United States Senate election in Pennsylvania, 1982

November 2, 1982



Nominee	H. John Heinz III	Cyril Wecht
Party	Republican	Democratic
Popular vote	2,136,418	1,412,965
Percentage	59.3%	39.2%

County results

U.S. Senator before election

H. John Heinz III
Republican

Elected U.S. Senator

H. John Heinz III
Republican

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The 1982 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania was held on November 2, 1982. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator H. John Heinz III successfully sought re-election to another term, defeating Democratic nominee Cyril Wecht.

Major candidates

Democratic

Cyril Wecht, member of the Allegheny County Board of Commissioners

Republican

H. John Heinz III, incumbent U.S. Senator

Campaign

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. Although the 1982 elections were a setback nationally for incumbent President Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party, neither Heinz nor incumbent Republican governor Dick Thornburgh, who was also up for re-election in 1982, were challenged by Democrats with statewide prominence. Wecht ran a low-budget campaign lacking the assets to boost his name recognition; the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a headline dubbing the race "The Race for Senator No One Seemed to Notice."^[1] Despite this, Heinz ran a cautious campaign, running as a moderate due to Pennsylvania's unemployment, 11%, one of the highest in the nation at the time, as well as the declining health of Pennsylvania's coal mining, manufacturing and steel industries. In the end, Heinz won the election by a wide margin, winning 59.3% of the popular vote. Wecht won 39.2% of the popular vote.^[1]

Results

General election results^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	H. John Heinz III (inc.)	2,136,418	59.28%	+6.89%
	Democratic	Cyril Wecht	1,412,965	39.20%	-7.59%
	Libertarian	Barbara I. Karkutt	19,244	0.53%	+0.53%
	Socialist Workers	William H. Thomas	18,951	0.53	+0.41%
	Consumer	Liane Norman	16,530	0.46%	+0.46%
Majority			723,453	20.08%	+14.48%
Totals			3,604,108	100.00%

References

1 2 Sundquist, Renée M. Lamis ; with a foreword by James L. (2009). The realignment of Pennsylvania politics since 1960 : two-party competition in a battleground state. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. p. 109. ISBN 027103419X.
↑ "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 2, 1982" (PDF). Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House. Retrieved 9 July 2014.

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