United States Senate election in South Dakota, 1980
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County results
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The 1980 United States Senate election in South Dakota was held on November 2, 1980. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator George McGovern ran for re-election to a fourth term, but was defeated by Republican James Abdnor.
Democratic primary
Candidates
Results
| Democratic primary results[1] |
| Party |
Candidate |
Votes |
% |
|
Democratic |
George McGovern |
44,822 |
62.44 |
|
Democratic |
Larry Schumaker |
26,958 |
37.56 |
| Total votes |
71,780 |
100.00 |
Republican primary
Candidates
Results
| Republican primary results[2] |
| Party |
Candidate |
Votes |
% |
|
Republican |
James Abdnor |
68,196 |
72.93 |
|
Republican |
Dale Bell |
25,314 |
27.07 |
| Total votes |
93,510 |
100.00 |
General election
Candidates
Campaign
McGovern was one of several liberal Democratic U.S. senators targeted for defeat in 1980 by the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC), which put out a year's worth of negative portrayals of McGovern.[3] They and other pro-life groups especially focused on McGovern's support for pro-choice abortion laws.[4] McGovern faced a Democratic primary challenge for the first time, from a pro-life candidate.[5]
Abdnor, a four-term incumbent congressman who held identical positions to McGovern on farm issues, was solidly conservative on national issues, and was well liked within the state.[4][6] Abdnor's campaign focused on both McGovern's liberal voting record and what it said was McGovern's lack of involvement in South Dakotan affairs.[4] McGovern made an issue of NCPAC's outside involvement, and that group eventually withdrew from the campaign after Abdnor denounced a letter they had sent out.[4] Far behind in the polls earlier, McGovern outspent Abdnor 2-to-1, hammered away at Abdnor's refusal to debate him (drawing attention to a slight speech defect Abdnor had), and, showing the comeback pattern of some of his past races in the state, closed the gap for a while.[4][7][8]
However, in the general election McGovern was solidly defeated, getting only 39 percent of the vote to Abdnor's 58 percent.[7] McGovern became one of many Democratic casualties of that year's Republican sweep,[8] which became known as the "Reagan Revolution".
Results
References
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- ↑ http://www.sdsos.gov/electionsvoteregistration/electvoterpdfs/72-86/80SDPRIM.pdf
- ↑ http://www.sdsos.gov/electionsvoteregistration/electvoterpdfs/72-86/80SDPRIM.pdf
- ↑ *Marano, Richard Michael, Vote Your Conscience: The Last Campaign of George McGovern, Praeger Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0-275-97189-9. pp. 22–23.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Marano, Vote Your Conscience, p. 27.
- ↑ Marano, Vote Your Conscience, p. 29.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Marano, Vote Your Conscience, p. 32.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1980election.pdf
