The 1972 United States Senate election in Colorado took place on November 7, 1972. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Gordon Allott ran for re-election to a fourth term, but was narrowly defeated by Democratic former State Representative Floyd Haskell. This would be the last time until 2008 that a Democrat was elected to the Class 2 Senate seat from Colorado. Colorado was one of fifteen states alongside Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, 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.
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 County results Haskell: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% Allott: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% | |||||||||||||||||
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Democratic primary
editCandidates
edit- Floyd Haskell, former Republican State Representative from Littleton
- Anthony Vollack, State Senator from Arvada
Results
editFloyd Haskell, a former State Representative who had served as a Republican from 1965 to 1967, but had left the party in 1970 over opposition to the Vietnam War, won the primary.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Floyd Haskell | 77,574 | 58.83% | |
| Democratic | Anthony Vollack | 54,298 | 41.18% | |
| Total votes | 131,872 | 100.00% | ||
General election
editResults
edit| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Floyd Haskell | 457,545 | 49.41% |  7.48
| |
| Republican | Gordon Allott (incumbent) | 447,957 | 48.37% |  9.65
| |
| Raza Unida | Secundino Salazar | 13,228 | 1.43% | N/A | |
| American | Henry John Olshaw | 7,353 | 0.79% | N/A | |
| Total votes | 926,083 | 100.00% | N/A | ||
| Democratic gain from Republican | |||||