Editing Reagan's coattails (section)

{{short description|Influence of Ronald Reagan's popularity in elections other than his own}}
{{more citations needed|date=June 2016}}
'''Reagan's coattails''' refers to the influence of [[Ronald Reagan]]'s popularity in elections other than his own, after the [[United States|American]] political expression to "[[Coattail effect|ride in on another's coattails]]". Chiefly, it refers to the "Reagan Revolution" accompanying his [[1980 United States presidential election|1980 election]] to the [[President of the United States|U.S. presidency]]. This victory was accompanied by the change of twelve seats in the [[United States Senate]] from [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] to [[United States Republican Party|Republican]] hands, producing a Republican majority in the Senate for the first time since [[1954 United States Senate elections|1954]].

Possibly best known was the defeat of Democratic [[South Dakota]] Senator [[George McGovern]], a prominent progressive Democrat who had been the party's nominee for president in [[1972 United States presidential election|1972]]. McGovern lost his bid for a fourth term by a resounding 19-point margin to Republican Representative [[James Abdnor]].