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 County results Barkley: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Haswell: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% | |||||||||||||||||
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| Elections in Kentucky |
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The 1938 United States Senate election in Kentucky took place on November 8, 1938. Democratic Senator and Senate Majority Leader Alben Barkley was re-elected to a third term in office over Republican John P. Haswell. The true challenge to Barkley came in the Democratic primary, where he faced Governor Happy Chandler.
Barkley faced a primary challenge in his 1938 re-election bid from A. B. "Happy" Chandler, Kentucky's popular governor who had a strong political organization throughout the state. [1] According to historian James C. Klotter, Chandler was confident of his ascension to the presidency and saw the Senate as a stepping stone. [2] [3] Chandler twice asked Roosevelt to appoint Kentucky's junior Senator, M. M. Logan, to a federal judgeship so he could arrange his own appointment to Logan's Senate seat. [4] The retirement of Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland in January 1938 gave President Franklin Roosevelt the opportunity to accommodate Chandler's wishes, but Roosevelt preferred a younger option, and Barkley recommended Solicitor General Stanley Forman Reed for the appointment. [2] [5] Chandler's mentor, Virginia senator Harry F. Byrd, and the bloc of Democrats who opposed Roosevelt's New Deal then encouraged Chandler to announce his candidacy for Barkley's seat. [4] [6]
Eager to augment his power and angered by the refusal of Roosevelt and Barkley to accept his suggestion of appointing Logan to the Supreme Court, Chandler did not attend a long-planned dinner in Barkley's honor on January 22, 1938. Instead, he held an event of his own at Louisville's exclusive Pendennis Club and alluded to a challenge to Barkley in the upcoming primary. Barkley officially announced his re-election bid on January 23, the following day. The death of another federal judge on January 26 provided a second opportunity for Roosevelt to appoint Senator Logan to a judgeship and appease Chandler, but Logan refused to consider the appointment. Following a January 31 meeting in Washington, D.C. between Roosevelt and Chandler, in which Roosevelt urged Chandler to put his senatorial ambitions on hold, Byrd encouraged Chandler to challenge Barkley. Chandler heeded Byrd's advice by making an official announcement of his candidacy on February 23 in Newport, Kentucky. [7]
The New York Times framed the primary, one of several within the majority Democratic Party that year, as "the Gettysburg of the party's internecine strife" over control of the Democratic National Convention in 1940. [8] Early on, Chandler portrayed himself as a supporter of Roosevelt – since Roosevelt was popular in Kentucky – but opposed to the New Deal. [9] He pointed to his fiscal conservatism as governor, including reorganizing and downsizing the executive branch and reducing the state's debt. [2] In April, polls showed Barkley ahead of Chandler by a 2-to-1 margin, and the May 3 primary victory of Florida Senator Claude Pepper, who supported the New Deal, finally persuaded Chandler to abandon his attacks of the program. [8] He criticized Barkley as "a stranger to the state" and obliquely referred to "fat, sleek senators who go to Europe and have forgotten the people of Kentucky except when they run for election". [9] Forty years old – 20 years Barkley's junior – he referred to Barkley as "Old Alben". [10]
Early in the contest, Barkley could only campaign on weekends, and he enlisted allies like Fred Vinson to speak on his behalf. [11] [12] Chandler's enemies, such as former governor Ruby Laffoon and John Y. Brown, also supported Barkley. [12] Although labor leaders had backed Chandler's gubernatorial bid, they endorsed Barkley because of Roosevelt's support for labor unions. [13]
As nearly every 20th-century Kentucky governor had done, Chandler printed campaign materials with state funds, solicited campaign funds from state employees, and promised new government jobs in exchange for votes. [12] A later investigation determined that Chandler had raised at least $10,000 from state employees. [14] Federal New Deal employees countered by working on Barkley's behalf. [12] Barkley and George H. Goodman, director of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Kentucky, denied that WPA employees played a role in the campaign, but journalist Thomas Lunsford Stokes concluded that "the WPA ... was deep in politics" in Kentucky, winning the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for Reporting for his investigation. [15] A Senate committee investigated Stokes' findings, and WPA administrator Harry Hopkins claimed the committee's report refuted all but two of Stokes' twenty-two charges. [16] Nevertheless, Congress passed the Hatch Act of 1939 which restricted federal employees' participation in political activities. [14]
In late May 1938, Chandler's campaign manager publicly claimed that federal relief agencies, especially the Works Progress Administration, were openly working for Barkley's re-election. [17] Although the WPA administrator in Kentucky denied the charges, veteran reporter Thomas Lunsford Stokes launched an investigation of the agency's activities in the state and eventually raised 22 charges of political corruption in a series of eight articles, covering the Barkley-Chandler campaign. [16] Federal WPA administrator Harry Hopkins claimed an internal investigation of the agency refuted all but two of Stokes' charges, but Stokes was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting in 1939 for his investigation. [18] In the wake of the investigation Congress passed the Hatch Act of 1939 to limit the WPA's involvement in future elections. [19]
The negative effects of the investigation on Barkley's campaign were minimal because of Chandler's own use of his gubernatorial power and patronage on behalf of his own campaign. Dan Talbott, one of Chandler's chief political advisors, encouraged supervisors of state workers to take punitive action against employees who made "pessimistic expressions" on Chandler's chances in the primary. Furthermore, Chandler initiated a rural road-building project in the state, employing loyal supporters to construct and maintain the new roads. State workers who supported Chandler were employed to deliver pension checks to the state's elderly citizens, and Talbott did not deny charges that the workers threatened to withhold the checks if the recipients did not pledge their support to Chandler. [20]
Recognizing that the defeat of his hand-picked floor leader would be a repudiation of his agenda, Roosevelt began a tour of the state in Covington on July 8. [21] As governor of the state, Chandler was on hand to greet Roosevelt on his arrival in Covington and sat between Roosevelt and Barkley in the back seat of the open-topped vehicle that transported them to Latonia Race Track, the site of Roosevelt's first speech. Throughout his tour of the state, Roosevelt endorsed Barkley but remained friendly with Chandler. [22] Although clearly campaigning for Barkley, Roosevelt made courteous remarks about Chandler in the spirit of party unity, but in Bowling Green, he chastised Chandler for "dragging federal judgeships into a political campaign". [1] [23] After Roosevelt's departure, Chandler played up Roosevelt's complimentary remarks about him but downplayed or ignored critical remarks. [22]
After the congressional session ended, Barkley made between 8 and 15 speeches each day and traveling, on average, 4,500 miles (7,200 km) per week. [24] [12] This countered Chandler's criticisms of Barkley's age, a charge that was further blunted when the younger Chandler fell ill in July, temporarily halting his campaigning. [12] Chandler described his malady as "intestinal poisoning". [25] His doctor announced that Chandler, Dan Talbott, and a state police officer had all been sickened after drinking "poisoned water" that had been provided to Chandler for a radio address. [25] Chandler insinuated that someone from the Barkley campaign had tried to poison him, but the charge never gained much credence with the press or the electorate. [26] Barkley frequently mocked it on the campaign trail by first accepting a glass of water offered to him and then shuddering and rejecting it. [26]
Barkley won the August 6 election by a vote of 294,391 to 223,149, carrying 74 of Kentucky's 120 counties, with large majorities in western Kentucky, the city of Louisville, and rural areas. [26] [11] It was the first loss of Chandler's political career, and the worst suffered by a primary candidate in Kentucky's history to that time. [27]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Alben Barkley (inc.) | 294,391 | 56.0% | |
| Democratic | Happy Chandler | 223,149 | 42.6% | |
| Democratic | Others | ~7,348 | 1.4% | |
| Total votes | ~524,888 | 100.00% | ||
Encouraged by Barkley's success, Roosevelt campaigned against conservative Democratic incumbents in southern states, but all of these candidates won, which damaged Roosevelt's image. [28]
When Senator Logan died on October 9, 1939, Chandler resigned as Governor so that Lieutenant Governor Keen Johnson could appoint him to the vacant seat. He won the special election to complete the term and a regular election to a full term in 1942, each time winning competitive Democratic primary races. At the 1944 Democratic National Convention, he unsuccessfully angled to have himself nominated as Roosevelt's running mate. His bid collapsed when the Kentucky delegation chose to support Barkley over him.
Barkley served out his term and was re-elected in 1944. When Harry S. Truman, who had defeated Chandler for the vice presidential nomination, succeeded to the presidency, he selected Barkley as his own running mate for the 1948 presidential election. The Truman-Barkley ticket won despite opposition from Chandler and some other Southern Democrats.
Barkley defeated his Republican opponent, Louisville Judge John P. Haswell, securing 62% of the general election vote. [29]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Alben W. Barkley (incumbent) | 346,735 | 62.03% | ||
| Republican | John P. Haswell | 212,266 | 37.97% | ||
| Democratic | Happy Chandler (write-in) | 20 | 0.00% | ||
| Majority | 83,628 | 9.88% | |||
| Total votes | 559,021 | 100.00% | |||
| Democratic hold | |||||
Alben William Barkley was an American lawyer and politician from Kentucky who served as the 35th vice president of the United States from 1949 to 1953 under President Harry S. Truman. In 1905, he was elected to local offices and in 1912 as a U.S. representative. Serving in both houses of Congress, he was a liberal Democrat, supporting President Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom domestic agenda and foreign policy.
The governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky is the head of government in Kentucky. Sixty-two men and one woman have served as governor of Kentucky. The governor's term is four years in length; since 1992, incumbents have been able to seek re-election once before becoming ineligible for four years. Throughout the state's history, four men have served two non-consecutive terms as governor, and four others have served two consecutive terms, the most recent being current governor Andy Beshear, who was re-elected to a second term on November 7, 2023. Kentucky is one of only five U.S. states that hold gubernatorial elections in odd-numbered years.
Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler Sr. was an American politician from Kentucky. He represented Kentucky in the U.S. Senate and served as its 44th and 49th governor. Aside from his political positions, he also served as the second Commissioner of Baseball from 1945 to 1951 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. His grandson, Ben Chandler, later served as congressman for Kentucky's Sixth District.
The 1938 United States Senate elections occurred in the middle of Franklin D. Roosevelt's second term. The 32 seats of Class 3 were contested in regular elections, and special elections were held to fill vacancies. The Republicans gained eight seats from the Democrats, though this occurred after multiple Democratic gains since the 1932 election, leading to the Democrats retaining a commanding lead over the Republicans with more than two-thirds of the legislative chamber.
Edward Thompson Breathitt Jr. was an American politician from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. A member of one of the state's political families, he was the 51st Governor of Kentucky, serving from 1963 to 1967. After serving in World War II and graduating from the University of Kentucky, Breathitt worked on the presidential campaign of Adlai Stevenson, the senatorial campaign of Alben Barkley, and the gubernatorial campaign of Bert T. Combs. When Combs won the governorship in 1959, he appointed Breathitt as personnel commissioner, where he wrote legislation establishing the first merit system for state employees. He continued to hold appointive offices throughout Combs' tenure, and in 1962, Combs endorsed Breathitt to succeed him as governor.
John Crepps Wickliffe Beckham was an American attorney and politician who served as the 35th governor of Kentucky and a United States senator from Kentucky. He was the state's first popularly-elected senator after the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment.
Ruby Laffoon was an American attorney and politician who served as the 43rd Governor of Kentucky from 1931 to 1935. A Kentucky native, at age 17, Laffoon moved to Washington, D.C., to live with his uncle, U.S. Representative Polk Laffoon. He developed an interest in politics and returned to Kentucky, where he compiled a mixed record of victories and defeats in elections at the county and state levels. In 1931, he was chosen as the Democratic gubernatorial nominee by a nominating convention, not a primary, making him the only Kentucky gubernatorial candidate to be chosen by a convention after 1903. In the general election, he defeated Republican William B. Harrison by what was then the largest margin of victory in Kentucky gubernatorial history.
Earle Chester Clements was a Kentucky politician. He represented the Commonwealth of Kentucky in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and was its 47th Governor, serving from 1947 to 1950, after serving in the state Senate. For 25 years, he was the leader of a faction of the state's Democratic Party that stood in opposition to the faction led by two-time governor and senator A. B. "Happy" Chandler.
Lawrence Winchester Wetherby was an American politician who served as Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Kentucky. He was the first of only two governors in state history born in Jefferson County, despite the fact that Louisville is the state's most populous city. The second governor born in Jefferson County is the incumbent governor, Andy Beshear.
Keen Johnson was an American politician who served as the 45th Governor of Kentucky, serving from 1939 to 1943; being the only journalist to have held that office. After serving in World War I, Johnson purchased and edited the Elizabethtown Mirror newspaper. He revived the struggling paper, sold it to a competitor and used the profits to obtain his journalism degree from the University of Kentucky in 1922. After graduation, he became editor of The Anderson News, and in 1925, he accepted an offer to co-publish and edit the Richmond Daily Register.
Augustus Owsley Stanley I was an American politician from Kentucky. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 38th governor of Kentucky and also represented the state in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. From 1903 to 1915, Stanley represented Kentucky's 2nd congressional district in the House of Representatives, where he gained a reputation as a progressive reformer. Beginning in 1904, he called for an antitrust investigation of the American Tobacco Company, claiming they were a monopsony that drove down prices for the tobacco farmers of his district. As a result of his investigation, the Supreme Court of the United States ordered the breakup of the American Tobacco Company in 1911. Stanley also chaired a committee that conducted an antitrust investigation of U.S. Steel, which brought him national acclaim. Many of his ideas were incorporated into the Clayton Antitrust Act.
Bertram Thomas Combs was an American jurist and politician from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. After serving on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, he was elected the 50th Governor of Kentucky in 1959 on his second run for the office. Following his gubernatorial term, he was appointed to serve as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit by President Lyndon B. Johnson, serving from 1967 to 1970.
William Jason Fields was an American politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. Known as "Honest Bill from Olive Hill", he represented Kentucky's Ninth District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1911 to 1923, resigning to become the state's 41st governor.
James Dixon Black was an American attorney who was the 39th Governor of Kentucky, serving for seven months in 1919. He ascended to the office when Governor Augustus O. Stanley was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Wilson Watkins Wyatt was an American politician who served as Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky from 1941 to 1945 and as the 43rd Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky from 1959 to 1963. He was a member of the Democratic Party.
William Justus Goebel was an American Democratic politician who served as the 34th governor of Kentucky for four days, having been sworn in on his deathbed a day after being shot by an assassin. Goebel remains the only state governor in the United States to be assassinated while in office.
Thomas Stockdale Rhea (1871–1946) was a Democratic politician from the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. He served as Kentucky State Treasurer in 1912 and was state highway commissioner in the administration of Governor Ruby Laffoon. Known as "The Sage of Russellville" or "The Gray Fox", Rhea was a powerful Democratic political boss in the state. He was an unsuccessful candidate for governor in 1935, losing to A. B. "Happy" Chandler in the Democratic primary.
The 1932 United States Senate election in Kentucky took place on November 8, 1932. Democratic Senator and Senate Majority Leader Alben Barkley was re-elected to a second term in office over Republican Maurice H. Thatcher.
The 1920 United States Senate election in Kentucky took place on November 2, 1920. Democratic Senator J. C. W. Beckham ran for re-election to a second term in office but was defeated by Republican attorney Richard P. Ernst.
The 1926 United States Senate election in Kentucky took place on November 2, 1926. Republican Senator Richard P. Ernst ran for re-election to a second term in office but was defeated by Democratic U.S. Representative Alben W. Barkley, who would go on to serve for twenty-two years before ascending to become Vice President of the United States.
