The 1970 United States Senate election in Massachusetts was held on November 3, 1970. The incumbent
Democratic Senator
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
defeated his challengers. This was Kennedy's first election run since the 1969
Chappaquiddick incident
The Chappaquiddick incident occurred on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts some time around midnight between July 18 and 19, 1969, when Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy negligently drove his car off a narrow bridge, causing it to overturn ...
.
Kennedy won 62.2% of the vote, down from the 74.3% that he won in the previous election in 1964, indicating that Chappaquiddick did affect his popularity.
This was the last election in which Ted Kennedy lost any Massachusetts county. Spaulding carried Barnstable, Dukes, Franklin, and Nantucket Counties.
Republican primary
Candidates
*
Josiah Spaulding
Josiah Augustus "Si" Spaulding (December 21, 1922 – March 27, 1983) was an American businessman, attorney, and politician.
Education and military service
Spaulding graduated from the Hotchkiss School and Yale University in 1947, where he was ...
, businessman
Josiah Spaulding
at ourcampaigns.com
*John J. McCarthy, Commissioner of Administration and Finance
Results
General election
Candidates
* Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
, incumbent U.S. Senator since 1962 (Democratic)
* Lawrence Gilfedder (Socialist Labor)
* Mark R. Shaw, perennial candidate and Prohibition nominee for Vice President in 1964 (Prohibition)
* Josiah Spaulding
Josiah Augustus "Si" Spaulding (December 21, 1922 – March 27, 1983) was an American businessman, attorney, and politician.
Education and military service
Spaulding graduated from the Hotchkiss School and Yale University in 1947, where he was ...
, businessman (Republican)
Results
See also
* United States Senate elections, 1970
The 1970 United States Senate elections was an election for the United States Senate, taking place in the middle of Richard Nixon's first term as President. The Democrats lost a net of three seats, while the Republicans and the Conservative Par ...
External links
Race details
at ourcampaigns.com
References
{{United States elections, 1970
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...