1942 Wisconsin gubernatorial election

1942 Wisconsin gubernatorial election

←  1940 November 3, 1942 1944  →

Nominee Orland S. Loomis Julius P. Heil William C. Sullivan Party Progressive Republican Democratic Popular vote 397,664 291,945 98,153 Percentage 49.65% 36.45% 12.25%

County results Loomis:     30–40%     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80% Heil:      40–50%     50–60%

Governor before election Julius P. Heil Republican Elected Governor Orland S. Loomis [a] Progressive

The 1942 Wisconsin gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1942.

Incumbent Republican Governor Julius P. Heil was defeated by Progressive nominee Orland S. Loomis in a rematch of the 1940 election with 49.65% of the vote. As of 2023, this is the last time Waupaca and Dodge counties did not vote for the Republican candidate for governor. Primary elections were held on September 15, 1942.

Loomis died of a heart attack on December 7, 1942, a month before he was to take office. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that Lieutenant Governor Walter Samuel Goodland would serve Orland Loomis's term as governor.

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

• Julius P. Heil, incumbent governor

Eliminated in primary

• Milton T. Murray, state senator
• James K. Robinson, dentist, unsuccessful candidate for Progressive nomination for lieutenant governor in 1936 and unsuccessful candidate for Republican nomination for governor in 1940 ^[1]

Results

Republican primary results ^{[2] [3]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Julius P. Heil (incumbent)	136,980	51.57%
	Republican	Milton T. Murray	95,908	36.11%
	Republican	James K. Robinson	32,740	12.33%
Total votes			265,628	100.00%

Progressive primary

Nominee

• Orland S. Loomis, former Attorney General of Wisconsin (1937–1939) and nominee for governor in 1940

Results

Progressive primary results ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive	Orland S. Loomis	54,508	100.00%
Total votes			54,508	100.00%

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominee

• William C. Sullivan, dentist, former mayor of Kaukauna ^{[4] [1]}

Eliminated in primary

• Raymond J. Cannon, former U.S. Representative
• Joseph H. Conlin, concert singer ^[5]
• Stanley Z. Fajkowski, former tavern keeper ^[6]
• Gustav J. Keller, Democratic nominee for Attorney General of Wisconsin in 1940
• Albert J. Wilde, real estate broker ^[5]

Results

Democratic primary results ^{[2] [7]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	William C. Sullivan	15,684	24.31%
	Democratic	Gustav J. Keller	15,482	23.99%
	Democratic	Raymond J. Cannon	11,075	17.16%
	Democratic	Stanley Z. Fajkowski	10,333	16.01%
	Democratic	Albert J. Wilde	7,227	11.20%
	Democratic	Joseph H. Conlin	4,725	7.32%
Total votes			64,526	100.00%

Socialist primary

Nominee

• Frank P. Zeidler, former county surveyor, member of the Milwaukee Board of School Directors ^[5]

Results

Socialist primary results ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Socialist	Frank P. Zeidler	5,666	100.00%
Total votes			5,666	100.00%

Other party nominations

• Fred Basset Blair, Independent Communist, Communist nominee for governor in 1932 and 1940
• Georgia Cozzini, Independent Socialist Labor

General election

Results

1942 Wisconsin gubernatorial election ^{[8] [9]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive	Orland S. Loomis	397,664	49.65%	+9.87%
	Republican	Julius P. Heil (incumbent)	291,945	36.45%	−4.22%
	Democratic	William C. Sullivan	98,153	12.25%	−7.04%
	Socialist	Frank P. Zeidler	11,295	1.41%
	Communist [b]	Fred Basset Blair	1,092	0.14%	−0.03%
	Socialist Labor [c]	Georgia Cozzini	490	0.06%	−0.02%
		Scattering [d]	346	0.04%
Majority			105,719	13.20%
Total votes			800,985	100.00%
	Progressive gain from Republican		Swing	+14.09%

Results by county

Shawano County voted for the losing candidate for the first time since 1879 while Lafayette County and Price County voted for the losing candidate for the first time since 1892.

County [8] [9]	Orland S. Loomis Progressive		Julius P. Heil Republican		William C. Sullivan Democratic		Frank P. Zeidler Socialist		All Others Various		Margin [e]		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Adams	1,223	62.02%	632	32.05%	99	5.02%	13	0.66%	5	0.25%	591	29.97%	1,972
Ashland	3,443	59.52%	1,808	31.25%	486	8.40%	25	0.43%	23	0.40%	1,635	28.26%	5,785
Barron	4,179	64.15%	1,986	30.49%	296	4.54%	32	0.49%	21	0.32%	2,193	33.67%	6,514
Bayfield	2,490	60.79%	1,234	30.13%	325	7.93%	32	0.78%	15	0.37%	1,256	30.66%	4,096
Brown	7,527	39.26%	7,223	37.68%	4,328	22.58%	85	0.44%	8	0.04%	304	1.59%	19,171
Buffalo	2,284	58.93%	1,476	38.08%	97	2.50%	17	0.44%	2	0.05%	808	20.85%	3,876
Burnett	1,653	64.42%	777	30.28%	110	4.29%	17	0.66%	9	0.35%	876	34.14%	2,566
Calumet	1,638	36.68%	1,987	44.49%	796	17.82%	40	0.90%	5	0.11%	-349	-7.81%	4,466
Chippewa	4,430	49.08%	4,081	45.21%	480	5.32%	22	0.24%	13	0.14%	349	3.87%	9,026
Clark	4,220	57.26%	2,707	36.73%	383	5.20%	45	0.61%	15	0.20%	1,513	20.53%	7,370
Columbia	4,852	59.43%	2,755	33.75%	514	6.30%	37	0.45%	6	0.07%	2,097	25.69%	8,164
Crawford	1,675	29.81%	2,521	44.87%	1,393	24.80%	28	0.50%	1	0.02%	-846	-15.06%	5,618
Dane	30,394	74.05%	8,841	21.54%	1,577	3.84%	207	0.50%	24	0.06%	21,553	52.51%	41,043
Dodge	6,696	47.79%	5,248	37.46%	1,937	13.82%	121	0.86%	9	0.06%	1,448	10.33%	14,011
Door	1,582	47.84%	1,433	43.33%	265	8.01%	20	0.60%	7	0.21%	149	4.51%	3,307
Douglas	7,397	57.89%	3,429	26.84%	1,832	14.34%	82	0.64%	38	0.30%	3,968	31.05%	12,778
Dunn	2,989	52.50%	2,450	43.04%	220	3.86%	17	0.30%	17	0.30%	539	9.47%	5,693
Eau Claire	5,438	54.66%	4,063	40.84%	382	3.84%	55	0.55%	10	0.10%	1,375	13.82%	9,948
Florence	334	39.86%	350	41.77%	148	17.66%	2	0.24%	4	0.48%	-16	-1.91%	838
Fond du Lac	6,333	42.67%	6,395	43.09%	1,972	13.29%	107	0.72%	35	0.24%	-62	-0.42%	14,842
Forest	1,266	46.84%	663	24.53%	736	27.23%	29	1.07%	9	0.33%	530 [f]	19.61%	2,703
Grant	6,583	49.15%	5,400	40.31%	1,319	9.85%	59	0.44%	34	0.25%	1,183	8.83%	13,395
Green	3,667	58.95%	2,200	35.36%	292	4.69%	37	0.59%	25	0.40%	1,467	23.58%	6,221
Green Lake	1,541	39.78%	1,727	44.58%	584	15.07%	15	0.39%	7	0.18%	-186	-4.80%	3,874
Iowa	3,588	62.14%	1,819	31.50%	310	5.37%	27	0.47%	30	0.52%	1,769	30.64%	5,774
Iron	1,850	52.10%	1,086	30.58%	549	15.46%	45	1.27%	21	0.59%	764	21.52%	3,551
Jackson	3,157	69.69%	1,237	27.31%	121	2.67%	12	0.26%	3	0.07%	1,920	42.38%	4,530
Jefferson	4,925	46.24%	4,271	40.10%	1,359	12.76%	81	0.76%	16	0.15%	654	6.14%	10,652
Juneau	3,553	72.04%	1,198	24.29%	162	3.28%	19	0.39%	0	0.00%	2,355	47.75%	4,932
Kenosha	6,512	37.93%	7,362	42.88%	3,006	17.51%	217	1.26%	72	0.42%	-850	-4.95%	17,169
Kewaunee	1,522	33.89%	1,903	42.37%	1,033	23.00%	27	0.60%	6	0.13%	-381	-8.48%	4,491
La Crosse	7,611	50.99%	6,209	41.60%	1,028	6.89%	55	0.37%	23	0.15%	1,402	9.39%	14,926
Lafayette	2,145	43.74%	2,155	43.94%	585	11.93%	13	0.27%	6	0.12%	-10	-0.20%	4,904
Langlade	2,195	38.38%	2,034	35.57%	1,424	24.90%	49	0.86%	17	0.30%	161	2.82%	5,719
Lincoln	3,871	60.51%	2,093	32.72%	327	5.11%	76	1.19%	30	0.47%	1,778	27.79%	6,397
Manitowoc	8,292	52.83%	5,613	35.76%	1,656	10.55%	126	0.80%	10	0.06%	2,679	17.07%	15,697
Marathon	7,684	47.01%	6,442	39.42%	1,881	11.51%	315	1.93%	22	0.13%	1,242	7.60%	16,344
Marinette	2,140	27.40%	4,063	52.02%	1,545	19.78%	56	0.72%	6	0.08%	-1,923	-24.62%	7,810
Marquette	1,014	38.75%	1,275	48.72%	307	11.73%	14	0.53%	7	0.27%	-261	-9.97%	2,617
Milwaukee	103,650	50.83%	62,701	30.75%	30,230	14.82%	6,546	3.21%	787	0.39%	40,949	20.08%	203,914
Monroe	3,924	60.24%	2,206	33.87%	337	5.17%	38	0.58%	9	0.14%	1,718	26.37%	6,514
Oconto	3,222	42.57%	3,004	39.69%	1,284	16.97%	52	0.69%	6	0.08%	218	2.88%	7,568
Oneida	2,950	59.75%	1,475	29.88%	449	9.09%	55	1.11%	8	0.16%	1,475	29.88%	4,937
Outagamie	4,495	26.14%	7,780	45.25%	4,754	27.65%	155	0.90%	9	0.05%	-3,026 [g]	-17.60%	17,193
Ozaukee	2,810	53.00%	1,848	34.85%	570	10.75%	63	1.19%	11	0.21%	962	18.14%	5,302
Pepin	673	46.45%	690	47.62%	79	5.45%	4	0.28%	3	0.21%	-17	-1.17%	1,449
Pierce	2,372	48.98%	2,285	47.18%	169	3.49%	11	0.23%	6	0.12%	87	1.80%	4,843
Polk	4,277	68.88%	1,708	27.51%	194	3.12%	22	0.35%	8	0.13%	2,569	41.38%	6,209
Portage	3,648	38.12%	2,468	25.79%	3,386	35.38%	60	0.63%	8	0.08%	262 [f]	2.74%	9,570
Price	2,269	43.01%	2,320	43.98%	552	10.46%	64	1.21%	70	1.33%	-51	-0.97%	5,275
Racine	11,673	44.04%	11,000	41.50%	3,500	13.21%	271	1.02%	61	0.23%	673	2.54%	26,505
Richland	2,417	48.73%	2,116	42.66%	385	7.76%	14	0.28%	28	0.56%	301	6.07%	4,960
Rock	8,306	48.29%	7,662	44.55%	1,153	6.70%	50	0.29%	29	0.17%	644	3.74%	17,200
Rusk	2,271	50.91%	1,740	39.00%	402	9.01%	33	0.74%	15	0.34%	531	11.90%	4,461
Sauk	5,390	57.89%	3,319	35.65%	500	5.37%	70	0.75%	32	0.34%	2,071	22.24%	9,311
Sawyer	1,255	42.33%	1,349	45.50%	334	11.26%	20	0.67%	7	0.24%	-94	-3.17%	2,965
Shawano	2,163	34.33%	3,415	54.21%	642	10.19%	77	1.22%	3	0.05%	-1,252	-19.87%	6,300
Sheboygan	7,653	37.11%	8,499	41.22%	3,894	18.88%	518	2.51%	57	0.28%	-846	-4.10%	20,621
St. Croix	3,098	49.62%	2,359	37.78%	751	12.03%	32	0.51%	4	0.06%	739	11.84%	6,244
Taylor	2,537	47.75%	1,962	36.93%	648	12.20%	138	2.60%	28	0.53%	575	10.82%	5,313
Trempealeau	3,204	62.27%	1,683	32.71%	243	4.72%	9	0.17%	6	0.12%	1,521	29.56%	5,145
Vernon	4,508	65.14%	2,164	31.27%	228	3.29%	20	0.29%	1	0.01%	2,344	33.87%	6,921
Vilas	1,308	40.71%	1,134	35.29%	723	22.50%	33	1.03%	15	0.47%	174	5.42%	3,213
Walworth	3,171	31.88%	5,759	57.90%	966	9.71%	43	0.43%	7	0.07%	-2,588	-26.02%	9,946
Washburn	1,466	55.28%	999	37.67%	170	6.41%	12	0.45%	5	0.19%	467	17.61%	2,652
Washington	2,827	40.17%	3,231	45.91%	902	12.82%	78	1.11%	0	0.00%	-404	-5.74%	7,038
Waukesha	7,999	47.24%	7,475	44.15%	1,299	7.67%	147	0.87%	12	0.07%	524	3.09%	16,932
Waupaca	3,423	47.25%	3,149	43.46%	601	8.30%	63	0.87%	9	0.12%	274	3.78%	7,245
Waushara	1,178	38.36%	1,577	51.35%	272	8.86%	27	0.88%	17	0.55%	-399	-12.99%	3,071
Winnebago	7,000	38.44%	8,949	49.14%	2,023	11.11%	202	1.11%	36	0.20%	-1,949	-10.70%	18,210
Wood	6,634	59.40%	3,773	33.78%	649	5.81%	92	0.82%	20	0.18%	2,861	25.62%	11,168
Total	397,664	49.65%	291,945	36.45%	98,153	12.25%	11,295	1.41%	1,928	0.24%	105,719	13.20%	800,985

Counties that flipped from Republican to Progressive

• Brown
• Chippewa
• Clark
• Dodge
• Door
• Green
• Jefferson
• La Crosse
• Langlade
• Manitowoc
• Marathon
• Oconto
• Ozaukee
• Pierce
• Racine
• Richland
• Rock
• Rusk
• St. Croix
• Taylor
• Vilas
• Waukesha
• Waupaca

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Progressive

• Forest

Counties that flipped from Progressive to Republican

• Kenosha

Aftermath

State ex rel. Martin v. Heil

Following the certification of Loomis' election to the governor's office, he had begun holding necessary budget hearings, meeting with advisors and doing other duties tasked to the governor-elect. On December 7, 1942, He died suddenly of a heart attack a month before he was to take office. ^[10]

In response to Loomis' death, both Heil and Goodland filed suit with the Wisconsin Supreme Court, with both arguing they were entitled to hold the office Loomis was elected to. Heil and many Republican leaders in the state argued that he should continue to serve as governor after the expiration of his term until a successor could be appointed or elected. ^[11] Goodland on the other hand argued that as the lieutenant governor-elect, he was entitled to act as governor under the laws of Wisconsin at the time.

On December 29, the court reached a unanimous 6-0 decison. ^[12] In an opinion authored by justice John D. Wickhem, the court ruled that Goodland would serve as acting governor for the duration of Loomis' term. ^{[13] [14] [15]}

Notes

1. Orland S. Loomis was elected in the 1942 election, but died before taking office. Per a ruling of the Wisconsin Supreme Court Goodland, who had been re-elected lieutenant governor in the same election, served as governor for the entire term.
2. "Independent Communist"
3. "Independent Socialist Labor"
4. These are not listed in the Blue Book but are listed in the Board of Canvassers report.
5. All margins are Loomis over Heil unless otherwise noted
6. Loomis's margin over Sullivan
7. Heil's margin over Sullivan

References

1. "Primary". Green Bay Press-Gazette. Green Bay, Wisconsin. September 9, 1942. p. 2. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
2. The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library (1944). "Primary Vote For Governor By Counties". The Wisconsin Blue Book 1944. Madison, Wisconsin. p. 504.
3. "WI Governor, 1942 - R Primary". Our Campaigns. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
4. "GOP Nominates Heil". Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wisconsin. September 16, 1942. p. 1. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
5. "These Men Seek State Nominations". Wisconsin State Journal. Madison, Wisconsin. September 13, 1942. p. 10. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
6. "LaFollette, Once Progressive Chief Seeks GOP Nod". Dixon Evening Telegraph. Dixon, Illinois. August 12, 1946. p. 2. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
7. "WI Governor, 1942 - D Primary". Our Campaigns. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
8. Wisconsin Historical Society, Statement of Board of State Canvassers - Election of State Officers - November 3, 1942
9. The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library (1944). "Summary Vote For Governor By Counties". The Wisconsin Blue Book 1944. Madison, Wisconsin. p. 572.
10. "Register of the Orland S. Loomis Papers, 1909-1945". University of Wisconsin–Madison . Retrieved March 29, 2025– via Archival Resources in Wisconsin: Descriptive Finding Aids.
11. Richardson, Darcy (November 10, 2012). "Time Capsule: Wisconsin's Progressive Party Cheated by the Grim Reaper". Uncovered Politics. Retrieved April 1, 2025.
12. "Statistics on Wisconsin Supreme Court Decisions, 1942-43" (PDF). Wisconsin Supreme Court . Retrieved March 29, 2025.
13. "Former justices: Justice John D. Wickhem". Wisconsin Supreme Court . Retrieved March 29, 2025.
14. "State ex rel. Martin v. Heil". Casetext.com. December 29, 1942. Retrieved March 29, 2025. ...we are of the view that on the first Monday of January, 1943, the powers and duties of the office of governor will devolve upon Walter S. Goodland, the duly elected lieutenant governor, for the entire term for which Mr. Loomis was elected.
15. "Goodland Governor By Wisconsin Ruling; Court Holds Lieutenant Governor Must Fill Death Vacancy". New York Times. December 30, 1942. p. E10.

Bibliography

• Glashan, Roy R. (1979). American Governors and Gubernatorial Elections, 1775-1978. Meckler Books. ISBN   0-930466-17-9.
• Ohm, Howard F.; Kuehn, Hazel L., eds. (1944). The Wisconsin Blue Book, 1944. State of Wisconsin.