Jenkins won twenty-eight of the sixty-four parishes, but Johnston prevailed, 58–42 percent. In the 1980 race, Jenkins criticized Long's support of the Panama Canal Treaties. He said Long was "the most powerful man in the Senate, but he isn't using that power for us." Again, Jenkins lost, 59–41 percent. In both races, he was outspent by large margins, 5 to 1 in the Johnston race and 10 to 1 in the Long race. In the second of those campaigns, Republican Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, later his party's Majority Leader and presidential nominee, made a campaign commercial for his friend Russell Long. Coincidentally, Dole took over chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee from Long after the Republicans won a majority in the 1980 elections.