1980 Senate Candidacy
Holtzman was the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1980. In her party's primary she defeated former Miss America Bess Myerson, former New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay, and Queens District Attorney John Santucci. Myerson had been the initial favorite, with endorsements from Mayor of New York Ed Koch, Governor of New York Hugh Carey and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
In the general election, Holtzman faced Republican challenger Al D'Amato and incumbent Senator Jacob Javits. Despite his loss to D'Amato in the Republican primary, Javits ran in the general election on the Liberal Party ticket. He retained his union endorsements and drew liberal and Jewish voters away from Holtzman. A theme of D'Amato's campaign was that Holtzman had never voted for a Department of Defense appropriation bill in Congress.
She lost by a margin of 1%, or 81,000 votes.
Read more about this topic: Elizabeth Holtzman
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“I think the Senate ought to realize that I have to have about me those in whom I have confidence; and unless they find a real blemish on a man, I do not think they ought to make partisan politics out of appointments to the Cabinet.”
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