Frank R. Lautenberg won with 53.6% of the vote (1,599,905 votes), ahead of Peter M. Dawkins with 45.2% (1,349,937 votes).
The margin between the first two candidates was 8.4 percentage points (249,968 votes). The party margin (Republican share minus Democratic share) was a Democratic lead of 8.4 points.
Compared with the previous comparable race in the same area, the party margin moved 20.9 points toward Republicans.
2,987,634 votes were counted in this race, for 5 candidates or options.
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