United States Senate election in South Carolina, 1974

The 1974 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 5, 1974 to select the U.S. Senator from the state of South Carolina. Incumbent Democratic Senator Fritz Hollings easily defeated Republican challenger Gwen Bush.

Primaries

Both Fritz Hollings and Gwen Bush faced no opposition in their party's primaries which allowed both candidates to concentrate solely on the general election.

General election campaign

The Watergate scandal caused the Republicans to perform poorly nationwide in 1974 and Gwen Bush was little more than a sacrificial lamb. The main focus of the voters in South Carolina was on the competitive gubernatorial contest and Fritz Hollings easily cruised to a comfortable re-election.

General election results

Election box candidate with party link
party = Democratic Party (United States)
candidate = Fritz Hollings
votes = 355,107
percentage = 69.4
change = +7.5 Election box candidate with party link
party = Republican Party (United States)
candidate = Gwen Bush
votes = 146,649
percentage = 28.7
change = -9.4Election box candidate
party = Independent
candidate = Harold Hough
votes = 9,624
percentage = 1.9
change = +1.9Election box majority
votes = 208,458
percentage = 40.7
change = +16.9Election box turnout
votes = 511,380
percentage = 51.3
change = -25.2
colspan=5 |Democratic hold
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frame|300px|none|1974 South Carolina U.S. Senate election map

ee also

*List of United States Senators from South Carolina
*United States Senate elections, 1974
*United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina, 1974
*South Carolina gubernatorial election, 1974

References

*cite book | last = State Election Commission | title = Report of the South Carolina State Election Commission | year = 1975 | publisher = State Election Commission | location = Columbia, SC | pages = p. 37