[citation needed] Source: Office of the Clerk[1] Two Republicans and one independent retired instead of seeking re-election.

Republican Pete Wilson, mayor of San Diego and former Assemblyman, won the open seat over Democratic Governor Jerry Brown.

However, Brown ran on his gubernatorial record of building the largest state budget surpluses in California history.

President Ronald Reagan made a number of visits to California late in the race to campaign for Wilson.

Reagan quipped that the last thing he wanted to see was one of his home state's U.S. Senate seats falling into Democrats' hands, especially to be occupied by the man who succeeded him as governor.

Despite exit polls indicating a narrow Brown victory, Wilson won by a wide margin.

[10] Kendall, who represented Indiana's 47th Senate district and formed the Notre Dame Students for Robert Kennedy organization during the 1968 presidential election,[11] was seen a young progressive alternative to Fithian, who he called the "ideological twin of Richard Lugar.

[13] Incumbent United States Senator Richard Lugar won the republican nomination in an uncontested primary on May 4, 1982.

[14] In the general election, Lugar faced Fithian and American Party candidate Raymond James.

[1] On November 5, 1982, Lugar defeated Fithian and James in the general election, winning 74 of Indiana's 93 counties.

He defeated the Republican former Representative from Maryland's 5th district and Prince George's County Executive Lawrence Hogan.

Durenberger, who in 1978 and won the special election to finish the term of the late Hubert Humphrey, was largely unknown.

In the general election, he narrowly defeated state senator Harriett Woods by just over a percentage point.

Though his margin was reduced significantly from his initial election, Melcher still comfortably won re-election to his second and final term in the Senate.

During his first term in the Senate, Melcher's relative conservatism for a Democrat prompted a primary challenger in Michael Bond, a housing contractor who campaigned on his opposition to nuclear war.

[26] The seat had been occupied by Democrat Harrison A. Williams, who resigned on March 11, 1982, after being implicated in the Abscam scandal.

In the general election, Lautenberg faced popular Republican member of the House Millicent Fenwick.

He emphasised President Reagan's unpopularity, reminded the voters that she would be a vote for a Republican majority in the Senate and called Fenwick, who was 72, "eccentric" and "erratic" but denied that he was referring to her age.

[1] Only Burdick filed as a Dem-NPLer, and the endorsed Republican candidate was cattle rancher Gene Knorr.

After being defeated, Knorr moved to Washington, D.C., where he took the position of staff vice president with Philip Morris International.

One independent candidate, Anna B. Bourgois, also filed before the deadline, running under her self-created party titled God, Family, and Country.

Bourgois would later run for North Dakota's other United States Senate seat as an independent in 1986, challenging Mark Andrews.

Some attribute her large number of votes to the name of her party – which was based on things that North Dakotans valued.

He began working in Washington, DC, residing in McLean, Virginia after receiving a Juris Doctor from Northwestern University where he was celebrated in debate.

John Heinz's Democratic opponent in the 1982 election was Allegheny County commissioner and former coroner Cyril Wecht, who lacked significant name recognition outside of Pittsburgh, his home town.