The 1980 United States Senate election in Idaho took place on November 4, 1980 alongside other elections to the

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 ...

in other states as well as elections to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

and various state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator

Frank Church Frank Forrester Church III (July 25, 1924 – April 7, 1984) was an Americans, American politician and lawyer. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Idah ...

ran for re-election to a fifth term, but was narrowly defeated by Republican Steve Symms. Steve Symms's swearing-in marked the first time since 1957 that Republicans held both United States Senate seats from Idaho.

General election

Candidates

, incumbent U.S. Senator (Democratic) * Larry Fullmer (Libertarian) * Steve Symms, U.S. Representative from

Caldwell Caldwell may refer to: People * Caldwell (surname) * Caldwell (given name) * Caldwell First Nation, a federally recognized Indian band in southern Ontario, Canada Places Great Britain * Caldwell, Derbyshire, a hamlet * Caldwell, East ...

(Republican)

Campaign

Entering the election, Church was seen as vulnerable due in part to the fact he was a liberal Senator representing one of the most conservative states. Nevertheless, Church was considered by many to be the favorite, with even prominent Republicans in the state not giving his opponent, 1st congressional district Representative Steve Symms much of a chance to unseat Church. However, due to a variety of factors, the dynamic of the race would soon shift. For one, the race was affected by the concurrent

Presidential Election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...

, in which Ronald Reagan's coattails were anticipated to have an effect. Another factor was an influx of out-of-state money affecting the campaigns. Church and Symms both raised considerable sums from out of state donors from states such as Texas and Florida, and by the campaigns end, both had spent close to $3.5 million, a state record. Moreover, groups such as the ABC (Anybody But Church), which was affiliated with the NCPAC (National Conservative Political Action Committee), spent big on advertisements and mailers to damage Church's standing. Church criticized these efforts as using the big lie. These factors, plus criticism over his stance on the

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, made this a difficult campaign for the Senator.

Polling

Polls throughout the election showed Church up by small margins, highlighting the race's closeness. Even in the final days, it had been believed that a large amount of voters remained undecided.

Results

In the end, Church would be defeated by a margin of just over 4,000 votes. Many reasons were attributed to Church's defeat. One reason was that Ronald Reagan's landslide victory caused a

coattail effect The coattail effect or down-ballot effect is the tendency for a popular political party leader to attract votes for other candidates of the same party in an election. For example, in the United States, the party of a victorious presidential cand ...

that Church couldn't overcome. Another reason was due to Jimmy Carter's early concession. Because Carter had conceded before polls closed in the Panhandle (which is in

Pacific Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...

as opposed to the rest of the state, which is in Mountain Time), this was believed to have depressed voters in one of Church's strongest regions. There was also the factor of shifts among Mormon voters, who due to a focus on moral issues such as abortion, turned away from Church in the Eastern part of the state.

References

{{United States elections, 1980 1980 Idaho elections

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...