The U.S. Senate election, 1962 was an election for the United States Senate which occurred in the middle of John F. Kennedy's term. His Democratic Party made a net gain of four seats from the Republicans, maintaining control of the Senate, with Democrats having about 2/3 of the Senate seats.

Democrats took open seats in New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Maryland and defeated Republican incumbents Joseph H. Bottum (R-SD), Homer E. Capehart (R-IN), and Alexander Wiley (R-WI). Republicans defeated incumbents John A. Carroll (D-CO) and John J. Hickey (D-WY).

The appointment of Republican Edwin L. Mechem to replace deceased Dennis Chavez (D-NM) on November 30, 1962, combined with the party switch by Strom Thurmond (D-SC) to the Republicans in 1964, reduced the Democratic gain to 2 seats.

Notable freshmen included the President's brother, Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), elected to the seat left vacant by the President, and future presidential candidate George McGovern (D-SD).

Senate contests in 1962

State	Incumbent	Party	Status	Opposing Candidates
Alabama	Lister Hill	Democrat	Re-elected, 50.9 - 49.1	James D. Martin (Republican)
Alaska	Ernest Gruening	Democrat	Re-elected, 58.1 - 41.9	Ted Stevens (Republican)
Arizona	Carl Hayden	Democrat	Re-elected, 54.9 - 45.1	Evan Mecham (Republican)
Arkansas	J. William Fulbright	Democrat	Re-elected, 68.7 - 31.3	Kenneth Jones (Republican)
California	Thomas H. Kuchel	Republican	Re-elected, 56.3 - 43.4	Richard Richards (Democrat)
Colorado	John A. Carroll	Democrat	Defeated, 53.6 - 45.6	Peter H. Dominick (Republican)
Connecticut	Prescott S. Bush	Republican	Retired: Democratic victory, 51.3 - 48.8	Abraham A. Ribicoff (Democrat) Horace Seely-Brown (Republican)
Florida	George A. Smathers	Democrat	Re-elected, 70.0 - 30.0	Emerson Rupert (Republican)
Georgia	Herman E. Talmadge	Democrat	Re-elected, unopposed
Hawaii	Oren E. Long	Democrat	Retired: Democratic victory, 69.4 - 30.6	Daniel K. Inouye (Democrat) Ben Dillingham (Republican)
Idaho1	Len B. Jordan	Republican	Re-elected, 51.0 - 49.0	Gracie Pfost (Democrat)
Idaho	Frank Church	Democrat	Re-elected, 54.7 - 45.3	Jack Hawley (Republican)
Illinois	Everett M. Dirksen	Republican	Re-elected, 52.9 - 47.1	Sidney R. Yates (Democrat)
Indiana	Homer E. Capehart	Republican	Defeated, 50.3 - 49.7	Birch Bayh (Democrat)
Iowa	Bourke B. Hickenlooper	Republican	Re-elected, 53.4 - 46.6	E. B. Smith (Democrat)
Kansas2	James B. Pearson	Republican	Re-elected, 56.2 - 42.5	Paul L. Aylward (Democrat)
Kansas	Frank Carlson	Republican	Re-elected, 62.4 - 35.9	K. L. Smith (Democrat)
Kentucky	Thruston B. Morton	Republican	Re-elected, 52.8 - 47.2	Wilson W. Wyatt (Democrat)
Louisiana	Russell B. Long	Democrat	Re-elected, 75.6 - 24.4	Taylor W. O'Hearn (Republican)
Maryland	John M. Butler	Republican	Retired: Democratic victory, 62.0 - 38.0	Daniel B. Brewster (Democrat) Edward T. Miller (Republican)
Massachusetts3	Benjamin A. Smith	Democrat	Retired: Democratic victory, 55.4 - 41.9	Edward M. Kennedy (Democrat) George C. Lodge (Republican)
Missouri	Edward V. Long	Democrat	Re-elected, 54.6 - 45.4	Crosby Kemper (Republican)
Nevada	Alan Bible	Democrat	Re-elected, 65.3 - 34.7	William B. Wright (Republican)
New Hampshire4	Maurice J. Murphy, Jr.	Republican	Defeated in primary: Democratic victory, 52.3 - 47.7	Thomas J. McIntyre (Democrat) Perkins Bass (Republican)
New Hampshire	Norris Cotton	Republican	Re-elected, 59.7 - 40.3	Alfred Catalfo, Jr. (Democrat)
New York	Jacob K. Javits	Republican	Re-elected, 57.4 - 40.1	James B. Donovan (Democrat)
North Carolina	Sam J. Ervin, Jr.	Democrat	Re-elected, 60.5 - 39.6	Claude L. Greene, Jr. (Republican)
North Dakota	Milton R. Young	Republican	Re-elected, 60.7 - 39.4	William Lanier (Democrat)
Ohio	Frank J. Lausche	Democrat	Re-elected, 61.6 - 38.4	John M. Briley (Republican)
Oklahoma	A. S. Mike Monroney	Democrat	Re-elected, 53.2 - 46.3	B. Hayden Crawford (Republican)
Oregon	Wayne Morse	Democrat	Re-elected, 54.2 - 45.8	Sig Unander (Republican)
Pennsylvania	Joseph S. Clark	Democrat	Re-elected, 51.1 - 48.7	James E. Van Zandt (Republican)
South Carolina	Olin B. Johnston	Democrat	Re-elected, 57.2 - 42.8	W. D. Workman, Jr. (Republican)
South Dakota	Joseph H. Bottum	Republican	Defeated, 50.1 - 49.9	George S. McGovern (Democrat)
Utah	Wallace F. Bennett	Republican	Re-elected, 52.4 - 47.6	David S. King (Democrat)
Vermont	George D. Aiken	Republican	Re-elected, 66.9 - 33.1	W. Robert Johnson (Democrat)
Washington	Warren G. Magnuson	Democrat	Re-elected, 52.1 - 47.3	Richard G. Christensen (Republican)
Wisconsin	Alexander Wiley	Republican	Defeated, 52.6 - 47.2	Gaylord Nelson (Democrat)
Wyoming5	John J. Hickey	Democrat	Defeated, 57.8 - 42.2	Milward Simpson (Republican)

¹ special election held due to death of Henry C. Dworshak (R-ID)

² special election held due to death of Andrew F. Schoeppel (R-KS)

³ special election held due to election of John F. Kennedy (D-MA) to the office of President in 1960

⁴ special election held due to death of Henry Styles Bridges (R-NH)

⁵ special election held due to death of Edwin Keith Thomson (Republican Senator-elect)

Senate composition before and after elections

87th Congress Senate Composition																										88th Congress Senate Composition
Color Key:   = Republican   = Democratic

See also

• United States House elections, 1962