1968 United States Senate election in Alaska

none March 2026 September 2023 1968 United States Senate election in Alaska Alaska Presidential no 1962 United States Senate election in Alaska 1962 1974 United States Senate election in Alaska 1974 November 5, 1968 x160px Mikegravel.jpg Mike Gravel Democratic Party (US) 36,527 45.13% Elmer Rasmuson as Senate candidate (cropped).jpg Elmer Rasmuson Republican Party (US) 30,286 37.42% Senator Ernest Gruening (D-AK) (croppedmore).jpg Ernest Gruening(write-in) Democratic Party (US) 14,118 17.44% 400px Results by borough and census area 400px Results by state house district 1 Gravel: #a5b0ff 40–50% #7996e2 50–60% #6674de 60–70%Rasmuson: #ffb2b2 40–50%Gruening: #ACF2F2 30–40% U.S. Senator Ernest Gruening Democratic Party (US) Mike Gravel Democratic Party (US) The 1968 United States Senate election in Alaska took place on November 5, 1968. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Ernest Gruening ran for a second full term in office but finished behind Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives Mike Gravel in the Democratic primary. Gruening launched a write-in bid for the seat in the general election, but finished third to Gravel and Republican former Anchorage mayor Elmer Rasmuson. Gravel would later lose the primary in 1980 to Gruening's grandson Clark. This would be the first of 3 times where the incumbent holder of Alaska's Class 3 U.S. Senate seat was defeated in the primary while running for re-election. Future Senator Ted Stevens also ran in the Republican primary, but lost to Rasmuson by around 1,000 votes. When incumbent Democratic Class 2 Senator Bob Bartlett died that December, Governor Wally Hickel appointed Stevens to the vacant seat, giving Stevens a seniority advantage of 10 days over the incoming Gravel. Primary election Democratic Gravel ran against 81-year-old incumbent Democratic United States Senator Ernest Gruening, a popular former governor of the Alaska Territory who was considered one of the fathers of Alaska's statehood,Alex Koppelman May 7, 2007 Don't worry, be Mike Gravel http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/05/07/mike_gravel/index.html dead https://web.archive.org/web/20090627105316/http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/05/07/mike_gravel/index.html June 27, 2009 July 4, 2007 salon.com for his party's nomination to the U.S. Senate. Gravel's campaign was primarily based on his youth and telegenic appearance rather than issue differences.Warren Weaver Jr. July 2, 1971 Impetuous Senator: Maurice Robert Gravel https://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F20D10FD3A5B1A7493C0A9178CD85F458785F9 December 24, 2007 The New York Times fee requiredJune 27, 2021 Mike Gravel, gadfly senator from Alaska with flair for the theatrical, dies at 91 https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/mike-gravel-dead/2021/06/27/a496d870-13b4-11e9-90a8-136fa44b80ba_story.html The Washington Post Chris PowerGruening Ernest Ernest Gruening Many Battles: The Autobiography of Ernest Gruening Liveright 1973 978-0-87140-565-4 New York 510–511 He hired Joseph Napolitan, the first self-described political consultant, in late 1966. They spent over a year and a half planning a short, nine-day primary election campaign that featured the slogans "Alaska first" and "Let's do something about the state we're in", the distribution of a collection of essays titled Jobs and More Jobs, and the creation of a half-hour, well-produced, glamorized biographical film of Gravel, A Man for Alaska.Current Biography Yearbook 1972, p. 182.June 1993 Great slogans: reading between the lines of America's best political rhymes and mottos http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-14321217.html usurped https://web.archive.org/web/20110511205248/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-14321217.html May 11, 2011 February 2, 2008 Campaigns and Elections fee required Ron HighBeam Research subscription Faucheux The film was shown twice a day on every television station in Alaska, and carried by plane and shown on home projectors in hundreds of Alaska Native villages. The heavy showings quickly reversed a 2–to–1 Gruening lead in polls into a Gravel lead. Gravel visited many remote villages by seaplane and showed a thorough understanding of the needs of the bush country and the fishing and oil industries.Current Biography Yearbook 1972, p. 183. Gravel also benefited from maintaining a deliberately ambiguous posture about Vietnam policy. Gruening had been one of only two senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and his opposition to President Lyndon B. Johnson's war policies was harming him among the Democratic electorate;Chinn Ronald E. September 1969 The 1968 Election in Alaska The Western Political Quarterly 22 3 456–461 10.2307/446336 446336 according to Gravel, "all I had to do was stand up and not deal with the subject, and people would assume that I was to the right of Ernest Gruening, when in point of fact I was to the left of him". In A Man for Alaska, Gravel argued that "the liberals" would come to West Germany's defense if it was attacked, and that they "should apply the same rule to Asians".A Man For Alaska Film Alaskans for Mike Gravel 1968 11:22 During the campaign he also claimed that he was "more in the mainstream of American thought on Vietnam" than Gruening, despite the fact that he had written to Gruening to praise his antiwar stance four years earlier. Decades later, Gravel conceded that "I said what I said [about Vietnam] to advance my career." Gravel beat Gruening in the primary by about 2,000 votes.Johnson Robert KC August 7, 2006 Not Many Senators Have Found Themselves in Joe Lieberman's Predicament http://hnn.us/articles/28947.html July 7, 2007 History News Network Gruening found "the unexpected defeat hard to take" and thought that some aspects of his opponent's biographical film had misled viewers.Gruening Ernest Ernest Gruening Many Battles: The Autobiography of Ernest Gruening Liveright 1973 978-0-87140-565-4 New York 510–511 Candidates Mike Gravel, former State Representative and Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives from Anchorage Ernest Gruening, incumbent U.S. Senator since 1959 Results U.S. Senate Democratic primary resultshttp://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=230027 Our Campaigns - AK US Senate - Open Primary Race - Aug 27, 1968 Democratic Party (United States) Mike Gravel 17971 52.9 Democratic Party (United States) Ernest Gruening (incumbent) 16,015 47.1 33986 100.00 Republican Elmer Rasmuson, former Mayor of Anchorage and member of the University of Alaska Board of Regents Ted Stevens, State Representative from Anchorage, State House Majority Leader, former Solicitor of the Interior and nominee for Senate in 1962 Results U.S. Senate Republican primary results Republican Party (United States) Elmer Rasmuson 10320 53.1 Republican Party (United States) Ted Stevens 9111 46.9 19431 100.00 General election In the general election, Gravel faced Republican Elmer E. Rasmuson, a banker and former mayor of Anchorage.Chinn Ronald E. September 1969 The 1968 Election in Alaska The Western Political Quarterly 22 3 456–461 10.2307/446336 446336 College students in the state implored Gruening to run a write-in campaign as an Independent, but legal battles prevented him from getting approval for it until only two weeks were left. A late appearance by anti-war presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy did not offset Gruening's lack of funds and endorsements; meanwhile, Gravel and Rasmuson both saturated local media with their filmed biographies. On November 5, 1968, Gravel won the general election with 45 percent of the vote to Rasmuson's 37 percent and Gruening's 18 percent.Chinn Ronald E. September 1969 The 1968 Election in Alaska The Western Political Quarterly 22 3 456–461 10.2307/446336 446336 Results 1968 United States Senate election in Alaskahttps://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=3273 Our Campaigns - AK US Senate Race - Nov 05, 1968 Democratic Party (United States) Mike Gravel 36,527 45.13% Republican Party (United States) Elmer Rasmuson 30,286 37.42% Write-in Ernest Gruening (incumbent) 14,118 17.44% 80,931 100.00% Democratic Party (United States) Republican Party (United States) See also 1968 United States Senate elections 1968 United States House of Representatives election in Alaska References 1 1968 Alaska United States Senate Category:Mike Gravel