1986 United States Senate election in California

The 1986 United States Senate election in California took place on November 4, 1986. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Alan Cranston narrowly won re-election to a fourth and final term over Republican U.S. Congressman Ed Zschau. This was the last time where both major party nominees for the Class 3 Senate seat in California were men until 2022.

1986 United States Senate election in California

November 4, 1986 (1986-11-04)

Nominee Alan Cranston Ed Zschau Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 3,646,672 3,541,804 Percentage 49.29% 47.87%

County results Cranston:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80% Zschau:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%

U.S. senator before election Alan Cranston Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Alan Cranston Democratic

Democratic primary

Candidates

• John Hancock Abbott, perennial candidate
• Robert John Banuelos, resident of Costa Mesa
• Alan Cranston, incumbent Senator
• Charles Greene
• Brian Lantz, candidate for Mayor of San Francisco in 1983

Results

1986 Democratic Senate primary

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Alan Cranston (incumbent)	1,807,244	80.71%
	Democratic	Charles Greene	165,594	7.40%
	Democratic	John Hancock Abbott	124,218	5.55%
	Democratic	Robert John Banuelos	77,286	3.45%
	Democratic	Brian Lantz	64,907	2.90%
Total votes			2,239,249	100.00%

Republican primary

Candidates

• William B. Allen, professor at Harvey Mudd College and member of the National Council on the Humanities
• Michael D. Antonovich, Los Angeles County Supervisor and former State Assemblyman
• Eldridge Cleaver, author and former Black Panther
• Edward M. Davis, State Senator and former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department
• Bobbi Fiedler, U.S. Representative from Encino
• Bruce Herschensohn, political commentator for KABC-TV in Los Angeles
• Joe Knowland, actor, publisher of The Oakland Tribune and son of former Senator William Knowland
• Art Laffer, economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan
• George Montgomery
• Robert W. Naylor, State Assemblyman from Menlo Park
• William H. Pemberton, candidate for Senate in 1982
• John W. Spring
• Ed Zschau, U.S. Representative from Los Altos

Results

1986 Republican Senate primary

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Ed Zschau	737,384	37.12%
	Republican	Bruce Herschensohn	587,852	29.59%
	Republican	Michael D. Antonovich	180,010	9.06%
	Republican	Bobbi Fiedler	143,032	7.20%
	Republican	Edward M. Davis	130,309	6.56%
	Republican	Robert W. Naylor	60,820	3.06%
	Republican	Art Laffer	47,288	2.38%
	Republican	Joe Knowland	35,987	1.81%
	Republican	Eldridge Cleaver	23,512	1.17%
	Republican	George Montgomery	16,374	0.82%
	Republican	William B. Allen	12,990	0.65%
	Republican	William H. Pemberton	6,698	0.34%
	Republican	John W. Spring	4,478	0.23%
Total votes			1,986,374	100.00%

Peace and Freedom primary

Candidates

• Lenni Brenner, Trotskyist anti-war activist and writer
• Paul Kangas, private investigator and perennial candidate

Results

1986 Peace and Freedom Senate primary

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Peace and Freedom	Paul Kangas	2,495	51.03%
	Peace and Freedom	Lenni Brenner	2,394	48.97%
Total votes			4,889	100.00%

General election

Results

1986 California U.S. Senate election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Alan Cranston (incumbent)	3,646,672	49.29%
	Republican	Ed Zschau	3,541,804	47.87%
	American Independent	Edward B. Vallen	109,916	1.49%
	Libertarian	Breck McKinley	66,261	0.90%
	Peace and Freedom	Paul Kangas	33,869	0.46%
	Independent	John W. Spring	12	0.00%
	Independent	Sam Manuel	11	0.00%
	Independent	John Hancock Abbott	4	0.00%
Total votes			7,398,549	100.00%
	Democratic hold

By county

County	Alan Cranston Democratic		Ed Zschau Republican		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Alameda	235,338	64.6%	121,941	33.4%	7,273	2.0%	113,397	31.2%	364,552
Alpine	186	43.8%	214	50.4%	25	5.9%	-28	6.6%	425
Amador	4,131	42.0%	5,356	54.4%	350	3.5%	-1,225	-12.4%	9,837
Butte	22,864	40.1%	32,424	56.9%	1,684	3.0%	-9,560	-16.8%	56,972
Calaveras	4,375	40.0%	6,249	57.1%	313	2.8%	-1,874	-17.1%	10,937
Colusa	1,873	40.2%	2,691	57.8%	93	2.0%	-818	-17.6%	4,657
Contra Costa	126,673	50.5%	118,940	47.4%	5,075	2.0%	7,733	3.1%	250,688
Del Norte	2,858	45.0%	3,225	50.7%	272	4.3%	-367	-5.7%	6,355
El Dorado	13,983	39.6%	19,890	56.4%	1,413	3.9%	-5,907	-16.8%	35,286
Fresno	67,841	46.6%	72,420	49.8%	5,193	3.6%	-4,579	-3.2%	145,454
Glenn	2,375	33.4%	4,495	63.3%	231	3.3%	-2,120	-29.9%	7,101
Humboldt	22,741	55.5%	16,692	40.7%	1,564	3.8%	6,049	14.8%	40,997
Imperial	8,355	44.6%	9,630	51.4%	750	4.0%	-1,275	-6.8%	18,735
Inyo	2,169	32.1%	4,363	64.6%	218	3.3%	-2,194	-32.5%	6,750
Kern	48,108	38.2%	74,195	58.8%	3,791	3.0%	-26,087	-20.6%	126,094
Kings	7,786	44.1%	9,304	52.7%	573	3.3%	-1,518	-8.6%	17,663
Lake	7,755	47.9%	7,930	49.0%	493	3.1%	-175	-1.1%	16,178
Lassen	3,660	49.2%	3,414	45.9%	360	4.8%	246	3.3%	7,434
Los Angeles	1,110,614	54.5%	876,250	43.0%	52,368	2.6%	234,364	11.5%	2,039,232
Madera	6,895	39.5%	9,777	56.0%	777	4.4%	-2,882	-16.5%	17,449
Marin	52,906	57.8%	37,053	40.5%	1,577	1.7%	15,853	17.3%	91,536
Mariposa	2,292	42.1%	2,940	54.0%	216	3.9%	-648	-11.9%	5,448
Mendocino	12,830	52.5%	10,828	44.3%	790	3.2%	2,002	8.2%	24,448
Merced	12,873	43.3%	15,743	53.0%	1,104	3.7%	-2,870	-9.7%	29,720
Modoc	1,514	43.2%	1,827	52.2%	162	4.6%	-313	-9.0%	3,503
Mono	995	38.5%	1,521	58.9%	67	2.6%	-526	-20.4%	2,583
Monterey	35,861	49.2%	35,242	48.4%	1,715	2.3%	619	0.8%	72,818
Napa	18,417	47.6%	19,320	50.0%	932	2.4%	-903	-2.4%	38,669
Nevada	10,837	38.8%	16,084	57.6%	1,023	3.7%	-5,247	-18.8%	27,944
Orange	223,911	34.6%	399,963	61.9%	40,682	3.4%	-176,052	-27.3%	646,556
Placer	20,797	41.0%	27,991	55.2%	1,926	3.8%	-7,194	-14.2%	50,714
Plumas	3,084	45.2%	3,426	50.3%	307	4.5%	-342	-5.1%	6,817
Riverside	99,788	42.1%	129,312	54.6%	7,708	2.2%	-29,524	-12.5%	236,808
Sacramento	151,830	49.9%	143,286	47.1%	8,950	2.9%	8,544	2.8%	304,066
San Benito	3,184	42.2%	3,986	52.8%	374	4.9%	-802	-10.6%	7,544
San Bernardino	110,132	42.5%	138,786	53.5%	10,354	4.0%	-28,654	-11.0%	259,272
San Diego	245,282	42.1%	317,349	54.5%	19,502	3.3%	-72,067	-12.4%	582,133
San Francisco	168,327	74.2%	54,675	24.1%	3,708	1.7%	113,652	50.1%	226,710
San Joaquin	45,770	43.2%	57,572	54.3%	2,640	2.5%	-11,802	-11.1%	105,982
San Luis Obispo	24,755	40.0%	25,063	56.6%	2,097	3.4%	-10,308	-16.6%	61,915
San Mateo	104,485	53.7%	86,518	44.4%	3,715	1.9%	17,967	9.3%	194,718
Santa Barbara	48,989	45.7%	55,495	51.7%	2,778	2.6%	-6,506	-6.0%	107,262
Santa Clara	193,585	51.1%	174,960	46.2%	10,259	2.7%	18,625	4.9%	378,804
Santa Cruz	43,820	59.2%	28,349	38.3%	1,900	2.6%	15,471	20.9%	74,069
Shasta	18,604	45.2%	21,097	51.2%	1,487	3.6%	-2,493	-6.0%	41,188
Sierra	712	45.6%	788	50.5%	61	3.9%	-76	-4.9%	1,561
Siskiyou	7,328	47.8%	7,369	48.0%	649	4.2%	-41	-0.2%	15,346
Solano	38,356	51.6%	33,734	45.4%	2,227	3.0%	4,622	6.2%	74,317
Sonoma	67,721	54.0%	54,254	43.3%	3,393	3.6%	13,467	10.7%	125,368
Stanislaus	33,301	44.4%	39,696	52.9%	2,075	2.7%	-6,395	-8.5%	75,072
Sutter	5,099	33.2%	9,658	62.8%	615	4.0%	-4,559	-29.6%	15,372
Tehama	6,316	42.9%	7,857	53.4%	534	3.6%	-1,541	-10.5%	14,707
Trinity	2,591	46.7%	2,669	48.1%	287	5.2%	-78	-1.4%	5,547
Tulare	23,393	38.0%	36,230	58.8%	1,982	3.2%	-12,837	-20.8%	61,605
Tuolumne	6,701	43.4%	8,339	54.0%	395	2.5%	-1,638	-10.6%	15,435
Ventura	70,847	40.4%	99,223	56.5%	5,412	3.1%	-28,376	-16.1%	175,482
Yolo	23,995	55.9%	17,724	41.3%	1,175	2.8%	6,271	14.6%	42,894
Yuba	4,864	41.2%	6,477	54.9%	452	3.8%	-1,613	-13.7%	11,793
Total	3,646,672	49.3%	3,541,804	47.9%	210,073	2.8%	108,868	1.4%	7,398,549

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Alpine
• Amador
• Butte
• Calaveras
• Colusa
• Del Norte
• Fresno
• Glenn
• Imperial
• Kings
• Kern
• Lake
• Madera
• Merced
• Mariposa
• Napa
• Placer
• Plumas
• Riverside
• San Benito
• San Bernardino
• San Diego
• San Joaquin
• San Luis Obispo
• Santa Barbara
• Shasta
• Sierra
• Siskiyou
• Stanislaus
• Trinity
• Tehama
• Tulare
• Tuolumne
• Ventura
• Yuba

See also

• 1986 United States Senate elections