Jr. Donald W. Riegle won with 57.7% of the vote (1,728,793 votes), ahead of Philip E. Ruppe with 40.9% (1,223,288 votes).
The margin between the first two candidates was 16.9 percentage points (505,505 votes). The party margin (Republican share minus Democratic share) was a Democratic lead of 16.9 points.
Compared with the previous comparable race in the same area, the party margin moved 12.6 points toward Democrats.
2,994,334 votes were counted in this race, for 6 candidates or options.
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