1972 United States Senate election in Delaware

1972 United States Senate election in Delaware

← 1966 November 7, 1972 1978 →

Nominee Joe Biden J. Caleb Boggs Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 116,006 112,844 Percentage 50.48% 49.10%

County results State House district results Map key Biden:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80% Boggs:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%

U.S. senator before election J. Caleb Boggs Republican Elected U.S. Senator Joe Biden Democratic

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This article is part of a series about Joe Biden
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The 1972 United States Senate election in Delaware was held November 7, 1972. Incumbent Republican Senator J. Caleb Boggs ran for a third term in the United States Senate. Boggs faced off against Democrat Joe Biden, a New Castle County Councilman. Though Boggs was expected to easily win a third term, Biden narrowly defeated the incumbent on election day, even while fellow Democrat George McGovern lost Delaware by 20.4% in the concurrent presidential election. Biden's victory margin of 3,162 votes made this the closest U.S. Senate election of the year.

Biden won a total of seven terms in the Senate, before being elected vice president in 2008 and in 2012 and president in 2020. At the age of 29, Biden became the youngest person to be elected senator since Rush Holt won in West Virginia in 1934 even as incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon overwhelmingly won the state for re-election on the same ballot.

This is the only time that Biden has lost Sussex County in his seven elections to the Senate, though he has lost the county in all his vice presidential (2008 and 2012) and presidential elections. This would be the last time that Republicans won any counties for this seat until 2002 when Biden still comfortably won re-election. Delaware was one of fifteen states alongside Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Dakota and West Virginia that were won by Republican President Richard Nixon in 1972 that elected Democrats to the United States Senate.