With John Kerry being nominated today to serve as America’s next Secretary of State, his career in elective office is almost certainly at an end. Here is a Lowell-centric record of the eight general elections (and corresponding primaries) in which he appeared on the ballot:

1972 – Congress – 5th District

Republican Primary (showing Lowell vote followed by District vote)

Paul Cronin of Andover – 803 – 10,812
George Macheras of Lowell – 218 – 790
Armand Morissette of Lowell – 1,324 – 2,486
Ellen Sampson of Lowell – 1,455 – 4,330

Democratic Primary (showing Lowell vote followed by District vote)

Glenn Cooper of Lowell – 483 – 2,282
John Desmond of Lowell – 4,787 – 10,213
Anthony DiFruscia of Lawrence – 704 – 12,222
Helen Droney of Lowell – 774 – 2,124
Frederick Finnegan of Chelmsford – 1,395 – 2,558
Robert Kennedy of Lowell – 2,476 – 5,632
John Kerry of Lowell – 2,298 – 20,771
Daniel Kiley of Lawrence – 139 – 2,221
Paul Sheehy of Lowell – 7,429 – 15,641
Richard Williams of Lowell – 311 – 1,706

General Election

Paul Cronin (Republican) – 20,747 – 110,970
John Kerry (Democrat) – 17,227 – 92,847
Roger Durkin (Independent) – 666 – 3,803

1982 – Lieutenant Governor

Democratic Primary (showing Lowell vote followed by Statewide vote)

John Kerry of Newton – 9,483 – 325,890
Evelyn Murphy of Brookline – 2,684 – 286,378
Lou Nickinello of Natick – 1,571 – 150,829
Lois Pines of Newton – 1,377 – 132,734
Samuel Rotondi of Winchester – 3,282 – 228,086

Republican Primary

Leon Lombardi of Easton – unopposed

Gubernatorial Election

Michael Dukakis and John Kerry (Democrat) – 13,810 – 1,219,109
John Sears and Leon Lombardi (Republican) – 5,483 – 749,679

1984 U.S. Senate

Republican Primary (showing Lowell then Statewide vote)

Elliot Richardson of Brookline – 742 – 104,761
Raymond Shamie of Walpole – 1,718 – 173,851

Democratic Primary

David Bartley of Holyoke – 513 – 85,910
Michael Connolly of Boston – 660 – 82,999
John Kerry of Boston – 3,164 – 322,470
James Shannon of Lawrence – 12,179 – 297,941

General Election

John Kerry (Democrat) – 16,563 – 1,392,981
Ray Shamie (Republican) – 15,223 – 1,136,806

1990 US Senate

In 1990, John Kerry was elected to his second term in the US Senate, receiving 1,3321,712 votes to 992,917 of Republican Jim Rappaport (who had defeated Daniel Daly in the Republican primary).

1996 US Senate

The big statewide race in 1996 was for the US Senate seat. Republican governor Bill Weld challenged two-term Democratic incumbent John Kerry in that race. Statewide, Kerry received 1,334,345 votes to Weld’s 1,142,837. In Lowell, the percentages were about the same with Kerry receiving 13,781 votes to Weld’s 11,267.

2002 US Senate

John Kerry was re-elected US Senator with nominal opposition from Libertarian Michael Cloud

2004 – President

The big political news in 2004 was John Kerry’s run for president. In the Massachusetts presidential primary on March 2, Kerry received 440,964 votes to John Edwards’ 108,051, Dennis Kucinich’s 25,198, Howard Dean’s 17,076, Al Sharpton’s 6123, Joe Lieberman’s 5432, Wesley Clark’s 3109 and Carol Mosley Braun’s 1019. On the Republican side, George W Bush was unchallenged.

In the November 2 state election, the Kerry-John Edwards ticket beat Bush-Dick Cheney, 1,803,800 to 1,071,109 (Kerry won Lowell, 18,195 to 10,554). Bush, of course, won the election nation-wide.

2008 – US Senate

For the US Senate, John Kerry was challenged in the Democratic primary by Edward O’Reilly. Kerry received 342,446 votes statewide and 3135 in Lowell; O’Reilly received 154,395 votes statewide and 1614 in Lowell. In the general election, Kerry defeated Republican Jeffrey Beatty. Kerry got 21,038 votes in Lowell to Beatty’s 8332.