1982 United States Senate election in California

• Robert K. Booher
• Ted Bruinsma, president of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
• Rafael D. Cortes
• Bob Dornan, U.S. Representative from Garden Grove
• Barry Goldwater Jr., U.S. Representative from Woodland Hills and son of Barry Goldwater
• John Hickey
• Pete McCloskey, U.S. Representative from Woodside and 1972 presidential candidate
• Edison P. McDaniels
• William H. Pemberton
• Maureen Reagan, daughter of President Ronald Reagan
• John G. Schmitz, State Senator from Corona del Mar, former U.S. Representative, and American Independent nominee for President in 1972
• William B. Shockley, recipient of the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics
• Pete Wilson, Mayor of San Diego and former Assemblyman

• Jerry Brown, Governor of California
• Walter R. Buchanan, perennial candidate
• Raymond Caplette
• Paul B. Carpenter, State Senator from Cypress and psychologist
• May Chote, candidate for U.S. Representative in 1976
• Bob Hampton
• Tom Metzger, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and nominee for U.S. Representative in 1980
• Richard Morgan, candidate for Senate in 1980
• William F. Wertz, follower of Lyndon LaRouche
• Gore Vidal, writer and public intellectual
• Daniel K. Whitehurst, Mayor of Fresno

Wilson was known as a fiscal conservative who supported Proposition 13, although Wilson had opposed the measure while mayor of San Diego. However, Brown ran on his gubernatorial record of building the largest state budget surpluses in California history. Both Wilson and Brown were moderate-to-liberal on social issues, including support for abortion rights. The election was expected to be close, with Brown holding a slim lead in most of the polls leading up to Election Day. Wilson hammered away at Brown's appointment of California Chief Justice Rose Bird, using this to portray himself as tougher on crime than Brown was. Brown's late entry into the 1980 Democratic presidential primary, after promising not to run, was also an issue. President Ronald Reagan made a number of visits to California late in the race to campaign for Wilson. Reagan quipped that the last thing he wanted to see was both of his home state's U.S. Senate seats falling into Democrats' hands, especially to be occupied by the man who succeeded him as governor. Despite exit polls indicating a narrow Brown victory, Wilson won by a wide margin.