United States Senate election in Illinois, 1978

United States Senate election in Illinois, 1978
Illinois
November 7, 1978

 
Candidate Charles H. Percy Alex Seith
Party Republican Democratic
Popular vote 1,698,711 1,448,187
Percentage 53.34% 45.47%


Senator before election

Charles H. Percy
Republican

Elected Senator

Charles H. Percy
Republican

The 1978 United States Senate election in Illinois took place on November 7, 1978. Incumbent Republican United States Senator Charles H. Percy ran for re-election to a third term in the United States Senate. Percy was opposed by Democratic nominee Alex Seith, an attorney who had been appointed to several local government positions. Though Percy had been expected to coast to re-election over Seith, a first-time candidate, the election quickly became competitive. In the last few days of the campaign, a desperate Percy ran a television advertisement that featured him apologizing and acknowledging that, "I got your message and you're right."[1] Percy's last-ditch effort appeared to have paid off, as he was able to edge out Seith to win what would end up being his last term in the Senate.

General election

Candidates

Results

United States Senate election in Illinois, 1978[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Republican Charles H. Percy (inc.) 1,698,711 53.34% -8.88%
Democratic Alex Seith 1,448,187 45.47% +8.13%
Libertarian Bruce Lee Green 16,320 0.51%
Socialist Workers Patricia Grogan 15,922 0.50%
Socialist Labor Gerald Rose 5,465 0.17%
Write-ins 159 0.00%
Majority 250,524 7.87% -17.00%
Turnout 3,184,764
Republican hold Swing

References

  1. "The Message of the 1978 Off-Year Elections". Time.com. 1978-11-20. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
  2. "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 7, 1978" (PDF). Clerk.house.gov. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 5/24/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.