1974 United States Senate election in Vermont

1974 United States Senate election in Vermont

← 1968 November 5, 1974 (1974-11-05) 1980 →
 
Nominee Patrick Leahy Richard Mallary
Party Democratic Republican
Popular vote 70,629 66,223
Percentage 49.47% 46.38%

County results
Leahy:      40–50%      50–60%
Mallary:      40–50%      50–60%

U.S. senator before election

George Aiken
Republican

Elected U.S. Senator

Patrick Leahy
Democratic

The 1974 United States Senate election in Vermont took place on November 5, 1974. The incumbent Republican Senator, George Aiken, did not run for re-election to another term in the United States Senate. The Democratic nominee, Patrick Leahy, the state's attorney of Chittenden County, defeated Republican nominee, Rep. Richard W. Mallary, to become Aiken's successor. This election also included Liberty Union Party candidate Bernie Sanders, who won 4.1% of the vote.

This election marked the first time in Vermont's history that it elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate, the last remaining U.S. state to do so. Leahy remained the only Democrat ever elected to the Senate from Vermont until 2022, when he retired and was succeeded by Peter Welch. The last non-Republican elected to the Senate from Vermont prior to 1974 was Lawrence Brainerd, a Free Soil Party member chosen in 1854 by an anti-slavery coalition of the Vermont General Assembly to fill a brief vacancy.


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