Pete Wilson won with 52.8% of the vote (5,143,409 votes), ahead of Leo McCarthy with 44.0% (4,287,253 votes).
The margin between the first two candidates was 8.8 percentage points (856,156 votes). The party margin (Republican share minus Democratic share) was a Republican lead of 8.8 points.
Compared with the previous comparable race in the same area, the party margin moved 10.2 points toward Republicans. The winning party changed.
9,743,598 votes were counted in this race, for 5 candidates or options.
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