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. This was the first time since 1966 that any party successfully defended all their own seats.
This is one of only five occasions where ten or more Senate seats changed hands in an election, with the others being in 1920, 1932, 1946, and 1958. This is the earliest Senate election with a Senator that is still serving, that being Chuck Grassley of Iowa.
This was the largest Senate swing since 1958, and was the largest Republican gain since 1946, when the Republicans also picked up 12 seats. This was also the last time the Senate changed hands in a presidential election year until 2020 when Democrats won control, the last time the Republicans gained control of the Senate in a presidential election year until 2024, and the last time Maryland elected a Republican to the Senate. These elections were also the last time the winner of the presidential election had coattails in the Senate until 2004.
Results summary.
Source: Office of the Clerk
Gains, losses, and holds.
Retirements.
Three Republicans and two Democrats retired instead of seeking re-election.
Defeats.
One Republican and twelve Democrats sought re-election but lost in the primary or general election.
Post-election changes.
One Democrat resigned on April 12, 1982, and was later replaced by Republican appointee.
Race summary.
Special elections.
There were no special elections in 1980.
Elections leading to the next Congress.
In these general elections, the winners were elected for the term beginning January 3, 1981; ordered by state.
All of the elections involved the Class 3 seats.
Closest races.
In nineteen races the margin of victory was under 10%.
Alabama.
Incumbent Democrat Donald Stewart decided to run for his first full term, but was defeated in the primary. In November, Republican Jeremiah Denton defeated Democrat Jim Folsom, Public Service Commissioner.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 15em" |Party
! scope="col" style="width: 17em" |Candidate
! scope="col" style="width: 5em" |Votes
! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em" |%
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Turnout
Alaska.
Incumbent Democrat Mike Gravel ran for a third term, 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.
After the loss of Gravel's seat, no Alaska Democrat would win a congressional race again until Mark Begich's narrow, protracted triumph in Alaska's 2008 Senate election.
First elected in 1968, by 1980 two-term Democratic incumbent Mike Gravel had become noted for a filibuster that attempted to end the draft during the Vietnam War and for including the full text of the Pentagon Papers in the Congressional Record.
Gravel faced a challenging bid for re-election, complicated by the fact that his triumph over Ernest Gruening years prior had made him a pariah in the Alaska Democratic Party. Though Gravel had campaigned to be selected as George McGovern's running mate in the 1972 U.S. presidential election and had easily won re-election to the Senate in 1974, he had never established a strong political base in Alaska.
The passage of a controversial land bill earlier in the year, as opposed to a compromise bill worked out by fellow senator Ted Stevens that failed thanks to Gravel two years prior, further harmed his re-election bid. A group of Democrats, including future governor Steve Cowper, campaigned against Gravel on the land bill issue.
The sources of Gravel's campaign funds, some of which came from political action committees outside the state, also became an issue in the contest. Another factor may have been Alaska's blanket primary system, which allows unlimited cross-over voting across parties and from its large unaffiliated electorate; Republicans believed Gruening would be an easier candidate to defeat in the general election. The blanket primary had first been used in the 1968 election, and was something Gravel himself was able to capitalize upon in his 1968 campaign.
Gravel would later comment that by the time of his primary defeat, he had alienated "almost every constituency in Alaska." In the August 26, 1980, primary Gruening defeated Gravel by 11 percentage points.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 15em" |Party
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! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes
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! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em" |%
! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 130px"|Party
! scope="col" style="width: 17em"|Candidate
! scope="col" style="width: 5em"|Votes
! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em"|%
! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em"| ;templatestyles src="Template:Tooltip/styles.css" / ;±%
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" scope=row | Turnout
! style="text-align:right;" | Swing
Arizona.
Incumbent Republican Barry Goldwater decided to run for reelection to a third consecutive term, after returning to the U.S. Senate in 1968 following his failed Presidential run in 1964 against Lyndon B. Johnson. Goldwater defeated Democratic Party nominee Bill Schulz in the general election, but only by a narrow margin, which later caused Goldwater to decide against running for reelection to a fourth consecutive term.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 15em" |Party
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! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em" |%
! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes
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! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em"|%
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! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" scope=row | Turnout
! style="text-align:right;" | Swing
Arkansas.
Incumbent Democrat Dale Bumpers won re-election to a second term over real estate broker William Clark.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 15em" |Party
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! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Turnout
California.
Incumbent Democrat Alan Cranston easily won re-election to a third term over Paul Gann, political activist, even as the state's former Republican governor, Ronald Reagan, claimed a landslide victory in the presidential election.
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! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Turnout
Colorado.
Incumbent Democrat Gary Hart won re-election to a second term over Mary Estill Buchanan, Colorado Secretary of State.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 130px"|Party
! scope="col" style="width: 17em"|Candidate
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! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em"|%
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! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" scope=row | Turnout
! style="text-align:right;" | Swing
Connecticut.
Incumbent Democrat Abraham Ribicoff decided to retire. Democrat Chris Dodd won the open seat over James Buckley, former U.S. senator from New York.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 15em" |Party
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! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em" |%
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Turnout
Florida.
Incumbent Democrat Richard Stone decided to run for re-election to a second term, but was defeated in the Democratic primary election by Bill Gunter. Republican Paula Hawkins won the open seat.
Stone, a freshman senator, had a reputation for changing his mind. In 1980, the AFL–CIO actively campaigned against him, and Stone was deemed vulnerable in his re-election bid. Six Democrats entered the race for Stone's seat including his 1974 runoff opponent Bill Gunter who was Florida State Treasurer/Insurance Commissioner in 1980. As was the case in 1974, Stone and Gunter were forced into a runoff but, unlike 1974, Gunter won the nomination.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 15em" |Party
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! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em" |%
! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes
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! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes
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! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes
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! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em" |%
! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes
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! scope="col" style="width: 17em"|Candidate
! scope="col" style="width: 5em"|Votes
! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em"|%
! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em"| ;templatestyles src="Template:Tooltip/styles.css" / ;±%
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" scope=row | Turnout
! style="text-align:right;" | Swing
Georgia.
Incumbent Democrat and former Governor of Georgia Herman Talmadge decided to run for re-election to a fifth term, but lost a close race to Mack Mattingly, Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party. 1980 resulted in a landslide election for Republicans that would come to be known as the Reagan Revolution.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 130px"|Party
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! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em"|%
! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em"| ;templatestyles src="Template:Tooltip/styles.css" / ;±%
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" scope=row | Turnout
! style="text-align:right;" | Swing
Hawaii.
Incumbent Democrat Daniel Inouye was re-elected to a fourth term, defeating Republican Cooper Brown.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 15em" |Party
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! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Turnout
Idaho.
Incumbent Democrat Frank Church ran for re-election to a fifth term, but was defeated by Republican Steve Symms, U.S. Congressman.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 130px"|Party
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! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em"|%
! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em"| ;templatestyles src="Template:Tooltip/styles.css" / ;±%
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" scope=row | Turnout
! style="text-align:right;" | Swing
Illinois.
Incumbent Democrat Adlai Stevenson III decided to retire. Democrat Alan J. Dixon won the open seat, beating Dave O'Neal, Lieutenant Governor of Illinois
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 15em" |Party
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! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em" |%
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Turnout
Indiana.
Incumbent Democrat Birch Bayh ran for a fourth term, but was defeated by Republican Dan Quayle.
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Birch Bayh, the incumbent senator, faced no opposition within the Indiana Democratic Party and avoided a primary election. Bayh was originally elected in 1962 and re-elected in 1968 and 1974. He was Chairman of Senate Intelligence Committee and architect of 25th and 26th Amendments. This election was one of the key races in the country, and signaled a trend that would come to be known as Reagan's coattails, describing the influence Ronald Reagan had in congressional elections. Incumbent three-term senator Birch Bayh was defeated by over 160,000 votes to Representative Dan Quayle, who would later go on to be Vice President of the United States.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 15em" |Party
! scope="col" style="width: 17em" |Candidate
! scope="col" style="width: 5em" |Votes
! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em" |%
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Turnout
 | colspan=4 | Republican gain from Democratic
Iowa.
Incumbent Democrat John Culver sought re-election to a second term in the Senate, but he was unsuccessful in his bid to do so, falling to Chuck Grassley, the United States Congressman from Iowa's 3rd congressional district, the Republican nominee.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 15em" |Party
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! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em" |%
! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes
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! colspan="3" style="text-align:right;" | Total votes
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 130px"|Party
! scope="col" style="width: 17em"|Candidate
! scope="col" style="width: 5em"|Votes
! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em"|%
! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em"| ;templatestyles src="Template:Tooltip/styles.css" / ;±%
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" scope=row | Turnout
! style="text-align:right;" | Swing
Kansas.
Incumbent Republican Bob Dole won re-election to a third term, defeating Democratic (formerly Republican) State Senator John Simpson.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 15em" |Party
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! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Turnout
Kentucky.
Democrat Wendell Ford won re-election, defeating Republican Mary Louise Foust.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 15em" |Party
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! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Turnout
Louisiana.
Incumbent Russell B. Long ran for re-election to a seventh and final term, defeating State Representative Woody Jenkins.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 15em" |Party
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! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em" |%
!