The 1972 United States Senate election in New Jersey was held on November 7, 1972. Incumbent Republican Clifford P. Case defeated Democratic nominee Paul J. Krebs with 62.46% of the vote.
Primary elections were held on June 6. Case turned away a challenge from conservative doctor James Ralph. Krebs won a large plurality in the Democratic primary over Daniel Gaby and Joseph Karcher.
As of , this was the last time the Republicans won a U.S. Senate election in New Jersey, the second longest such drought for Republicans in any state after Hawaii (since 1970).
Case outperformed Richard Nixon's vote share in the concurrent presidential election by 0.89%.
Krebs ran with the support of organized labor and the Hubert Humphrey presidential campaign, as well as the party establishment in Essex, Hudson and Passaic counties, while Gaby ran as a reform candidate and aligned himself with George McGovern's campaign.
Although McGovern won the state's presidential delegate primary easily over Hubert Humphrey, Krebs defeated Gaby by roughly 50,000 votes.
From the start of the post-primary campaign, Krebs faced "virtually insurmountable political odds."
Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican