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 County results Municipality resultsKennedy: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% Whitmore: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% | |||||||||||||||||
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The1964 United States Senate election in Massachusetts was held on November 3, 1964, with the incumbentDemocratic senator,Ted Kennedy, easily defeating hisRepublican challengerHoward J. Whitmore Jr.
The election coincided with the1964 United States presidential election, which was won by incumbent DemocratLyndon B. Johnson in a landslide, as well as theSenate election in neighboring New York which was won by Kennedy's older brotherRobert. It took place less than a year afterthe assassination of the incumbent Senator's eldest surviving brother,PresidentJohn F. Kennedy. The two surviving Kennedy brothers thus benefited from both an overall national swing to the Democrats and public sympathy following their sibling's murder. Much of the campaign-appearance burden in Massachusetts on behalf of Ted Kennedy fell on his wife,Joan, because of Ted's serious back injury in a plane crash.
Ted Kennedy recorded his highest-ever percentage of the vote in this election, although he won a larger margin of victory against divided oppositionin 2000.
Senator Kennedy was unopposed for renomination.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Ted Kennedy (incumbent) | 608,791 | 99.99 | |
| Write-in | All others | 32 | 0.01 | |
| Total votes | 608,823 | 100.00 | ||
Whitmore was unopposed for the Republican nomination.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Howard J. Whitmore Jr. | 172,078 | 99.95% | |
| Write-in | All others | 86 | 0.05% | |
| Total votes | 172,164 | 100.00% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Ted Kennedy (incumbent) | 1,716,907 | 74.26 |  21.30 | |
| Republican | Howard J. Whitmore Jr. | 587,663 | 25.42 |  19.08 | |
| Socialist Labor | Lawrence Gilfedder | 4,745 | 0.21 | 0.03 | |
| Prohibition | Grace F. Luder | 2,700 | 0.12 | 0.05 | |
| Write-in | All others | 13 | 0.00 | ||
| Total votes | 2,312,028 | 100.00 | |||
Notes
Sources
February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009 | ||
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