1988 United States Senate elections

1988 United States Senate elections

November 8, 1988
33 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate 51 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Robert Byrd Bob Dole Party Democratic Republican Leader since January 3, 1977 January 3, 1985 Leader's seat West Virginia Kansas Seats before 54 46 Seats after 55 45 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 35,137,786 31,151,251 Percentage 52.1% 46.2% Seats up 18 15 Races won 19 14
Results of the elections:      Democratic gain      Democratic hold      Republican gain      Republican hold      No election
Majority Leader before election Robert Byrd Democratic Elected Majority Leader George Mitchell Democratic

The 1988 United States Senate elections were elections for the United States Senate. Held on November 8, the 33 seats of Class 1 were contested in regular elections. In spite of the Republican victory by George H. W. Bush in the presidential election, the Democrats gained a net of one seat in the Senate. Seven seats changed parties, with four incumbents being defeated. The Democratic majority in the Senate increased by one to 55–to–45.

This is the last Senate election cycle in which California voted for a Republican and both Texas and Maine voted for Democrats, and the last time Arizona would do so until 2018. This would also be the last Senate election cycle until 1998 to not have at least one special election during that cycle.

This is also the last Senate election cycle in which no woman was elected to the Senate from either party as all the winners were men.

Results summary

Summary of the 1988 United States Senate election results

↓

55	45
Democratic	Republican

Parties							Total
		Democratic	Republican	Libertarian	Conservative	Other
Last elections (1986)		55	45	0	0	0	100
Before these elections		54	46	0	0	0	100
Not up		36	31	—	—	—	67
Up Class 1 (1982→1988)		18	15	—	—	—	33
Incumbent retired		3	3	—	—	—	6
	Held by same party	1	2	—	—	—	3
	Replaced by other party	1 Republican replaced by 1 Democrat 2 Democrats replaced by 2 Republicans		—	—	—	3
	Result	2	4	—	—	—	6
Incumbent ran		15	12	—	—	—	27
	Won re-election	14	9	—	—	—	23
	Lost re-election	3 Republicans replaced by 3 Democrats 1 Democrat replaced by 1 Republican		—	—	—	4
	Lost renomination, but held by same party	0	0	—	—	—	0
	Result	17	10	—	—	—	27
Total elected		19	14	—	—	—	33
Net gain/loss		1	1				1
Nationwide vote		35,137,786	31,151,251	268,053	189,226	677,928	67,424,244
	Share	52.11%	46.20%	0.40%	0.28%	1.01%	100%
Result		55	45	0	0	0	100

Source: Clerk of the United States House of Representatives. "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 8, 1988" (PDF). U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved July 2, 2014.

Gains and losses

Retirements

Three Republicans and three Democrats retired instead of seeking re-election.

State	Senator	Replaced by
Florida	Lawton Chiles	Connie Mack III
Mississippi	John C. Stennis	Trent Lott
Vermont	Robert Stafford	Jim Jeffords
Virginia	Paul Trible	Chuck Robb
Washington	Daniel J. Evans	Slade Gorton
Wisconsin	William Proxmire	Herb Kohl

Defeats

Three Republicans and one Democrat sought re-election but lost in the general election.

State	Senator	Replaced by
Connecticut	Lowell Weicker	Joe Lieberman
Montana	John Melcher	Conrad Burns
Nebraska	David Karnes	Bob Kerrey
Nevada	Chic Hecht	Richard Bryan

Post-election changes

One Republican resigned on January 3, 1989, while one Democrat died on May 16, 1990. Initially, they were replaced by appointees.

State	Senator	Replaced by
Hawaii (Class 1)	Spark Matsunaga	Daniel Akaka
Indiana (Class 3)	Dan Quayle	Dan Coats