Biggest U.S. Senate landslides

The most lopsided races for the United States Senate, ranked by the winner’s margin over the runner-up.

What is the biggest landslide in a U.S. Senate election?

Thomas E. Watson’s 1920 win in Georgia, with 94.9% of the vote to Harry S. Edwards’s 5.1%, an 89.8-point margin, the widest of the popular-vote era (1914–present). It comes from the one-party-dominant Democratic South of that era, where a real second-place finisher above 5% was rare.

Biggest U.S. Senate landslides
#	Election	Result	Margin
1	1920 Georgia	Thomas E. Watson def. Harry S. Edwards	+89.8 pts
2	1934 California	Hiram Johnson def. George R. Kirkpatrick	+89.4 pts
3	1940 Texas	Tom Connally def. George I. Shannon	+88.5 pts
4	1978 Alabama	Howell Heflin def. Jerome B. Couch	+88.0 pts
5	1948 Arkansas	John L. McClellan def. R. Walter Tucker	+86.4 pts
6	1932 Georgia	Walter F. George def. James W. Arnold	+85.6 pts
7	1936 Texas	Morris Sheppard def. Carlos G. Watson	+85.5 pts
8	1942 Virginia	Carter Glass def. Lawrence S. Wilkes	+84.6 pts
9	1960 Mississippi	James O. Eastland def. Joe A. Moore	+83.6 pts
10	1914 Alabama	Oscar W. Underwood def. Alex C. Birch	+83.4 pts
11	1932 Arkansas	Hattie W. Caraway def. John H. White	+79.4 pts
12	1938 Arkansas	Hattie W. Caraway def. C. T. Atkinson	+79.2 pts
13	1946 Texas	Tom Connally def. Murray C. Sells	+77.1 pts
14	1970 Mississippi	John C. Stennis def. William R. Thompson	+76.8 pts
15	1918 Georgia	William J. Harris def. G. H. Williams	+76.7 pts
16	1922 Florida	Park Trammel def. W. C. Lawson	+76.5 pts
17	1952 California	William F. Knowland def. Reuben W. Borough	+75.8 pts
18	1950 Louisiana	Russell B. Long def. Charles S. Gerth	+75.4 pts
19	1936 Alabama	John H. Bankhead def. H. E. Berkstresser	+74.8 pts
20	2006 Indiana	Richard G. Lugar def. Steve Osborn	+74.8 pts
21	1928 Wisconsin	Robert M. Lafollette Jr. def. William H. Markham	+74.6 pts
22	1918 Texas	Morris Sheppard def. J. Webs Flanagan	+74.3 pts
23	1930 Texas	Morris Sheppard def. Doran J. Haesly	+74.2 pts
24	2002 Kansas	Pat Roberts def. Steven A. Rosile	+73.4 pts
25	2002 Virginia	John William Warner def. Nancy B. Spannaus	+72.8 pts

How this ranking is measured

U.S. Senate general elections ranked by the largest gap in vote share between the top two finishers (1914–present). To keep the list to genuinely contested blowouts, we require a real second-place finisher (at least 5% of the vote), which sets aside uncontested one-party-era races and any contest where the data is missing a major candidate.

Compiled by PolitiFinder · published June 14, 2026 · sources: Data & sources · data last verified October 6, 2026.