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1972 United States Senate election in New Jersey

The 1972 United States Senate election in New Jersey was held on November 7, 1972. Incumbent Republican Clifford P. Case defeated Democratic nominee Paul J. Krebs with 62.46% of the vote.

The 1972 United States Senate election in New Jersey was held on November 7, 1972. Incumbent Republican Clifford P. Case defeated Democratic nominee Paul J. Krebs with 62.46% of the vote.

Primary elections were held on June 6. Case turned away a challenge from conservative doctor James Ralph. Krebs won a large plurality in the Democratic primary over Daniel Gaby and Joseph Karcher.

As of 2026, this was the last time the Republicans won a U.S. Senate election in New Jersey, the second longest such drought for Republicans in any state after Hawaii (since 1970).

Case outperformed Richard Nixon's vote share in the concurrent presidential election by 0.89%.

Clifford P. Case, incumbent United States Senator
James W. Ralph, Bergen County physician and candidate for State Senate in 1971

Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	187,268	70.13%
	Republican	79,766	29.87%
267,034	100.00%

Daniel M. Gaby, Somerset County advertising executive and chair of the Democratic Policy Council
Joseph T. Karcher, Sayreville Borough Attorney and former State Assemblyman
Henry Kielbasa, Linden railroad worker
Paul J. Krebs, former U.S. Representative from Livingston
Patrick McGahn, chair of the Atlantic County Democratic Committee
Edward Crabiel, Minority Leader of the New Jersey Senate

Krebs ran with the support of organized labor and the Hubert Humphrey presidential campaign, as well as the party establishment in Essex, Hudson and Passaic counties, while Gaby ran as a reform candidate and aligned himself with George McGovern's campaign.

Although McGovern won the state's presidential delegate primary easily over Hubert Humphrey, Krebs defeated Gaby by roughly 50,000 votes.

Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	135,000	43.16%
	Democratic	86,213	27.56%
	Democratic	51,321	16.41%
	Democratic	40,235	12.86%
312,769	100.00%

Clifford Case, incumbent Senator since 1955 (Republican)
A. Howard Freund, Roselle Park resident (American)
Paul J. Krebs, former U.S. Representative from Livingston (Democratic)
Jules Levin, candidate for U.S. Senate in 1966 (Socialist Labor)
Charles W. Wiley (Independent)

From the start of the post-primary campaign, Krebs faced "virtually insurmountable political odds."

Party	Candidate	Votes	%	.mw-parser-output .tooltip-dotted{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}±%
	Republican	1,743,854	62.46%	2.44
	Democratic	963,573	34.51%	2.47
	American	40,980	1.47%	N/A
	Independent	33,442	1.20%	N/A
	Socialist Labor	10,058	0.36%	0.12
780,281
2,791,907
	Republican hold

County	Case %	Case votes	Krebs %	Krebs votes	Other %	Other votes
Atlantic	65.6%	46,780	32.6%	23,219	1.8%	1,280
Bergen	64.4%	265,008	32.5%	133,449	3.1%	12,773
Burlington	68.6%	73,019	29.8%	31,674	1.6%	1,672
Camden	62.8%	112,303	35.4%	63,369	1.7%	3,096
Cape May	74.4%	21,564	23.4%	6,790	2.2%	644
Cumberland	66.1%	28,182	33.1%	14,133	0.9%	347
Essex	52.5%	163,583	44.2%	137,821	3.3%	10,359
Gloucester	66.1%	45,000	32.9%	22,403	1.0%	668
Hudson	54.7%	116,766	43.1%	92,076	2.2%	4,749
Hunterdon	68.9%	19,973	27.4%	7,934	3.7%	1,087
Mercer	62.6%	74,504	35.0%	41,697	2.4%	2,906
Middlesex	60.3%	138,524	35.6%	81,827	4.1%	9,390
Monmouth	66.0%	116,251	31.4%	55,233	2.6%	4,615
Morris	67.2%	104,216	28.8%	44,704	3.9%	6,128
Ocean	69.1%	69,621	27.4%	27,643	3.4%	3,483
Passaic	61.3%	97,304	35.1%	55,741	3.6%	5,768
Salem	65.3%	15,780	33.8%	8,164	1.0%	217
Somerset	65.1%	52,475	29.0%	23,384	5.9%	4,708
Sussex	70.1%	23,648	26.8%	9,029	3.1%	1,044
Union	62.8%	140,625	33.1%	74,010	4.1%	9,242
Warren	66.2%	18,728	32.8%	9,273	1.1%	304

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

Hudson

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