1980 North Rhine-Westphalia state election

1980 North Rhine-Westphalia state election
11 May 1980
All 201 seats in the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia
101 seats needed for a majority
Turnout9,874,427 (80.0% 6.1 pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Candidate Johannes Rau Kurt Biedenkopf Liselotte Funcke
Party SPD CDU FDP
Last election 91 seats, 45.1% 95 seats, 47.1% 14 seats, 6.7%
Seats won 106 95 0
Seat change 15 0 14
Popular vote 4,756,103 4,240,885 489,225
Percentage 48.4% 43.2% 4.98%
Swing 3.3 pp 3.9 pp 1.7 pp
Results for the single-member constituencies.
Government before election

First Rau cabinet
SPD–FDP

 Government after election

Second Rau cabinet
SPD

The 1980 North Rhine-Westphalia state election was held on 11 May 1980 to elect the 9th Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia. The outgoing government was a coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) led by Minister-President Johannes Rau.

The result was a clear victory for the SPD, who won an absolute majority of 106 seats in the Landtag with 48.4% of the vote. The opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) declined to 43.2% and remained steady on 95 seats. The SPD's majority was ensured by the failure of the FDP to re-enter parliament: they fell just short of the 5% electoral threshold and lost all their seats. The SPD went on to form government alone for the first time in the state's history; Johannes Rau was re-elected Minister-President by the Landtag on 4 June.

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