 | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| Elections in South Carolina |
|---|
 |
The 1942 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 3, 1942 to select the U.S. Senator from the state of South Carolina. Incumbent Senator Burnet R. Maybank defeated Eugene S. Blease in the Democratic primary and was unopposed in the general election to win a six-year term.
In 1937, Senator James F. Byrnes began a six-year term ending in 1943, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1940. [lower-alpha 1] To fill the vacancy until a successor could be duly elected, Governor of South Carolina Burnet R. Maybank appointed Judge Alva Lumpkin, but Lumpkin died on August 1, 1941. Maybank then appointed Roger C. Peace to succeed Lumpkin. Peace did not run in the special election to complete the term.
In the special election to complete Byrnes's unexpired term on November, Governor Maybank defeated former Governor Olin D. Johnston.
Maybank campaigned in support of the Roosevelt administration and defeated Blease in the primary election on August 25.
| Democratic Primary | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | % |
| Burnet R. Maybank | 120,731 | 51.4 |
| Eugene S. Blease | 114,241 | 48.6 |
There was no opposition to the Democratic candidate in the general election so Maybank was elected to a six-year term in the Senate.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Burnet R. Maybank (incumbent) | 22,556 | 99.99% | +1.43% | |
| No party | Write-Ins | 2 | 0.01% | N/A | |
| Majority | 22,554 | 99.98% | +2.26% | ||
| Turnout | 22,558 | ||||
| Democratic hold | |||||
James Francis Byrnes was an American judge and politician from South Carolina. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in U.S. Congress and on the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as in the executive branch, most prominently as the 49th U.S. Secretary of State under President Harry S. Truman. Byrnes was also the 104th governor of South Carolina, making him one of the very few politicians to have served in the highest levels of all three branches of the American federal government while also being active in state government.
The 1954 United States Senate elections was a midterm election in the first term of Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency. The 32 Senate seats of Class 2 were contested in regular elections, and six special elections were held to fill vacancies. Eisenhower's Republican party lost a net of two seats to the Democratic opposition. This small change was just enough to give Democrats control of the chamber with the support of an Independent who agreed to caucus with them, he later officially joined the party in April 1955.
The 1948 United States Senate elections were elections which coincided with the election of Democratic President Harry S. Truman for a full term. The 32 seats of Class 2 were contested in regular elections, and one special election was held to fill a vacancy. Truman had campaigned against an "obstructionist" Congress that had blocked many of his initiatives, and in addition the U.S. economy recovered from the postwar recession of 1946–1947 by election day. Thus Truman was rewarded with a Democratic gain of nine seats in the Senate, enough to give them control of the chamber. This was the last time until 2020 that Democrats flipped a chamber of Congress in a presidential election cycle.
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.
Olin DeWitt Talmadge Johnston was an American politician from the US state of South Carolina. He served as the 98th governor of South Carolina, from 1935 to 1939 and again from 1943 to 1945. He represented the state in the United States Senate from 1945 until his death from pneumonia in Columbia, South Carolina in 1965. He has become infamously remembered for denying clemency to George Stinney, a 14 year-old African American boy who was wrongfully sentenced to death in 1944 after a trial that lasted for one single day, a conviction overturned 70 years later.
Burnet Rhett Maybank was a three-term US senator, the 99th governor of South Carolina, and mayor of Charleston, South Carolina. He was the first governor from Charleston since the American Civil War (1861-1865) and one of twenty people in United States history to have been elected mayor, governor, and United States senator. During his tenure in the Senate, Maybank was a powerful ally of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His unexpected death on September 1, 1954, from a heart attack, led to Strom Thurmond being elected senator.
The 1938 South Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 1938 to select the governor of the state of South Carolina. Burnet Rhett Maybank, Mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, won the contested Democratic primary and defeated Republican Joseph Augustis Tolbert in the general election becoming the 99th governor of South Carolina.
The 1954 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 2, 1954 to select the next U.S. senator from the state of South Carolina. Senator Burnet R. Maybank did not face a primary challenge in the summer and was therefore renominated as the Democratic Party's nominee for the election in the fall. However, his death on September 1 left the Democratic Party without a nominee and the executive committee decided to nominate state Senator Edgar A. Brown as their candidate for the election. Many South Carolinians were outraged by the party's decision to forgo a primary election and former Governor Strom Thurmond entered the race as a write-in candidate. He easily won the election and became the first U.S. senator to be elected by a write-in vote in an election where other candidates had ballot access. A Senate election where the victor won by a write-in campaign would not happen again until 2010.
The 1938 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 8, 1938, to select the U.S. Senator from the state of South Carolina. Incumbent Democratic Senator Ellison D. Smith defeated Governor Olin D. Johnston in the Democratic primary. The general election was contested, but a victory by Smith was never in doubt.
The 1914 United States Senate election in South Carolina was held on November 3, 1914 to select the U.S. Senator from the state of South Carolina. It was the first election in South Carolina in which the voters were able to choose the candidate in the general election. Incumbent Democratic Senator Ellison D. Smith won the Democratic primary and defeated nominal opposition in the general election to win another six-year term.
The 1932 United States Senate election in South Carolina was held on November 8.
The 1930 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 4, 1930, to select the U.S. Senator from the state of South Carolina. Incumbent Democratic Senator Coleman Livingston Blease was defeated in the Democratic primary by James F. Byrnes. He was unopposed in the general election to win a six-year term.
The 1936 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 2, 1936 to select the U.S. Senator from the state of South Carolina. Incumbent Democratic Senator James F. Byrnes won the Democratic primary and defeated two Republican candidates in the general election to win another six-year term.
The 1948 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 2, 1948 to select the U.S. Senator from the state of South Carolina. Incumbent Senator Burnet R. Maybank won the Democratic primary and defeated Republican challenger J. Bates Gerald in the general election to win another six-year term.
The 1918 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on Tuesday, November 5, simultaneously with the special senate election to elect the United States Senator for a six-year term from South Carolina. Nathaniel B. Dial won the Democratic primary and was unopposed in the general election to win the six-year term to the Senate.
The 1924 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 4, 1924, to select the U.S. Senator for a six-year term from the state of South Carolina. Coleman Livingston Blease won the Democratic primary and was unopposed in the general election to win the six-year term to the Senate.
The 1913 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on January 28, 1913, when the South Carolina legislature met and unanimously ratified the results of the August 27, 1912 primary. Incumbent Senator Ben Tillman was re-elected to a fourth term in office.
Eugene Satterwhite Blease (1877-1963) was the chief justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court from 1931 to 1934.
There were three special elections to the United States Senate in 1941 during the 77th United States Congress.
