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1978 United States Senate election in Maine

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FieldValue
election_name1978 United States Senate election in Maine
countryMaine
typepresidential
ongoingno
previous_election1972 United States Senate election in Maine
previous_year1972
next_election1984 United States Senate election in Maine
next_year1984
election_dateNovember 7, 1978
image_sizex150px
image1File:Senator William Cohen (R-ME).jpg
nominee1**William Cohen**
party1Republican Party (United States)
popular_vote1**212,294**
percentage1**56.59%**
image2File:Wm D Hathaway Senate.jpg
nominee2William Hathaway
party2Democratic Party (United States)
popular_vote2127,327
percentage233.94%
image3File:Hayes Gahagan 2.jpg
nominee3Hayes Gahagan
party3Independent
popular_vote327,824
percentage37.42%
map{{switcher
map_caption**Cohen:**
**Hathaway:**
**Gahagan:**
**Tie:**
titleU.S. Senator
before_electionWilliam Hathaway
before_partyDemocratic Party (United States)
after_electionWilliam Cohen
after_partyRepublican Party (United States)

|280px |County results |280px |Municipality results Hathaway:
Gahagan: Tie:

The 1978 United States Senate election in Maine was held on November 7, 1978. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator William Hathaway ran for re-election to a second term, but was defeated by William Cohen, the Republican U.S. Representative from Maine's 2nd congressional district. As of the 2024 election, this is the most recent time a Senator from Maine lost re-election.

No incumbent Senator has lost by such a large margin since Hathaway's 22.65-point loss, though James Abdnor in 1980, John Boozman in 2010, and Tommy Tuberville in 2020 all received larger percentages of the vote than Cohen's 56.59% against incumbent Senators.

Background

Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972 against incumbent Margaret Chase Smith, Hathaway had established himself as a very liberal senator, being ranked an average of 92 percent more liberal than the Senate as a whole during his first term. This put him at risk, considering the conservative nature of Maine before the 1990s. Meanwhile, young former state senator Hayes Gahagan launched an independent campaign, running well to the right of Cohen. Other candidates to join the race were independent John J. Jannace and perennial candidate Plato Truman.

Primaries

Republican primary results

|+ Republican Senate primary results: June 13, 1978 ! Year ! ! Candidate ! Votes ! % |- |1978 || | |William Cohen | |69,824 | |100 ||

Democratic primary results

|+ Democratic Senate primary results: June 13, 1978 ! Year ! ! Candidate ! Votes ! % ! ! Candidate ! Votes ! % |- |1978 || | |William D. Hathaway (inc.) | |48,453 | |99.83 || | |Write-In | |84 | |0.17

General election

Candidates

  • William Cohen, U.S. Representative from Bangor
  • Hayes Gahagan, former State Senator from Caribou (Independent)
  • William Hathaway, incumbent United States Senator (Democratic)
  • John J. Jannace (Independent)
  • Plato Truman (Independent)

Campaign

During the campaign, all candidates hit the campaign trail hard, with Hathaway receiving significant support from Jimmy Carter, Edmund Muskie, Ted Kennedy, and other national Democrats. The biggest surprise, however, came from Hayes Gahagan. Shortly before election day, he held a press conference where he announced that "unknown, subversive agents" had been altering his campaign photos by implanting subliminal images of female genitalia in his hairline.

Results

References

References

  1. "HATHAWAY, William Dodd (1924-2013)". VoteView.
  2. "Maine". 270towin.
  3. (July 29, 1978). "The Bangor Daily News from Bangor, Maine · 30". Bangor Daily News.
  4. "ME US Senate". OurCampaigns.
  5. "ME US Senate - R Primary".
  6. "ME US Senate - D Primary".
  7. (June 24, 2013). "Bill Hathaway, U.S. senator from Maine, dies at 89".
  8. (November 7, 2016). "Politics & Other Mistakes: No trophies".
  9. "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 7, 1978". Clerk of the United States House of Representatives.
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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