James Phelan

When Californians elect their U.S. Senators, they usually like to stick with them. Incumbent senators running for re-election have rarely been ousted since the first direct election took place in 1912.

A rare early exception was James Phelan (D) who was defeated in 1920 by Samuel Shortridge (R) after just one term in office. In 1970, incumbent U.S. Sen. George Murphy (R) lost to John Tunney (D), who in turn lost to S. I. Hayakawa (R) six years later. And most recently, in a special election in 1992, Dianne Feinstein (D-San Francisco) defeated U.S. Sen. John Seymour (R), who was appointed a year earlier by then-Gov. Pete Wilson (R) to fill the seat he vacated to run for governor.