In the general election, Democratic candidate Al Gore, son of former senator Albert Gore Sr., won easily, flipping the Republican held seat to Democratic hands.
Although the Senate election coincided with the landslide re-election of President Reagan, who carried Tennessee by a wide margin, this time his victory did not have any coattails, as it did in 1980, and Democrats picked up three Republican seats. One of the Democratic gains was in Tennessee, where conservative Democrat Gore won in a landslide:[2]