publisher of Milwaukee Magazine
• Bob Kasten, former U.S. Representative
• Terry Kohler, businessman
• Russell Olson, Lieutenant Governor

Results

Primary results by county:

  Kasten

•   20–30%
•   30–40%
•   40–50%
•   50–60%
•   60–70%

  Kohler

•   20–30%
•   30–40%
•   40–50%
•   50–60%

  Cofrin

•   30–40%
•   40–50%
•   50–60%

  Olson

•   40–50%

Republican primary results ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Bob Kasten	134,586	36.77%
	Republican	Terry Kohler	106,270	29.03%
	Republican	Doug Cofrin	84,355	23.05%
	Republican	Russell Olson	40,823	11.15%
Total votes			366,034	100.00%

Results

General election results

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Bob Kasten	1,106,311	50.19%
	Democratic	Gaylord Nelson (incumbent)	1,065,487	48.34%
	Constitution	James P. Wickstrom	16,156	0.73%
	Libertarian	Bervin J. Larson	9,679	0.44%
	Socialist Workers	Susan Hagen	6,502	0.30%
Total votes			2,204,135	100.00%
	Republican gain from Democratic

See also

• 1980 United States Senate elections

References

1. "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 4, 1980" (PDF). clerk.house.gov. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 20, 2022.
2. "WI US Senate - R Primary". Our Campaigns. Retrieved January 2, 2020.