United States Senate election in Alabama, 1986

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United States Senate election in Alabama, 1986

← 1980 November 3, 1986 1992 →
  Richard Shelby official portrait.JPG JeremiahDentonSenate.jpg
Nominee Richard Shelby Jeremiah Denton
Party Democratic Republican
Popular vote 609,360 602,537
Percentage 50.3% 49.7%

Senator before election

Jeremiah Denton
Republican

Elected Senator

Richard Shelby
Democratic

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. The 1986 United States Senate election in Alabama took place on November 3, 1986 alongside other elections to the United States Senate in other states as well as elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Jeremiah Denton ran for a second term but lost to Democrat Richard Shelby.

Democratic primary

Shelby, a moderate-to-conservative Democrat avoided a runoff and won nomination in the Democratic Party primary.[1]

Candidates

Results

Democratic primary results
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Richard Shelby 420,155 51.33
Democratic Jim Allen, Jr. 284,206 34.72
Democratic Ted McLaughlin 70,784 8.65
Democratic Margaret Stewart 26,723 3.27
Democratic Steve Arnold 16,722 2.04
Total votes 818,590 100

Republican primary

Incumbent Senator Jeremiah Denton, a retired Rear Admiral and decorated Vietnam War veteran who six years earlier became the first Republican elected to the Senate from Alabama since Reconstruction, won the primary with little opposition.[2]

Candidates

Results

Republican primary results
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Jeremiah Denton 29,805 88.55
Republican Richard Vickers 3,854 11.45
Total votes 33,659 100

General election

Shelby won a very narrow victory over Denton (less than one percent).[3]

Candidates

Results

  • Shelby - 609,360 (50.28%)
  • Denton - 602,537 (49.72%)

References