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1980 United States Senate election in Idaho

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The 1980 United States Senate election in Idaho took place on November 4, 1980, 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 Democrat Frank Church ran for a fifth term and narrowly lost to Republican Steve Symms.

1980 United States Senate election in Idaho
← 1974 November 4, 1980 1986 →
 
Nominee Steve Symms Frank Church
Party Republican Democratic
Popular vote 218,701 214,439
Percentage 49.74% 48.78%
County results
Symms:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%
Church:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%
U.S. senator before election

Frank Church
Democratic

Elected U.S. Senator

Steve Symms
Republican

This is the last time that a Senator from Idaho lost re-election. Since Symms took office in 1981, Republicans have held both of Idaho's U.S. Senate seats, which they had last done in 1957.

General election

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Candidates

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Campaign

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Entering the election, Church was seen as vulnerable because he was a liberal Senator representing one of the most conservative states.[1][2] 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.[3]

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, in which Ronald Reagan's coattails were anticipated to have an effect.[4] 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.[5][6]

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.[7] Church criticized these efforts as using the big lie.[8] These factors, plus criticism over his stance on the Panama Canal Treaties, made this a difficult campaign for the Senator.[9][10]

Polling

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Polls throughout the election showed Church up by small margins, highlighting the race's closeness.[10][8][1] Even in the final days, it had been believed that a large number of voters remained undecided.[11]

Results

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In the end, Church lost by a margin of 4,262 votes or 0.96%. Many reasons were attributed to Church's defeat. One reason was that Ronald Reagan's landslide victory caused a coattail effect that Church couldn't overcome.[2] Another one was Jimmy Carter's early concession. Because Carter had conceded before polls closed in the Panhandle (which is in Pacific Time 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.[12][13] 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.[14]

1980 U.S. Senate election in Idaho[15]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican Steve Symms 218,701 49.74%   7.61
Democratic Frank Church (incumbent) 214,439 48.78%   7.30
Libertarian Larry Fullmer 6,507 1.48% N/A
Majority 4,262 0.97% −12.96%
Turnout 439,647 +41.13%
Republican gain from Democratic

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b AP (August 14, 1979). Sen. Church Termed Vulnerable. Spokane, Washington: Spokane Daily Chronicle. p. 5.
  2. ^ a b MIller, Judith (November 6, 1980). "TimesMachine: Thursday November 6, 1980 - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. pp. A29. Archived from the original on June 25, 2023. Retrieved June 25, 2023.
  3. ^ AP (April 22, 1979). GOP Leaders Doubt Symms Could Beat Church. Lewiston Morning Tribune. pp. 7A.
  4. ^ Evans, Rowland; Novak, Robert (July 19, 1980). Church/Can Conservative Tide Wash Him Out?. The Bulletin. p. 6.
  5. ^ AP (April 16, 1980). Symms, Church get 'big' $. Lewiston Morning Tribune. pp. 3C.
  6. ^ AP (January 31, 1981). Church won the spending battle. The Spokesman-Review. p. 8.
  7. ^ Riordan, Patrick (May 18, 1980). Frank Church: A Man Under Fire. Boca Raton News. pp. 13A.
  8. ^ a b Church: They're using the big lie. Lewiston Morning Tribune. August 15, 1979. pp. C6.
  9. ^ Sinclair, Ward (October 12, 1979). "Church Perceived as Apostate Fearful of Election Disaster". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved June 25, 2023.
  10. ^ a b "It's 'Frank' vs. 'Steve' as Idaho's Church seeks re-election to Senate". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved June 25, 2023.
  11. ^ Wilson, Marc (October 28, 1980). How many undecided in Idaho?. The Spokesman-Review. p. 28.
  12. ^ Hatzenbuehler, Ronald L.; Marley, Bert W. (February 1987). "Why Church Lost: A Preliminary Analysis of the Church-Symms Election of 1980". Pacific Historical Review. 56 (1): 105. doi:10.2307/3638828. JSTOR 3638828.
  13. ^ Leahy, Patrick (2022). The Road Taken: A Memoir. Simon & Schuster. p. 137. ISBN 978-1982157357.
  14. ^ Hatzenbuehler, Ronald L. (January 2020). "Dissent among Mormons in the 1980 Senatorial Election in Idaho". International Journal of Religion. 1 (1): 18–19. doi:10.33182/ijor.v1i1.980. S2CID 229498933 – via Central and Eastern European Online Library.
  15. ^ "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 4, 1980" (PDF). clerk.house.gov. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 20, 2022.
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