Reagan's large margin of victory over incumbent Jimmy Carter gave a huge boost to Republican Senate candidates, allowing them to flip 12 Democratic seats and win control of the chamber for the first time since the end of the 83rd Congress in January 1955.

In November, Republican Jeremiah Denton defeated Democrat Jim Folsom, Public Service Commissioner.

[2] First elected in 1968, by 1980 two-term Democratic incumbent Mike Gravel had become noted for a filibuster that attempted to end the draft during the Vietnam War and for including the full text of the Pentagon Papers in the Congressional Record.

Gravel faced a challenging bid for re-election, complicated by the fact that his triumph over Ernest Gruening years prior had made him a pariah in the Alaska Democratic Party.

Though Gravel had campaigned to be selected as George McGovern's running mate in the 1972 U.S. presidential election and had easily won re-election to the Senate in 1974, he had never established a strong political base in Alaska.

[4][5] A group of Democrats, including future governor Steve Cowper, campaigned against Gravel on the land bill issue.

[5] Another factor may have been Alaska's blanket primary system, which allows unlimited cross-over voting across parties and from its large unaffiliated electorate;[6] Republicans believed Gruening would be an easier candidate to defeat in the general election.

[13] Six Democrats entered the race for Stone's seat including his 1974 runoff opponent Bill Gunter who was Florida State Treasurer/Insurance Commissioner in 1980.

Birch Bayh, the incumbent senator, faced no opposition within the Indiana Democratic Party and avoided a primary election.

Incumbent three-term senator Birch Bayh was defeated by over 160,000 votes to Representative Dan Quayle, who would later go on to be Vice President of the United States.

John Culver Democratic Chuck Grassley Republican Incumbent Democrat John Culver sought re-election to a second term in the Senate, but he was unsuccessful in his bid to do so, falling to Chuck Grassley, the United States Congressman from Iowa's 3rd congressional district, the Republican nominee.

Javits's refusal to adjust politically to the rightward movement of his party as well as his 1979 diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) led to a primary challenge.

D'Amato, also running on the Conservative line, proceeded to defeat Democratic U.S. Representative Elizabeth Holtzman and Javits, who ran on the Liberal Party ticket.

In the traditionally liberal state of New York, Javits split the Democratic vote with Holtzman to give D'Amato a close victory.

Republican Mark Andrews defeated North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party candidate Kent Johanneson to fill the vacated seat.

[1] Andrews, who had served as a Representative since 1965, easily received the Republican nomination, and the endorsed Democratic-NPL candidate was Kent Johanneson.

Two independent candidates, Harley McLain and Don J. Klingensmith also filed before the deadline under the Chemical Farming Banned and Statesman parties respectively.

Interest in the primaries was somewhat subdued because they occurred just two days after the eruption of Mount St. Helens, about 60 miles (97 km) north of Oregon's most populous city, Portland.

[35] As a well-funded incumbent, Packwood was expected to have a fairly easy road to re-election and led by double digit margins in most early polls.

[38] As the campaign wore on, Kulongoski grew more confident and tried to appeal to Oregonians' independent values by saying that Packwood's enormous cash advantage was due to "eastern" money.

Arlen Specter, formerly a member of the Democratic party, had served as legal counsel to the Warren Commission, which investigated the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, after which he became District Attorney of Philadelphia.

Shortly after Specter opened a law practice in Atlantic City, New Jersey, incumbent Republican Richard Schweiker unexpectedly announced his decision not to seek re-election to his seat.

In the Republican primary, Specter faced state senator Edward Howard, as well as Delaware County councilman Bud Haabestad, who was endorsed by Schweiker, then-governor Thornburgh and John Heinz.

To this end, Specter sought endorsements among city Democratic leadership, including future mayor John F. Street.

Specter distanced himself from Governor Dick Thornburgh, who had become unpopular in some demographics due to his proposals to decrease welfare program spending.

[43] In the end, Specter defeated Flaherty by approximately 108,000 votes, carrying Philadelphia and its suburbs as well as the central and northeastern portions of the state.

Flaherty performed strongest in the western portion of the state, including Cambria, Clarion, Erie and Mercer counties.

[46] McGovern made an issue of NCPAC's outside involvement, and that group eventually withdrew from the campaign after Abdnor denounced a letter they had sent out.