1936 United States Senate election in Georgia

1936 U.S. Senate Democratic primary in Georgia

←  1932 (Special) September 9, 1936 1942  →

Nominee Richard Russell Jr. Eugene Talmadge Party Democratic Democratic Electoral vote 344 66 Popular vote 165,111 86,203 Percentage 65.54% 34.46%

County results Russell:      50-60%     60-70%     70-80%     80-90% Talmadge:      50-60%     60-70%     70-80%

U.S. senator before election Richard Russell Jr. Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Richard Russell Jr. Democratic

The 1936 United States Senate election in Georgia took place on November 3, 1936. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Richard Russell Jr. was re-elected to a second term (his first full term) in office after first being elected in the 1932 United States Senate special election in Georgia.

As was common at the time, the Democratic candidate ran with no opposition in the general election so therefore the Democratic primary was the real contest, and winning the primary was considered tantamount to election.

Democratic primary

The Democratic primary election was held on September 9, 1936. The incumbent Senator of Georgia Richard Russell Jr. had become a noted supporter of the New Deal as a Senator, while Governor Eugene Talmadge was a strong opponent of the program. After being prevented by term limits to run again for Governor, Talmadge opted to challenge Russell as an opponent of the New Deal, which by then had grown to be widely popular among Georgians. ^[1]

County unit system

From 1917 until 1962, the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Georgia used a voting system called the county unit system to determine victors in statewide primary elections. ^[2]

The system was ostensibly designed to function similarly to the Electoral College, but in practice the large ratio of unit votes for small, rural counties to unit votes for more populous urban areas provided outsized political influence to the smaller counties. ^{[3] [4]}

Under the county unit system, the 159 counties in Georgia were divided by population into three categories. The largest eight counties were classified as "Urban", the next-largest 30 counties were classified as "Town", and the remaining 121 counties were classified as "Rural". Urban counties were given 6 unit votes, Town counties were given 4 unit votes, and Rural counties were given 2 unit votes, for a total of 410 available unit votes. Each county's unit votes were awarded on a winner-take-all basis. ^{[3] [4]}

Candidates were required to obtain a majority of unit votes (not necessarily a majority of the popular vote), or 206 total unit votes, to win the election. If no candidate received a majority in the initial primary, a runoff election was held between the top two candidates to determine a winner. ^[5]

Candidates

• Richard Russell Jr., incumbent U.S. Senator
• Eugene Talmadge, former Governor of Georgia

Results

Democratic primary [6] [7]
Candidate	Votes	%	CUV
Richard Russell Jr.	165,111	65.54	344
Eugene Talmadge	86,203	34.46	66

General election

Results

1936 United States Senate election in Georgia ^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Richard Russell Jr. (Incumbent)	285,468	100.00%
	Democratic hold

References

1. "New Deal". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved July 12, 2024.
2. "County Unit System". Georgia County Clerks Association. Archived from the original on May 31, 2008. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
3. "Eugene Talmadge". The Jim Crow Encyclopedia. The African American Experience. Archived from the original on January 23, 2015. Retrieved August 12, 2013.
4. "County Unit System, eh?". Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies. October 6, 2011. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
5. Buchanan, Scott (June 13, 2017). "County Unit System". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
6. "GA US Senate, 1936 - D Primary". Our Campaigns. Retrieved July 12, 2024.
7. "TALMADGE BEATEN IN GEORGIA RACE". Atlanta. the Associated Press. September 10, 1936. Retrieved July 12, 2024– via Chronicling America. Russell 165,111 popular votes; 344 unit votes. Talmadge 86,203 popular votes, 66 unit votes.
8. "GA US Senate, 1936". Our Campaigns. Retrieved July 12, 2024.