In 1980, Mike Gravel lost the Democratic Senate primary to Clark Gruening, grandson of Ernest Gruening, who then lost the general election to Republican Frank Murkowski.
Notes on verification
Multiple independent sources including Wikipedia, contemporaneous news coverage, and obituaries corroborate all elements of the claim consistently. [cascade flags: wikipedia_dropped_other_sources_exist | tier=silver indep_score=0.875 clusters=2 claim_tier=notable]
Sources
- Mike Gravel, former US senator for Alaska, dies at 91 (seed:politics_and_current_events)
- https://www.npr.org/2021/06/27/1010702706/mike-gravel-former-alaska-senator-and-anti-war-advocate-dies-at-age-91 (corroboration)
- https://www.csmonitor.com/1980/0828/082841.html (corroboration)